next »

[weathered]

I have a colleague who works as a real estate agent, while also teaching full time at a state university. But is it legal to have a dual career in academia? I see some profs working as media commentators, but I am not sure if that's the same as working for a substantial profit--if the real estate business yields that much $$.

[dr_prephd]

How would it be illegal?

[weathered]

So universities are OK with faculties pursuing other careers while on tenure track? That's interesting.

[ruralguy]

NO! decidedly NOT. This is stipulated very clearly in our handbook. Only a certain amount of time (put in units of how much time you'd be expected to be at our job) is allowed in other compnesated pursuits. Technically, the Dean is allowed to put the kibosh on any thing at all not academically related, or that goes beyond the stipulated hours. But thats just my school.

Of course then, there is the entire "how would anyone find out?" issue. In a small town, they probably would find out, especially if it was someone as conspicuous as an RE agent (for gosh sakes, their bread and butter is word of mouth referal---i.e., gossip). Plus, when on Earth would you be able to find time to sell houses if you are on the TT?

[tinyzombie]

So universities are OK with faculties pursuing other careers while on tenure track? That's interesting.

This question is not the same as the question in your OP.

[schoolmarm]

You have to show no conflict of interest, and usually have to have approval.  At some of my universities the Dean had to approve (especially when I taught a graduate course at a sister school down the road).  You cannot have conflicts with your teaching/research duties.  Some universities limit hours, some don't.

Many performing musicians have gigs with orchestras, work as consultants with schools, have church jobs or private lesson teaching on the side.  In this case it is the same profession, but in different venues.

Many faculty are also consultants or expert witnesses.  Again, your university has conflict of interest forms for this. 

[mleok]

There is nothing illegal about this, but it might be disallowed by university regulations (which do not rise to the level of a law).

[larryc]

This varies tremendously by institution--both the rules and the campus culture in regards to obeying those rules. At my old school, a state institution, there literally was no rule--except of course that you had to fulfill your teaching and service obligations. Occasionally the administration would propose something and the business faculty would scream bloody murder that they could not possibly live on the [double my pay] that they earned and the university would never attract quality faculty if they limited our outside earnings potential.

At my current state school in another state, We can do whatever we like in the summer when we are off contract but are supposed to get approval for outside work during the school year. I think that is the rule? Thought I seem to remember that there is a special, extra barrier if you want to do payed work for another state agency. The reason I can't recall is there seems to be no enforcement of the rule. Or maybe everyone is just obeying it? Nah.

[dr_prephd]

So universities are OK with faculties pursuing other careers while on tenure track? That's interesting.

This question is not the same as the question in your OP.

Right. The question wasn't about whether universities approved of the practice, or allowed it, the question was whether it was "illegal."

[msparticularity]

There is nothing illegal about this, but it might be disallowed by university regulations (which do not rise to the level of a law).

It is addressed by state law in my state. As a faculty member in the state university system, I am a state employee, and in our state there is an approval process if any full-time state employee wishes to do any outside work. There's a good bit of betting that this would not stand up to a court challenge, but it hasn't been tested.

In my previous state, there was a set formula for how much outside work (in terms of hours per month) we were allowed to do before it raised any concern or required approval. That one made sense to me, since it basically set out exactly what the expectation was under our contracts: the state had a right to a certain amount of our time during certain dates for the money they paid us.  

[spectacle]

So universities are OK with faculties pursuing other careers while on tenure track? That's interesting.

Just to chime, this depends so enormously and varies from school to school. MOST places I've worked have allowed outside employment after the faculty member goes through an approval process (partly to determine that there's no conflict of interest).

But my question is... why do you care?  If you know about the person's other job, chances are they're not making any effort to hide it.   Do you feel that it's interfering with their work in some way?

[weathered]

I know a (famous) case a few years ago, when a faculty was denied tenure for allegedly spending too much time blogging. The faculty loudly protested it, claiming that he lost his job because of his famous blog and senior faculties not approving such extracurricular matters. I am not sure if that was the real reason, though. Even then the real estate business sounds like an entirely different type of career diversion.

[aandsdean]

In my (small, private) institution faculty need approval of the president to engage in secondary employment during the school year.  I have a small professional writing gig, and I have the president's permission.

The rule is in the faculty handbook, and it's enforced sporadically (since I've been here, I've tried to make sure people secure permission).  

Here's the main issue, though:  if a faculty member doesn't secure permission, and for some other reason gets into trouble, failure to secure permission for outside employment is, in fact, professional misconduct of the type that can result in the revocation of tenure and dismissal from the institution.  It's pretty hard, but emphatically NOT impossible, to imagine a scenario where this might happen.

Never, ever give your institution an excuse to fire you, especially if you want to make trouble that irritates your administration.

(PS:  secondary employment may indeed be "illegal" in public institutions that have particular work rules for public employees.)

[username2]

There are many situations. My institution requires permission over a certain number of hours. A real estate agent could easily stay within this by limiting the number of clients.

Some departments encourage consulting work that is related to your research, although many universities will then require you to have those monies run through them in order to be charged institutional overhead, which is only fair if you are using university resources.

[westcoastgirl]

At dh's institution, full time faculty are not allowed to be compensated elsewhere. The wording is really vague, but he did not want to risk it and didn't. In the meantime, I used to adjunct at a school in a Humanities and Languages department. The school employs over 75% adjuncts and has been mentioned on this forum. Practically everyone was moonlight and/or daylighting from the big R1 down the road. The place payed well, comparatively speaking--I think 7,000 a class?That's nice vacation money/a down payment on a car, etc.  I don't know if they were just ignoring the rules, but I'm guessing they can't be too well enforced especially since a specific google search would give inquiring minds the information sought.

I had to laugh at the title of this thread though. It gave me pause since I've worked up to six jobs at once (all adjuncting/ta-ing). I was not aware that it may have been illegal (and now I've found that that wasn't the subject here anyway).