Word: junior
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...true victim of the publications race, many argue, is the undergraduate. Junior faculty cannot afford to devote too much time to teaching, because every hour spent teaching is an hour lost to research. And despite pronouncements that tenure appointments will take teaching into account, junior faculty know any effort they put into teaching must be for its intrinsic rewards, for it will not sway tenure decisions. "Administrators just pay teaching lip-service--publications count ten times as much, and it effects undergraduate education. Harvard students are neglected students, talented, interesting people who often have never talked to a member...
Beyond criticism of the structure of the tenure process, some junior and senior faculty question the criteria for granting tenure. These faculty believe the "publish or perish" syndrome erodes the morale of assistant professors and may affect the quality of the research itself. Even if a junior faculty member has a shelf full of his own books, reputation may not follow immediately. "In recent years, it has become apparent to all junior faculty that it doesn't matter how much they publish, the choice lies outside of department hands--it's simply impossible to publish enough...
...argues that this realization frustrates junior faculty and causes some senior faculty to engage in what he calls "ostrich-ism"--faculty who do not want to recognize the extent of the problem. Another junior faculty member agrees, "Many senior faculty feel guilty because they can't place people as easily as they used to. So if they can't, they avoid the issue." David Gordon Mitten, Loeb Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology, points to another fallacy in the publications game. "Research has been so overemphasized here that much of it is half-baked and not of primary quality because...
Donald suggests one solution, admittedly an idealistic proposal. Why not spend a portion of the University endowment to hire many more junior faculty, with no guarantee of tenure, to staff an increased number of seminars and small courses? Because Donald favors the star system of tenure, he does advocate offering tenure to many of these junior faculty but rather urges the intellectual and social integration of the assistant professor in to the life of the Harvard community. "Junior faculty ought to be treated very well and made socially and intellectually a part of the community. The prestige of Harvard will...
...also emphasizes the necessity of honesty about the potential frustrations of the post. "No university that's any good at all is going to promise tenure to a beginning assistant professor, but they should tell him or her frankly whether the post could lead to tenure," he says. Prospective junior faculty should understand that Harvard's biggest neglect of the undergraduate may frustrate any teaching efforts and that Harvard's tenure policy offers junior faculty scant hope of attaining senior rank...