I'm posting this with permission from the listserver (which is why
I'm including all front matter), because I thought it was of interest
to the group. At first this sounded like a wonderful idea, but then
I thought of some real pitfalls as well, and I thought bouncing it
off this group would help me know if I've gotten incredibly cynical
or if my thoughts are on target.
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>>Folks:
>>The following article looks a relatively new approach to the
>work/family balance issues faced by an increasing number of both men
>and women academics. My thanks to Karen Schmeelk-Cone of the
>University of Michigan for call it to my attention.
>>Regards,
>>Rick Reis
>reis at stanford.edu>UP NEXT: Building the Faculty We Need: Colleges and Universities
>Working Together
>>> Tomorrow's Academic Careers
>> ---------------- 711 words ----------------
>> HALF-TIME TENURE TRACK COULD LEVEL PROFESSORIAL PLAYING FIELD
>>>Half-Time Tenure Track Could Level Professorial Playing Field
>http://www.psu.edu/ur/2000/tenure2.html>Nov. 13, 2000
>>University Park, Pa. -- Despite the increased numbers of women
>receiving Ph.D.'s, the percentage of tenured women faculty in U.S.
>colleges and universities has increased at a snail's pace, but a
>proposal for a half-time tenure track might not only allow more
>women to compete, but also provide an equitable solution for all
>untenured faculty with work/family issues, according to a Penn State
>researcher.
>>"Women have failed to rise in academics because traditionally, the
>ideal professional worker is someone who works for 40 years with no
>career interruptions, taking no time off for childbearing or
>child-rearing," says Dr. Robert Drago, professor of labor studies in
>Penn State's College of the Liberal Arts.
>>However, the childbearing years coincide with the tenure track
>years. Although women enter graduate programs in roughly equal
>proportions with men, they hold fewer than 15 percent of all tenured
>academic posts," says Dr. Joan Williams, professor of law, American
>University. "Women are much less likely than men to receive tenure.
>The rate for women receiving tenure in 1995 matched that of women in
>1975, but the rate for men increased from 46 to 72 percent in the
>same time period."
>>Recently, some institutions have implemented policies to aid
>childbearing couples. These policies may include parental leave
>policies, reduced workloads for new parents, or temporary stoppage
>of the tenure clock.
>>"However, raising a child takes 20 years, not one semester," says
>Drago. "American women, who still do the vast majority of child
>care, will not achieve equality in academia so long as the ideal
>academic is defined as someone who takes no time off for child
>rearing."
>>In the November issue of Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning,
>Drago and Williams propose a redefinition of the ideal academic
>worker. Their proposal offers proportional pay, benefits and
>advancement for part-time work. In essence, a part-time tenure track.
>>They suggest, "Any tenure-track faculty member with care-giving
>responsibilities for children, elderly or ill family members of
>partners could, with sufficient notice, request that he or she be
>placed on half-time status for a period of one to twelve years.
>Workload, including teaching, research, advising and committee work,
>would also decline by half."
>>The tenure clock would run at half-time, but so would salary,
>benefits and advancement.
>>"Given the financial penalty involved, we expect that most academics
>would use the part-time policy for between two and six years," says
>Drago.
>>A faculty member who went half-time for two years would have a
>tenure decision at the end of seven years rather than six, and the
>maximum time for a tenure decision would be a set number of years.
>The researchers suggest 12, but admit that if individual
>institutions thought that was too long it could easily be altered.
>>The researchers believe that restrictions need to be placed on those
>wishing to use the part-time track to deter researchers from going
>part-time simply to accrue more research time. However, they do
>think that health or personal circumstances that limit an
>individual's ability to work full time during the tenure years
>should be considered reasonable grounds for the part-time track.
>>From the university viewpoint, the proposed half-time tenure track
>poses no additional costs, especially if the cost-savings are
>returned to the departments to provide teaching coverage. The
>half-time track would also eliminate under-the-table practices that
>offer child-rearing time at full pay to women but not to men under
>the guise of maternal disability pay.
>>According to Drago and Williams, children are better viewed as a
>long-term commitment than as a disease. They also note that recent
>surveys show that fathers are increasing their expectations and
>desire to be active parents.
>>"At present, academics have only two alternatives: work long hours
>and, with luck, get tenure, or refuse to work those hours and take
>the consequences," says Williams.
>>If both parents could reduce hours without the penalties that now
>accompany part-time work, more families would choose a slower career
>path, rather than have one spouse work time and a half while the
>other drops off the career path.
>>"A half-time tenure proposal would also benefit colleges and
>universities," says Drago. "Current practices artificially reduce
>the talent pool by eliminating a hefty percentage of qualified
>candidates - most mothers - from reaching for or achieving tenure."
>**aem**
>>EDITORS: Dr. Drago is at (814) 865-0751 or at drago at psu.edu by
>e-mail. Dr. Williams is at (202) 274-4245 or at
>williams at wel.american.edu by e-mail.
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