Whitman College’s search for a professor to fill the newly-combined position of environmental studies and classics began on Monday, Feb. 7 and will continue until shortly before spring break.
The environmental studies-classics position is one of 10 tenure track positions Whitman will try to fill this year, along with positions in chemistry, economics, geology, physics, math, theatre, Chinese and music. Over the next two weeks, the four candidates for the environmental studies-classics position–like those in other positions–will teach classes, give lectures and meet several times with students and faculty.
Whitman advertises nationally when seeking new professors. The advertisement for the environmental studies-classics position was released in fall 2010. Professor of classics and co-chair of the hiring committee Dana Burgess was part of the team that later met with applicants at an American Philological Association conference in San Antonio, Texas.
Burgess said he was delighted with the quality of the application pool.
“Of the 13 we interviewed, all had strong qualifications in both areas,” he said.
Tenure track hiring was frozen during the 2008-2009 academic year when the economy crashed. It resumed in 2009-2010 and is back in full force in 2011. The economy has necessarily affected applicant pool, according to Professor of Religion and Division Chair for Humanities Jonathan Walters.
“It’s a tight market,” he said. “The bad economy actually helps us get the best candidates.”
Out of four candidates chosen to interview at Whitman, one may be chosen by the Board of Trustees with quality control measures, such as student input, considered along the way.
“If the students on a committee feel very strongly for or against a candidate, they can exercise a lot of influence on the decision-making process,” said Walters. “There is real power there.”
Departments involve students in the process in different ways. Earlier this year candidates for a position in the social sciences were made to propose a topic for class and to have a hypothetical class meeting with students, according to Denise Hazlett, professor of economics.
Faculty searches are a labor intensive process for those involved, and searches may end with no suitable candidate found. Burgess said that when he came to Whitman in 1986, he was concerned with making a hire quickly. His philosophy has since changed.
“I now realize that this is where the rubber hits the pavement,” he said. “A successful candidate for a tenurable position has the possibility of staying for a long time and affecting the institution very seriously.”
Committee members always keep in mind what qualities are suitable for Whitman when considering candidates. Burgess said that he is looking for candidates with “active intellectual engagement with the students and with their discipline and a relationship between the two. The ideal at Whitman is the teacher-scholar.”
In addition to tenure track professors, Whitman hires temporary professors to address enrollment fluctuations and sabbaticals. Walters said the Dean of Faculty does not know how many students are enrolled in each class until August, so last minute hires have to be made.
“Sometimes you get [visiting professors] that aren’t as good as the rest of the faculty,” said Walters. “Even one-year hires are subjected to careful scrutiny, and the contingent faculty members who remain long-term are those who have proven their excellence, especially in the classroom.”
ASWC Vice President and Student Affairs Chair senior John Loranger said that he would like to see more tenure track positions created in the future and to return to a 15 student average class size.
“An over-reliance on visiting professors means students inherently struggle to form relationships that can last all four years with professors,” he said.
According to Loranger, students do not receive the same benefits, such as recommendation writing, from visiting professors as they would receive from tenured professors.
Hiring additional professors also requires allocating more funds. The college pays all salaries from the same pool of funds, which can be changed by the Board of Trustees.
For the environmental science-classics position and others, students and faculty members will consider many factors when making their decisions in the coming weeks.
“It’s kind of like dating,” said Walters. “We show them who we are and they show us who they are and we hope for a good fit.”
