Author: David Perlmutter

David D. Perlmutter. “Why You Wait.” Chronicle of Higher Education, May 16, 2014. Why You Wait May 16, 2014 Our communications college recently filled a staff position. Total time, from the job coming open to the contract being signed: about one month. On the other hand, as we all know, searches for tenure-track faculty lines take a long, long time to initiate, conduct, and conclude. Because I write about academic careers, I spend a considerable time reading the essays, rants, and tweets of academic job seekers. Their “frustrage” about the state of tenure-track job markets in most fields is matched only by their stupefaction at the search process itself. Among the premier complaints: Why does it take so long to conduct a search? (more…)...

David D. Perlmutter. “Why Search Committees Go Radio Silent.” Chronicle of Higher Education, May 16, 2014. Why Search Committees Go Radio Silent June 20, 2014 Author's note: This essay focusses on searches conducted by faculty committee without professional search firm involvement. Practically everyone who has ever suffered through being a candidate in an academic job search has made a variation of the same vow. “One day, when I am signed and sealed in a position, I will send this notification to the search committees who never got back to me: I’m sorry to inform you that I withdraw my candidacy…” In my case, some 20 years ago when I was ABD and on the job market for the first time, I applied for a particular tenure-track position … and I still have not heard back. Every once in a while I am tempted to “inquire about the status of the search” or formally withdraw. Maybe after I retire. Searching for an academic position is hard and stressful....

David D. Perlmutter. “Know the Vital Players in Your Career: Senior Administrators.” Chronicle of Higher Education, December 13, 2013, pp. A26-27. When are deans, provosts, and presidents most likely to reverse a tenure decision? Jon Krause for The Chronicle Enlarge Image By David D. Perlmutter During my first semester as a dean, I established a monthly lunch with assistant professors to discuss their concerns about promotion and tenure. At our initial meeting, I stated that new faculty members should be careful about taking on too much service. But I also noted that, as dean, I would most likely be the chief culprit asking for their time on search, curriculum, and other committees. So far in this series about the people who affect your tenure case, I've focused on thedepartment chair, the head of the department's P&T committee, and the faculty factions influencing these decisions. In this month's column, I turn the spotlight on the powers-that-be outside your home department—the dean of the college, the vice provosts, the provost, and the president. Just...

David D. Perlmutter. “Know the Vital Players in Your Career: The Campuswide Committee.” Chronicle of Higher Education, February 28, 2014, p. A32-33.   These professors are the faculty guardians of the gates to tenure Tim Foley for The Chronicle Enlarge Image By David D. Perlmutter Rudyard Kipling’s poetic declaration that "there are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, and every single one of them is right!" refers to the Neolithic Age. It could apply equally to promotion­-and-tenure procedures in academe today. We move people along the tenure track in a wide variety of ways, and each approach has its champions and detractors. But the one element common to every tenure system is the human factor. In this series I have tried to identify key people who affect your tenure case. I’ve covered the department chair, the head of the department’s P&T committee, the faculty factions, the senior administrators, and the external evaluators. Now let’s turn to a group that many assistant professors usually know little about and certainly don’t hobnob with: the campus promotion-and-tenure committee....

David D. Perlmutter. “Don’t Fear Fundraising, Part 1.” Chronicle of Higher Education, April 11, 2014, pp. A38-39.   The ins and outs of asking ‘friends’ for money Linda Helton for the Chronicle Enlarge Image By David D. Perlmutter Before I became a department chair, I had no experience with fund raising and held all the usual stereotypes and fears that faculty members tend to have about "asking people for money." But my field is political communication, so I did know something about the fund-raising enterprise. One of its fundamental dilemmas is encapsulated in this campaign tale: The aides of a first-time politician ask him to solicit donations from a list of his well-to-do friends. He is flummoxed: "I can’t call these people. They are my friends; how can I ask friends for money?" The next day the aides give him a second list, this time of wealthy potential donors he doesn’t know. Again he balks: "I can’t call these people. They are strangers; how can I ask...

David D. Perlmutter. “Why I Don't Negotiate ... That Much.” Chronicle of Higher Education, April 14, 2014. April 14, 2014 Oh, we've got more on negotiation. Try these: Negotiation 101: The Vitae Roundtable | The Professor Is In: Negotiating Salary When first offered a tenure-track position, I was a doctoral student with no experience in contract negotiations. Fast forward two decades, and now I am the other partner in the dyad: the dean who extends and negotiates hiring contracts. So I could empathize with both parties in the recent, virally-famous “W vs. Nazareth” controversy—although as with many academic-hiring incidents in which people have taken strong stances, we know very few facts. We just have two emails—“W’s” requests for start-up aid and the “never mind” response from Nazareth—and also some subsequent comments from W. The thousands weighing in have expressed opinions ranging from “She was being peremptory and unrealistic and demonstrated she wasn’t the right fit for a small liberal arts college” to “Nazareth was too quick to pull the...

David D. Perlmutter. “Your College Needs a Brand. Help Create It.” Chronicle of Higher Education, April 21, 2014, pp. A32-A33.   Enlarge Image By David D. Perlmutter The art, science, and profession of discovering what people think about you and trying to persuade them to have a different view, or reinforcing the one they already have, is called branding. Sounds simple, but maybe that’s the problem. A branding consultant told me that when his firm was hired to do research and then apply a branding campaign to a particular college, its marketing people warned him that he should not use the words "brand" or "branding" on campus but rather talk about the college’s "image." The caution was not unwarranted: Over the years, I have cataloged critiques by faculty members of college branding campaigns and have expressed them myself: The campaigns hawk dignified universities like commercial products. They reduce a complicated institution into simplistic pictures and slogans. They make unrealistic or outlandish claims. They are a product of higher administration and...

David D. Perlmutter. “Know the Vital Players in Your Career: External Reviewers.” Chronicle of Higher Education, January 27, 2014, p. A31.By David D. Perlmutter JANUARY 27, 2014 Brian Taylor for The Chronicle The first time I served as an external reviewer for a candidate’s tenure bid at another university, I had just gotten tenure myself. I was flattered to be asked and wanted to do a good job at what I felt, and still feel, is one of the most sacred tasks of the tenured professor: evaluating whether or not to induct someone into our guild. So I was ready to do my duty. The only problem? The state of the tenure file I received. It could have been a test case in how not to present a tenure packet to an external reviewer. (more…)...

David D. Perlmutter. “Know the Vital Players in Your Career: The Tenured Factions.” Chronicle of Higher Education, November 11, 2013.   How voting groups in the faculty decide to support or oppose your P&T candidacy Natalya Balnova for The Chronicle Enlarge Image By David D. Perlmutter When it comes time for your faculty colleagues to vote on your tenure case—aye, nay, or abstain—you need to know that most of them aren't voting entirely on their own. They're voting in packs. In this series about the players who can affect your career, I focused first on the chair and then on the head of the department's promotion-and-tenure committee. Now I'd like to turn to the role played by tenured faculty members. How they vote is rarely idiosyncratic or random. There tend to be constituencies of like feeling and opinion. Understanding those constituencies early in your career and identifying which faculty members fall into which category will give you some sense of who will decide your fate, why, and what you might do...