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Session 3675

Dual Career Academic Searches for Engineering Faculty Positions * * # # Noel N. Schulz , Kirk H. Schulz , Mariesa L. Crow , James L. Drewniak Michigan Technological University*, University of Missouri-Rolla#

Introduction

The hiring and transferring of dual career couples is an increasing problem in industry [1-4] and academia. Many dual Ph.D. husband and wife teams seek faculty positions in engineering, and are often hampered by uncertainty in how to go about searching for two tenure track positions. While the approaches for solving the challenges of dual career hires are varied, the issue is becoming more and more a concern. Departments will find dual career issues one of the top concerns for the recruitment and retention of faculty in the next ten to fifteen years. In fact, the issue is now rising beyond faculty hiring into the searches for department chairs, deans, vice presidents and presidents [5].

In order to gain some insight into attributes of successful dual career searches, a survey was sent to dual career couples at universities in the United States where both spouses were placed into tenure track faculty positions. Unfortunately, no data base of dual engineering faculty couples exists, and thus, the list was assembled from personal contacts and suggestions made by colleagues to the authors. Additionally, administrators ranging from department chairs to the academic vice president were interviewed at the University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR) and Michigan Technological University (MTU) to gain their insights into hiring dual career faculty couples. We believe that the information presented may be helpful to dual Ph.D. engineering couples seeking faculty positions and to administrators hoping to attract dual career couples.

Dual Career Engineering Faculty Search Survey

A survey was sent to 74 different faculty members representing 37 dual career couples and 18 responses were received giving a return rate of 49%. Each survey contained the responses for both faculty members in the couple. A copy of the survey and the detailed results are being prepared for publication in the Journal of Engineering Education [6]. The survey asked some initial information about the couples' current university appointments and length of time there. The rest of the survey dealt with the strategies or activities the couple used in their search. Specific questions related to:

• importance of university location and reputation, • at what point prior to their desired start date did they begin their dual career search, • how and when in the search process they indicated they were part of a dual career couple, • what people at the university were instrumental in working out two positions, • what institutional dual career programs were available, • how many individual and dual tenure track offers did the couple get, • how important was a spousal position in your decision to accept or reject an offer, • whether one person left a tenure track position at another university because of an unsuitable dual career situation, • and if one of the spouses was in a temporary (or non-tenure track) position prior to getting two tenure track positions.

1996 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings

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Crow, M. L., & Schulz, K. H., & Drewniak, J. L., & Schulz, N. (1996, June), Dual Career Academic Searches For Engineering Faculty Positions Paper presented at 1996 Annual Conference, Washington, District of Columbia. 10.18260/1-2--5997