Cites court rulings that the plaintiff must identify the causal relationship between a statistical imbalance and specific employment practices. Indicates that university promotion, tenure, and salary decisions will be upheld if the judgments are based on a merit system with the criteria of teaching, research, and service. (MLF)

Discusses several problems in the national hiring process, including candidates' (1) lack of preparation and/or interest in teaching, (2) lack of familiarity with interviewing institutions, and (3) unrealistic expectations and general ignorance of conditions in most of the country's English departments. (SR)

Reveals the combination of work incentives that have attracted field administrators to the clinical faculty member role in a western university's field-based Ed.D. program. Nonpecuniary incentives included the desire to influence future educational leaders' preparation, the opportunity for change and stimulation, and the opportunity for…

Santa Clara University (California), located where housing costs are high, has developed a faculty housing assistance program to retain faculty. It consists of a shared appreciation mortgage loan, a low interest down payment loan program, and a rental stipend program to give tenure-track faculty an opportunity to save for home purchase. (MSE)

Many Asian-American studies programs have emerged on college campuses recently, due largely to high Asian-American enrollment and student pressure. The field originated in the 1960s, and has broadened to incorporate many ethnic groups. Courses may be either broad-based, comparing ethnic or immigrant groups, or narrowly focused on specific themes.…

True college-faculty development must be holistic and integrative of all the needs and activities of individual faculty members, and undertaken by faculty and institution together to shape the fabric of academic life. Faculty must also work with professional associations to help ensure that doctoral programs are preparing students for a sufficient…

Presents three mathematical models for the evolution over time of the proportion of minorities in an academic department or similarly selected group of constant size. Analyzes both the steady-state and time-dependent behavior of the proportion of minorities and suggests a method of evaluating the fairness of a department's hiring history.…

Describes a study that addressed the association between personal characteristics and job ratings of applicants for business faculty positions described in simulated recruitment advertisements. Finds that being single and working a high number of hours per week were associated with applicant attraction to business faculty positions at community…

The key challenge to academic leadership is to restructure the allocation of academic assets, particularly the organization of the faculty, in ways that better serve emerging societal and scholarly needs.

The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 1.6 million post-secondary teaching jobs in 2004 and predicted this number to increase 27% or more by 2014. Hiring higher education faculty in technical education has been more problematic than in many other fields. The fields of technology education and vocational education were cited by…

The current trend toward academic gamesmanship, characterized by interinstitutional competition for faculty, gives the general public a superficial notion of academic excellence, deceives higher education supporters, deprives undergraduates of teaching that they are paying higher prices to receive, and gauges success by ephemeral standards.…

The number of women faculty members in engineering correlates directly with the number of women who pursue careers in this field. Proposed are ways to break the cycle of too few role models producing another generation of too few women engineers. (CW)

Offers practical suggestions as to how the academic dean in a college or university can provide opportunities to women and minority faculty, even given current fiscal conditions. Discusses: (1) the screening and search process; (2) strategies for recruiting faculty; (3) strategies for coping with retrenchment; and (4) other strategies which…

Presents data from four annual surveys of psychology doctorates with regard to rates of employment and unemployment; employment in psychology-related work, in academic settings, service, business, government, and other settings, full-time and part-time employment; and postdoctoral fellowships. Includes job market perceptions of recent doctorate…

Results of a National Science Foundation survey suggest faculty shortages in engineering due to decreasing numbers of doctoral engineers and faculty moving to industry positions. Offers suggestions to improve situation including "loan" of industry personnel to teach university courses and supervise research, and ease of visa restrictions…