= Premium Content

  • Monday, May 28, 2012

Previous

Next

The Only Game in Town?

August 2, 2011, 2:02 pm

By Gene C. Fant Jr.

I have spent the past two weeks in Cambridge, Mass., home to incredible number of institutions of higher learning. As walked around town, I felt like I bumped into another university every time I turned a corner. It was easier to find a college here than a gas station. Toss in the rest of Boston’s metropolitan area and the total is staggering: Almost 375,000 students and 15 nationally ranked universities.

I’ve lived in several college towns with multiple institutions. The fine-arts opportunities alone have made the towns attractive places to live, and I am certain that life in a place like Cambridge brings many opportunities for intellectual stimulation and camaraderie.

As I’ve pondered life in such a mecca, I’ve wondered if applicants ever consider whether or not an institution is the only game in town in their job searches. For academic couples, in particular, hubs of learning bring more options for employment. I wonder, though, if there are advantages that might be found in an institution that is the only game in town. Some of my friends who teach in such settings tell me that they like the status they have at “monopoly” institutions.

Would the number of institutions in an area influence your consideration of posted positions? Should it?

This entry was posted in Faculty Hiring. Bookmark the permalink.

  • Print
  • Comment
  • nkwills

    In the present economic climate, layoffs are common and tenured status is ignored. In the face of such a challenge, it is an advantage to have  a network of other local institutions available particularly if your spouse is employed in the area, you own a house that would have to be sold for a move, etc. Ask yourself, “what if I lost this job? How quickly could I find another one”?

  • http://www.linkedin.com/in/cshunt312 Courtney Hunt

    I’ve been a Deborah Tannen fan for a long time, and I have to confess my disappointment at learning that she assiduously avoids digital media. As an individual, she’s certainly within her rights, but as a scholar I expect more, especially given her focus on linguistics and communication. There is an incredibly rich opportunity, for example, to test and expand her earlier ideas about communication differences between men and women by exploring if and how they manifest themselves in cyberspace. I guess someone else will have to take up that challenge…

    Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD
    Founder, Social Media in Organizations (SMinOrgs) Community
    Founder, Global Center for Digital Era Leadership (GCDEL)

  • rthezel

    Leaders of U.S. institutions certainly should consider thoughtfully whether their institution is legitimizing inequities and injustice or whether the presence of and teaching by U.S. faculty might have a beneficial effect on the part of a culture that enslaves.  It would be ironic to be offering the “liberal” arts, as does NYU, yet failing to engage in human liberation–intellectually, physically, spiritually.

Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.

  • The Chronicle of Higher Education
  • 1255 Twenty-Third St, N.W.
  • Washington, D.C. 20037