July 25, 2008
When Fortune Smiles
Admittedly this may seem like a fantasy for some of you, but I have noticed over the years that the strongest candidates seem to receive multiple job offers that arrive at more or less the same time.
In fact, in probably half of the hires I supervised this year, our chosen candidates had serious offers from other institutions at the same time as we were making our pitch.
I suppose that the big three considerations for such sought-after finalists are: student quality, opportunities for professional advancement, and salary/cost of living. But perhaps there are other factors to consider.
What advice would you offer a candidate who has to decide between competing offers?
By Gene C. Fant Jr. | Posted on Fri Jul 25, 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comment [7]Baylor Fires its President
Citing widespread unrest among faculty members and alumni, Baylor University’s regents fired the president, John M. Lilley, effective immediately, according to a report in The Chronicle.
Just three years ago, then-president Robert B. Sloan Jr. left the job amid controversy.
While his predecessor’s downfall was marked by deep philosophical rifts over the future of Baylor, the world’s largest Baptist university, Mr. Lilley’s firing appears to be due instead to clashes over his management decisions and style.
Said Howard K. Batson, chair of the regents: ““A lot of the faculty were upset, and our faculty are important to us. The board lost the confidence in John’s ability to unite the various Baylor constituencies.”
Read more here.
By Denise Magner | Posted on Fri Jul 25, 08:07 AM | Permalink | Comment [2]July 23, 2008
Treating Internal Candidates Right
In my last entry, I discussed how job seekers can take advantage of late openings to gain a foothold in academe. One commenter noted that temporary, non-tenure-track positions are just that — temporary — and that no one should go into one believing anything different.
My own job history includes getting a visiting position that led to one on the tenure track, and I know of many other Ph.D.‘s who have made similar transitions. However, it is certainly true that many non-tenure-track faculty members do not get hired into tenure-track positions at the same (or any) institution, which raises a very important issue: What obligations does a hiring institution have to visiting, temporary, or non-tenure-track faculty members?
At minimum, such candidates should be treated with professionalism and fairness. In particular, when a search is undertaken for a position occupied by a temporary instructor, the search committee owes that internal candidate both an honest shot at the position and fair treatment through the process.
An honest shot does not mean merely a “courtesy interview.” Such interviews give candidates the impression that they have a chance at gaining the job when the very term indicates that they do not. It is much better to eliminate internal candidates from consideration — and let them know — as soon as it becomes clear that they are not competitive in the search.
Internal candidates should also be apprised of the schedules of other interviewees, and allowed the courtesy of avoiding all the associated events. They should also receive full support for their other searches, even if they are highly attractive candidates for the positions they currently occupy.
Many bad feelings associated with the search process are relatively easy to avoid with courtesy, honesty, and common sense. Treating internal candidates humanely even when they are not going to get the job is a minimal, but very important, obligation for hiring institutions.
By David R. Evans | Posted on Wed Jul 23, 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comment [18]Administrative Hirings and Firings
- Trustees of Alabama State University, given an opportunity to settle their differences with the university’s departing president, and to settle a total of four lawsuits, opted instead to keep fighting, according to a report in The Chronicle’s News Blog.
- The former president of Alabama A&M University is suing its trustees for allegedly conspiring against him, a report in The Chronicle’s News Blog says. Trustees had fired Robert R. Jennings after investigating perks received by his former executive assistant.
- Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean who was hired, fired, and then rehired at the University of California at Irvine, is bringing top faculty talent to its fledgling law school, according to a report in The Chronicle’s News Blog.
- Southwestern Illinois College has hired a new president: Georgia C. Costello, the wife of U.S. Rep. Jerry F. Costello, an 11-term Democrat whose district includes the community college’s three campuses, The Chronicle’s News Blog reports.
- The president of the University of Central Arkansas has vowed to repay a $300,000 bonus he received from the institution’s trustees after questions arose about its legality, The Chronicle’s News Blog reports.
July 21, 2008
Taking a Job as an A.B.D.
In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Brutus observes:
“There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.”
The job fortunes of applicants who are “all but dissertation” fall in line with that observation. I’ve seen many instances in which the hiring of A.B.D.‘s turned out great; they were able to finish their dissertations and make a felicitous start to the profession. I’ve also seen promising careers shuffled into “shallows” and “miseries” when A.B.D.‘s took full-time jobs, either teaching or staff positions, that ended up being time hogs and snuffed out the possibility of finishing the dissertation in a timely way.
I advise people to avoid taking a tenure-track position until the dissertation is really, and I mean really, a year or less away from completion. It’s too great of a risk. A job offer is good. It’s amazing, in fact, but if you get an offer A.B.D., you will likely get a better offer when you are Ph.D.
What advice would you give A.B.D.‘s who are offered full-time positions to help them to catch the flood tide and avoid the neap tide that alters their career trajectories?
By Gene C. Fant Jr. | Posted on Mon Jul 21, 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comment [27]July 18, 2008
Challenge and Opportunity
Yesterday I met with one of our deans, her incoming successor, and a faculty member in one of our larger programs. A faculty member had recently resigned and left a sizeable gap in our course schedule. Because of the late date, the remote location of our university, and the large enrollments in several of the courses, we are facing a major challenge in trying to accommodate our students without overwhelming the remaining faculty members in the program.
Over the years, I have had similar meetings with professors and chairs, and have several times needed to make temporary full-time hires to replace faculty members who have announced their departures late in the season.
From an institutional point of view, the greatest challenge is finding the right person for the position. In the past, I have worked with local doctoral universities, advertised on disciplinary e-mail groups, and relied on contacts, among other strategies. Sometimes we’ve ended up hiring great people, sometimes we haven’t been able to fill the position at all.
Those occasions can be a wonderful opportunity for job candidates to step into a position with few of the hassles normally associated with an academic job search. A last-minute, one-year post can provide the proverbial “foot in the door,” leading to a tenure-track position at the hiring institution, as well as the chance to get some non-TA teaching experience for late-stage graduate students. For people struggling with the harsh realities of the job market, it is worth it to keep your eyes and ears open for surprise chances at what can turn out to be a fine position.
By David R. Evans | Posted on Fri Jul 18, 09:42 AM | Permalink | Comment [14]July 17, 2008
Misusing Campus Resources?
I am a stickler for confidentiality in searches. I won’t contact references until I receive specific approval from candidates. I won’t call an on-campus telephone number if I can avoid it. I won’t use a candidate’s campus e-mail address if I can find an alternate address.
That last concern is probably just me being paranoid, based on anecdotes about institutions monitoring employee e-mail messages, but it’s also an issue of the appropriate use of campus resources. Faculty members using a campus e-mail account to search for another job is a little like their using campus letterhead, printers, and postal accounts for their applications.
Mind you, I’m not talking about applicants who are completing their graduate work, serving in postdocs, or in one-year positions — i.e, situations in which it is clear they are on the job market. I’m talking about candidates who are in “permanent” positions.
When I see applications coming in, I really like to see people using their own private e-mail accounts, home or cellphone numbers, and “From the Desk of” letterhead. The use of campus e-mail and phone numbers doesn’t spoil me on a candidate, but I have to say that, for the sake of both stewardship of resources and confidentiality, I like to see personal materials used.
Am I being overly sensitive on this matter?
By Gene C. Fant Jr. | Posted on Thu Jul 17, 08:32 AM | Permalink | Comment [45]Lawsuits and Union Battles
- Southwestern Community College in Iowa has agreed to pay an undisclosed amount of money to settle a wrongful-termination lawsuit filed by an instructor who said he was fired last fall for teaching the biblical story of Adam and Eve as a myth, according to a report in The Chronicle‘s News Blog.
- A union representing 8,500 service workers on University of California campuses began a five-day strike this week, defying a judge’s temporary restraining order that sought to prevent them from walking off their jobs, The Chronicle‘s News Blog reports.
- California State University at Fresno has agreed to pay some $600,000 to settle a complaint by its softball coach, Margie Wright, that it retaliated against her when she pushed for equal treatment of female athletes, The Chronicle‘s News Blog reports.
July 15, 2008
Start-Up Expenses
A freshly minted Ph.D. landed a tenure-track position at a top-tier undergraduate institution. As a part of his package, he negotiated to have a budget for new library purchases. His doctoral specialty was not well represented in the library holdings, and he needed very specific standard reference works and other materials for his research.
He developed his list for the library, which totaled several thousand dollars, the amount that had been agreed upon. A budget cut hit, however, and the order was cancelled.
“They aren’t a part of your contract,” a senior administrator told him. “They were, in effect, a wish list, not a part of your package. We can’t fund wishes now.”
The negotiations had been conducted via e-mail when the young Ph.D. was at his former institution. That e-mail account was purged when he departed, and he had kept only a few printouts to document the details of the discussions. The printouts never mentioned a “package,” only “a list of desired resources.” Nothing in his written contract mentioned the expenses.
How often does that sort of thing happen, in your experience? And what recommendations can you offer about negotiating laboratory, library, or other start-up expenses?
By Gene C. Fant Jr. | Posted on Tue Jul 15, 09:18 AM | Permalink | Comment [5]July 14, 2008
A Midlife Crisis on Campuses
Professors, administrators, and staff members in the middle of their careers are more likely than other employees to be dissatisfied with their jobs, career advancement, and the fairness of the workplace, according to an extensive survey conducted by The Chronicle.
More than 15,000 employees were surveyed at 89 colleges and universities that participated in The Chronicle‘s first-ever Great Colleges to Work For project.
“When employees hit their late 40s or after eight years in a campus job — just after many faculty members have come up for tenure — workers reach their lowest levels of satisfaction on several measures. …”
“The excitement wears off when the honeymoon phase ends,” says Richard K. Boyer, principal and managing partner of ModernThink LLC, a Wilmington, Del., human-resources-consulting company, which managed the survey for The Chronicle. “Just like in corporate America, colleges need to focus on midcareer training so people don’t get lost in the shuffle.”
The survey also found that administrators tend to think their relationships with faculty members are better than they really are.
“Eighty percent of administrators agreed that faculty-administration relations on their campuses were healthy, compared with 61 percent of faculty members.”
You can find more details about this year’s survey here, and find information about how to participate in next year’s survey here.
By Denise Magner | Posted on Mon Jul 14, 01:32 PM | Permalink | Comment [1]