May 15, 2008
The U. of New Hampshire Imposes a Hiring Freeze, and Other News
- Prompted by an $8.2-million deficit, the University of New Hampshire is imposing a hiring freeze on all “non-grant funded” faculty and staff positions, the Union Leader reports. No layoffs are expected, but the latest cost-saving move comes on the heels of a number of faculty buyouts, the reporter, Clynton Namuo, writes.
- West Virginia University faculty members passed another resolution yesterday calling on President Michael S. Garrison to quit, JJ Hermes reports on The Chronicle’s Web site. This marks the second time in two weeks that professors have demanded his resignation over a scandal in which the university gave the state governor’s daughter an M.B.A. that she had not earned.
- G.P. (Bud) Peterson, chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder, wants to create an endowed faculty chair for conservative thought and policy in order to bring more intellectual diversity to the campus, Robin Wilson reports on The Chronicle’s News Blog. He’s trying to raise $9-million so he can attract prominent conservatives for a rotating professorship — the first of its kind — that would pay $200,000 per year. See an article in The Wall Street Journal for more details.
- Jon S. Whitmore, president of Texas Tech University, will become San Jose State University’s new chief on August 1, the San Jose Business Journal reports. He replaces Don W. Kassing, who is retiring. See an item on News Blog for more details.
- Paul E. Stanton Jr., longtime president of East Tennessee State University, said last week that he planned to retire on March 1, 2009. See a university press release for details.
May 14, 2008
Can't Everyone Do This Job?
In my last post, I asked about weird questions that folks asked (great responses, by the way — I needed the comic relief this week). I have a related topic: weird applicants.
I don’t mean weird candidates, such as “denim-jumpsuit guy” or other candidates who are qualified for positions but who are idiosyncratic. I mean weird, completely unqualified applicants you may have seen as a part of searches.
Whenever our English department advertises a position, it never ceases to amaze us how we receive applications from folks who say things like “I really like to read and though I never went to graduate school, I know I could teach as well as most literature professors.”
Yeah, that will impress actual English professors who “wasted” the better part of a decade at paltry graduate-assistant wages in order to qualify for their jobs.
Or the music candidate whose “entire family” says she really is talented and should teach because she loves to sing so much.
How about it? Surely my institution isn’t the only one that receives these kinds of applications!
By Gene C. Fant Jr. | Posted on Wed May 14, 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comment [28]May 12, 2008
Presidential Appointments
- John C. Cavanaugh, president of the University of West Florida, has been appointed chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, Sarah Hebel reports on The Chronicle’s News Blog. Cavanaugh will succeed Judy G. Hample — who is leaving to become the president of the University of Mary Washington, in Fredericksburg, Va. — on July 1.
- Susan W. Martin, provost and vice chancellor of the University of Michigan at Dearborn, is poised to become the first female president of Eastern Michigan University, The Ann Arbor News reports. The Board of Regents will vote on the resolution to appoint Martin at a special meeting on Wednesday.
- Wayne State University has picked Jay Noren, dean of the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, in Omaha, as its next president, the Detroit Free Press reports.
- According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, State Sen. Jack Scott, chairman of the Senate Education Committee and former president of Cypress College and Pasadena City College, will become the next chancellor of the California community-college system on January 1, 2009.
May 9, 2008
Huh? If I Were a Dog?!
I’m in exams this coming week, so I’m in the mood for something funny. Do any of you have stories about down-right weird interview questions?
One of my previous departments was interviewing an on-campus candidate many years ago and the interview had gone pretty well. At lunch we were getting a little silly and somehow we got to going around the table describing each other in terms of dog breed. As I recall, I was a golden retriever or a border collie (pretty good breeds for a department chair). One of my colleagues looked straight at the candidate and said, “So, if you were a dog, what kind of dog would you be?” The look on that poor woman’s face was priceless. Fortunately, after she regained her composure, she gave a great answer that defused what had suddenly turned into a tense moment.
Of course, I have a touch of dyslexia, so I sat there pondering “If I were a god, what kind of god would I be?” That might be a good question too, though it would definitely qualify as a weird question.
So, any weird questions out there that seemed to have come out of left field?
By Gene C. Fant Jr. | Posted on Fri May 9, 04:24 PM | Permalink | Comment [43]Dismissed for Flunking Students
Steven Aird, an associate professor of biology at Norfolk State University, is getting the boot at the end of this semester for flunking most of his students and resisting university pressure to dumb down his classes, The Virginian-Pilot reports.
For more than four years, Aird has carried on a running battle in which NSU administrators repeatedly pressed him to raise his pass rate and he steadfastly refused.
Twice, he was denied tenure and issued a one-year terminal contract, meaning he would have to leave at the end of the year. After the first denial, he filed a grievance. A faculty grievance committee found in his favor, ruling that the tenure decision was flawed by procedural violations and retaliatory actions by administrators.
He reapplied and was turned down again, despite a favorable recommendation by a departmental tenure review committee. Citing seven classes in which 83 to 95 percent of his students got a D or F, Sandra DeLoatch, dean of the School of Science and Technology, wrote that Aird’s “core problem” was “the overwhelming failure of the vast majority of the students he teaches.”
His bosses say it’s the teacher’s responsibility to make sure the lessons are getting through.
Aird, on the other hand, says coddling students who don’t pass muster does them a disservice: “I really care about my students,” he told the reporter, Bill Sizemore. “That’s why I refuse to lower the bar. The objective should be competence, not grades.”
Aird isn’t the only professor who’s felt pressure to lower his academic standards, Sizemore writes. He quotes Joseph Hall, a chemistry professor and president of the Faculty Senate, who said that …
“faculty are – I’ll use a nice word – encouraged to try and pass 70 percent of their students.” If the rate drops below 70 percent, [Hall] said, “faculty are called in and asked to explain what they’re going to do about it.”
Sharon Hoggard, a spokeswoman for Norfolk State, denies the assertion that the university is setting the bar lower, Sizemore writes:
By Gabriela Montell | Posted on Fri May 9, 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comment [41]“It goes against our very mission, which is to provide an affordable high-quality education for an ethnically and culturally diverse student population,” Hoggard said in an e-mail response to the Pilot. She pointed out that NSU is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, for which it must meet stringent standards.
Friday News Snippets
- Michigan’s Supreme Court upheld a ruling earlier this week barring public universities and government agencies from providing health benefits to employees’ same-sex partners, Hurley Goodall reports on The Chronicle’s News Blog:
The Supreme Court, in a 5-to-2 decision released on Wednesday, ruled that Michigan’s constitutional ban on gay marriage also covers employee benefits. Recognition of domestic partnerships is considered no different than marriage, the court said.
See an article in the Detroit Free Press for more details.
- Elsewhere on the News Blog, Eric Kalderman reports that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has tapped Holden Thorpe, dean of its College of Arts and Sciences, to become the university’s next chancellor.
- The University of Florida announced a plan Monday to lay off 20 faculty members and 118 staff members and reduce undergraduate enrollment by 4,000 over the next four years in order to combat a $47-million budget cut, the Orlando Sentinel reports. See an item on the News Blog for more details.
May 7, 2008
The Siren Call of an Overseas Position
In my previous post on good advice from mentors, I mentioned that of not taking an overseas position while I was A.B.D. I thought I’d follow up on that.
During my doctoral program, I received a February phone call out of the blue from a dean at a college with an overseas branch. The campus was in a quiet, tropical country. It was near the beach. The pay was extremely good in terms of the local economy: “most of our faculty have house servants, in fact.” It was near the beach. The position included two round-trip airfares, special insurance for medevac air ambulance if necessary, and the prospect of tax-free income if I kept my days in the States within a certain limit that’s established by the feds. It was near the beach. The teaching load was very nice, with extended vacation periods. Did I mention that it was near the beach?
I was intrigued by the position and the prospect of such an experience, but I was in the early stages of being A.B.D. My mentors each said, “NO! DON’T DO IT!” I think they actually spoke in all caps, in fact! They were emphatic.
My A.B.D. status was in large part the reason I declined the kind offer, but it was so tempting. I have a feeling that there are wonderful opportunities afforded by overseas positions, but I likewise sense that timing is everything in terms of how such appointments will impact the job search down the road.
In most of the searches I’ve run, we have had at least one applicant who was serving in an overseas appointment. They are hard to treat equally because of time differences for phone calls, costs related to on-campus interviews, relocation expenses, and a ton of other reasons. Mind you, we have always tried to treat them fairly and to ignore those kinds of factors, but the challenges for overseas candidates are nigh unto insurmountable.
I do, however, know a few people who’ve held those kinds of positions and who have benefited from the experiences, though the benefits have been more personal than professional, I suspect.
I’m curious, though, about two things.
First, if you’ve had experience in an overseas appointment, what is your advice to others who are considering such a position?
Second, for those of you on the hiring committees, what’s the reality about how overseas candidates are treated?
By Gene C. Fant Jr. | Posted on Wed May 7, 06:05 PM | Permalink | Comment [16]Baylor U.'s Faculty Senate Passes Resolution Criticizing Administration
Baylor University’s Faculty Senate has passed a resolution by a vote of 29-0 chastising the administration for its lack of shared governance, the Waco Tribune-Herald reports. The resolution is a response to an alarming jump in the number of faculty members denied tenure by Baylor University’s administration despite the approval of their departments and the universitywide tenure committee, the reporter, Tim Woods, writes. Read more.
By Gabriela Montell | Posted on Wed May 7, 05:22 PM | Permalink | Comment [1]News in Administrative Appointments
- Richard McCarty, a renowned psychologist and dean of Vanderbilt’s College of Arts and Science, has been appointed as the university’s next provost. See a university press release for more details.
- Jay Stein, founding director for the Center for Health and the Built Environment at the University of Florida’s College of Design, Construction and Planning, will become provost of the State University of New York College at Plattsburgh, effective July 1, the Press-Republican, a daily newspaper in Plattsburgh, reports.
- Sidney A. Ribeau, president of Bowling Green State University, will become Howard University’s next president on August 1, the Washington Business Journal reports.
- Chicago State University’s governing board has picked Frank Pogue Jr. as the university’s temporary chief, the Chicago Tribune reports. He replaces the controversial Elnora D. Daniel, who will step down at the end of June.
West Virginia U. Faculty Demands President's Resignation
Faculty members at West Virginia University have voted no confidence in Michael S. Garrison, the university’s president, and are calling for him to step down “for the good of the institution,” Paul Fain reports on The Chronicle’s Web site.
Demands for the president’s resignation come in the wake of a recent scandal in which the university retroactively awarded an M.B.A. to the state governor’s daughter, Heather M. Bresch, even though she had not completed enough credits to earn the degree, Fain writes.
The university’s provost and the dean of the business school resigned from their posts as a result of the scandal, “although both remain on the faculty, and Ms. Bresch’s degree was revoked,” he notes.
While an investigative panel’s report found that President Garrison was not personally involved in the matter, the president says he accepts “full and total responsibility for failures that led to the award of unearned credits and grades to a former student,” but has no plans to resign, writes Fain. He notes that “only the university’s Board of Governors can fire the president, and so far its members have expressed unanimous support for Mr. Garrison.”
By Gabriela Montell | Posted on Wed May 7, 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comment [4]