Tenure-track faculty positions

When deciding on a career in academia, there are a variety of different positions that are available. There are non-tenure track positions that may be either part-time or full-time, and may be either a short-term appointment to fill a particular departmental need for a finite period of time (i.e., a semester), or a long-term appointment. Then there are the tenure-track faculty positions, which are fulltime appointments. New tenure track faculty members are hired at the rank of assistant professor, with the opportunity for being granted tenure and promotion in rank to associate professor after a probationary period. There is the eventual opportunity for promotion to full professor. 

The modest peak at 1988 in Figure 1 was due in part to hiring by industry. And most of the growth since 1995 has been in industrial jobs. The rising demand for computational chemists reached a new high in 2000 when about three-quarters of the demand came from industry, principally pharmaceutical and biotechnology. In 2001, hiring by industry slowed a bit, which was offset by an increase in advertised academic positions. A few of the latter were for tenure-track faculty, but most of them were only postdoctoral positions, which tend to be short lived. 

In disciplines less impacted by salary compression, more experienced tenured faculty may be replaced by less costly junior tenure-track faculty. Another inequity in higher education involves replacing coveted tenure-track positions with adjunct or full-time lecturer positions. The end result maybe that universities save money—sometimes at the cost of educational quality. 

Of the 1,638 Ph.D. chemists employed by the Top 50 chemistry departments in 2001, Nelson et al. (2001) report that only 18 or a mere 1.1% were African Americans. The fact that only one African American Ph.D. chemist was appointed as an assistant professor in a tenure-track position at one of the nation s top 50 chemistry departments in 2000 provides further evidence that African Americans continue to be virtually absent from these faculties (Bhattachaqee, 2003). In a report released by Dartmouth College (2003), a key finding was that faculty diversity tends to lag well behind student diversity. 

Overall, the proportion of full-time instructional faculty with tenure has remained relatively stable-around 64%. Jones believes that the employment outlook for college faculty is expected to be good but competitive, particularly for tenure-track positions at research institutions (Jones, 2003). As in any job market, some doctorate recipients have difficulty finding suitable employment even when employment conditions are good. However, as one interviewee points out ... 

Marjam Behar, National Institutes of Health I joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, in December 1962 to work with a group of physicians who were doing studies of cerebral blood flow, and they needed a chemist to do their metabolic studies. I didn t have a tenure-track position. As a matter of fact I was not in the faculty track, but as we advanced in the studies (I was there for 17 years), they made me director of the Core Facility for Analytical Chemistry. I had 12 technicians that I supervised and taught. I also taught residents, faculty members, and medical students who needed to learn bioanalytical techniques to pursue their research. 

In 1997 (the most recent date for which data are available), women made up 25 percent of doctoral scientists and engineers at universities and 4-year colleges. That figure includes scientists who are tenured, tenure track, not in track, or in positions for which tenure is not applicable, such as postdoctoral or other appointments. Women ranged from being 6.5 percent of faculty in engineering to 59 percent of faculty in health sciences.3 Across all disciplines, 56 percent of women were tenured or tenure track,... 

It took me 21 years to get a faculty position. I was always a research associate. That effected me financially too because since it was not a tenure-track position, there was no pension. And I was paid less than anybody else. On the other hand, there were certain advantages. Since I did not have a tenure-track position, I was not in competition with my male counterparts and that helped me to maintain excellent relations with the men. I was no threat to them. Also, I didn t have to teach, which meant a much more flexible working day. If a child was seriously sick, I simply stayed home. I couldn t have done that easily if I were teaching. The most important thing from the scientific point of view was that I was not under pressure when I was at Washington University, I could pursue long-range... 

During the last 11 years, these pivotal reports have led most institutions to reevaluate how faculty members prioritize their time and the faculty reward system. Therefore, when contemplating an academic position, an individual should clearly understand the institution s mission and faculty reward system. The faculty candidate should also ascertain whether the assigned duties can be accomplished according to the projected allocation of time and effort and that they are consistent with the faculty reward system. Individuals who select either a college-based tenure- or nontenure-track position should clearly understand that success in academia requires achievement of not only excellence in completion of assigned duties, but also scholarship. ... 

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