Faculty Climate Survey Highlights Institutional Research & Faculty Development and Diversity March 2008

Faculty Climate Survey – Results 1,863 tenured, tenure-track, and non-ladder faculty from all of Harvard’s Schools were invited to participate and 1,400 faculty responded (75%) On average, the faculty are slightly more than “somewhat satisfied” with being faculty members at Harvard (4.16 on a 5-point scale, 5=“very satisfied”) Women are significantly less satisfied than men (3.90 vs. 4.27) Tenure-track faculty are significantly less satisfied than tenured faculty (3.93 vs. 4.31)

Response Rates and Distribution of Respondents and Faculty All Schools    Number of Respondents Response Rate % of Respondents† % of Population† Rank†† Tenured Faculty 697 77% 50% 49% Tenure-Track Faculty 357 26% 25% Non-Ladder Faculty 345 70% Gender Women 414 78% 30% 29% Men 986 74% 71% Ethnicity American Indian/ Alaskan Native Faculty 3 100% <1% Asian Faculty 123 69% 9% 10% Black Faculty 41 73% 3% Hispanic Faculty 32 2% Unknown Ethnicity 4 67% White Faculty 1,197 76% 86% 85% Total 1,400 75% † Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding. †† There is one respondent with an unknown rank.

The Survey Addresses Seven Topics Satisfaction (e.g., satisfaction with the University, School, staff and facilities) Atmosphere (e.g., fit with department, respect from colleagues and students, camaraderie and collegiality) Workload (e.g., expectations and sources of stress) Mentoring (e.g., effectiveness of mentoring) Tenure (e.g., clarity of the tenure criteria and prospects ) Hiring and Retention (e.g., likelihood of leaving and reasons for leaving) Life Outside Harvard (e.g., work-life balance)

Satisfaction: Overall with Harvard Satisfaction with Being a Faculty Member at Harvard University (University Average = 4.16) 1=very dissatisfied 2=somewhat dissatisfied 3=neither satisfied nor dissatisfied 4=somewhat satisfied 5=very satisfied

Satisfaction: Overall for Women and Men Satisfaction with Being a Faculty Member at Harvard University W M 4.6 3.8 4.2 3.9 4.0 3.6 3.5 4.5 4.3 1 2 3 4 5 HLS HBS KSG GSD FAS HMS/ HSDM GSE SPH HDS Average Satisfaction 1=very dissatisfied 2=somewhat dissatisfied 3=neither satisfied nor dissatisfied 4=somewhat satisfied 5=very satisfied

Satisfaction: Overall by Rank Satisfaction with Being a Faculty Member at Harvard University 2 3 4 5 HLS HBS KSG GSD FAS HMS/ HSDM GSE SPH HDS Average Satisfaction Tenured Tenure-Track Non-Ladder 4.8 4.4 3.9 4.0 4.2 4.1 4.7 4.4 4.5 4.3 4.2 3.5 4.1 3.8 3.9 4.0 3.5 4.2 1 * 1=very dissatisfied 2=somewhat dissatisfied 3=neither satisfied nor dissatisfied 4=somewhat satisfied 5=very satisfied * Tenure-track and non-ladder faculty are not reported for HLS because there are fewer than five respondents in each group.

Atmosphere: Fit with Department Agreement with: “My department* is a good fit for me.” 3.74 3.43 4.03 3.93 3.95 1 2 3 4 5 Tenured Faculty Tenure-Track Faculty Non-Ladder Faculty Average Agreement W M 1=strongly disagree 2=somewhat disagree 3=neither agree nor disagree 4=somewhat agree 5=strongly agree * The unit of analysis is Department/Committee at FAS, Academic Unit at HBS, Department at GSD, HMS/HSDM, and SPH, Area at HDS and KSG, and School at HLS and GSE.

Atmosphere: Gender and Rank Gaps (Ladder Faculty) Issues Gender Gap Rank Gap Opportunities to collaborate with faculty in one’s primary department  Having a voice in the decision-making that affects the direction of one’s department Collegiality and supportiveness of one’s department Amount of personal interaction with colleagues Opportunities to collaborate with Harvard faculty outside one’s primary department Comfort in raising personal responsibilities when scheduling department obligations Research/scholarship valued by colleagues Feeling respected by the faculty in one’s department Feeling respected by the students

Workload: Reasonableness of Service Expectations (Ladder Faculty) Reasonableness of Service Expectations: Mean Difference From “About Right” (Ladder Faculty) 0.3 0.6 0.0 0.2 0.1 -0.1 -1 1 Tenured Faculty Tenure- Track Points from "About Right" Service to Department W M Service to School Service to University Too High About Right Too Low

Work Expectations: Committee Load Average Number of Department, School and University Committees in Previous Academic Year (Ladder Faculty)

Mentoring: Overall Effectiveness Department’s Effectiveness in Overall Mentoring of Junior Faculty* 3.30 2.54 3.52 2.99 1 2 3 4 5 Tenured Faculty Tenure-Track Faculty Average Effectiveness W M 1=very ineffective 2=somewhat ineffective 3=neither effective nor ineffective 4=somewhat effective 5=very effective * The unit of analysis is Department/Committee at FAS, Academic Unit at HBS, Department at GSD, HMS/HSDM, and SPH, Area at HDS and KSG, and School at HLS and GSE.

Mentoring: Types of Mentors Percentage of Tenure-Track Faculty with and without Mentors (Formal/Informal) Both Formal and Informal (N=97), 30% Informal Mentor Only (N=165), 50% Formal (N=25), 8% Neither Formal nor Informal (N=40), 12%

Tenure: Clarity of Criteria (Ladder Faculty) Agreement with: “The criteria for tenure are clearly communicated.” 1=strongly disagree 2=somewhat disagree 3=neither agree nor disagree 4=somewhat agree 5=strongly agree

Hiring and Retention: Likelihood of Leaving in the Next 3 Years Percentage of Faculty “Somewhat” or “Very Likely” to Leave Harvard in the Next 3 Years 18% 56% 7% 20% 40% 10% 0% 60% 80% 100% Tenured Faculty Tenure-Track Faculty Non-Ladder Faculty % of Respondents W M * Only non-ladder faculty who answered the question, “Given the opportunity, how likely would you be to renew your contract?” are included in the graph. This includes only 143 non-ladder faculty respondents who have renewable contracts.

Hiring and Retention: Top 2 Reasons Faculty Consider Leaving % of Faculty Responding “to a Great Extent” Tenured Faculty: Increase time to do research 26% Find a more supportive work environment 24% Tenure-Track Faculty: Improve prospects for tenure 44% 36% Non-Ladder Faculty: Move to a tenure-track position 41% Enhance career in other ways 33%

Life Outside Harvard: Dual-career Issues 89% of faculty have a spouse or domestic partner 31% of the ladder faculty have spouses that currently work in academia 49% of these faculty report their spouses work at Harvard while the other half are at other institutions 51% of faculty with spouses at other institutions are in commuting relationships. Of these faculty, 78% had problems finding appropriate local employment for their spouses Only 6% received help finding local employment for their spouses from their School

Life Outside Harvard: Dependent Care Tenured Faculty Tenure-Track Faculty Non-Ladder Women Men Number of Children (Mean) 1.36 2.02 1.12 1.01 1.31 1.87 Have at Least 1 Child (%) 72% 88% 60% 56% 74% 77% Have at Least 1 Child Ages 0-4 (%) 5% 10% 43% 37% 12% Caring/Managing Care for Others (%) 23% 18% 8% 6% 28% 15%

Life Outside Harvard: Effect of Domestic Responsibilities on Career Agreement with: “My care giving and/or other domestic responsibilities have had a negative impact on my career.” 2.77 3.57 2.99 2.14 2.83 2.21 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 Tenured Faculty Tenure-Track Faculty Non-Ladder Faculty Average Agreement W M 1=strongly disagree 2=somewhat disagree 3=neither agree nor disagree 4=somewhat agree 5=strongly agree

Policy Recommendations and Next Steps Junior faculty: Connect mentoring to incentives for senior faculty as mentoring is ill-defined, not measured and unevenly supported Discuss the criteria for tenure and the possibility of tenure at the associate level Understand better the dual-career issues for junior faculty Delve more deeply into workload issues and factors driving perceptions of these issues Continue to invest in family-friendly policies including: portable childcare scholarships, research enabling grants and tuition benefit reform Examine and analyze qualitatively the minority faculty experience (small population limits usefulness of quantitative analysis)