Vol. 38, No. 18

2-15-2007
By: Richard Gillette

Junior faculty give OSU top marks

An ailing mother has forced Leslie Lockett, assistant professor of English, to take time off from teaching and her academic work.

A university policy has allowed the third-year professor to “stop the clock” on her tenure track and is one of the reasons junior faculty have rated Ohio State high on a nationwide survey about job satisfaction.

The Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education conducted a survey in 2005 of 5,000 junior faculty members at 42 colleges and universities. Of the 728 junior faculty at Ohio State, 168 responded by rating their job satisfaction in areas like compensation, work and family balance, tenure clarity, policy effectiveness and collegiality.

“I am so grateful we have the policies here that allow me to take this time off. It’s so very comforting,” Lockett said.

Results from the survey, released in January, show Ohio State is considered “exemplary,” according to administrators with COACHE, a Harvard University-based project. To be recognized as “exemplary,” a college or university needed scores that were notably higher than similar institutions.

Ohio State received high scores in tenure clarity, compensation, work and family and policy effectiveness. Auburn, Brown, Stanford, Davidson and Illinois were the other institutions that received the high status.

Lockett, an expert in Old English language and literature and medieval Latin, said she has been satisfied with the clarity of policies pertaining to her tenure track and believes administrators in her department have been supportive.

“I feel valued and protected. They have provided a high level of functionality and have allowed me to excel in my work,” she said.

While private colleges are often considered more faculty-friendly with policy issues, a COACHE administrator said public universities like Ohio State deserve recognition.

“If they can sustain an earned reputation as a great place for junior faculty to work, they will enjoy a competitive edge in recruiting and retaining the next generation of faculty,” Richard Chait, co-director of COACHE, said in a release.

Associate Professor Janice Aski, who earned her tenure last summer, said she wasn’t surprised by the high marks.

“I’ve always said if I didn’t receive tenure here, it would have been of my own fault. My dean and the administration did everything they possibly could to make it clear on what I needed to do. I don’t think I could have landed in a better place,” said Aski, who specializes in foreign language pedagogy and historical Italian/Romance linguistics.

Aski said she was encouraged when the university adopted the policy that allows faculty to delay their tenure track during maternity leave. There was no such policy when she gave birth to her child.

The survey indicated some differences in satisfaction based on gender, race and institution. Results showed that women were less satisfied than men and faculty of color were less satisfied than white faculty.

To see the results of the survey, visit coache.org.

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