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[lyelin305]

I am new to this list--a new Interim Dean. The provost asked me to look into ways to reenergize senior (and mid-career) faculty members. What kinds of opportunities do your colleges and departments offer for senior faculty members who need and deserve a boost? And what do you expect of faculty members whose development you subsidize? Thanks.

[octoprof]

Are you trying to reenergize their teaching or their research or what?

[larryc]

At the next faculty meeting spike the punchbowl.

With Viagra.

[licaone]

You mean, take elderly professors who are just biding their time to retirement, and make them do research again? Good luck with that.  Viagra might be a good option, it would be interesting to read the papers that come out of that.

Or you mean something else?

[neutralname]

Threaten them with pay cuts and having to share offices with adjunct faculty if they don't start doing what their job description says they should do.

[lyelin305]

I don't know what I mean by "revitalize": I inherited the verb from the President of the college. The provost asked me because I am the campus poster girl for this. I am a professor of literature; I was invited to curate an exhibition at our college art museum. That is a change in direction that energized me. What I want to know is how to encourage others to take these steps--short of spiking the punch with viagra or making unenforceable threats.

[balsamic]

Encourage collaboration between junior and senior faculty.  One way to do this is to set aside a fund for reading/writing groups and invite faculty groups who are interested in a common topic to apply.  Stipulate that each group much include at least two senior and two junior faculty members.  The funds could be used to offset expenses for books and photocopies, or if you have a lot of money, outside speakers.

My impression is that senior faculty are often (understandably) resentful of the energy and enthusiasm of junior faculty because they are bogged down with service and feel excluded from the conversations more junior people are immersed in.  This is apart from whether or not the junior faculty are consciously excluding them.  If there is more intellectual exchange between junior and senior people, the senior people can feel energized by the junior people and--in turn--will be less hostile to the junior people.

[waxwing]

I like the idea that balsamic is proposing, but it is hard to see what the junior facultoids are getting out of the exercise.  If they were collaborating with productive senior facs, that would be another thing.  But unproductive ones are not usually going to become their mentors.  In fact, they may be less effective at doing what they need to do to get tenure.  At the very least, it would be understandable if that concern made them less eager participants.

I always think that increasing professionalism by sending people to conferences, whether or not they are delivering a paper, is a good investment.  Unfortunately, with the current economic downturn, I have no money to send anyone anywhere.

Good luck with the project!

WW

[psychprof]

We have a College Research Award that is a competitive process through which faculty members can submit a proposal and receive a semester without teaching responsibilities to conduct research. In the past it has largely been available to junior (tenure seeking) faculty. We decided last year to expand the award and to allocate up to a third that could go to senior faculty to promote their research efforts. The cost to the College is some assistance to departments in the form of a "buyout" to the department to help the dept hire an adjunct to cover courses for the semester the person is on the research award. We do the selection in the Spring semester the year before the semester of the award, then announce the winners at the Fall College faculty convocation. Winners also get a "certificate suitable for framing" with the award.

Hope this idea is helpful to you. Good luck! I do think that some senior faculty may find this a useful incentive. I also find that while there are many "entrenched" senior faculty members, there are a number that respond to the same kind of enticements that we offer junior faculty.

[daniel_von_flanagan]

I am new to this list--a new Interim Dean. The provost asked me to look into ways to reenergize senior (and mid-career) faculty members.

Yeah, this must have came up at the annual national meeting of provosts and vice chancellors, as suddenly everyone I know is hearing their provosts say the same thing.  No doubt this is a response to the recent study on late-career angst.

Here's the thing.  If you are a mid-50s full professor, and not a superstar, you have pretty much no prospect of major career change.  You're not going to get offers from other universities (so no hope for a meaningful salary increase), you're too old to move into the admin track, you have no more promotions to look forward to, and meanwhile all the youngsters (including all the administration, which changes too often to have any institutional memory to speak of) has no knowledge of or respect for the work that brought you to this terminal situation.  Most of us stay productive out of love for our field and our university, but it is hard to blame those who choose to put their energies elsewhere.

If you want 100% from 100% of your senior faculty, you have to give them some incentive comparable to the incentives younger professors have, starting with a realistic prospect of meaningful changes in salary and status in return for increased accomplishment. - DvF

[larryc]

DvF nailed it. What are you going to offer senior faculty? Salary increases and course reductions may bring results. Certificates and coffee mugs are not going to cut it.

[obprof]

If you have the budget for it, I would make any initiatives available primarily to junior faculty available to senior faculty too, but be careful about appearing to reward uproductivity.

For example, make travel funds available to all faculty who will be presenting a paper at a conference (not just attending the conference).

Make small publication grants available (on a competitive basis) to all faculty who would like to turn a conference paper into a publication.

Remove any small financial barriers to research (e.g., no more fees for inter-library loans).

Make an effort to informally recognize those who are publishing (e.g., stop by to say that you heard that they published a nice article in the journal of whatever studies).

Not every unproductive faculty member will take you up on the opportunities, but some will appreciate your efforts. The others will have one less excuse.

[daurousseau]

My observation of that population suggests that a liberal sprinkling of cute young things running around optimizing their cuteness, well, that keeps them awake.

[psychprof]

At least your administration seems to be interested in "revitalizing" the faculty. Lots of times the reaction seems to be that "senior faculty are deadwood" and there isn't a solid administrative response to this. Of course, we all do know senior faculty who aren't going to change. But, I think there are senior faculty who could make more of a contribution if we did organize things to encourage it.

[licaone]

At least your administration seems to be interested in "revitalizing" the faculty. Lots of times the reaction seems to be that "senior faculty are deadwood" and there isn't a solid administrative response to this. Of course, we all do know senior faculty who aren't going to change. But, I think there are senior faculty who could make more of a contribution if we did organize things to encourage it.

You seem to assume that all senior faculty are dragging their butts. Many of us are doing just fine, thank you very much, without Viagra or other encouragements. I am 50, I guess you would call me mid-career. But one of my colleagues just turned 70: he publishes four papers per year, he is an invited speaker in many conferences, advises five PhD students, does a lot of administrative work and is also an excellent teacher. I wish all junior faculty were like this. In fact, in my department there is exactly one junior professor whom I would call deadwood.

I am not saying that people don't slow down with age; they do, but not all at the same pace. My experience is that most of them are self-motivated and just keep going. This is less true in departments where research is not emphasised and the job is more routine. And of course declining health can become a problem. But still I would not generalize.