News & Advice by Date
First Person
Two Ph.D. candidates experience a brief and unexpected respite from the
usual coldness and bad manners of the hiring process.
(1/15/2009)
The Adjunct Track
When will we realize it's time to take advantage of the economic turmoil and
restructure the faculty labor system?
(1/14/2009)
Ms. Mentor
She thought her tormenters were gone forever, but now they may be coming
back to town.
(1/13/2009)
Career News
Academic expertise is no ticket to a federal job in Washington. But in an
Obama administration, it can't hurt.
(1/13/2009)
Academic Assets
Financial intelligence starts with taking advantage of your university's
retirement match.
(1/12/2009)
The Fund Raiser
It may sound counterintuitive, but now is the time to travel to your best
donors and talk about their philanthropic goals.
(1/9/2009)
First Person
For a new Ph.D. searching for her first job in her field, the line between
the two can be blurry.
(1/8/2009)
On Course
In a new book, an assistant professor of English finds radical new sources
of inspiration for his discipline in K-12 classrooms.
(1/7/2009)
Career News
So you don't have the perfect tenure-track position at the perfect college
in the perfect town? Welcome to Earth.
(1/7/2009)
Page Proof
How to avoid hurt feelings and battered relationships when friends turn to
you for a close read.
(1/6/2009)
Career News
Most colleges are enduring the recession without layoffs or across-the-board
hiring freezes. But the pain is being felt on campuses in other ways, a new
survey shows.
(1/6/2009)
First Person
An Illinois liberal-arts college bucks the trend and goes on a hiring binge.
(1/5/2009)
Academic Assets
It is particularly urgent now for academics to attend to their savings and spending.
(12/19/2008)
First Person
A veteran academic offers advice on what to expect at conference interviews
and how to conduct yourself.
(12/18/2008)
Balancing Act
Female undergraduates and graduates students voted for Obama in great
numbers. So what do they want from him now?
(12/17/2008)
The Two-Year Track
Sometimes our own actions and attitudes unwittingly reinforce the negative
stereotypes about community colleges.
(12/16/2008)
Heads Up
E-mail has been around long enough that you'd think we would have learned
how to handle it by now.
(12/15/2008)
An Academic in America
The business culture that dominates today's museums has no room for the eccentricities of introverted curators.
(12/12/2008)
The Adjunct Track
The predictable reaction to recent studies about part-time instructors is as
insightful as the data.
(12/11/2008)
First Person
A case of sexual harassment and mistaken identity in the digital age.
(12/10/2008)
Moving Up
How the science of economics is instrumental in helping a president run his
university.
(12/9/2008)
Career Talk
Preparing to attend your first big academic convention? Here's what you need
to consider.
(12/8/2008)
First Person
The process of revising a grant proposal can help you turn piecemeal work
into a coherent whole.
(12/5/2008)
First Person
The choice between a job in industry or academic science would be easy if it
really were a binary decision.
(12/4/2008)
P&T Confidential
Praise in a letter of recommendation has more impact when it is honest,
detailed, balanced, and on point.
(12/3/2008)
On Message
No two controversies are the same, but some basic public-relations
principles can help you handle the fallout.
(12/2/2008)
Career News
The compensation-and-benefits packages paid to teaching and research
assistants vary widely, according to a Chronicle survey.
(12/2/2008)
Ms. Mentor
Should you wail to your colleagues, wait your turn, or find your own little
piece of turf?
(12/1/2008)
Moving Up
Five rules to help you as a midlevel administrator lead people over whom you
have no real authority.
(11/26/2008)
Career News
Most institutions, both private and public, seem to be faring relatively
well, even as they and the students they serve are tightening their belts.
(11/26/2008)
On Course
Do Web sites that format citations for students negate the need to teach
them how to create a proper source list?
(11/25/2008)
Career News
Computers may soon outsmart scholars. If they will out-teach them, too, what
does that mean for colleges?
(11/25/2008)
The Fund Raiser
After 18 years in campus development, a fund raiser tries out the consulting
world.
(11/24/2008)
Balancing Act
Oocyte cryopreservation is not the secret to professional success in
academe.
(11/21/2008)
First Person
An administrator in student services, and a new mother, seeks to move up the
ranks.
(11/20/2008)
First Person
The rigors of the professoriate begin to weigh heavily on three assistant
professors who are no longer rookies.
(11/19/2008)
Page Proof
What are the odds that you can pull together your previously published work
into a collection?
(11/18/2008)
Career News
The price of leadership continues to rise in higher education, particularly
in terms of presidential pay at public universities.
(11/18/2008)
The Two-Year Track
More advice for candidates on what hiring committees are searching for in a
faculty member.
(11/17/2008)
First Person
When you become a dean of students, be prepared for students and parents to
view you as the problem and the solution.
(11/14/2008)
First Person
The perfect job for a Ph.D. in earth sciences turns out to be not in higher
education.
(11/13/2008)
Career News<
Rarely do graduate students resort to violence on the campus. But colleges
can act to minimize even that slight risk.
(11/13/2008)
Heads Up
Treating staff members as fellow professionals means making sure they are
full participants in department life.
(11/12/2008)
Balancing Act
Every university has its own culture, and part of the tenure-track
experience is figuring out what that culture values.
(11/11/2008)
First Person
Fall means almost nonstop travel for people in admissions. In the face of
exhaustion, it's easy to forget why the work matters.
(11/10/2008)
An Academic in America
A look at whether student evaluations of teaching can be administered
effectively via the Internet.
(11/7/2008)
First Person
His tenure-track job is in the middle of nowhere, but he loves it anyway. So
why is he going back on the market?
(11/6/2008)
First Person
A political scientist shares the changes and continuities he found 20 years
after his first teaching stint there.
(11/5/2008)
First Person
The second in a series on what assistant professors want and need to be
successful in academe.
(11/4/2008)
First Person
A job candidate in English plans for jubilant success but prepares for
complete and total rejection.
(11/3/2008)
On Message
Many campus leaders consider themselves media-ready but those of us in PR
know better.
(10/31/2008)
P&T Confidential
In every job search, you run the risk that your candidacy could be derailed
by a reference call.
(10/30/2008)
Career News
At Rollins College, among other campuses, professors are paid to get away
for overseas travel to enhance their teaching.
(10/30/2008)
First Person
A job candidate tests her interview skills at her field's annual convention,
and finds they're a little rusty.
(10/29/2008)
Career News
A former community-college president talks about how to get the top job and
succeed.
(10/29/2008)
Ms. Mentor
Every department has its malcontents. Must you enlist?
(10/28/2008)
Career News
Switching from a university to a community college helps a faculty member
discover the purpose of postsecondary life.
(10/28/2008)
First Person
An associate professor would be happy to have the federal government ease
her financial crisis.
(10/27/2008)
Catalyst
Two earth scientists share the lessons they learned doing fieldwork with
their babies in tow.
(10/24/2008)
First Person
An administrator who considered giving up his job finds the decision made
for him.
(10/23/2008)
Career News
Something is wrong with tenure, and we need to make it right. Abolishing it
is not feasible, but there is another way to deal with the problem.
(10/23/2008)
The Party Line
It's in that period just before the other shoe drops that a
government-relations officer can be most effective.
(10/22/2008)
Career News
A look at the academic job market for Ph.D.'s in selected disciplines
reveals a lot of worries, but some pockets of hope.
(10/22/2008)
Page Proof
What do you do when you're jilted by the person who best appreciated your
work? For starters, don't take it personally.
(10/21/2008)
Career News
Unless you can also put equity front and center in department meetings,
faculty senates, budget allocations, and even mission statements.
(10/21/2008)
Balancing Act
A true measure of gender equity in academe would look at both the career and
family outcomes of female Ph.D.'s.
(10/17/2008)
First Person
Two Ph.D. candidates in the humanities chronicle their search for their
first tenure-track jobs.
(10/16/2008)
Careers News
Joseph Hayse's legal quest has lasted longer than most people's careers in
academe.
(10/16/2008)
Heads Up
Too many academics have perfected the art of pouncing ruthlessly on a
politically wounded colleague.
(10/15/2008)
The Two-Year Track
Advice for candidates on what hiring committees are searching for in a faculty member.
(10/14/2008)
Career News
Colleges have been building smart classrooms for years. Now some of those
once-high-tech rooms are starting to show their age.
(10/14/2008)
First Person
After a four-year hiatus from the classroom, a professor finds it both
familiar and new again.
(10/13/2008)
An Academic in America
Why are so many artists and writers preoccupied by the so-called demise of
bookish culture?
(10/10/2008)
First Person
Shouldn't seven years of graduate school have helped me avoid taking a job
just to have a job?
(10/9/2008)
First Person
Why would a newly tenured associate professor in the sciences decide to go
on the job market?
(10/8/2008)
Heads Up
No matter how reluctantly you took the job, no one forced you to accept it.
(10/7/2008)
A President's Fourth Year
After three years on the job, a president offers his top-10 list of dos and
don'ts.
(10/6/2008)
Moving Up
Too much transparency in the administrative search process leads to bad
outcomes.
(10/3/2008)
First Person
A job candidate in sociology whose research focuses on race finds that he's
not what search committees were expecting.
(10/2/2008)
Career Talk
Courts are tending to side with faculty members who seek unemployment
payments when their contracts are terminated through no fault of their own.
(10/2/2008)
First Person
An associate provost who resisted administrative jobs for years now seeks to
move up the ranks.
(10/1/2008)
Ms. Mentor
Something more may be at issue with a Ph.D. whose husband controls her
career moves.
(9/30/2008)
First Person
An assistant professor at a liberal-arts college prepares for a yearlong
research leave.
(9/29/2008)
Catalyst
It may pay off for you to explore a new means of securing money from the
same federal agencies that are tightening grant budgets.
(9/26/2008)
Career Talk
Our experts evaluate the CV's of three faculty-job candidates and an
administrator seeking to move up.
(9/25/2008)
Career News
The last thing an author wants to hear is the sound of another scholar
closing in on the same topic.
(9/25/2008)
Beyond the Ivory Tower
It's easier for engineering Ph.D.'s to land that first nonacademic job than
for humanists but they face the same challenges in the workplace.
(9/24/2008)
On Course
A new Web site offers one of the most comprehensive classroom guides
available online.
(9/23/2008)
Career News
What ever happened to all those plans to hire more minority professors?
(9/23/2008)
P&T Confidential
Here are some strategies to lessen the odds that your refusal will be taken
as a personal affront.
(9/22/2008)
First Person
The first in a series on what assistant professors want and need to be
successful in academe.
(9/19/2008)
First Person
How can a midcareer faculty member whose days are filled with administrative
and service work find time for research?
(9/18/2008)
Careers News
A new survey shows that women and members of minority groups take longer to
earn their doctorates.
(9/18/2008)
Heads Up
Here are ways to make "the toughest job in the university" a little easier.
(9/17/2008)
Page Proof
The fearlessness and linguistic facility of a trio of provocative writers
should serve as a role model for academics.
(9/16/2008)
Career News
Pundits and professors wring their hands over the inadequacies of the
so-called digital generation but not all young people are tech savvy.
(9/16/2008)
First Person
Taking on extra jobs to make ends meet becomes something of an obsession for
one doctoral candidate.
(9/15/2008)
First Person
Too many campus administrators and professors fail to hold technology to
academic standards of cost analysis and assessment.
(9/12/2008)
The Two-Year Track
At many two-year colleges, moonlighting is a common practice, if not always
an accepted one.
(9/11/2008)
Careers News
Mentor programs in which experienced professors advise junior colleagues are
on the rise.
(9/11/2008)
First Person
A Ph.D. spends five days and a lot of money learning the rules of academic
conferences.
(9/10/2008)
Career News
The problem is receiving increasing attention on the Web, and top
administrators are taking notice.
(9/10/2008)
The Two-Year Track
A social scientist is reincarnated at a community college as the professor
he always hoped to be.
(9/9/2008)
First Person
A journal editor outlines the most common mistakes academics make in
submitting their manuscripts.
(9/8/2008)
An Academic in America
Exactly how should we teach the 'digital natives'?
(9/5/2008)
First Person
Nothing stunts civility like graduate-student insecurities and competition.
(9/4/2008)
Career News
Stanley Fish would like professors to impart knowledge without viewpoint.
Even if that were possible, it would be undesirable.
(9/4/2008)
First Person
On his first day on the job, an assistant professor is handed an unusual
gift.
(9/3/2008)
Career News
Academic freedom is a professional requirement, not a divine right. It
should be advanced, and limited, accordingly, writes Stanley Fish.
(9/3/2008)
Ms. Mentor
Should the departmental Dish Avenger keep tossing out communal mugs that
faculty members refuse to clean?
(9/2/2008)
On Course
Think about teaching as a set of strategies or techniques that we inherit
and pass on to the next generation.
(8/27/2008)
The Fund Raiser
At what point does a résumé become a tornado siren heralding
the arrival of an ill wind?
(8/26/2008)
First Person
Given a chance to explore an old passion, an assistant professor learns the
rules and realities of a conference romance.
(8/25/2008)
P&T Confidential
Our students aren't the only ones who could benefit from some
time-management skills.
(8/22/2008)
First Person
When his tenure-track search fell short, a Ph.D. faced a fundamental choice
about dealing with the disappointment.
(8/21/2008)
The Adjunct Track
Teaching part time sometimes makes a Ph.D. feel like a failure, but it also
allows her life as a parent to work.
(8/20/2008)
Heads Up
How can deans and chairs find appropriate ways to involve retired professors
in the life of the college?
(8/19/2008)
First Person
Accepting the possibility of tenure denial and dealing with the reality of
it are two different things.
(8/18/2008)
Moving Up
Following the 5 principles of external hiring can keep your search for a
dean from getting derailed.
(8/15/2008)
First Person
It's time to dispel the graduate-school myth that family time is wasted
time.
(8/14/2008)
Career Talk
A new edition of a popular handbook on the academic job search underscores
how the hiring process has changed.
(8/13/2008)
First Person
Going on the job market this fall? Tell us all about it.
(8/13/2008)
Beyond the Ivory Tower
With her first novel out in September, a former academic answers questions
about leaving academe to write fiction.
(8/12/2008)
Career News
Administrators at public universities are devising new strategies to keep
key faculty members in an era of increased poaching.
(8/12/2008)
Page Proof
Don't know your French flaps from your headbands? Here's a guide to the arcane terminology of the book world.
(8/11/2008)
First Person
Is it plagiarism when a colleague borrows your syllabus and then uses it in
its entirety for his own course?
(8/8/2008)
The Two-Year Track
Some regional accrediting agencies have relaxed their standards for faculty
credentials at two-year colleges — or have they?
(8/7/2008)
First Person
A Ph.D. in the sciences loses his complacency and rediscovers his confidence
in his search for a tenure-track position.
(8/6/2008)
Career News
The cultural bias against serious study of science and technology is rarely
recognized as a reason for American students' poor performance.
(8/6/2008)
The Fund Raiser
Why it's important for all fund-raising campaigns to follow the lead of the
big ones and stress results, not need.
(8/5/2008)
Career News
A report from the Mellon Foundation cites rough patches in scholarly
presses' transition to online access.
(8/5/2008)
First Person
A Ph.D. tries to reconcile the profession he glamorized as a child with the
one he is living on the tenure track.
(8/4/2008)
An Academic in America
A cartload of recent books suggests that it's time to reverse the
customer-service mentality plaguing academe.
(8/1/2008)
First Person
The economy can be a cruel mistress, particularly, it seems, to a performing
artist.
(7/31/2008)
Peer Review
An astronaut lands at Boise State University ... and other appointment news.
(7/31/2008)
First Person
After 35 years of meetings and memos, an administrator mulls leaving the
management track.
(7/30/2008)
First Person
A moment of minor irritation at a student's dumb question can make for major
aggravation.
(7/29/2008)
Career News
Is a Darwinian approach the adaptation that will allow literary studies to
survive?
(7/29/2008)
First Person
A tenured professor accustomed to going about her own business finds herself
suddenly responsible for others in a summer institute.
(7/28/2008)
First Person
Sick of mediocre students and feeling stuck on the job, a professor turns to
music to self-medicate.
(7/25/2008)
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