…Part Seven in the series on “Becoming a University” (this is the last in this series, at least, for now).
As Mount Royal University makes the transition from a college to a university……
Hire people who know how to do research and who know what it means to be a university.
I have seen very little indication that this even a consideration in the faculties and hiring committees I have dealt with (what is said and what is being done are not the same here). Hiring brand new PhDs is fine, but you ALSO need people with many years of experience in a true academic environment – one where people are expected to teach AND do research. You need people with established research agendas and sound publication records who are ready to help others learn how to do the same. Although there is a great deal of community spirit at MRU, when it comes to hiring, the reality in the units is that they tend to hire people who are like themselves. They really need to be hiring people who can help make the cultural transition to a university a reality.
Go out of your way to make prospective hires feel like they could be part of something special.
Currently, there are faculty positions that have been on the “shortlisting” list for months – some of which I have been told have not received funding so don’t even exist any more. While I understand why this is, the result will be that with VERY few exceptions, by the time the unit gets around to choosing candidates for interviews, the only people left available will those who CAN’T get a job somewhere else. These are NOT the people you want to help you build a top-ranked undergraduate university. If these jobs get re-posted, most of the best candidates from the first round will NOT re-apply. Again, you will mostly be left with people who will NOT be able to help MRU. You need people who know what they are getting into, who are committed to the institution, who think of Calgary as HOME. You also need people who are interdisciplinary rather than narrowly focused, and one can NOT study to be an interdisciplinarian. This must be achieved through experience.
Current Hiring Practices
A baseline requirement for serious consideration by a hiring committee at MRU is a PhD (I know one “part-timer” who has effectively been working full time at MRU for quite a while and is a talented instructor with a real potential for scholarship, yet has been told that without a PhD, they will never be hired as full-time). To get a graduate degree, one must go to a university with a PhD program – in other words one must attend a research institution. Such institutions have quite different workloads from Mount Royal and even though potential candidates are duly warned about the teaching load, a new graduate really has NO idea what it means. They will find they have no time to establish any sort of research program.
There is a distinct tendency for units to hire people who are fresh PhDs over people with more experience (with or without PhDs). While it is true these people will cost less than someone with years of experience, it is often a false economy. These people will need LOTS of help establishing research programs and the number of people on campus who are able to mentor these people is very small. The end result is that either these people will settle into the role of “teacher” (i.e. someone who learns what they need to to teach the courses they are assigned and participates in committee work but does little else) or they will use MRU as a stepping stone to somewhere else. This sort of turnover is not useful, and you end up being left with a disturbing percentage of people who stay at MRU because they CAN’T get a job anywhere else.
Newly graduated faculty need to be able to attach themselves to existing infrastructures and communities in order to learn how to do research, and how and where to publish. While it is true that the Research Office offers a great deal of support, it is very hard to develop a research agenda when the most vocal people in a unit have no understanding of or interest in research, and a noticable number actually denigrate research and publishing. Many of those who do do research are not especially interested in helping anyone else get started unless they are willing to do what they are doing. This last situation is quite common in academia, which is why it is crucial to bring in people with established publication records and research agendas.
You need people comfortable with modern technology, who can bring MRU into the 21st century when it comes to teaching. You need people with well-established research agendas and an established international reputation in their field, who are also committed to teaching. Existing faculty will rarely hire someone who might force them out of their comfort zone or make them look out of date, so they need to be helped to see that hiring people who understand how modern technology fits in with modern education ultimately makes the whole department look better. You need some people in ‘high-level’ positions (like in ADC and the research office) who have BOTH the academic credentials and experience for their word to carry weight AND the experience and understanding of 21st-century technologies to see how to help people learn how to use them effectively. These people must ALSO understand the existing culture at MRU AND be committed to the institution for the long haul.
Ways to address the hiring problems:
- Make sure that there is someone from administration on every hiring committee. Admin MUST have a voice to help shape the direction MRU is heading. Hiring committees tend to focus on finding someone to teach the courses they need taught right now and pay little attention to how this candidate might help shape the future. This worked fine when MRU was a college, but will not help it grow into a university. If there is a representative from the President’s office on the hiring committees (who should also have a vote), the committees will pay more attention to the bigger picture.
- Hiring committees NEED to look at publication records and research – understandably, most faculty currently at MRU do not have the means to assess publications or other scholarly work. In my experience, the reality has been that research and publications are almost totally ignored by hiring committees. Only ONE committee asked me about my research. Teaching IS important, but if someone is being considered for the TSS stream then research MUST be considered. The year I was term certain, I went through an annual assessment, and my research and publications were barely mentioned. This is not only counter to the stated objectives of the college, but it will drive good candidates away. Academia contains many close-knit communities within the various disciplines, and word will quickly get out that MRU is not really looking to hire who they say they are.
- The P.R. for positions and other hiring considerations MUST be distinctive. My experience with the applications I have submitted have been very discouraging to say the least. Less qualified, but cheaper people were consistently hired in the positions I interviewed for. I had one department chair ask me *not* to apply for a position (indicating to me they already knew who they wanted to hire) and another reveal that their existing faculty members would likely not consider anyone with a non-traditional background. There is an open position right now that has a closing date only 10 days after it was posted. The list of qualifications are quite different from anything else that faculty has posted in the last 2 years. If I were a cynical person, I might suspect that the description was tailored specifically to match the individual they want to hire.
- Make sure there is a reasonably fast turn-around on open positions and keep people informed of progress. Several times the closing date for the search was extended without explanation. This sends a clear message to the existing applicants that they aren’t wanted (either that or the deadline was extended to allow a privately preferred candidate to apply). If MRU were anywhere but in the city I call home, I would have stopped considering it as a potential place to work long ago. If a position at MRU requires a move and the applicant is any good, they will have found a position elsewhere before MRU even gets around to completing the short list. I know of several superb applicants for one position (still listed as “shortlisting”) who have accepted positions elsewhere. They would have preferred to remain in Calgary, but were in between contracts and so could not sit around waiting. In my case, I have a farm and a family in the Calgary area which are more important to me than a position so even though I could get hired in dozens of other institutions around the world, I am staying in Calgary. I also have the luxury of being the second income and will continue my research with or without a job. There aren’t many people like me, and I fear for the direction MRU will go if it ends up being the place that only gets final-round draft picks.
