We were faced with the challenge of deciding which 2 out of the 5 tenure-track positions we will hire for this year. The costs of the searches themselves and of salaries for tenure positions are substantial, that’s why we could only do 2 out of 5. The other 3 positions will be filled by guest professors and are top priority for next year. The important point is that it’s not like the positions for any of the 5 won’t be filled, they will just be filled by guests until we can do more tenured searches. All of these positions have been approved by General Committee for tenure-track.
We discussed the Microbiology, Chemistry, American Politics, Psychology and Science, Technology & Society positions. We received several letters of recommendation from faculty as to why we should hire for each position.
Microbiology, being a new position, was taken out of the running by Science Department. They de-prioritized it in the face of the other departments which has more pressing needs.
After very lengthy discussion, we all agreed that each of the four positions are equally essential for the school at this time, and we switched to discussing the cons of filling each position, which was a difficult task in and of itself. There are several factors beyond student demand/enrollment numbers that needed to be considered; such as Donning and FYS teaching needs, service to the Graduate program, coordinating sabbaticals, total numbers of empty positions in each department, and more.
We ultimately decided to proceed with tenure-track hiring for Psychology and American Politics.
We are prioritizing next Chemistry, Science, Technology & Society, Microbiology; in that order. Future searches (that have not been approved yet but are coming up) are for Public Policy and Anthropology, specifically a Latin American studies professor.
We are setting up priority lists and considering making them semi non-negotiable for next year’s Curriculum Committee, so that no position can get pushed to the side in future years.
Any questions, comments, etc., PLEASE feel free to e-mail me.
Vera Kelsey-Watts
vkelsey@gm.slc.edu