A report from the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education listed NDSU as among the 32 most successful colleges and universities at making junior faculty feel welcome on campus. The collaborative, part of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is a consortium of more than160 colleges, universities and systems across North America committed to making the academic workplace more attractive and equitable for faculty.
“This is another example of the high priority North Dakota State University places on recruiting and promoting faculty of the highest possible caliber,” said President Dean L. Bresciani. “It’s notable to be listed, but also notable is who we are listed with. The latter suggests that the priority we place on faculty development and scholarship runs parallel to many of the most prestigious research universities in the nation.”
NDSU was listed as an exemplar in the category of clarity of institutional expectations for tenure along with North Carolina State University, the University of Connecticut, the University of Iowa and the University of Kansas.
Katie Reindl, assistant professor of biological sciences, feels very welcome at NDSU. “I think that I am in a fantastic department. Biological Sciences has been exceptional in welcoming new faculty, especially women faculty,” she said.
Katie Gordon, assistant professor of psychology, also said the report was consistent with her experience and that “there are clear guidelines and expectations” for tenure. “Just interviewing in other institutions, they had more vague tenure criteria,” she said.”
The report was based on surveys of 15,000 junior faculty members at 127 member colleges nationwide. The 32 outstanding institutions scored at the top of at least one of eight work-life categories such as tenure practices, clarity of expectations for tenure and work and home balance.
“This isn’t a beauty contest with dozens of runners-up, nor are we in the rankings business,” explained Kiernan Mathews, director of the collaborative. “Academic leaders at our member institutions request these lists so that they can know to whom to turn about doing something--or several things--right in retaining faculty.”
The doctoral/research institutions on the list include:
Auburn University
Brown University
Dartmouth College
Duke University
Lehigh University
North Carolina State University
North Dakota State University
University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa
University of Chicago
University of Connecticut
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Iowa
University of Kansas
University of Notre Dame
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
For more on the report, visit www.coache.org
Link to the press release at isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=coache&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup103414