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45 th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana November 10-13, 2010 S ESSION V Working with Dual-Career Academic Couples: Opportunities, Challenges, and.

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Presentation on theme: "45 th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana November 10-13, 2010 S ESSION V Working with Dual-Career Academic Couples: Opportunities, Challenges, and."— Presentation transcript:

1 45 th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana November 10-13, 2010 S ESSION V Working with Dual-Career Academic Couples: Opportunities, Challenges, and Solutions

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

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

4 A CADEMIC C OUPLES S HARING AN A CADEMIC H OME : W HO T AKES O UT THE T RASH ? Alisa White

5 T HE G OOD Establishing ground rules Maintaining professional courtesy Keeping confidences Acting independently Working toward power parity

6 T HE B AD The opposite of the good: breaking confidences, acting as one person, being discourteous, and one partner riding on the work or reputation of the other The department members judging one partner by the other

7 T HE U GLY Breaking up—Case Studies When one partner doesn’t get tenure and the other does When one partner is let go before going up for tenure

8 Godson C. Obia Eastern Illinois University

9  Expeditious 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.

10 COUPLESDEPARTMENTS ABIOLOGICAL SCIENCES BMATHEMATICS/COMPUTER SCIENCE CBIOLOGICAL SCIENCESLIBRARY DCHEMISTRYCOLLEGE OFFICE EPSYCHOLOGYACADEMIC TECHNOLOGY FPOLITICAL SCIENCE GSOCIOLOGY/ANTHROPOLOGYHUMAN RESOURCES HCHEMISTRY I

11  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).

12  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 coordinator

13 Pat Mosto Dean Rider University

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

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

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

17  It helped the department to hire better quality candidates  It provided a good signal for other faculty about the department commitment to family issues

18  Life dedication  Participation and integration into the community  Investment and participation in University events

19  Understand the constraints and demands of each other’s academic job  Experience greater satisfaction  Easier to balance work and family responsibilities

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

21  Negotiate how the benefits for one compares with the benefits for both  Insure that the “trailing spouse” felt equally respected  Concerns that their home life could be overwhelmed by work issues

22  Feel limited about being friends with other colleagues, issues of trust  Restricted 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 chair

23 Best Practices for:  Policy Development  Implementation and Funding

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


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