January 29, 2008

New Set of Grants Will Promote Faculty Career Flexibility

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has awarded $200,000 grants to six more universities to create programs that make faculty careers more family-friendly. The awards will go to the University of Baltimore; Canisius and Simmons Colleges; and Boise State, San Jose State, and Santa Clara Universities.

Several of the universities plan to create an option for faculty members to work part time along the tenure track. Canisius will offer an emergency travel loan that faculty members can apply for when they need to help a sick or dying family member who lives far away. Santa Clara will offer undergraduate courses on work-life balance. Students will do exercises that test their work-life decision-making skills, including career planning, budgeting, partnership or marriage, child care, and housekeeping.

The Sloan foundation started the grant program in the fall of 2006, with grants to six institutions. Kathleen E. Christensen, a director at the foundation, said in a teleconference today that the foundation had been concerned that women were struggling with academic careers. Female professors, she said, do not not have children at the same rate as male professors, are less likely to be married, and — if they are married — are more likely than their male colleagues to divorce.

“We heard the best women graduating with Ph.D.’s were not going on to academic lines because they did not see how they could have a family or a career,” said Ms. Christensen.

The American Council on Education conducted the competition, and a panel of six retired university presidents and chancellors judged applications from 56 institutions. Sloan hopes to award another round of grants next year. —Robin Wilson

Comments

1. This is an important phenomenon, but it may be solved by demographics. If enrollment trends continue as in the last decade, we are going to see an eventual 70/30 majority of women in top tier graduate programs. Quite simply, they are outperforming males from K-12 through undergraduate at ever-widening deltas and ever-increasing numbers. We will see a seismic shift in tier-1 and tier-2 colleges, with tier-1 dominated by females and tier-2 by males. Barring aparteid, hiring pools will be overwhelmingly female even if a good percentage of female doctorates choose to avoid or dropout of the academy. And, with an eventual shift to female dominated faculties, female-centric policies will be de rigeur, thus luring even more females into the academy. I see a very bright future.

   — marci    Jan 29, 01:42 PM    #

2. Well, the females outperform the males in our graduate program also, then they drop off the face of the earth. I can tell you it’s not easy balancing an academic career and a family, since the woman usually has to contribute more to the family than the husband, and I guess the majority of young women don’t want to make the sacrifice.

   — Susan    Jan 29, 04:42 PM    #

3. I introduced these opportunities at a university and a community college many years ago. They worked well in both instances. Women with children liked them, but so did men. At the community college we were able to attract working professonals (e.g. accountants) who brought current practices to the classroom or who provided out of class college service beyond the reasonable expectations of an adjunct faculty member.

   — Michael T. Murphy    Jan 29, 05:03 PM    #

4. Re the first comment: unfortunately, a lot of research has shown that, despite more women in the academic pipeline, women have not gained tenure and rank in commensurate numbers. Many of the best institutions are already offering flexibility; let’s hope that such flexibility becomes the norm.

   — Carol    Jan 30, 10:06 AM    #

5. This is such an important issue. I was a tenure-track professor who had no options except stay or leave when I had a second baby and a partner who worked full time. I chose to quit and teach part-time adjunct for a MUCH smaller per class salary. I was fortunate enough to re-apply for a position when my children both started school, but my tenure-clock started from scratch. There are better solutions.

   — Nicole    Jan 30, 10:16 AM    #

6. Marci,
   I don’t see female-oriented policies becoming de rigeur just because there are more females on faculty. Take a look at Colleges of Nursing which are primarily female. Many of them don’t even have offical maternity leave for their faculty. Workloads for clinical nursing faculty are extremely heavy and definitely not family friendly, thus the extreme faculty shortage in nursing.

   — Sharon P    Jan 30, 12:36 PM    #

Previous: Kenyan Universities Remain Closed as Fighting Worsens
Next: U. of Wisconsin-Madison Cuts Ties to Apparel Maker for Violating Code of Conduct