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October 28, 2019

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Advance Your Career

Managing a job search. Improving your teaching. Leaving the ivory tower. Find hands-on advice here about academic work and life as well as nonfaculty career options.
Academic LeadersFacultyGraduate Students
 

Academic Leaders

Moving Into AdministrationGetting the JobDoing the Job
 

Faculty

TeachingThe Job MarketSalaryAdvice for AdjunctsTenureAdvice for ScientistsWriting and Publishing
 

Graduate Students

Surviving Graduate SchoolFinishing Your DissertationThe Job MarketLeaving the Academy
 

Should I move into administration?

Are You Sure You Want That Interim Job?

A temporary leadership gig can elevate your career prospects or sink them entirely.

Administration Was a Definite No, Until it Became a Yes

A professor who had always resisted the call takes his first steps on the administrative path.

To Chair or Not to Chair?

Whether to lead your department is a question that every faculty member must answer. Here are some factors to help you make the call.

How to Be Both a Professor and a Dean

Administrators who hold on to their faculty roots will benefit both themselves and their institutions.

They Don't Train Us for This

13 lessons I wish someone had taught me before I became an academic administrator.

So You Want to Be a Dean?

You’d better be skilled at risk management and compromise.

Admin 101: Deciding to Lead

Four key questions to ask yourself (and your family).

Now You’re in Charge

10 things you should know about becoming an administrator.

Faculty Members Can Lead, but Will They?

Academe needs a new breed of professors who will not nurture antipathy for leadership.

How Nontraditional Presidents Can Adjust and Thrive

Academe is a very different culture than business, government, or NGOs. Here’s how to help a newcomer adjust to shared governance.

Every Sin Is a Public Sin

What if you couldn't get a job because of that thing — that stupid thing from so long ago?

 

How do I move up in administration, or back down the ladder?

Are You Sure You Want That Interim Job?

A temporary leadership gig can elevate your career prospects, or sink them entirely.

The Best Executive Job Candidates

If you find it difficult to be transparent, then you're likely in the search for the wrong reasons.

How Nontraditional Presidents Can Adjust and Thrive

Academe is a very different culture than business, government, or NGOs. Here’s how to help a newcomer adjust to shared governance.

In a First-Round Interview for a Leadership Post, Make Sure You Show the Love

If it seems like you're just kicking the tires, your candidacy will fall flat.

Gender in the Job Interview

No, this is not an argument for women to act more like men in the hiring process.

Introverts and Interviews

Advice on making it through a hiring process that tends to reward extroverts.

Not Dressing the Part, and Other Interview Mistakes

10 techniques that backfire on administrative job candidates.

Treating Candidates Like Supplicants, and Other Recruiting Mistakes

10 techniques that backfire on administrative search committees.

Have You Stayed Too Long?

An extended tenure as chair can be counterproductive for your department and your career.

Giving Up Full Custody of the Department

A department chair who has returned to the faculty full-time finds it surprisingly difficult to let go.

Back to the Classroom After 11 Years in Administration

What to expect when teaching regains a central role in your career.

Candidacies Killed by a Typo

Instead of being a deal breaker, a mistake on a cover letter should be a chance to build trust on the search committee.

How do I get salary data for administrative jobs?

The Profession: Almanac 2018

Learn how much professors, administrators, and chief executives are paid in different sectors, how diverse those groups are, and what percentage of faculty members lack tenure.

 

What should I know about administrative jobs?

Don’t Cry for Me, Academia!

For some of us, administrative work is not just an obligation or a noble sacrifice — it’s a calling.

What a Rookie Provost Learned in His First Semester

My goal was to have coffee with every faculty member. Besides discovering the effects of too much caffeine, here are a few of the lessons I’ve picked up so far about provosting.

Tips for Managing Curmudgeons

Advice on how to approach faculty who find your administrative buzzwords insufferable.

10 Suggestions for a New Academic Dean

In learning how to be a dean, the magic is in distinguishing between what requires compromise and what must be an executive decision.

Things Successful Presidents Do

They convey a coherent vision, they keep their own counsel, and other sound advice.

Reputation Management in an Era of Too Much Information

For academic leaders — especially during a job search — transparency and honesty about your career must rule the day.

How To Make Sure They Heard What You Actually Said

It’s all too easy for a senior administrator’s incidental remark to be misinterpreted as a new demand.

Bad Writing by Administrators

Time to transform generic, clichéd prose by campus leaders into something people actually want to hear and read.

8 Deans Share: What I Wish I Had Known

They identify preparation and practical training that would have made their lives easier in the new job.

How do I plan a smooth transition into my new job?

Preparing to Take Office

How to plan a smooth transition to your new administrative job

Stuck With Someone Else’s Mess

What's the best way to respond when your dream job in administration quickly turns into a nightmare?

It's About Time — or Rather, Time Management

When you become an administrator, you have to force yourself to think of time — everybody's, not just your own — with a hint of urgency.

Which Metrics Are Actually Useful and How Can You Tell?

Learning how to use digital dashboards is vital for newcomers to administration, both to do your job every day and to ward off future problems.

How can I be an effective leader?

10 Ways to Better Manage Your Meetings

A new academic year means lots and lots of meetings. Here's how to make them more productive and less contentious.

5 Tips on Surviving Your First Year as a Department Head

Chairs are notoriously stuck in the middle, serving everyone in all directions.

4 Phrases Academic Administrators Should Never Say

The academic freedom that you defend vociferously for others is constricted for you.

5 Phrases Every Academic Leader Should Know

Whether you are a chair, a dean, or a provost, you will spend a lot of time repeating yourself.

There Is Such a Thing as a Good Retreat

How to plan a faculty and staff retreat that people will actually find valuable.

What Happened When the Dean’s Office Stopped Sending Emails After-Hours

Very few issues cannot wait until morning, and that is an important message for any dean’s office to send to faculty and staff members.

Beyond the Survival Mind-Set

There's a big difference between a college surviving and thriving. Here’s how to focus more on the latter.

The Right Kind of Nothing

The best administrators have an enormous sense of responsibility and a small need for control.

Don’t Fear Fund Raising

The smallest liberal-arts college and the largest state university alike now know they cannot move forward — or even survive — without extensive, focused, and professional fund raising.

How To Make Sure They Heard What You Actually Said

It’s all too easy for a senior administrator’s incidental remark to be misinterpreted as a new demand.

How do I evaluate employees effectively?

Admin 101: Time to Overcome Your Evaluation Avoidance

It's one of the most challenging, miserable, and politically dangerous aspects of any job in academic administration.

The Art of Executive Feedback

A great failure in our current academic system is the inconsistency of managers receiving — or providing — regular, specific, quality feedback on job performance.

How do I recover from a failure on the job?

10 Steps to Lead College Presidents Away From the Edge

Many lessons can be learned from the decline and fall of the former president of Edinboro University. Here are some of them.

Off the Team and Out of a Job

What do you do when you're not included in the new president's plans?

I Was a Dean. And Now I'm Not.

An ex-administrator chronicles his unexpected return to faculty life.

 

How do I create a syllabus?

Syllabus Design 101

There’s never a bad time to re-examine and rethink how to write your syllabus. This guide walks you through everything you need to know, with specific tips and strategies, to craft an effective syllabus.

How do I improve my teaching?

How to Prepare for a Teaching Career

In between finishing your dissertation, here's what you should be doing to enhance your candidacy.

Small Changes in Teaching

How simple changes in pedagogy — in things like course design, classroom practices, and communication with students — can have a powerful impact on student learning.

How to Prepare for Class Without Overpreparing

Let go of the fantasy that you must use every minute of a strictly planned class schedule to introduce, explain, clarify, and cover.

How to Make Your Teaching More Engaging

Stimulate your students’ curiosity — and help them learn — using the tried-and-true techniques in this comprehensive guide.

How to Teach a Good First Day of Class

The first day of class is crucial both for your students and for you. This guide will help you make opening day as effective as possible.

How Peer Instruction and Polling Have Changed My Teaching

Here’s why I gave peer instruction and polling a try, and why you might consider them, too.

How to Hold a Better Class Discussion

Good discussions involve taking risks, by the students and the professor. This comprehensive guide is filled with tips to help improve yours.

How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive

This comprehensive guide offers a road map to make sure your classroom interactions and course design reach all students, not just some of them.

The Case for Inclusive Teaching

If we can't recruit additional students, we need to make every effort to keep more of the ones we have.

The ‘Holy Grail’ of Class Discussion

Why faculty members should come up with more ambitious goals for class discussion than just getting students to talk.

Advice on Advising: How to Mentor Minority Students

"I did not always understand how much labor, thought, and care went into meaningful mentoring, how emotionally draining that work can be, and how little prepared I was for it."

To: Professors, Re: Your Advisees

Why am I getting paid to mentor your graduate students? Because someone has to do it.

What are the best ways to use technology in my teaching?

How to Be a Better Online Teacher

Many professors don’t know how to teach online, and may not know how to improve at it. Our comprehensive guide can help.

How to Make Smart Choices About Tech for Your Course

Choosing the right tech tools for your teaching means making strategic choices, weighing costs against payoffs, and staying laser-focused on your course goals — and that is what this guide aims to help you do.

Tell Me a Smart Story: On Podcasts, Videos, and Websites as Writing

Letting students "write" in nontraditional formats has the potential to have a major impact on our classrooms.

Teaching Online Will Make You a Better Teacher in Any Setting

Adapting a course for a digital environment forces you to ask yourself why you're doing a particular pedagogical thing — and then to rethink it.

Why I Teach Online

It turns out that online instruction is a feminist issue.

7 Steps to Better Online Teaching

What one instructor learned from YouTube, and other strategies that helped her better motivate her students.

Faculty Members Can Build Relationships With Online Students. Here’s How.

Learning that you can bring a personal touch to the virtual classroom just might make you a convert.

How do I engage my students in class more effectively?

How to Make Your Teaching More Engaging

Stimulate your students’ curiosity — and help them learn — using the tried-and-true techniques in this comprehensive guide.

Getting Beyond Brain Games

A new book looks at how to apply the science of learning to college teaching.

How Students Learn From Games

How can professors use simulation games in the classroom.

And on the Last Day of Class, We'll Play Games

Why I decided to ditch the blue books for an "epic" final exam.

How Peer Instruction and Polling Have Changed My Teaching

Here’s why I gave peer instruction and polling a try, and why you might consider them, too.

How to Hold a Better Class Discussion

Good discussions involve taking risks, by the students and the professor. This comprehensive guide is filled with tips to help improve yours.

How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive

This comprehensive guide offers a road map to make sure your classroom interactions and course design reach all students, not just some of them.

How to Make Smart Choices About Tech for Your Course

Choosing the right tech tools for your teaching means making strategic choices, weighing costs against payoffs, and staying laser-focused on your course goals — and that is what this guide aims to help you do.

Tell Me a Smart Story: On Podcasts, Videos, and Websites as Writing

Letting students "write" in nontraditional formats has the potential to have a major impact on our classrooms.

How do I figure out my teaching persona?

I Don't Like Teaching. There, I Said It.

It's perfectly possible to dislike teaching and still do a good, even an excellent, job in the classroom.

Stop Blaming Students for Your Listless Classroom

How the use of games as a teaching methodology has the potential to break the long history of student disengagement in college learning.

Don't Be Hard to Get Along With

Why do faculty members insist on rigid rules to prepare students for the "real" world when that world is characterized by accommodation?

Be Hard to Get Along With

Growing problems of classroom decorum mean faculty members have to get tough or sacrifice learning for all students.

How to Help a Student in a Mental-Health Crisis

You're a faculty member, not a trained counselor. But you can play a significant role in guiding a struggling student.

Sar-Chasm in the Classroom

I do my best to avoid snarky rejoinders when I’m teaching, yet they pop out uninvited.

How do I avoid burnout in the classroom?

4 Ideas for Avoiding Faculty Burnout

If we're feeling depressed and anxious, it's near-impossible to do our jobs well in the college classroom.

3 Ways Colleges Can Help Faculty Members Avoid Burnout

If institutions hope to flourish, it’s in their interest to make sure their faculty flourish, too.

You Are Not a Public Utility

When strangers seek your expertise, do you have to respond? What if it's a student?

Does 'High-Impact' Teaching Cause High-Impact Fatigue?

"Transformative" teaching is exhausting. Here are some suggestions on how to lessen the load.

Why I Collapsed on the Job

Academics are silent workaholics — so free to work whenever we want that many of us end up working all the time.

How Can I Make Big Classes Feel Smaller?

How One Email From You Could Help Students Succeed

A professor shares some promising results from sending a personalized message to students who failed the first exam.

Small Ways to Help Students Feel Noticed

Start by building excitement, says a professor who teaches large courses at the University of Arizona.

Insights From Other Instructors on Teaching Large Classes

Professors share the emails they use to "nudge" students at key moments in a course.

What do I need to know about grading?

How to Escape Grading Jail

In the end-of-the-semester crush, our students don’t do their best work in all-night cram sessions, and neither do we.

Final Exams Versus Epic Finales

Instead of a multiple-choice test, try ending the semester with one, last memorable learning experience.

‘How Much Do You Want Your Final to Count?’

An economics professor devises a way to allow a class of 200 more choice over how they are graded.

Why I’m Easy: On Giving Lots of A’s

The importance of encouraging students, weighed down by preprofessional courses, to take a class for — dare I say it? — pleasure.

Why Grades Still Matter

High standards coupled with high expectations — including encouragement, not derision — create real student success.

What Is the Purpose of Final Exams, Anyway?

It's not just about inflicting one more test before the semester ends. There are ways to make it meaningful.

The Extra-Credit Question: Should You Offer It or Resist?

It's that time of the semester when students start to wonder what they can do to boost their final grades.

Defending My Grades

The semester was over, but the adjunct instructor wasn’t done working, just done being paid.

I’m Not Ready to Quit Grading

But I am ready to ask students to do more self-assessments, and to give their "grading" as much weight as mine.

 

What should I know about applying for jobs?

How to Read a Faculty Job Ad

A primer on the jargon of the academic-job market, aimed at early-career scholars preparing for their first search.

The Professor Is In

A series of columns from a former tenured professor who answers common questions about all aspects of the faculty job search.

Your CV Should Inform; Your Cover Letter Should Persuade

A CV and a cover letter are not just redundant vehicles for the same information.

6 Tips to Improve Your Cover Letter

Why write an application letter so dry that even you wouldn't want to read it?

8 Tips to Improve Your CV

It’s not just a written record of your credentials. It’s an argument in favor of you. Draft it with that in mind.

What do I need to know about campus interviews?

7 Hazards of the Campus Interview

How to handle inappropriate questions, random comments, and offers of alcohol.

Showing Your Best Self in the Campus Interview

The person you present during your two-day visit is the person the search committee will assume you to be.

How to Give an Excellent STEM Job Talk

The job talk during a campus interview is where you can really shine — or very publicly fail.

The Art of the Campus Interview

It's not a good sign when the search committee is more interested in snapping food pics than in chatting with you.

The First-Round Interview Versus the Campus Visit

You’ve already interviewed with the whole search committee in Round 1. Why do you have to repeat that exercise in Round 2?

Interviewing While LGBTQ

The questions and issues you should think about on the academic job market.

What to Expect at a Community-College Interview

Ph.D.s applying to teach at two-year campuses will encounter a very different sort of job interview.

How to Lower the Stakes of the Job-Interview Dinner

When hiring committees take job candidates out to eat, cultural anxiety is often on the table, too.

The Diversity Question and the Administrative-Job Interview

What are the best ways to ask and answer questions about race, ethnicity, and inclusion?

Are the horror stories about job searching true?

Academic Job Hunts From Hell

This series explores all the things that can go wrong for candidates during the faculty job hunt, including fake searches, bad fits, inappropriate questions, and scheduling challenges.

5 Big-Picture Mistakes New Ph.D.s Make on the Job Market

All sorts of magical thinking can distort the realities of the tenure-track job hunt.

How Not to Blow an Interview

It's all too easy to find yourself out of the running thanks to an ill-considered response.

I Found a Tenure-Track Job. Here’s What it Took.

Two hiring seasons, and 112 applications.

I Found a Tenure-Track Job: The Big Picture.

My experience on the market was just one data point, not a complete description of a highly stochastic process.

Warning Signs That You and Your Campus Are a Bad Fit

Should you think about going back on the faculty job market?

The Odds Are Never in Your Favor

Why the academic job market is like the Hunger Games.

Some Lesser-Known Truths About Academe

They warn you about the job market but not necessarily all the other ways in which you might not fit faculty life.

‘Operation Keep My Job’

What to do when your third-year review leaves you on shaky ground.

Do I have to ‘network’ (ugh!) to advance my career?

Banish the Smarm

Effective networking isn't slimy — it's sincere, deep, and generous.

How to Talk to Famous Professors

A cheat sheet for making a potential contact without gushing or embarrassing yourself.

How to Create and Keep a Useful Network

On why you need to maintain and prune your network of contacts.

How Do I Create a Professional Network?

Networking is a game of numbers. The more you reach out, the more likely you'll make a strong contact.

Forget Mentors — What We Really Need Are Fans

Not the obsessive type, but the kind whose support shows your work has reached people.

Why I Love Academic Conferences

How to get the most out of your field's annual meeting.

Should I negotiate a job offer?

OK, Let’s Talk About Negotiating Salary

Don’t panic: It’s overwhelmingly unlikely that asking for more money will get your offer rescinded. Still, it’s important to go about this the right way.

Why You Should Negotiate Every Job Offer

Ask your potential department for what you deserve (within reason), whether or not you have the leverage of a second job offer.

Did They Lowball Me?

I didn’t negotiate my starting salary. Is it too late to try now?

The Etiquette of Accepting a Job Offer

How to get to 'yes' efficiently and amicably.

Negotiation 101

Advice from eight academics on how to negotiate a faculty job offer.

How do I start a new job gracefully?

How to Start Off Right in Your New Job

If you're beginning a new faculty post in the fall, summer is the time to start preparing for what's coming.

What to Expect in Your First Semester at a Community College

As a new full-time faculty member at a two-year college, your first year on the job is often your most difficult.

How to Develop a TSC (Trusted Senior Colleague)

Your first priority as a new faculty member should be to find the right allies.

The Good Goodbye

A primer on post-hire etiquette for faculty members who are changing jobs.

The Good Hello

A primer on post-hire etiquette once you’re started at your new position.

‘Operation Keep My Job’

What to do when your third-year review leaves you on shaky ground.

How can I tell if the department and I are a good fit?

Do You Fit Us?

The hiring department is looking for a person, not just a CV.

Detecting a Bad Fit

How do you recognize when a department with a job opening is not the place for you?

Warning Signs That You and Your Campus Are a Bad Fit

Is it time to go back on the faculty job market?

Research First or Teaching?

How to tell if a hiring department is more interested in your scholarship or your pedagogy.

 

How do I find other faculty salaries?

Chronicle Data

Search and explore faculty, staff, and adjunct salary data at thousands of colleges.

The Profession: Almanac 2018

Learn how much professors, administrators, and chief executives are paid in different sectors, how diverse those groups are, and what percentage of faculty members lack tenure. Explore the tables and charts in this section.

3 Things a Faculty-Pay Survey Shows About Academic Jobs

A look at the annual faculty-compensation report of the American Association of University Professors.

Should I negotiate?

OK, Let’s Talk About Negotiating Salary

Don’t panic: It’s overwhelmingly unlikely that asking for more money will get your offer rescinded. Still, it’s important to go about this the right way.

Why You Should Negotiate Every Job Offer

Ask your potential department for what you deserve (within reason), whether or not you have the leverage of a second job offer.

Did They Lowball Me?

I didn’t negotiate my starting salary. Is it too late to try now?

Negotiation 101

Advice from eight academics on how to negotiate a faculty job offer.

Do I need a counteroffer to get a pay raise?

Why You Should Negotiate Every Job Offer

Ask your potential department for what you deserve (within reason), whether or not you have the leverage of a second job offer.

Offers and Counteroffers

Do you have to leave if your university declines to give you a counteroffer?

Midcareer Negotiating

You've got an outside offer, so how do you go about negotiating the counteroffer from your university?

How do I make outside money as a faculty member?

How to Get Started in Freelance Writing

If writing for general magazines and web sites is something you really want to do in graduate school or after, prioritize it.

The Tenured Entrepreneur

Haven’t gotten a raise in several years? It’s time to peddle your skills on the open market.

How to Make Money From Speaking Engagements

For academics, the real money is in speaking engagements. Here’s how to procure them.

 

How much service should I do as an adjunct or NTT?

Faculty Service and the Difference Between Opportunity and Exploitation

Who and what is served when contingent faculty members do departmental service?

How to Advocate for Yourself as an Early-Career Scholar

Many academics spend 60 percent of their time on tasks that go unrecognized. Don’t Let that happen to you.

Skip the Department Meeting

It’s not in your interest to attend if you’re a contingent faculty member.

Loyalty, Schmoyalty

What do you do when you realize your devotion to your institution is not reciprocated?

Should I quit adjunct teaching?

The Grant Ran Out, the Job Ended — Go Ahead and Grieve

She always knew her contingent job would cease after four years. That didn't make losing it any easier.

Instead of Gaslighting Adjuncts, We Could Help Them

A Ph.D. who made it to the tenure track after six years as an adjunct describes all that her chair did to help her get there.

What Advantage? A Few Reality Checks for Internal Adjunct Candidates

Five lessons from the experience of applying for the tenure-track version of your previously contingent job.

Leaving the Adjunct Track

No hard feelings but I don't miss academe and I probably won't be back.

How Ph.D.s Romanticize the ‘Regular’ Job Market

Be skeptical of any grass-is-greener hype about your nonacademic career options.

Defending My Grades

The semester was over, but the adjunct instructor wasn’t done working, just done being paid.

How do I find other faculty salaries?

Chronicle Data

Search and explore faculty, staff, and adjunct salary data at thousands of colleges.

The Profession: Almanac 2018

Learn how much professors, administrators, and chief executives are paid in different sectors, how diverse those groups are, and what percentage of faculty members lack tenure. Explore the tables and charts in this section.

3 Things a Faculty-Pay Survey Shows About Academic Jobs

A look at the annual faculty-compensation report of the American Association of University Professors.

 

How do I decide what goes into my tenure file?

10 Things No One Told Me About Applying for Tenure

A tenure file forces you to confront who you are, what you've done, and who you want to become.

The Professor Is In: 4 Steps to a Strong Tenure File

Too many tenure narratives veer wildly between paroxysms of grandiosity and groveling insecurity.

How to Be Strategic on the Tenure Track

It's difficult to resist the pressure to overwork since that is often the only path to tenure.

How to Overcome Impostor Syndrome

Scholars of all ages wrestle with feelings of "intellectual phoniness." So how do you get over it?

Presenting Your Tenure File

The best thing you can do for your tenure packet is make it as impressive in design as in content.

What can I do if I get a bad third-year review?

‘Operation Keep My Job’

What to do when your third-year review leaves you on shaky ground.

Me and My Shadow CV

What would my vita look like if it recorded not just the successes of my professional life but also the many, many rejections?

Publishing Isn’t Just About Volume; It’s Also About Strategy

Few benchmarks for tenure are more important than getting that first book contract if you are in a book field at a research university.

Service With a Smile

How to do enough, but not too much, institutional service on the tenure track.

To: Professors, Re: Your Advisees

Why am I getting paid to mentor your graduate students? Because someone has to do it.

You Are Not a Public Utility

When strangers seek your expertise, do you have to respond? What if it's a student?

How do I avoid stalling at midcareer?

Terminal Associate Professors, Past and Present

Why do some academics stall at midcareer?

Preventing Post-Tenure Malaise

A faculty career can last 30 or 40 years. That's a long time to be plagued with self-doubts.

Me and My Shadow CV

What would my vita look like if it recorded not just the successes of my professional life but also the many, many rejections?

How to Overcome Impostor Syndrome

Scholars of all ages wrestle with feelings of "intellectual phoniness." So how do you get over it?

Our Fixation on Midcareer Malaise

We need to stop focusing on deadwood tales and overlooking the post-tenure success stories.

You Might Not Be Ready for Promotion

People often overestimate their accomplishments, and associate professors are no exception.

I Did Not Slow Down Once I Got Tenure

And I don't know many faculty members who did.

Ambivalence About Midcareer Moves

For tenured professors, the possibility of changing departments triggers uncertainties that are not always easy or possible to resolve.

You Are Not a Public Utility

When strangers seek your expertise, do you have to respond? What if it's a student?

Should I have a baby before tenure?

The Baby-Before-Tenure Question

Balancing an academic career with the realities of a biological clock.

I Don’t Regret Not Having Kids, and I Don’t Resent Yours, Either

A “childfree" academic mulls the delicate kid issue in the context of teaching, tenure, and faculty life.

No, I Am Not Pregnant

Why women in academe feel our bodies are “always under watch.”

Coming Out as Academic Mothers

What happens when two highly driven women in academe decide to have children?

Academic Science Isn't Friendly to Fathers, Either

Male academic scientists are finding it extremely hard to negotiate their work and family lives, too.

Should You Have a Baby in Graduate School?

The decision belongs to you, not the chair of your dissertation committee.

The Perfect Academic Baby

There’s no such thing, of course, but my university certainly could have made my own pregnancy less fraught.

Are Children Career Killers?

Kids don’t spell the end of their mothers’ academic aspirations. All too often, persistent bias does.

How do I avoid post-tenure depression?

Preventing Post-Tenure Malaise

A faculty career can last 30 or 40 years. That's a long time to be plagued with self-doubts.

Avoiding PTDS: Post-Tenure Depression Syndrome

Why are the years after academics have “made it” so gloomy for so many?

How to Overcome Impostor Syndrome

Scholars of all ages wrestle with feelings of "intellectual phoniness." So how do you get over it?

Our Fixation on Midcareer Malaise

We need to stop focusing on deadwood tales and overlooking the post-tenure success stories.

You Are Not a Public Utility

When strangers seek your expertise, do you have to respond? What if it's a student?

How do I decide when to retire?

Leaving the Academic Stage

Should I be thinking about making room for a younger generation of scholars?

Dignity in Retirement Is Not Too Much to Ask

How can we reinvent faculty retirement to benefit all parties?

Adjusting to Civilian Life

Just because people keep asking about your plans for retirement doesn’t mean you actually have to have one.

Why I Stopped Teaching and Don't Miss It

It turns out that what a retired professor loves most about academe is not leading a classroom but learning.

Annals of Retirement

How did I find the time to go to work?

After 40 Years, Changing My Academic Major

A former university president has retired — but only from the chief executive's office.

Giving Up Tenure? Who Does That?

As it turns out, quite a few professors leave academe for new careers.

 

How do I improve the odds of my grant being accepted?

10 Common Grant-Writing Mistakes

It might not be the science that brought you a rejection but the nonscientific gaffes in your proposal.

10 Tips for Successful Grant Writing

How to write a grant proposal that has the best chance of getting approved.

What's the Secret to Getting Grants?

Cutting-edge science and collaborative projects both play a role, not to mention luck.

How do I cope with the stress of academic science?

What Is the Going Rate for Tenure Nowadays?

The careers of promising scientists are in peril, amid intense pressure to bring in a big grant.

The Bittersweet Task of Running a Grant Program

From drafting the call for proposals to announcing the results, here's what you need to know.

Rethinking the Scientific Career

A career in science should be a long and winding adventure, not an uphill slog.

'Good' Hard vs. 'Bad' Hard

Which type of research challenges are you experiencing?

Working With Jerks

In science, tenured or not, sometimes you don't have a choice about who you collaborate with.

How to Give an Excellent STEM Job Talk

The job talk during a campus interview is where you can really shine — or very publicly fail.

I Found a Tenure-Track Job. Here’s What it Took.

Two hiring seasons and 112 applications.

I Found a Tenure-Track Job, Part 2: The Big Picture.

My experience on the market was just one data point, not a complete description of a highly stochastic process.

How do I balance work and family in the bench sciences?

How to Level the Playing Field for Women in Science

The “baby penalty” in academe could be eased with four key reforms.

Academic Science Isn't Friendly to Fathers, Either

Male academic scientists are finding it extremely hard to negotiate their work and family lives, too.

Should You Have a Baby in Graduate School?

The decision belongs to you, not the chair of your dissertation committee.

The Perfect Academic Baby

There’s no such thing, of course, but my university certainly could have made my own pregnancy less fraught.

Are Children Career Killers?

Kids don’t spell the end of their mothers’ academic aspirations. All too often, persistent bias does.

 

How can I improve my writing?

Scholars Talk Writing

Q&As with Steven Pinker, Laura Kipnis, Jay Parini, Camille Paglia, James M. McPherson, Deirdre McCloskey, and many other scholars talking about their writing process and influences.

Are You Writing?

Advice for graduate students and faculty members on scholarly productivity, with suggestions on how to write more — and better — with less angst.

10 Tips on How to Write Less Badly

Fortunately, the standards of writing in most disciplines are so low that you don't need to write well.

The Art and Science of Finding Your Voice

Advice on how to kickstart the process of finding your writerly voice.

Lessons on the Craft of Scholarly Reading

Yes, you know how to read. But do you know how to read scholarship effectively?

What do I need to know about publishing?

Crafting a Convincing Book Proposal

What to consider as you attempt to persuade book editors to give you a contract.

Why You Need to Create an ‘Author Platform’

If you want people to read your book, you’re going to have to do some of the work of promoting it.

How to Craft a Pitch

Six tips to help you draft a pitch for editors and publishers.

Things You Should Know Before Publishing a Book

“You can probably make more money having a first-class yard sale.”

Some Things I Know About Getting Published

Seek out criticism, be nice to assistants, and other publishing lessons.

Write a Book and Become an Employee of Your Former Self

Publishers are using content-driven approaches to connect readers directly with authors.

Dear First-Time Author

How to turn your dissertation into your first book.

How to Arrange Your Own Academic Book Tour

Your publisher is unlikely to set up a tour for you. Here’s how one pair of professors did it.

What should I expect during the revise-and-resubmit process?

Coping With Criticism From Manuscript Readers

Negative feedback hurts. The trick is learning to take it in stride.

How to Decipher Reviewer Comments

Making sense of hortatory comments from manuscript readers.

Techniques for Easier and Faster Revisions

How to proceed when reviewers disagree, and other advice.

The 3 Types of Peer Reviewers

Dealing with manuscript reviewers is, by far, the least rewarding and most difficult part of my faculty job.

Why You Gotta Be So Mean?

Too many journal reviewers are needlessly nasty, and critical without being constructive.

How do I cope with writer's block?

How to Cope With Multiple-Project Paralysis

What to do when a writing commitment, made with good intentions, is now standing in your way.

Code-Switching to Improve Your Writing and Productivity

What are the benefits of working on multiple projects in different genres at once?

6 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block

It's not a question of whether you will get stuck, but of what to do when it happens.

The Habits of Highly Productive Writers

There are no tricks to make writing easier, just practices you can develop to get it done.

OK, I Admit It: Productivity Is Overrated

Sometimes it's OK to be lazy.

 

How do I succeed in graduate school?

The Gentle Guide for Applying to Graduate Schools

How the doctoral-application process itself prepares students for the nature of academic life.

Welcome to Graduate School

Six key lessons to help master’s and doctoral students thrive in their first year.

The Not-So-Secret Guide to Dissertating

Some things about writing a dissertation that your adviser may forget to tell you.

On the Value of Dissertation Writing Groups

Graduate school glorifies solitary labor but scholarly writing has always been collaborative.

Our Mysterious Dissertation Committees

They offer subtle lessons in how academics exercise privilege, not only over the student, but over each other.

10 Tips to Help You 'Win' at Graduate School

There is no easy way to earn a graduate degree, but there are plenty of ways to make it harder on yourself.

A Letter to Past Graduate-Student Me

Graduate school is an exercise in people not telling you things.

Dungeons & Dragons & Graduate School

What a role-playing game can teach you about thriving in a doctoral program.

Do I have to ‘network’ (ugh!) to advance my career?

Banish the Smarm

Effective networking isn't slimy — it's sincere, deep, and generous.

How to Talk to Famous Professors

A cheat sheet for making a potential contact without gushing or embarrassing yourself.

How to Create and Keep a Useful Network

On why you need to maintain and prune your network of contacts.

How Do I Create a Professional Network?

Networking is a game of numbers. The more you reach out, the more likely you'll make a strong contact.

Forget Mentors — What We Really Need Are Fans

Not the obsessive type, but the kind whose support shows your work has reached people.

Why I Love Academic Conferences

How to get the most out of your field's annual meeting.

How do I cope with the stress of getting a Ph.D.?

How to Overcome Impostor Syndrome

Scholars of all ages wrestle with feelings of "intellectual phoniness." So how do you get over it?

Why We Need to Talk More About Mental Health in Graduate School

Doctoral students disproportionately experience anxiety, depression, and other forms of mental illness throughout their training.

How to Hope in Graduate School

As doctoral students, we privately struggle with anxieties that turn out to be commonly shared.

Graduate School Should Be Challenging, Not Traumatic

No, students complaining about a toxic adviser aren't just whining about the workload.

Why Does Graduate School Kill So Many Marriages?

The pursuit of knowledge in a Ph.D. program should not mean sacrificing your relationship.

10 Tips to Help You ‘Win’ at Graduate School

There is no easy way to earn a graduate degree, but there are plenty of ways to make it harder on yourself.

How do I pick a good adviser?

My Graduate Adviser: What Did He See in Me?

A new assistant professor recalls his mentor in mulling how to choose his own graduate students.

How Much Is Your Adviser’s Reputation Worth?

How to pick the professor who will guide your dissertation in the humanities and social sciences.

How Much Is Your Lab Director’s Reputation Worth?

How to pick the professor who will guide your dissertation in the lab sciences.

Graduate School Should Be Challenging, Not Traumatic

No, students complaining about a toxic adviser aren't just whining about the workload.

Your Graduate Adviser May Have Impostor Syndrome, Too

Doubting that you know how to help your dissertation student is not uncommon among faculty members.

Ghost Advising

The distressingly unsurprising story of what happens when dissertation advisers fail to do their job.

How to Fire Your Adviser

Sometimes the only way forward is to start over again.

 

What do I need to know to finish my dissertation?

The Completion Agenda: How to Finish

A five-part series that walks you through the challenge of producing a finished dissertation.

On the Value of Dissertation Writing Groups

Graduate school glorifies solitary labor but scholarly writing has always been collaborative.

Your Dissertation Begins in Your First Seminar

It’s never too early to master the act of successful, meticulous, long-form research.

How to Write the Introduction to Your Dissertation

The goal of a good intro is to orient the audience and offer a confident sense of what's to come.

The Not-So-Secret Guide to Dissertating

Some things about writing a dissertation that your adviser may forget to tell you.

Our Mysterious Dissertation Committees

They offer subtle lessons in how academics exercise privilege, not only over the student, but over each other.

How Blogging Helped Me Write My Dissertation

Weekly posting on a blog helped a graduate student build contacts and face his fears as a writer.

Revising the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Dissertation

A book does not just emerge fully grown from the ugly chrysalis of the dissertation.

Do This While You Diss

Five easy steps you can take in graduate school to prepare for a possible alt-ac job search.

 

What do I need to know about preparing a job application?

How to Ask for a Recommendation

And how to supervise the faculty member writing it.

Academic Job Hunts From Hell

This series explores all the things that can go wrong for candidates during the faculty job hunt, including fake searches, bad fits, inappropriate questions, and scheduling challenges.

The Professor Is In

A series of columns from a former tenured professor who answers common questions about all aspects of the faculty job search.

5 Big-Picture Mistakes New Ph.D.s Make on the Job Market

All sorts of magical thinking can distort the realities of the tenure-track job hunt.

I Found a Tenure-Track Job. Here’s What it Took.

Two hiring seasons, and 112 applications.

Graduate School Is a Means to a Job

A checklist of what doctoral students must do throughout their training to prepare for the job market.

The Job Market: Picking Apart Your Application

Search committees have to comb through dozens of applications. Here is how we do it, and what we're looking for.

How should I prepare for a campus interview?

A Guide to Campus Interviews

What you need to practice (repeatedly) to make a good impression.

The Job Market: The Campus Interview

The person you present during your two-day visit is the person the search committee will assume you to be.

7 Hazards of the Campus Interview

How to handle inappropriate questions, random comments, and offers of alcohol.

How Not to Blow an Interview

It's all too easy to find yourself out of the running thanks to an ill-considered response.

The Art of the Campus Interview

It's not a good sign when the search committee is more interested in snapping food pics than in chatting with you.

The First-Round Interview Versus the Campus Visit

You’ve already interviewed with the whole search committee in Round 1. Why do you have to repeat that exercise in Round 2?

Interviewing While LGBTQ

The questions and issues you should think about on the academic job market.

Waiting to Hear Back

You can't speed up the academic hiring process but you can take steps to maintain your sanity as it plays out.

What to Expect at a Community-College Interview

Ph.D.s applying to teach at two-year campuses will encounter a very different sort of job interview.

How to Lower the Stakes of the Job-Interview Dinner

When hiring committees take job candidates out to eat, cultural anxiety is often on the table, too.

How do I prepare a teaching demo for job interviews?

How to Succeed at a Teaching Demo

Here's what you need to know about preparing a sample class for an opening at a teaching-oriented college.

The Teaching Demo: Less Power, More Point

Search committees want to see how you teach, not how you use PowerPoint.

Making the Most of Your Teaching Demo

It can be scary and artificial, but it also presents a unique opportunity to communicate who you are as a teacher.

What Is a ‘Teaching Talk’?

It’s different from the far more common teaching demonstration required of most job candidates.

What to Expect at a Community-College Interview

Ph.D.s applying to teach at two-year campuses will encounter a very different sort of job interview.

How do I prepare a job talk about my scholarship?

Auditioning for the Role of Colleague

Why the content of your job talk matters less than how you handle the Q&A afterward.

Grim Job Talks Are a Buzz Kill

Five mistakes that candidates should avoid making during their research presentations.

How to Deliver a Halfway-Decent Job Talk

No one expects oratorical brilliance, but it’s startling how bad many of these are. Follow this checklist to firm up your talk.

How to Give an Excellent STEM Job Talk

The job talk during a campus interview is where you can really shine — or very publicly fail.

How do I cope with rejection on the job market?

Why Is Academic Rejection So Very Crushing?

Losing out on a job, tenure, or publication can be a unique agony. The cure is not success, but rather compassion.

Everyone Knows Your Search Fell Short

Rejection is still painful even in a dismal job market: How should you regroup?

Me and My Shadow CV

What would my vita look like if it recorded not just the successes of my professional life but also the many, many rejections?

We’re All Failures

Seven scholars reflect on what they learned from their many brushes with defeat.

When the Job Search Seems Hopeless

Ways to build and maintain your confidence in a miserable job market.

All in Favor of Quitting?

When things get tough, people tell you to stick it out, persevere. But sometimes quitting is the smart thing to do.

The Lessons of Failure

You may learn more from your rejection letters than from your acceptances.

The Art of Rejection

Two veterans of the academic job market say that rejection never really gets easier but could be handled better.

 

How do I decide when to leave the faculty job market?

Knowing When to Say When

You’ve been through several rounds of the academic hiring cycle. Is it time to move on?

Odds Are, Your Doctorate Will Not Prepare You for a Nonacademic Career

A career transition out of academe is hard, but possible. Just know that employers value specific skills and linear work experience, not academic credentials.

The First Steps to a Nonfaculty Job Search

Start by making the most of the Ph.D. alumni panels cropping up across academe.

Just Another Piece of Quit Lit

Leaving my Ph.D. program turned out to be a smarter decision than applying.

Why It’s So Hard to Leave Academe

Rational people have good reasons for staying in a system that has failed them.

How do I tell my adviser I'm quitting academe?

Breaking the Alt-Ac News

How do you tell your Ph.D. adviser who disdains nonacademic careers that you've accepted a private-sector job?

How to Tell Your Adviser

Ph.D. students’ anxiety over admitting their nonfaculty aspirations may be justified.

The First Steps to a Nonfaculty Job Search

Start by making the most of the Ph.D. alumni panels cropping up across academe.

Why Everybody Loses When Someone Leaves Academe

As academics, we cope with the loss in ways that largely erase the people who have left, ignore their pain and grief, and suppress our own.

Why It’s So Hard to Leave Academe

Rational people have good reasons for staying in a system that has failed them.

Finding Meaning After Academe

It turns out you can no longer do what you love. Now what?

How do I prepare for a nonacademic job search?

What It's Like to Search for Jobs Outside of Academe

Nonacademic hiring is very different from what a Ph.D. is used to, and can be challenging or even infuriating.

Do This While You Diss

Five easy steps you can take in graduate school to prepare for an alt-ac job search.

How Ph.D.s Romanticize the 'Regular' Job Market

Be skeptical of any grass-is-greener hype about your nonacademic career options.

From CV to 1-Page Résumé

What you need to know about preparing cover letters and résumés for nonteaching and nonacademic positions.

Before You Write a Cover Letter for a Nonfaculty Job, Try This Exercise

For Ph.D.s, figuring out how to describe your "transferable skills" is a lot harder than it looks.

Finding Meaning After Academe

It turns out you can no longer do what you love. Now what?

Can I still do research after I leave academe?

A Scholar, but Not a Professor

Leaving academe does not mean you have to give up your intellectual interests.

When Leaving Academe, Which Research Projects Do You Leave Unfinished?

Disentangling from scholarly commitments can seem more difficult than completing them.

Why Everybody Loses When Someone Leaves Academe

As academics, we cope with the loss in ways that largely erase the people who have left, ignore their pain and grief, and suppress our own.

How easy is it for a Ph.D. to find a nonacademic job?

‘So What Are You Going to Do With That?'

Has academe's attitude toward nonacademic careers for Ph.D.s changed much in a decade?

What It's Like to Search for Jobs Outside of Academe

Nonacademic hiring is very different from what a Ph.D. is used to, and can be challenging or even infuriating.

Odds Are, Your Doctorate Will Not Prepare You for a Nonacademic Career

A career transition out of academe is hard, but possible. Just know that employers value specific skills and linear work experience, not academic credentials.

How Ph.D.s Romanticize the ‘Regular’ Job Market

Be skeptical of any grass-is-greener hype about your nonacademic career options.

From Bench Science to ...

A series of Q&As with Ph.D.s in the sciences who left academe to pursue various nonacademic careers.

From Homer to High Tech

My journey from a liberal-arts Ph.D. program to a career in the tech world.

Information Technology: The Accidental Career for Ph.D.s

The question is not whether IT work is suitable, but what kind of IT work is suitable.

From Academe to Market Research

A Ph.D. in the life sciences offers advice on pursuing a nonacademic job.

Turning 'Plan B' Into a 'Plan A' Life

How an ex-doctoral student in history found her niche in a career in academic publishing.

From Ph.D. to Self-Employed Consultant

Going solo in your own communications business directly from academe virtually guarantees failure.

From Biologist to Life Coach

How did a Ph.D. in synthetic biology end up advising people on life and career choices?

Quasi-Academic Careers

A political scientist offers advice for Ph.D.s who are considering careers at foundations and think tanks.

In

Advance Your Institution

Building enrollment. Ensuring student success. Retaining faculty. Avoiding — or managing — a crisis. College leaders face a range of challenges. Here's how to meet them head on.
Student AffairsAcademic AffairsExecutive Leadership
 

Student Affairs

Student success and retentionMental HealthSexual assault
 

Academic Affairs

Faculty hiring and developmentShared governance
 

Executive Leadership

Crisis ManagementTrusteesFund Raising
 

How can we improve student success and retention?

Advice on Advising: How to Mentor Minority Students

"I did not always understand how much labor, thought, and care went into meaningful mentoring, how emotionally draining that work can be, and how little prepared I was for it."

How to Curb Freshman Attrition

In a time of declining enrollments, here is a holistic approach to retention that combines financial support with enhanced advising and earlier identification of struggling students.

How Learning Communities Can Keep Higher Ed’s Most At-Risk Students on Track

A look at how intensive advising and mentoring helps students form strong bonds with one another, and stay focused, too.

How to Help First-Generation Students Succeed

Ten articles explore how colleges can best help first-generation students adjust to the college experience and excel.

Inside the UC System’s New Focus on Transfer Students

The University of California wants to increase diversity, save money, and protect the state from economic downturns. The key? Enabling more community-college students to successfully leap to four-year programs.

New Strategies and Technologies for Advising

The job is becoming more professionalized, holistic, and high tech. But colleges are just beginning to learn how to use new masses of data to help their students thrive.

For Mentorships to Work, Colleges Have to Commit

A professor’s guidance can be life-changing for a student. But good mentoring relationships require sustained resources, rewards, and faculty support.

 

How can we support students' mental health?

How Faculty Advisers Can Be First Responders When Students Need Help

Professors can’t be experts in everything that can go wrong for a student. But they should know how to make referrals to necessary campus resources.

Reading, Writing, and Resilience

In the face of a student mental-health crisis, a few colleges are putting wellness into the curriculum.

Looking to Improve Students’ Mental Health? Ask What They Need

The new world of mental-health services includes food pantries and bus tickets, and involves the entire campus.

Colleges Teach Students How to Think. Should They Also Teach Them How to Thrive?

A surge in anxiety and depression has played a part in persuading colleges to take a more active role in helping students to shape their lives.

Why We Need to Talk More About Mental Health in Graduate School

Doctoral students disproportionately experience anxiety, depression, and other forms of mental illness throughout their training.

Graduate School Should Be Challenging, Not Traumatic

No, students complaining about a toxic adviser aren't just whining about the workload.

 

How can we prevent and deal with sexual assault?

Improving Title IX Panels

Here's how colleges are rethinking the boards that often decide sexual-assault cases.

The Honorable but Thankless Work of Leading Sexual-Assault Investigations

Know that even before you begin a campus inquiry, you have already failed in the eyes of students.

Life Inside the Title IX Pressure Cooker

The administrators who handle sexual-misconduct investigations aren't sticking around for long. That's because they have one of the toughest jobs on campus.

Abusers and Enablers in Faculty Culture

Academia is full of Petruchios looking for their next Kate.

Protecting Due Process in Sexual-Assault Cases on Campus

In her speech about reforming sexual-assault policy, Betsy DeVos offered a way forward that should appeal to fair-minded people across political and cultural divides.

Should We Still Cite the Scholarship of Serial Harassers and Sexists?

The process of building on academic work burnishes the reputations of people whose scholarship may be good but whose characters are awful.

Academic Ethics: What Should We Do With Sexual Harassers in Academe?

Should they be barred permanently from teaching?

Is It Harassment Only if It's Sexual?

How to deal with a senior colleague who has “all the time in the world” when you don’t.

 

How can we hire the best faculty?

The 21st-Century Academic

How an emphasis on diversity, in all its forms, is reshaping faculty roles and academic culture.

How to Keep Faculty Searches on Track

Your college will live with the results for decades, so approach tenure-track hiring methodically and thoughtfully.

Not Just a Job Interview. It’s an Audition

Not sure if your job finalists are a good fit? Bring them to campus as a group and see how they gel with your college’s culture.

Academic Job Hunts From Hell

This series explores all the things that can go wrong for candidates during the faculty job hunt, including fake searches, bad fits, inappropriate questions, and scheduling challenges.

How and Why We Built a Majority-Minority Faculty

Professors tend to replicate themselves, and diverse hiring committees tend to replicate their own diversity.

An Engineering School With Half of Its Leadership Female? How Did That Happen?

In a male-dominated discipline, job candidates who cannot see that the playing field is uneven have no hope of correcting it.

How can we train faculty to be better mentors?

Mentoring the Mentors

What's the difference between an adviser and a mentor? One university has stepped up its training for professors who give students more than just advice.

How Faculty Advisers Can Be First Responders When Students Need Help

Professors can’t be experts in everything that can go wrong for a student. But they should know how to make referrals to necessary campus resources.

How Not to React to Your Pregnant Doctoral Student

In STEM fields, students with an unplanned pregnancy need mentors who will guide rather than dictate the way forward.

Advice on Advising: How to Mentor Minority Students

"I did not always understand how much labor, thought, and care went into meaningful mentoring, how emotionally draining that work can be, and how little prepared I was for it."

Best Practices for Advising Graduate Assistants

Do unto your graduate-student employees as you wish your mentors had done unto you.

To: Professors, Re: Your Advisees

Why am I getting paid to mentor your graduate students? Because someone has to do it.

How can we create a diverse hiring pool?

Getting Minority Ph.D. Students to the Finish Line

To improve retention and help diversify the future professoriate, some colleges embrace formal mentoring programs.

How Search Committees Can See Bias in Themselves

Most hiring panels are designed to represent a diverse mix of people, yet they still bring with them hidden motives.

Hiring a Diversity Officer Is Only the First Step. Here Are the Next 7.

Institutional support at all levels is key to transforming the climate of everyday campus life.

How Serious Are You About Diversity Hiring?

How some colleges are using multistage, anti-bias procedures to shake up the status quo.

How the Opaque Way We Hire Postdocs Contributes to Science's Diversity Problem

Scientists often rely on informal networking to admit doctoral students and hire postdocs. But those methods help keep women and people of color out of the pipeline.

Learning the Ways of The Force

How to help minority students in STEM fields to succeed in graduate school.

How to Do a Better Job of Searching for Diversity

In the often subjective faculty-search process, some colleges are taking new steps to bring a wider spectrum of candidates to the table.

The 21st-Century Academic

How an emphasis on diversity, in all its forms, is reshaping faculty roles and academic culture.

How and Why We Built a Majority-Minority Faculty

Professors tend to replicate themselves, and diverse hiring committees tend to replicate their own diversity.

An Engineering School With Half of Its Leadership Female? How Did That Happen?

In a male-dominated discipline, job candidates who cannot see that the playing field is uneven have no hope of correcting it.

How do we retain faculty?

Want to Keep Your Talented Professors? Sponsor Their Professional Development

When you hired them, you made a great investment. To keep them, help them hone their skills and manage their work-life balance so they don't burn out.

The Top 5 Faculty Morale Killers

A good midlevel manager can make all the difference in determining whether faculty life is satisfying or unbearable.

4 Ideas for Avoiding Faculty Burnout

If we're feeling depressed and anxious, it's near-impossible to do our jobs well in the college classroom.

3 Ways Colleges Can Help Faculty Avoid Burnout

If institutions hope to flourish, it’s in their interest to make sure their faculty flourish, too.

Faculty Orientation Leaves Out a Lot for New Hires

Here are all the things your faculty colleagues don’t tell you when you join the department.

How to Be an Ally to New Minority Scholars

If minority professors are going to be effectively recruited and retained, white faculty members must become more deliberate and effective cross-race mentors.

How do we help faculty improve their teaching?

Helping Professors Find Time to Think

The mission of faculty development has begun to broaden beyond the traditional focus on teaching.

3 Ways Colleges Can Help Faculty Members Avoid Burnout

If institutions hope to flourish, it’s in their interest to make sure their faculty flourish, too.

Does ‘High-Impact’ Teaching Cause High-Impact Fatigue?

"Transformative" teaching is exhausting. Here are some suggestions on how to lessen the load.

How to Make Your Teaching More Engaging

Stimulate your students’ curiosity — and help them learn — using the tried-and-true techniques in this comprehensive guide.

How to Teach a Good First Day of Class

The first day of class is crucial both for your students and for you. This guide will help you make opening day as effective as possible.

How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive

This comprehensive guide offers a road map to make sure your classroom interactions and course design reach all students, not just some of them.

How to Hold a Better Class Discussion

Good discussions involve taking risks, by the students and the professor. This comprehensive guide is filled with tips to help improve yours.

How to Be a Better Online Teacher

Many professors don’t know how to teach online, and may not know how to improve at it. Our comprehensive guide can help.

How to Make Smart Choices About Tech for Your Course

Choosing the right tech tools for your teaching means making strategic choices, weighing costs against payoffs, and staying laser-focused on your course goals — and that is what this guide aims to help you do.

How can we support adjunct faculty?

Colleges Step Up Professional Development for Adjuncts

They make up the vast majority of the faculty, and they teach 40 percent of introductory humanities courses. Student retention and a college's overall success rest largely on their shoulders.

Instead of Gaslighting Adjuncts, We Could Help Them

A Ph.D. who made it to the tenure track after six years as an adjunct describes all that her chair did to help her get there.

Faculty Service and the Difference Between Opportunity and Exploitation

Who and what is served when contingent faculty members do departmental service?

Contingent Faculty and The Lorax's Dilemma

What can tenured and tenure-track faculty members do to improve the lives and careers of adjuncts?

A Letter to Full-Time Faculty

If you can't support adjuncts out of fairness, then support them out of pure self-interest.

What Advantage? A Few Reality Checks for Internal Adjunct Candidates

Five lessons from the experience of applying for the tenure-track version of your previously contingent job.

 

How can I get faculty on board with big decisions?

Tips for Managing Curmudgeons

How to approach faculty members who find your administrative buzzwords insufferable.

A Lesson From UC’s Split With Elsevier: Keep the Faculty in the Loop

A case study of why an institution should share a lot of information with the faculty before making any major decisions.

How to Sell a Curricular Revamp

Describe your vision, build trust, and frankly discuss faculty’s fears, leaders advise.

The Top 5 Faculty Morale Killers

A good midlevel manager can make all the difference in determining whether faculty life is satisfying or unbearable.

Faculty Members Are Not Cashiers

Why the customer-service lingo in academe is bad for students.

Getting Them to Trust You

A good administrator has to earn the faculty's trust. Here's how.

Getting You to Trust Them

A good administrator has to learn to trust the faculty. Here's how.

 

How should we respond to a campus crisis? And can we recover?

Colleges Can Recover From Racial Crisis by Taking a Lesson From Mizzou

The university's 2015 protests drew national attention. A new report details what leaders of the flagship campus and the University of Missouri system have done to further healing and forestall renewed protests.

It's Not What You Say; It's What Google Says

A few truths that administrators need to know about managing communications in a campus crisis.

How to Respond to Racist Incidents

In the short term, affirm your values and mission, experts say. In the long term, work on the cultural antagonisms that fester on every campus.

What Is Your Responsibility as a Bystander to a Colleague’s Problem?

You often have several chances to intervene and shift the dynamics of a situation that is on course to end badly.

How do we respond when an alum becomes controversial?

How Colleges Should Deal With Their Kellyannes

When famous graduates display values that run counter to those of their alma mater, presidents must decide how — or whether — to respond.

How should we handle a student's death on campus?

What to Say After a Student Dies

A faculty guide on how to help during a campus crisis, and how to avoid inflicting more harm.

When a Student Commits Suicide

College emails about someone's death usually involve people I never knew. This one was different.

How can we build public trust?

How to Sway Higher Ed’s Skeptics

Americans doubt that a college education is worth the cost. It's our job to let them know it's the value of a lifetime.

What Is the Future of Town-Gown Relations? These Researchers Think They Know

A new report analyzing 100 urban campuses' partnerships points to a need to repair "broken trust" and build "reciprocal, local relationships" in their communities.

How to Go Public, and Why We Must

A new book seeks to help scholars vault themselves out of the ivory tower and into the wider world.

We Are All Public Intellectuals Now

Dealing online with students, administrators, and trolls is now part of the faculty job.

You Are Not a Public Utility

When strangers seek your expertise, do you have to respond? What if it's a student?

 

How can I educate my board?

Rigorous Trustee Orientation Is Crucial to Good Governance

Board members must understand their responsibilities, and feel connected and engaged, from the start.

Shared Governance Works in Executive Hiring, if We Let It

In hiring senior leaders, "trust the process" is a mantra that many campus groups have trouble following.

How Search Committees Can See Bias in Themselves

Most hiring panels are designed to represent a diverse mix of people, yet they still bring with them hidden motives.

The Best Search Committees

By nature, they are imperfect and varied, but successful ones share some traits.

The Best Executive Job Candidates

Candidates who find it difficult to be transparent are likely in the search for the wrong reasons.

The Diversity Question and the Administrative-Job Interview

What are the best ways to ask and answer questions about race, ethnicity, and inclusion?

Searching Without a Search Firm

If you are running a search without a consultant — and sometimes you should — do it under the right conditions.

Gender in the Job Interview

This essay is not an argument for women to act more like men in the hiring process.

Do We Need a Student on the Search Committee?

Some skeptics say no, but here's why undergraduates deserve a seat at the table.

Sorry, Professors, But Presidential Searches Should be Secret

Asking candidates to risk professional embarrassment and humiliation is cruel and ineffective.

Sorry, Headhunters, but the Healthiest Presidential Searches Are Open

The biggest risk to a campus, a candidate, and a search firm is not a breach of confidentiality in the hiring process, but rather, a failed presidency owing to a bad fit.

A Public Executive Should Get a Public Search

Calls for secret presidential searches should be viewed with skepticism.

 

How can I raise money at my university?

The Chronicle of Philanthropy

For extensive advice and resources on all aspects of managing fund raising in the nonprofit sector, you’ll find no better source of information than our sister publication.

In the Drive for Donors, Regional Public Colleges Have a Lot of Catching Up to Do

After decades of relying on state support, these workhorse institutions often need to build fund-raising operations from scratch. Here's how some California campuses are taking on the challenge.

Public Universities Are Getting Better at Bagging Big Gifts

The institutions see dwindling state support, but donors appear to like their missions.

Don't Fear Fund Raising

The smallest liberal-arts college and the largest state university alike now know they cannot move forward — or even survive — without extensive, focused, and professional fund raising. Thrown into the center of that storm are academic administrators and professors with little or no experience in fund raising. Hence this series.

Too Much Turnover in the Development Office

How can we counter the “dismal and disruptive” pattern of fund raisers changing jobs after two to three years?

 

How should institutions and departments support adjunct faculty?

Colleges Step Up Professional Development for Adjuncts

They make up the vast majority of the faculty, and they teach 40 percent of introductory humanities courses. A college's overall success rests largely on their shoulders.

Instead of Gaslighting Adjuncts, We Could Help Them

A Ph.D. who made it to the tenure track after six years as an adjunct describes all that her chair did to help her get there.

A Letter to Full-Time Faculty

If you can't support adjuncts out of fairness, then support them out of pure self-interest.

Characteristics of Adjunct Faculty

Adjuncts in 2018 were likely to be over age 40, to have a master's as their highest degree, and to teach one or two courses at a single institution. That and other data on contingent faculty members can be found here.

How much service should I do as an adjunct or NTT?

Faculty Service and the Difference Between Opportunity and Exploitation

Who and what is served when contingent faculty members do departmental service?

How to Advocate for Yourself as an Early-Career Scholar

Many academics spend 60 percent of their time on tasks that go unrecognized. Don’t Let that happen to you.

Skip the Department Meeting

It’s not in your interest to attend if you’re a contingent faculty member.

Should I quit adjunct teaching?

What Advantage? A Few Reality Checks for Internal Adjunct Candidates

Five lessons from the experience of applying for the tenure-track version of your previously contingent job.

Leaving the Adjunct Track

No hard feelings but I don't miss academe and I probably won't be back.

How Ph.D.s Romanticize the ‘Regular’ Job Market

Be skeptical of any grass-is-greener hype about your nonacademic career options.

Defending My Grades

The semester was over, but the adjunct instructor wasn’t done working, just done being paid.

How do I tell my adviser I'm quitting academe?

A Ph.D. who made it to the tenure track after six years as an adjunct describes all that her chair did to help her get there.

Breaking the Alt-Ac News

How do you tell your Ph.D. adviser who disdains nonacademic careers that you've accepted a private-sector job?

How to Tell Your Adviser

Ph.D. students’ anxiety over admitting their nonfaculty aspirations may be justified.

The First Steps to a Nonfaculty Job Search

Start by making the most of the Ph.D. alumni panels cropping up across academe.

Knowing When to Say When

You’ve been through several rounds of the academic hiring cycle. Is it time to move on?

Just Another Piece of Quit Lit

Leaving my Ph.D. program turned out to be a smarter decision than applying.

Why Everybody Loses When Someone Leaves Academe

As academics, we cope with the loss in ways that largely erase the people who have left, ignore their pain and grief, and suppress our own.

Why It’s So Hard to Leave Academe

Rational people have good reasons for staying in a system that has failed them.

Finding Meaning After Academe

It turns out you can no longer do what you love. Now what?

How do I prepare for a nonacademic job search?

From CV to 1-Page Résumé

What you need to know about preparing cover letters and résumés for nonteaching and nonacademic positions.

The First Steps to a Nonfaculty Job Search

Start by making the most of the Ph.D. alumni panels cropping up across academe.

How easy is it for a Ph.D. to find a nonacademic job?

It turns out you can no longer do what you love. Now what?

What It's Like to Search for Jobs Outside of Academe

Nonacademic hiring is very different from what a Ph.D. is used to, and can be challenging or even infuriating.

Before You Write a Cover Letter for a Nonfaculty Job, Try This Exercise

For Ph.D.s, figuring out how to describe your "transferable skills" is a lot harder than it looks.

‘So What Are You Going to Do With That?'

Has academe's attitude toward nonacademic careers for Ph.D.'s changed much in a decade?

From Bench Science to ...

A series of Q&As with Ph.D.s in the sciences who left academe to pursue various nonacademic careers.

From Homer to High Tech

My journey from a liberal-arts Ph.D. program to a career in the tech world.

Information Technology: The Accidental Career for Ph.D.s

The question is not whether IT work is suitable, but what kind of IT work is suitable.

From Academe to Market Research

A Ph.D. in the life sciences offers advice on pursuing a nonacademic job

Turning 'Plan B' Into a 'Plan A' Life

How an ex-doctoral student in history found her niche in a career in academic publishing.

From Ph.D. to Self-Employed Consultant

Going solo in your own communications business directly from academe virtually guarantees failure.

From Biologist to Life Coach

How did a Ph.D. in synthetic biology end up advising people on life and career choices?

Quasi-Academic Careers

A political scientist offers advice for Ph.D.'s who are considering careers at foundations and think tanks.

 

How do I tell my adviser I'm quitting academe?

Breaking the Alt-Ac News

How do you tell your Ph.D. adviser who disdains nonacademic careers that you've accepted a private-sector job?

How to Tell Your Adviser

Ph.D. students’ anxiety over admitting their nonfaculty aspirations may be justified.

The First Steps to a Nonfaculty Job Search

Start by making the most of the Ph.D. alumni panels cropping up across academe.

Knowing When to Say When

You’ve been through several rounds of the academic hiring cycle. Is it time to move on?

Why Everybody Loses When Someone Leaves Academe

As academics, we cope with the loss in ways that largely erase the people who have left, ignore their pain and grief, and suppress our own.

Why It’s So Hard to Leave Academe

Rational people have good reasons for staying in a system that has failed them

Finding Meaning After Academe

It turns out you can no longer do what you love. Now what?

How do I prepare for a nonacademic job search?

Do This While You Diss

Five easy steps you can take in graduate school to prepare for an alt-ac job search.

The First Steps to a Nonfaculty Job Search

Start by making the most of the Ph.D. alumni panels cropping up across academe.

From CV to 1-Page Résumé

What you need to know about preparing cover letters and résumés for nonteaching and nonacademic positions.

Finding Meaning After Academe

It turns out you can no longer do what you love. Now what?

Before You Write a Cover Letter for a Nonfaculty Job, Try This Exercise

For Ph.D.s, figuring out how to describe your "transferable skills" is a lot harder than it looks.

How do I decide when to leave academe for another career?

Knowing When to Say When

You’ve been through several rounds of the academic hiring cycle. Is it time to move on?

Just Another Piece of Quit Lit

Leaving my Ph.D. program turned out to be a smarter decision than applying.

Why It’s So Hard to Leave Academe

Rational people have good reasons for staying in a system that has failed them.

Can I still do research after I leave academe?

A Scholar, but Not a Professor

Leaving academe does not mean you have to give up your intellectual interests.

When Leaving Academe, Which Research Projects Do You Leave Unfinished?

For Ph.D.s who opt to pursue nonacademic careers, disentangling from scholarly commitments can seem more difficult than completing them.

Why Everybody Loses When Someone Leaves Academe

Nonacademic hiring is very different from what a Ph.D. is used to, and can be challenging or even infuriating.

How easy is it for a Ph.D. to find a nonacademic job?

What It's Like to Search for Jobs Outside of Academe

Nonacademic hiring is very different from what a Ph.D. is used to, and can be challenging or even infuriating.

Before You Write a Cover Letter for a Nonfaculty Job, Try This Exercise

For Ph.D.s, figuring out how to describe your "transferable skills" is a lot harder than it looks.

‘So What Are You Going to Do With That?'

Has academe's attitude toward nonacademic careers for Ph.D.'s changed much in a decade?

From Bench Science to ...

A series of Q&As with Ph.D.s in the sciences who left academe to pursue various nonacademic careers.

From Homer to High Tech

My journey from a liberal-arts Ph.D. program to a career in the tech world.

Information Technology: The Accidental Career for Ph.D.s

The question is not whether IT work is suitable, but what kind of IT work is suitable.

From Academe to Market Research

A Ph.D. in the life sciences offers advice on pursuing a nonacademic job

Turning 'Plan B' Into a 'Plan A' Life

How an ex-doctoral student in history found her niche in a career in academic publishing.

From Ph.D. to Self-Employed Consultant

Going solo in your own communications business directly from academe virtually guarantees failure.

From Biologist to Life Coach

How did a Ph.D. in synthetic biology end up advising people on life and career choices?

Quasi-Academic Careers

A political scientist offers advice for Ph.D.'s who are considering careers at foundations and think tanks.

 

How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive

This comprehensive guide offers a road map to make sure your classroom interactions and course design reach all students, not just some of them.

The Case for Inclusive Teaching

If we can't recruit additional students, we need to make every effort to keep more of the ones we have.

The Diversity Question and the Administrative-Job Interview

What are the best ways to ask and answer questions about race, ethnicity, and inclusion?

Interviewing While LGBTQ

The questions and issues you should think about on the academic job market.

Colleges Can Recover From Racial Crisis by Taking a Lesson From Mizzou

The university's 2015 protests drew national attention. A 2018 report details what leaders of the flagship campus and the University of Missouri system have done to further healing and forestall renewed protests.

How to Respond to Racist Incidents

In the short term, affirm your values and mission, experts say. In the long term, work on the cultural antagonisms that fester on every campus.

Getting Minority Ph.D. Students to the Finish Line

To improve retention and help diversify the future professoriate, some colleges embrace formal mentoring programs.

How Search Committees Can See Bias in Themselves

Most hiring panels are designed to represent a diverse mix of people, yet they still bring with them hidden motives.

Hiring a Diversity Officer Is Only the First Step. Here Are the Next seven.

Institutional support at all levels is key to transforming the climate of everyday campus life.

How Serious Are You About Diversity Hiring?

Putting principles into practice takes leadership, resources, and commitment. These colleges are using multistage anti-bias procedures to shake up the status quo.

How to Do a Better Job of Searching for Diversity

In the often subjective faculty-search process, some colleges are taking new steps to bring a wider spectrum of candidates to the table.

How and Why We Built a Majority-Minority Faculty

Professors tend to replicate themselves, and diverse hiring committees tend to replicate their own diversity.

Advice on Advising: How to Mentor Minority Students

"I did not always understand how much labor, thought, and care went into meaningful mentoring, how emotionally draining that work can be, and how little prepared I was for it."

 

How can we deal with enrollment declines?

The Great Enrollment Crash

Students aren’t showing up. And it’s only going to get worse.

Where Did All the Students Go?

Five views on the great enrollment crash of 2019.

How can we improve student success and retention?

How to Curb Freshman Attrition

At a time of declining enrollments and shrinking high-school classes, you can’t afford to lose a third of your first-year class. Here is a series of three articles on a holistic approach to student retention.

Customer Service is Misguided in the Classroom But Crucial in Advising

How a former faculty member came around to the importance of serving his undergraduate "clients."

How Learning Communities Can Keep Higher Ed’s Most At-Risk Students on Track

Close-knit academic networks form strong bonds among students. A mix of intensive advising and mentoring helps them stay focused, too.

How to Help First-Generation Students Succeed

This series of 10 articles examines a wide array of campus strategies to help first-generation students adjust to the college experience, and excel.

Advice on Advising: How to Mentor Minority Students

"I did not always understand how much labor, thought, and care went into meaningful mentoring, how emotionally draining that work can be, and how little prepared I was for it."

Inside the UC System’s New Focus on Transfer Students

The University of California wanted to increase diversity, save money, and protect the state from economic downturns. The key? Enabling more community-college students to successfully leap to four-year programs.

New Strategies and Technologies for Advising

A series of four articles explores how advising is becoming more professionalized and high tech. But colleges are just beginning to learn how to use new masses of data to help their students thrive.

For Mentorships to Work, Colleges Have to Commit

Professors' guidance can be life-changing for students, but the relationships require sustained resources, rewards, and support for the faculty members participating.

 

How should I prepare for a campus interview?

7 Hazards of the Campus Interview

How to handle inappropriate questions, random comments, and offers of alcohol.

Showing Your Best Self in the Campus Interview

The person you present during your two-day visit is the person the search committee will assume you to be.

How to Give an Excellent STEM Job Talk

The job talk during a campus interview is where you can really shine — or very publicly fail.

The Art of the Campus Interview

It's not a good sign when the search committee is more interested in snapping food pics than in chatting with you.

The First-Round Interview Versus the Campus Visit

You’ve already interviewed with the whole search committee in Round 1. Why do you have to repeat that exercise in Round 2?

Interviewing While LGBTQ

The questions and issues you should think about on the academic job market.

What to Expect at a Community-College Interview

Ph.D.s applying to teach at two-year campuses will encounter a very different sort of job interview.

How to Lower the Stakes of the Job-Interview Dinner

When hiring committees take job candidates out to eat, cultural anxiety is often on the table, too.

The Diversity Question and the Administrative-Job Interview

What are the best ways to ask and answer questions about race, ethnicity, and inclusion?

The Job Market: The Campus Interview

The person you present during your two-day visit is the person the search committee will assume you to be.

Are the horror stories about job searching true?

Academic Job Hunts From Hell

This series explores all the things that can go wrong for candidates during the faculty job hunt, including fake searches, bad fits, inappropriate questions, and scheduling challenges.

5 Big-Picture Mistakes New Ph.D.s Make on the Job Market

All sorts of magical thinking can distort the realities of the tenure-track job hunt.

How Not to Blow a Job Interview.

It's all too easy to find yourself out of the running thanks to an ill-considered response.

I Found a Tenure-Track Job. Here’s What it Took.

Two hiring seasons, and 112 applications.

I Found a Tenure-Track Job, Part 2: The Big Picture.

My experience on the market was just one data point, not a complete description of a highly stochastic process.

Warning Signs That You and Your Campus Are a Bad Fit

Should you think about going back on the faculty job market?

The Odds Are Never in Your Favor

Why the academic job market is like the Hunger Games.

Some Lesser-Known Truths about Academe

They warn you about the job market but not necessarily all the other ways in which you might not fit faculty life.

‘Operation Keep My Job’

What to do when your third-year review leaves you on shaky ground.

Do I have to ‘network’ (ugh!) to advance my career?

Banish the Smarm

Effective networking isn't slimy -- it's sincere, deep, and generous.

How to Talk to Famous Professors

A cheat sheet for making a potential contact without gushing or embarrassing yourself.

How to Create and Keep a Useful Network

On why you need to maintain and prune your network of contacts.

How Do I Create a Professional Network?

Networking is a game of numbers. The more you reach out, the more likely you'll make a strong contact.

Forget Mentors -- What We Really Need Are Fans

Not the obsessive type, but the kind whose support shows your work has reached people.

Why I Love Academic Conferences

How to get the most out of your field's annual meeting.

How do I change jobs gracefully?

The Good Goodbye

A primer on post-hire etiquette for faculty members who are changing jobs.

The Good Hello

A primer on post-hire etiquette once you’re started at your new position.

How to Start Off Right in Your New Job

If you're beginning a new faculty post in the fall, summer is the time to start preparing for what's coming.

What to Expect in Your First Semester at a Community College

As a new full-time faculty member at a two-year college, your first year on the job is often your most difficult.

How to Develop a TSC (Trusted Senior Colleague)

Your first priority as a new faculty member should be to find the right allies.

The Etiquette of Accepting a Job Offer

How to get to 'yes' efficiently and amicably.

How can I tell if the department and I are a good fit?

Do You Fit Us?

The hiring department is looking for a person, not just a CV.

Detecting a Bad Fit

How do you recognize when a department with a job opening is not the place for you?

Warning Signs That You and Your Campus Are a Bad Fit

Is it time to go back on the faculty job market?

Research First or Teaching?

How to tell if a hiring department is more interested in your scholarship or your pedagogy.

Academic Job Hunts From Hell

A series of essays on all the things that can go wrong for candidates during the faculty job hunt, including fake searches, bad fits, inappropriate questions, and scheduling challenges.

How do I move up in administration?

Do You Really Want That Interim Job?

A temporary leadership gig can elevate your career prospects, or sink them entirely.

Administration Was a Definite No, Until it Became a Yes

A professor who had always resisted the call takes his first steps on the administrative path.

To Chair or Not to Chair?

Whether to lead your department is a question that every faculty member must answer. Here are some factors to help you make the call.

How to Be Both a Professor and a Dean

Administrators who hold on to their faculty roots will benefit both themselves and their institutions.

They Don't Train Us for This

13 lessons I wish someone had taught me before I became an academic administrator.

So You Want to Be a Dean?

You’d better be skilled at risk management and compromise.

Admin 101: Deciding to Lead

Four key questions to ask yourself (and your family).

Now You’re in Charge

10 things you should know about becoming an administrator.

Faculty Members Can Lead, but Will They?

Academe needs a new breed of professors who will not nurture antipathy for leadership.

How Nontraditional Presidents Can Adjust and Thrive

Academe is a very different culture than business, government, or NGOs. But careful listening and good guidance from senior cabinet members can help a new leader acclimatize to shared governance and establish a good working relationship with faculty.

Every Sin Is a Public Sin

What if you couldn't get a job because of that thing -- that stupid thing from so long ago?

 

How do I avoid burnout in the classroom?

4 Ideas for Avoiding Faculty Burnout

If we're feeling depressed and anxious, it's near-impossible to do our jobs well in the college classroom.

3 Ways Colleges Can Help Faculty Members Avoid Burnout

If institutions hope to flourish, it’s in their interest to make sure their faculty flourish, too.

How to Overcome Impostor Syndrome

Scholars of all ages wrestle with feelings of "intellectual phoniness." So how do you get over it?

You Are Not a Public Utility

When strangers seek your expertise, do you have to respond? What if it's a student?

Does 'High-Impact' Teaching Cause High-Impact Fatigue?

"Transformative" teaching is exhausting. Here are some suggestions on how to lessen the load.

How to Escape Grading Jail

In the end-of-the-semester crush, our students don’t do their best work in all-night cram sessions, and neither do we.

How Can You Make Big Classes Feel Smaller?

Emails, sent at key moments during the semester, are one strategy for helping personalize the large lecture.

Why I Collapsed on the Job

Academics are silent workaholics — so free to work whenever we want that many of us end up working all the time.

How to Prepare for Class Without Overpreparing

Let go of the fantasy that you must use every minute of a strictly planned class schedule to introduce, explain, clarify, and cover.

How do I avoid post-tenure depression?

Preventing Post-Tenure Malaise

A faculty career can last 30 or 40 years. That's a long time to be plagued with self-doubts.

Avoiding PTDS: Post-Tenure Depression Syndrome

Why are the years after academics have ‘made it’ so gloomy for so many?

Me and My Shadow CV

What would my vita look like if it recorded not just the successes of my professional life but also the many, many rejections.

How to Overcome Impostor Syndrome

Scholars of all ages wrestle with feelings of "intellectual phoniness." So how do you get over it?

Our Fixation on Midcareer Malaise

We need to stop focusing on deadwood tales and overlooking the post-tenure success stories.

On Faculty and Mental Illness

Finally, academe has a guide for how to better treat its psychiatrically disabled workers.

How do I cope with the stress of academic science?

What Is the Going Rate for Tenure Nowadays?

The careers of promising scientists are in peril, amid intense pressure to bring in a big grant.

The Bittersweet Task of Running a Grant Program

From drafting the call for proposals to announcing the results, here's what you need to know.

Rethinking the Scientific Career

A career in science should be a long and winding adventure, not an uphill slog.

'Good' Hard vs. 'Bad' Hard

Which type of research challenges are you experiencing?

Working With Jerks

In science, tenured or not, sometimes you don't have a choice about who you collaborate with.

I Found a Tenure-Track Job. Here’s What it Took.

Two hiring seasons and 112 applications.

I Found a Tenure-Track Job, Part 2: The Big Picture.

My experience on the market was just one data point, not a complete description of a highly stochastic process.

How can we support students' mental health?

How to Help a Student in a Mental-Health Crisis

You're a faculty member, not a trained counselor. But you can play a significant role in guiding a struggling student.

How Faculty Advisers Can Be First Responders When Students Need Help

Professors can't be experts in everything that can go wrong for a student. But they should know how to make referrals to necessary campus resources.

Reading, Writing, and Resilience

In the face of a student mental-health crisis, a few colleges are putting wellness into the curriculum.

Looking to Improve Students’ Mental Health? Ask What They Need

The new world of mental-health services includes food pantries and bus tickets, and involves the entire campus.

Colleges Teach Students How to Think. Should They Also Teach Them How to Thrive?

Colleges Teach Students How to Think. Should They Also Teach Them How to Thrive?

How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive

This comprehensive guide offers a road map to make sure your classroom interactions and course design reach all students, not just some of them.

Why We Need to Talk More About Mental Health in Graduate School

Doctoral students disproportionately experience anxiety, depression, and other forms of mental illness throughout their training.

How to Hope in Graduate School

As doctoral students, we privately struggle with anxieties that turn out to be commonly shared.

Graduate School Should Be Challenging, Not Traumatic

No, students complaining about a toxic adviser aren't just whining about the workload.

 

How do I get salary data for administrative jobs?

The Profession: Almanac 2018

Learn how much professors, administrators, and chief executives are paid in different sectors, how diverse those groups are, and what percentage of faculty members lack tenure.

How do I find other faculty salaries?

Chronicle Data

Search and explore faculty, staff, and adjunct salary data at thousands of colleges.

The Profession: Almanac 2018

Learn how much professors, administrators, and chief executives are paid in different sectors, how diverse those groups are, and what percentage of faculty members lack tenure. Explore the tables and charts in this section.

3 Things a Faculty-Pay Survey Shows About Academic Jobs

A look at the annual faculty-compensation report of the American Association of University Professors.

Should I negotiate?

OK, Let’s Talk About Negotiating Salary

Don’t panic: It’s overwhelmingly unlikely that asking for more money will get your offer rescinded. Still, it’s important to go about this the right way.

Why You Should Negotiate Every Job Offer

Ask your potential department for what you deserve (within reason), whether or not you have the leverage of a second job offer.

Did They Lowball Me?

I didn’t negotiate my starting salary. Is it too late to try now?

Negotiation 101

Advice from eight academics on how to negotiate a faculty job offer.

Do I need a counteroffer to get a pay raise?

Why You Should Negotiate Every Job Offer

Ask your potential department for what you deserve (within reason), whether or not you have the leverage of a second job offer.

Offers and Counteroffers

Do you have to leave if your university declines to give you a counteroffer?

Midcareer Negotiating

You've got an outside offer, so how do you go about negotiating the counteroffer from your university?

How do I make outside money as a faculty member?

How to Get Started in Freelance Writing

If writing for general magazines and web sites is something you really want to do in graduate school or after, prioritize it.

The Tenured Entrepreneur

Haven’t gotten a raise in several years? It’s time to peddle your skills on the open market.

How to Make Money From Speaking Engagements

For academics, the real money is in speaking engagements. Here’s how to procure them.

 

How can we improve student success and retention?

How to Curb Freshman Attrition

At a time of declining enrollments and shrinking high-school classes, you can’t afford to lose a third of your first-year class. Here is a series of three articles on a holistic approach to student retention.

Customer Service is Misguided in the Classroom But Crucial in Advising

How a former faculty member came around to the importance of serving his undergraduate "clients."

How Learning Communities Can Keep Higher Ed’s Most At-Risk Students on Track

Close-knit academic networks form strong bonds among students. A mix of intensive advising and mentoring helps them stay focused, too.

How to Help First-Generation Students Succeed

This series of 10 articles examines a wide array of campus strategies to help first-generation students adjust to the college experience, and excel.

Advice on Advising: How to Mentor Minority Students

"I did not always understand how much labor, thought, and care went into meaningful mentoring, how emotionally draining that work can be, and how little prepared I was for it."

Inside the UC System’s New Focus on Transfer Students

The University of California wanted to increase diversity, save money, and protect the state from economic downturns. The key? Enabling more community-college students to successfully leap to four-year programs.

New Strategies and Technologies for Advising

A series of four articles explores how advising is becoming more professionalized and high tech. But colleges are just beginning to learn how to use new masses of data to help their students thrive.

For Mentorships to Work, Colleges Have to Commit

Professors' guidance can be life-changing for students, but the relationships require sustained resources, rewards, and support for the faculty members participating.

How can we support students' mental health?

How Faculty Advisers Can Be First Responders When Students Need Help

Professors can't be experts in everything that can go wrong for a student. But they should know how to make referrals to necessary campus resources.

Reading, Writing, and Resilience

In the face of a student mental-health crisis, a few colleges are putting wellness into the curriculum.

Looking to Improve Students’ Mental Health? Ask What They Need

The new world of mental-health services includes food pantries and bus tickets, and involves the entire campus.

How to Help a Student in a Mental-Health Crisis

You're a faculty member, not a trained counselor. But you can play a significant role in guiding a struggling student.

Colleges Teach Students How to Think. Should They Also Teach Them How to Thrive?

Colleges Teach Students How to Think. Should They Also Teach Them How to Thrive?

How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive

This comprehensive guide offers a road map to make sure your classroom interactions and course design reach all students, not just some of them.

Why We Need to Talk More About Mental Health in Graduate School

Doctoral students disproportionately experience anxiety, depression, and other forms of mental illness throughout their training.

How to Hope in Graduate School

As doctoral students, we privately struggle with anxieties that turn out to be commonly shared.

Graduate School Should Be Challenging, Not Traumatic

No, students complaining about a toxic adviser aren't just whining about the workload.

 

How do I create a syllabus?

How to Create a Syllabus

There’s never a bad time to re-examine and rethink how to write your syllabus. This guide walks you through everything you need to know, with specific tips and strategies, to craft an effective syllabus.

How do I improve my teaching?

How to Prepare for a Teaching Career

In between finishing your dissertation, here's what you should be doing to enhance your candidacy.

Small Changes in Teaching

How simple changes in pedagogy — in things like course design, classroom practices, and communication with students — can have a powerful impact on student learning.

How to Prepare for Class Without Overpreparing

Let go of the fantasy that you must use every minute of a strictly planned class schedule to introduce, explain, clarify, and cover.

How to Make Your Teaching More Engaging

Stimulate your students’ curiosity — and help them learn — using the tried-and-true techniques in this comprehensive guide.

How to Teach a Good First Day of Class

The first day of class is crucial both for your students and for you. This guide will help you make opening day as effective as possible.

How Peer Instruction And Polling Have Changed My Teaching

Here’s why I gave peer instruction and polling a try, and why you might consider it, too.

How to Hold a Better Class Discussion

Good discussions involve taking risks, by the students and the professor. This comprehensive guide is filled with tips to help improve yours.

How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive

This comprehensive guide offers a road map to make sure your classroom interactions and course design reach all students, not just some of them.

The Case for Inclusive Teaching

If we can't recruit additional students, we need to make every effort to keep more of the ones we have.

The ‘Holy Grail’ of Class Discussion

Why faculty members should come up with more ambitious goals for class discussion than just getting students to talk.

Advice on Advising: How to Mentor Minority Students

"I did not always understand how much labor, thought, and care went into meaningful mentoring, how emotionally draining that work can be, and how little prepared I was for it."

To: Professors, Re: Your Advisees

Why am I getting paid to mentor your graduate students? Because someone has to do it.

How do I engage my students in class more effectively?

How to Make Your Teaching More Engaging

Stimulate your students’ curiosity — and help them learn — using the tried-and-true techniques in this comprehensive guide.

Getting Beyond Brain Games

A new book looks at how to apply the science of learning to college teaching.

How Students Learn From Games

How can professors use simulation games in the classroom.

And on the Last Day of Class, We'll Play Games

Why I decided to ditch the blue books for an "epic" final exam.

How Peer Instruction And Polling Have Changed My Teaching

Here’s why I gave peer instruction and polling a try, and why you might consider it, too.

How to Hold a Better Class Discussion

Good discussions involve taking risks, by the students and the professor. This comprehensive guide is filled with tips to help improve yours.

How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive

This comprehensive guide offers a road map to make sure your classroom interactions and course design reach all students, not just some of them.

How to Make Smart Choices About Tech for Your Course

Choosing the right tech tools for your teaching means making strategic choices, weighing costs against payoffs, and staying laser-focused on your course goals — and that is what this guide aims to help you do.

Tell Me a Smart Story: On Podcasts, Videos, and Websites as Writing

Letting students "write" in nontraditional formats has the potential to have a major impact on our classrooms.

How can I be a better online teacher?

How to Be a Better Online Teacher

Many professors don’t know how to teach online, and may not know how to improve at it. Our comprehensive guide can help.

How to Make Smart Choices About Tech for Your Course

Choosing the right tech tools for your teaching means making strategic choices, weighing costs against payoffs, and staying laser-focused on your course goals — and that is what this guide aims to help you do.

Tell Me a Smart Story: On Podcasts, Videos, and Websites as Writing

Letting students "write" in nontraditional formats has the potential to have a major impact on our classrooms.

Teaching Online Will Make You a Better Teacher in Any Setting

Adapting a course for a digital environment forces you to ask yourself why you're doing a particular pedagogical thing — and then to rethink it.

Why I Teach Online

It turns out that online instruction is a feminist issue.

7 Steps to Better Online Teaching

What one instructor learned from YouTube, and other strategies that helped her better motivate her students.

Faculty Members Can Build Relationships With Online Students. Here’s How.

Learning that you can bring a personal touch to the virtual classroom just might make you a convert.

How do I figure out my teaching persona?

I Don't Like Teaching. There, I Said It.

It's perfectly possible to dislike teaching and still do a good, even an excellent, job in the classroom.

Stop Blaming Students for Your Listless Classroom

How the use of games as a teaching methodology has the potential to break the long history of student disengagement in college learning.

Don't Be Hard to Get Along With

Why do faculty members insist on rigid rules to prepare students for the "real" world when that world is characterized by accomodation?

Be Hard to Get Along With

Growing problems of classroom decorum mean faculty members have to get tough or sacrifice learning for all students.

How to Help a Student in a Mental-Health Crisis

You're a faculty member, not a trained counselor. But you can play a significant role in guiding a struggling student.

Sar-Chasm in the Classroom

I do my best to avoid snarky rejoinders when I’m teaching yet they pop out uninvited.

How do I avoid burnout in the classroom?

4 Ideas for Avoiding Faculty Burnout

If we're feeling depressed and anxious, it's near-impossible to do our jobs well in the college classroom.

3 Ways Colleges Can Help Faculty Members Avoid Burnout

If institutions hope to flourish, it’s in their interest to make sure their faculty flourish, too.

How to Prepare for Class Without Overpreparing

Let go of the fantasy that you must use every minute of a strictly planned class schedule to introduce, explain, clarify, and cover.

You Are Not a Public Utility

When strangers seek your expertise, do you have to respond? What if it's a student?

Does 'High-Impact' Teaching Cause High-Impact Fatigue?

"Transformative" teaching is exhausting. Here are some suggestions on how to lessen the load.

Why I Collapsed on the Job

Academics are silent workaholics — so free to work whenever we want that many of us end up working all the time.

How Can You Make Big Classes Feel Smaller?

How Can You Make Big Classes Feel Smaller?

Emails, sent at key moments during the semester, are one strategy for helping personalize the large lecture.

What do I need to know about grading?

How to Escape Grading Jail

In the end-of-the-semester crush, our students don’t do their best work in all-night cram sessions, and neither do we.

Final Exams Versus Epic Finales

Instead of a multiple-choice test, try ending the semester with one, last memorable learning experience.

‘How Much Do You Want Your Final to Count?’

An economics professor devises a way to allow a class of 200 more choice over how they are graded.

Why I’m Easy: On Giving Lots of A’s

The importance of encouraging students, weighed down by preprofessional courses, to take a class for — dare I say it? — pleasure.

Why Grades Still Matter

High standards coupled with high expectations — including encouragement, not derision — create real student success.

What Is the Purpose of Final Exams, Anyway?

It's not just about inflicting one more test before the semester ends. There are ways to make it meaningful.

The Extra-Credit Question: Should You Offer It or Resist?

It's that time of the semester when students start to wonder what they can do to boost their final grades.

Defending My Grades

The semester was over, but the adjunct instructor wasn’t done working, just done being paid.

I’m Not Ready to Quit Grading

But I am ready to ask students to do more self-assessments, and to give their "grading" as much weight as mine.

 

How do I decide what goes into my tenure file?

10 Things No One Told Me About Applying for Tenure

A tenure file forces you to confront who you are, what you've done, and who you want to become.

The Professor Is In: 4 Steps to a Strong Tenure File

Too many tenure narratives veer wildly between paroxysms of grandiosity and groveling insecurity.

How to Be Strategic on the Tenure Track

It's difficult to resist the pressure to overwork since that is often the only path to tenure.

How to Overcome Impostor Syndrome

Scholars of all ages wrestle with feelings of "intellectual phoniness." So how do you get over it?

Presenting Your Tenure File

The best thing you can do for your tenure packet is make it as impressive in design as in content.

What can I do if I get a bad third-year review?

‘Operation Keep My Job’

What to do when your third-year review leaves you on shaky ground.

Me and My Shadow CV

What would my vita look like if it recorded not just the successes of my professional life but also the many, many rejections.

Publishing Isn’t Just About Volume; It’s Also About Strategy

Few benchmarks for tenure are more important than getting that first book contract if you are in a book field at a research university.

Service With a Smile

How to do enough, but not too much, institutional service on the tenure track.

To: Professors, Re: Your Advisees

Why am I getting paid to mentor your graduate students? Because someone has to do it.

You Are Not a Public Utility

When strangers seek your expertise, do you have to respond? What if it's a student?

How do I avoid stalling at midcareer?

Terminal Associate Professors, Past and Present

Why do some academics stall at midcareer?

Preventing Post-Tenure Malaise

A faculty career can last 30 or 40 years. That's a long time to be plagued with self-doubts.

Me and My Shadow CV

What would my vita look like if it recorded not just the successes of my professional life but also the many, many rejections.

How to Overcome Impostor Syndrome

Scholars of all ages wrestle with feelings of "intellectual phoniness." So how do you get over it?

Our Fixation on Midcareer Malaise

We need to stop focusing on deadwood tales and overlooking the post-tenure success stories.

You Might Not Be Ready for Promotion

People often overestimate their accomplishments, and associate professors are no exception.

I Did Not Slow Down Once I Got Tenure

And I don't know many faculty members who did.

Ambivalence About Midcareer Moves

For tenured professors, the possibility of changing departments triggers uncertainties that are not always easy or possible to resolve.

You Are Not a Public Utility

When strangers seek your expertise, do you have to respond? What if it's a student?

Should I have a baby before tenure?

The Baby-Before-Tenure Question

Balancing an academic career with the realities of a biological clock.

I Don’t Regret Not Having Kids, and I Don’t Resent Yours, Either

A “childfree" academic mulls the delicate kid issue in the context of teaching, tenure, and faculty life.

No I Am Not Pregnant

Why women in academe feel our bodies are “always under watch.”

Coming Out as Academic Mothers

What happens when two highly driven women in academe decide to have children?

Academic Science Isn't Friendly to Fathers, Either

Male academic scientists are finding it extremely hard to negotiate their work and family lives, too.

Should You Have a Baby in Graduate School?

The decision belongs to you, not the chair of your dissertation committee.

The Perfect Academic Baby

There’s no such thing, of course, but my university certainly could have made my own pregnancy less fraught.

Are Children Career Killers?

Kids don’t spell the end of their mothers’ academic aspirations. All too often, persistent bias does.

How do I avoid post-tenure depression?

Preventing Post-Tenure Malaise

A faculty career can last 30 or 40 years. That's a long time to be plagued with self-doubts.

Avoiding PTDS: Post-Tenure Depression Syndrome

Why are the years after academics have “made it” so gloomy for so many?

How to Overcome Impostor Syndrome

Scholars of all ages wrestle with feelings of "intellectual phoniness." So how do you get over it?

Our Fixation on Midcareer Malaise

We need to stop focusing on deadwood tales and overlooking the post-tenure success stories.

You Are Not a Public Utility

When strangers seek your expertise, do you have to respond? What if it's a student?

How do I decide when to retire?

Leaving the Academic Stage

Should I be thinking about making room for a younger generation of scholars?

Dignity in Retirement Is Not Too Much to Ask

How can we reinvent faculty retirement to benefit all parties?

Adjusting to Civilian Life

Just because people keep asking about your plans for retirement doesn’t mean you actually have to have one.

Why I Stopped Teaching and Don't Miss It

It turns out that what a retired professor loves most about academe is not leading a classroom but learning.

Annals of Retirement

How did I find the time to go to work?

After 40 years Changing My Academic Major

A former university president has retired — but only from the chief executive's office.

Giving Up Tenure? Who Does That?

As it turns out, quite a few professors leave academe for new careers.

 

How can we prevent and deal with sexual assault?

Improving Title IX Panels

Colleges continue to look for ways to make their Title IX hearings fairer. Here's how institutions are rethinking the boards that often decide sexual-assault cases.

Life Inside the Title IX Pressure Cooker

The administrators who handle sexual-misconduct investigations aren't sticking around for long. That's because they have one of the toughest jobs on campus.

How a 'Defunct' Title IX Office and a Culture of Hypermasculinity Fueled a Sexual-Misconduct Problem at Morehouse College

Six Title IX coordinators have worked at the college in the past three academic years. One lasted only a month.

The Honorable but Thankless Work of Leading Sexual-Assault Investigations

Know that even before you begin a campus inquiry, you have already failed in the eyes of students.

Abusers and Enablers in Faculty Culture

Academia is full of Petruchios looking for their next Kate.

Protecting Due Process in Sexual-Assault Cases on Campus

In her speech about reforming sexual-assault policy, Betsy DeVos offered a way forward that should appeal to fair-minded people across political and cultural divides.

Academic Ethics: What Should We Do With Sexual Harassers in Academe?

Should they be barred permanently from teaching?

Is It Harassment Only if It's Sexual?

How to deal with a senior colleague who has 'all the time in the world' when you don’t.

 

How can I improve my writing?

Scholars Talk Writing

Q&As with Steven Pinker, Laura Kipnis, Jay Parini, Camille Paglia, James M. McPherson, Deirdre McCloskey, and many other scholars talking about their writing process and influences.

Are You Writing?

Advice for graduate students and faculty members on scholarly productivity, with suggestions on how to write more — and better — with less angst.

10 Tips on How to Write Less Badly

Fortunately, the standards of writing in most disciplines are so low that you don't need to write well.

The Art and Science of Finding Your Voice

Advice on how to kickstart the process of finding your writerly voice.

Lessons on the Craft of Scholarly Reading

Yes, you know how to read. But do you know how to read scholarship effectively?

What do I need to know about publishing?

Crafting a Convincing Book Proposal

What to consider as you attempt to persuade book editors to give you a contract.

Why You Need to Create an ‘Author Platform’

If you want people to read your book, you’re going to have to do some of the work of promoting it.

How to Craft a Pitch

Six tips to help you draft a pitch for editors and publishers.

Things You Should Know Before Publishing a Book

“You can probably make more money having a first-class yard sale.”

Some Things I Know About Getting Published

Seek out criticism, be nice to assistants, and other publishing lessons.

Write a Book and Become an Employee of Your Former Self

Publishers are using content-driven approaches to connect readers directly with authors.

Dear First Time Author

How to turn your dissertation into your first book.

How to Arrange Your Own Academic Book Tour

Your publisher is unlikely to set up a tour for you. Here’s how one pair of professors did it.

What should I expect during the revise-and-resubmit process?

Coping With Criticism from Manuscript Readers

Negative feedback hurts. The trick is learning to take it in stride.

How to Decipher Reviewer Comments

Making sense of hortatory comments from manuscript readers.

Techniques for Easier and Faster Revisions

How to proceed when reviewers disagree, and other advice.

The 3 Types of Peer Reviewers

Dealing with manuscript reviewers is, by far, the least rewarding and most difficult part of my faculty job.

Why You Gotta Be So Mean?

Too many journal reviewers are needlessly nasty, and critical without being constructive.

How do I cope with writer's block?

How to Cope With Multiple-Project Paralysis

What to do when a writing commitment, made with good intentions, is now standing in your way.

Code-Switching to Improve Your Writing and Productivity

What are the benefits of working on multiple projects in different genres at once?

6 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block

It's not a question of whether you will get stuck, but of what to do when it happens.

The Habits of Highly Productive Writers

There are no tricks to make writing easier, just practices you can develop to get it done.

OK I Admit It: Productivity Is Overrated

Sometimes it's OK to be lazy.

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