Council of colleges of arts & sciences - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Council of colleges of arts & sciences

45th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LouisianaNovember 10-13, 2010Session VWorking with Dual-Career Academic Couples: Opportunities, Challenges, and SolutionsSlide2

Orienting Questions

Should institutions allow dual hires?General policy or handle cases on ad hoc basis?Slide3

Orienting Questions

Who is responsible for developing policy?Does one size fit all Colleges/Departments?Slide4

Academic Couples Sharing an Academic Home: Who Takes Out the Trash?Alisa WhiteSlide5
The Good

Establishing ground rulesMaintaining professional courtesyKeeping confidencesActing independentlyWorking toward power paritySlide6
The Bad

The opposite of the good: breaking confidences, acting as one person, being discourteous, and one partner riding on the work or reputation of the otherThe department members judging one partner by the otherSlide7
The Ugly

Breaking up—Case StudiesWhen one partner doesn’t get tenure and the other doesWhen one partner is let go before going up for tenureSlide8

“Dual career network” at eastern Illinois universityGodson C. ObiaEastern Illinois UniversitySlide9

WHAT THE NETWORK PROVIDESExpeditious consideration for Eastern faculty and administrative vacancies. Expeditious consideration for employment with cooperating area employers.

Introduction to local groups to assist in networking attempts.Current information about local employment markets and demographics.Slide10

RESULTS (College of Sciences)

COUPLESDEPARTMENTS

A

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

B

MATHEMATICS/COMPUTER SCIENCE

C

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

LIBRARY

D

CHEMISTRY

COLLEGE OFFICE

E

PSYCHOLOGY

ACADEMIC TECHNOLOGY

F

POLITICAL SCIENCE

G

SOCIOLOGY/ANTHROPOLOGY

HUMAN RESOURCES

H

CHEMISTRY

I

CHEMISTRYSlide11

CHALLENGES In a small university town, there are few employment opportunities for two career couples; thus, if one party fails to get employment, the couple might choose to relocate elsewhere.

Without clear policy guidelines, there is no obligation to do anything. When the couple works in one department and one spouse is chair, there is concern that confidential matters might be shared with the other spouse, albeit inadvertently. People assume that you are the same person (e.g. communicate through one spouse to convey something to the other). You do not get credit for your collaborations as much as if you were collaborating with someone else in your Department. People often think one spouse is "coat-tailing" the other.  This often starts from the original hiring (e.g. there probably were not 2 positions initially).Slide12

More Challenges You cannot serve on the same committees due to perceived conflicts of interest.

People assume you have the same opinion on any subject (controversial or not). You may not get as many resources initially (e.g. start-up) or later on. We have noticed both here and other places that we never both get University internal grants in the same semester. There is suspicion from other faculty that you have been given "special privileges" that stem from your initial hire. The one spouse who is seen as the "coat-tailer" is constantly trying to prove themselves, or at least has been put into a position to do so.

We will never both be able to be in a position of "power" in the Department, so Jim will be limited in his potential to advance - e.g. he would have liked to have been EVB coordinatorSlide13

The dual hiring of a couple in the same department (Case Study)Pat MostoDeanRider UniversitySlide14

Research suggests that faculty are increasingly having academic partnersResearch suggests that faculty choose an institution based on the availability of an academic job for their partnersDual-career couples have emerged as a critical recruitment and retention toolSharing the workplace is an important part of work/life balance for academic partners

IntroductionSlide15

Compiled data from two institutions (Rider University and Rowan University)

DataSlide16

I hired Drs. Cornn and Miglito as a dual hire and took it upon myself to mentor themSearch challenge: the two best applicants in the pool were married and we had only one positionWe hired one as permanent faculty, and negotiated to hire the second in a temporary position

Brief historical backgroundSlide17

It helped the department to hire better quality candidatesIt provided a good signal for other faculty about the department commitment to family issuesBenefits for the DepartmentSlide18

Life dedicationParticipation and integration into the communityInvestment and participation in University eventsBenefits to the UniversitySlide19

Understand the constraints and demands of each other’s academic jobExperience greater satisfactionEasier to balance work and family responsibilities Benefits for the coupleSlide20

Colleagues feared that they may vote as a single voiceColleagues concern that the couple might bring home issues to the workplaceColleagues uneasiness to talk about personal problems due to sharing of information Colleagues concerns that marital issues could affect the environment of the department

Challenges for the DepartmentSlide21

Negotiate how the benefits for one compares with the benefits for bothInsure that the “trailing spouse” felt equally respectedConcerns that their home life could be overwhelmed by work issues

Challenges for the coupleSlide22

Feel limited about being friends with other colleagues, issues of trustRestricted from participation as a department member in the P&T case of the spouse Currently, they are dealing with one of them becoming the department chairChallenges for the coupleSlide23

General Discussion

Best Practices for:Policy DevelopmentImplementation and FundingSlide24

General Discussion

Best Practices re:Publicizing (what signals do we send?)Non-Academic Partners