I would like to know what you think about hiring couples into the same
dept. One view is that it is not a good policy-- that the "drawbacks"
to hiring a couple significantly outweigh the "benefits". The drawbacks
are perceived to be that the couple could "vote" in a block against the
rest of the dept; that if one person had personal problems or conflicts
in the dept, the other would side with them, so conflicts would be
amplified; and that there is a very large risk involved in hiring both
because if one failed, the other would leave as well. The benefits are
perceived to be that one might be able to attract two outstanding
scientists that might not otherwise consider a position if they were
independent of one another; and that they may strengthen one another's
research programs by helping one another (eg., lower barriers to asking
the other to read a proposal or paper for them...). What do you think?
reply to nishir at ohsu.edu
Rae Nishi, PhD
Professor
Dept. Cell & Developmental Biology
Oregon Health Sciences University
Portland Oregon
