Joint appointments

I have one. There is a formal memorandum that spells out my responsibilities to each in terms of service and teaching. One is clearly defined as my tenure department, and my service/teaching obligations there are exactly half of what faculty who are wholly in the department have.

I expect the Pros/Cons depend on the specific situation. In my case it meant more money, more space, more control over my classes, and more responsibility for interdisciplinary activities (compared to faculty wholly in my tenure dept). And it meant that there was a faculty line for me to be hired into, where otherwise there wouldn't have been. Meetings/committees are not a problem (yet). Looming on the horizon are lots of faculty searches in both units; going to all of the research seminars for these searches is going to get tiresome.

Some factors I considered when evaluating the position:

1. My responsibilities were spelled out in writing, in an agreement between the two department heads that was approved by their Dean. This agreement was based, in part, on what I said I wanted during the job interview.
2. My tenure department has a history of participating in successful joint appointments, though not with my other unit. Tenured faculty in these positions felt positively about their experience.
3. Only one unit votes on my tenure. The chair of the other happens also to be a member of my tenure department, so she has a vote and will write a supporting letter, but does not make a formal recommendation.
4. My non-tenure unit is a new organization with loads of cash, space, excitement and Dean/Provost/Presidential support. And corresponding research expectations. My tenure unit is short on space, cash and faculty.
5. I get to participate in setting the direction of my non-tenure unit. That is, I am party to defining my responsibilities/expectations.
6. The chairs of the tenure unit and non-tenure unit are long-time collaborators, and clearly have a collegial and effective working relationship. They have similar ideas about what constitutes being a successful faculty member. I doubt I would ever get caught between their competing interests; conversely I would never try to play one against the other. When I have questions about some aspect of the joint appointment, the email always gets sent to both of them.
7. Both units report to the same Dean.
8. A significant proportion of my tenure unit have courtesy affiliations with my non-tenure unit.

So far the glitches -- too many email accounts/shipping addresses, which unit to submit grants through, advisement responsibilities -- have been worked out to my satisfaction.

If #2 and #6 are true for you, it'll probably be fine. And if #1 is true, you shouldn't have problems when a dept gets a new chair who wasn't party to the original agreement.

--Copper

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