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The Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Faculty Career
Flexibility
Definition of Faculty Career Flexibility
For the
purposes of the Sloan Awards for Faculty Career Flexibility, the Alfred
P. Sloan Foundation has suggested these policies as examples of best
practices in career flexibility:
- On- and off-ramps, through leave policies.
- Extended time to tenure (tenure clock adjustment).
- Shortened time to tenure, with prorated standard of
productivity.
- Active Service, Modified Duties (full-time service, with selected
reduced duties).
- Part-time appointments (allowing mobility between full-time and
part-time work).
- Phased retirement (partial appointments for finite periods of
time).
- Delayed entry or re-entry opportunities (including practices that
foster later-than-usual career starts).
Why the Need for Faculty Career Flexibility?
Since 2002,
women have earned more than half of all the PhDs awarded to Americans at
U.S. universities, yet fewer than half of them pursue tenure-track
positions at American colleges and universities. Among those who do,
only about one-third achieve tenure and less than one-quarter advance to
the rank of full professor.
For the
female faculty who take on tenure-track positions, the obstacles can
continue. Many find that their careers are severely hampered by having
and raising children, particularly during their tenure-track
probationary period. In addition, women are significantly more likely
than men to feel they have to sacrifice a family life to succeed in
their academic careers. However, studies show that younger men want to
be more involved in their family lives so this is increasingly an issue
that affects men as well as women faculty. In addition, as the
population ages, many faculty are called on to care for their elderly
parents and relatives, so these issues affect faculty of all
ages.
Given these
conditions, flexible career policies and programs are becoming ever more
necessary as a means of helping meet the needs of an increasingly
diverse faculty. Such practices also help advance institutional goals,
such as improved recruitment and retention and maintaining academic
competitiveness in a global market.
For more information contact Gloria Thomas, Associate
Director, at the American Council on Education: (202) 939-9404 or
gloria_thomas@ace.nche.edu.
Please direct questions about this page to:
jean_mclaughlin@ace.nche.edu
This page last updated on January 11, 2007.
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