Most departments, therefore, (at least departments in Arts and Letters), require all faculty to submit annual "performance reports", so the chair can effectively evaluate the individual's productivity and determine his/her raise for the coming year. Some departments provide forms to be filled in - others do not. It's my advice that since these reports are required, they should be completed as fully as possible.

If no form is offered by your department, or even if one is, here's a complete list of categories of evidence that could/should be submitted, voluntarily.

Scholarship
For T & R faculty, give complete bibliographical details on articles and book. Include items officially accepted for publication but which have not yet appeared. List in order of your most recent work first.

1. Books, edited volumes, articles, essays, chapters in books, and creative work. Submit supporting material - for example, one article, description of theater work performed, etc.

2. Invited lectures (one-hour lectures); invited creative work. Give month, year, location, and sponsoring institution, where appropriate.

3. Panels and Papers (20-minute papers). Give month, year, location, and conference name, where appropriate.

4. Peer evaluation (for example, reviews of your work).

5. Other public addresses, performances, film/video festivals, or exhibits.

6. Journal editing. For example, if you are on an editorial board, how many articles did you referee?

7. Service to the profession, including evaluation of scholarship (reading scholarly manuscripts for publication, external promotion and tenure reviews, etc.), evaluation of performances, etc.

8. Scholarship and work in progress. (Be as specific as necessary to convey the theme, nature, and envisioned result of your work; what has been accomplished to date.)

9. Grant proposals. (List title of proposal; name of agency or award; amount of funding sought or received; and month and year of award or submission.)

A. Awarded

B. Submitted

10. Service to the department (committees, special assignments, unusual accomplishments, assistance in recruiting target of opportunity students and faculty)

Teaching and student advising
List all courses taught by semester, with enrollments. Note whether any of your courses were new courses and in what respect any were unusually time-consuming.

Advising. (Include especially dissertation advising, dissertation committees, MA advising, MA committees, honors thesis advising, and honors committees. Give level, name of student, title of project, and whether the project is in progress or was completed. For undergraduate academic advising, estimate the number of students (majors and potential majors) you regularly advised during 1998

Committee Assignments and Governance Participation

1. Profession

2. University

3. College

4. Community Service

Recognition, honors, and awards received
List all professional recognition, honors, and awards received including election to committees and officer roles in professional organizations.

 

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When is it worth applying for an outside job?
Consider when to time an outside offer. If you apply for a job in your first year of service to Notre Dame, and get an offer, what is the likelihood that a new job will offer you anything significantly different from what you have? If the offer only allows you to make a lateral move at roughly the same salary, you may wish to take the offer but you will be unable to use it to negotiate for a significantly better deal at Notre Dame. In addition, a too-early offer could make you look less committed to Notre Dame and, therefore, harm your chances of renewal down the line. By contrast, if you apply for a job in your third year of service, when you are being considered for renewal, or in your sixth, when you are being reviewed for tenure, you may be able to make a move up or, at the very least, cement your chances for renewal or tenure. In some cases, you may wish to wait until you get tenure and then apply for senior positions elsewhere.

Assess your chances as a job candidate. Is it worth your while to spend time on the job market if you have not changed your profile since getting the job at Notre Dame? If you are unlikely to get an offer, your time may be better spent working on your research. If, however, you have recently published significantly in your field or won significant grants or prizes, and feel that Notre Dame isn't recognizing your new status as a scholar, it is well worth your while to get an offer so that Notre Dame will see you in a new light.

Evaluate what you want from an outside offer. When you apply for jobs at other colleges or universities, you have to examine your motives. Are you actually willing to move to another university? Are you just looking for a negotiating tool? If you would not be willing to take the outside job, it may not be in your best interests to apply for it. As above, consider the investment of time that goes into a job hunt. In addition, consider the risk: an offer from another university does not guarantee a counter offer from Notre Dame. So you'll want to be pretty sure of your chances. Otherwise, you may paint yourself into a corner and be stuck moving to a job you don't want.

What are your obligations when applying for outside jobs?
You may feel guilty about seeking employment elsewhere. Don't. It is your life and career and you have every right to improve your situation. It is a very common practice in academia. Your department chair may even recommend that you apply for jobs, since she or he may wish to reward you but needs leverage to do so. In most cases, you should ask your chair for a letter of recommendation. While this may be awkward, you can make clear to your chair that you are simply exploring options. If you are uncomfortable asking your chair, ask another senior colleague whom you trust. Remember that your application will look odd to a potential employer without a current recommendation. You do not need to tell your chair when you have an interview, but should alert him or her as soon as possible after you get an offer.

You may feel that you are being duplicitous with the outside university. Don't. You have every right to turn down a job. And you have every right to take a reasonable amount of time (generally two weeks) to give them an answer. If a search committee wants you, chances are they will exert some pressure on you. Simply tell them that you are very excited about the offer and are considering all your options before making a final decision. Don't let yourself be bullied.

Don't waste anybody's time. As soon as you have an offer - and possibly even when you have a verbal offer only -- discuss the offer with your chair. Let him or her know that you feel an obligation to give the outside university an answer as soon as possible. Your chair should be able to discuss your case with the dean and provost within a week or so. Alternately, as soon as you get a counter offer from Notre Dame, and you make your decision, let both schools know what you plan to do. If you are turning down a job from an outside university, you need to given them time to locate a new candidate. If you are accepting the outside job, Notre Dame needs to fill your position.

What can you ask for?
An outside offer is a negotiating tool. When you get the offer, evaluate it. Are you happy with the terms? If not, you may wish to negotiate with the outside university before you approach Notre Dame. When you have an offer you could possibly accept, consider what is most important to you -- the salary? Time off? Research funds? What part of the offer will you need Notre Dame to match or exceed? When you discuss the offer with your chair, let him or her know what appeals to you about the offer and what you are most attracted to. You do not need to tell your chair an exact dollar amount you will accept. You may undersell yourself. Better to let the chair come up with a package in consultation with the dean and provost. Then, if you are unhappy with the counter-offer, you may wish to renegotiate. Chances are there will be some flexibility in the offer. But be reasonable. If your outside offer promises you a $10,000 increase in salary, don't expect Notre Dame to give you an extra $30,000.

 

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c. Leaves

What follows pertains only to T & R (Teaching and Research) faculty, and is only useful for faculty in Arts and Letters. Other colleges, Architecture, Engineering, Science, Law and Business, have different leave programs, if they have leave programs at all.

In your fourth year, normally you are eligible for a one semester leave at full pay or a full year's leave at half pay. In order to qualify for the leave, you must apply for at least two outside grants in your third year. If you receive a grant of $30,000 or more, you can take a full year's leave at full pay (the size of the grant is somewhat negotiable; people have been given a full year with slightly smaller grants, it depends on your salary).

If you receive an outside grant in years one-through-three, you are still eligible for the year four grant. However, you should be careful about how much leave you take early in your time at ND: make sure that you establish enough of a teaching record in your first three years to support your case for renewal.

If you receive two grants for the same time period, it is possible to "piggyback" them instead of having to turn one down or take both at the same time. This is something you need to negotiate with your chair - your success will depend on your particular department and whether or not your teaching duties can be covered for the amount of time you're on leave.

Pregnancy/family leave
U.S. law requires that Notre Dame give you a Family and Medical leave. Here's the official language from the Faculty Handbook (p. 86):

"Faculty members with serious health conditions caused by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions are entitled to Family and Medical leave. Leave for a serious health condition related to childbirth and recovery is normally for at least six weeks. No University duties are required during the period of the leave. In addition, a faculty member whose due date for the birth of her child is anytime during the semester is relieved from all teaching responsibilities during that semester. When a faculty member's due date falls outside of a semester, she should contact the Office of the Provost regarding whether she will be relieved from teaching responsibilities."

Here's the scoop: You are allowed six weeks of paid leave after childbirth. During this time you do not need to teach, hold office hours, attend committee meetings, etc. In order to apply for this, you need to fill out an FMLA form (available from Human Resources). You are also legally eligible for another six weeks of unpaid leave. (Fathers, by the way, are also legally eligible for twelve weeks of unpaid leave after the birth of the child).

The University has a new policy which gives female faculty "teaching relief" for the entire semester during which they give birth. This is NOT a "maternity leave" or a "childcare leave"; you still need to fulfill all your service and, presumably, research responsibilities during this time (although trying to do research with a newborn baby presents a number of challenges!), and you "may be assigned other service and administrative responsibilities during the period when [you] are not on Family and Medical Leave but relieved from teaching." The logic behind this policy (and the legal means by which it can apply to new mothers but not new fathers) is that the 6-12 weeks that the law guarantees you would irredeemably disrupt classes during the semester.

What the policy means is that if you have a baby in September, you have a zero course load in the fall; if you have a baby in April, you have a zero course load for Spring. If you have a baby in the summertime, the policy is that the Assistant Provost will decide whether or not you're eligible for teaching relief the following fall. Precedent indicates that such relief is generally granted. And if your due date falls toward the very end of a given semester, you can ask for and will probably be granted the following semester leave (since the birth won't significantly disrupt the current semester's classes). To request teaching relief, you write a letter to your chair requesting the relief and cc the letter to Carol Mooney at the Provost's Office.

There is also some precedent for taking your teaching relief for childbirth later than the semester in which you give birth, i.e. if you have a grant in that semester, you can make the argument for teaching relief in the following semester (since childbirth interrupted your research time).

Stopping the tenure clock for childcare
You (or your spouse) can stop your tenure clock once in each of your three year contracts for the birth or adoption of a baby. You can also stop your tenure clock if you arrive with a newborn. According to the faculty handbook, you need to request the contract extension within 6 months of birth or adoption (One BP contributor had a baby in the spring before her hire, and started at ND with a "four year" contract). The official language says that you can request an extension of your contract if the birth occurs "either a) prior to November 1 of the appointment's third year, or b) after November 1 of the final year of a previous, contiguous appointment." I think this means that if you get pregnant in your second year, and the baby is due after November 1, you can't elect this extension. You have to come up for review/renewal in your third year (which means putting together your renewal packet in the summer before the baby's born). As long as you are renewed, however, you could then elect the extension for the following contract (which may not be a bad idea).

Here's some advice: It's a good idea to discuss with your chair, and perhaps with some more experienced colleagues, whether or not it will be advantageous for you to stop the clock. You are NOT supposed to be "penalized" for taking the extra year; it's NOT supposed to "count." But it's a good idea to ask your chair directly whether or not he/she perceives that your CAP might indeed "penalize" you for taking the extra year (i.e. if they might perceive that you should have been able to get your materials in before having the baby, for example).

In some circumstances it might not be wise or strategic for you to stop the clock in your first contract period. For example, if you are close to the time for submitting your renewal materials when your baby will be born, you might want to get the renewal portfolio finished and take the tenure extension in your second contract (when you'll need the extra time because you'll be trying to get your book done with a new baby). Remember that stopping the clock is a way of relieving you of the stress of dealing with a new baby and the necessity to produce scholarship; if you don't feel you need to stop the clock (because you're in good shape for renewal or tenure already) there's no reason to extend the agony of limbo. At the same time, if you can accelerate renewal or promotion to before the baby's born, then you relieve yourself of some pressure for the first year after birth automatically.

Stopping the tenure clock for other reasons (physical or mental illness)
If there is a medical reason for your inability to produce research, you should meet with your chair to discuss the possibility of stopping the tenure clock. This should be done as soon as you feel in danger--don't wait until the last minute.

Opportunity to work part-time
The University provides an opportunity to work part-time if your circumstances warrant it. The official university policy is on page 88 of the Faculty Handbook (2000-2001). Women faculty with small children might wish to consider this as an option for surviving the demands of teaching, research, service, and raising kids. However, there are some costs associated with opting for part-time employment. The first is that if you work less than three-quarters-time, you must pay the total medical premium if you want to participate in the University medical benefit program (this may then be an option better suited to women with partners whose jobs provide medical benefits). The second is that your time to tenure is increased in proportion to the amount of time you DON'T work (i.e. if you work half-time, you double your time to tenure). And finally if you go part-time your salary does too. You can opt in and out of the part-time status as needed. Requests go "through the appointments and promotions channels."

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THEN HEED WELL, for here are some negotiating suggestions that might help you be a more effective chair and a happier person, if you are offered the job.

Most important, on your campus visit, make an in-depth assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the department, in a few different ways: by talking with the previous chairperson, by reading any external evaluations or reviews of the department; by meeting and talking with as many faculty and staff in the department as possible, and by using whatever means work best for you to learn something about the students, undergraduate and graduate. Talking to chairs of some other departments on campus wouldn't hurt, either.

Meanwhile, keep asking administrators (deans and the provost) until you are quite clear about what the expectations are for the new chair. The basic duties of a department chair might be obvious, although if you come from another institution, you may not be familiar with the peculiarities generated by the CAP system, which makes the chair both more and less powerful than might be the case at a different university. As chair, you may or may not be asked to, for instance, do your own development (raise money), do your own public relations and publicity; develop a summer institute; develop a new degree program, help design a new building for your programs, [preside over an external review of the department], etc.

Then, in your negotiations, it is natural to extract commitments from the Dean and Provost if you think you will need financial or personnel support to fix or expand things in any of the following areas,

1. additional technical staff

2. additional or upgraded administrative assistant(s)

3. additional Teaching & Research, Professional Specialist and/or Adjunct lines

4. new equipment, or an equipment repair budget

5. office space, or lab space.

As for your personal requirements, it is reasonable to expect to negotiate your own salary, and for some personal research funds (if need can be demonstrated.) Some new chairs coming in from outside also appear to have negotiated positions at the university for their spouses and to have acquired new faculty lines in areas related to their own.

Regarding the length of your appointment, the standard term for a chair in the College of Arts and Letters is three years, and then a semester's leave, then three years, and again a semester's leave. Or you could chair for six years straight and then take a full year's leave. Though this is the standard arrangement, it too could probably be negotiated. What is also standard is that the chair's job is a 12-months-a-year appointment, (The salary is a nine-month base with an additional supplement for summer.) The normal teaching load for a chair is 1 course each semester.

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There seems to be no particular way - that is no specified process - for someone to be promoted to department chair. In one largish A & L department, it went like this: you sort of let it be known that you might be interested, then maybe two or three people will approach you to determine "how interested" and a lot of informal buzzing will go on for awhile, and if you've answered strongly in the positive, then you might be invited to go see the Dean of your college. If that goes well, then the Dean solicits recommendations from all the faculty of your department. And then, and then, you might become a Chairperson, if you agree. At some point there might be an official vote for your candidacy at an official departmental meeting, and the minutes of that meeting might be sent to the Dean - but maybe not. Of course, if there's more than one person interested in the job, there might be a "winnowing phase", to sort out the most likely candidate to succeed.

If you're the lucky one, you would be asked to make an initial commitment for a 3-year term. In most cases, you would be invited to stand for another three, but you could decline. For each three years you serve, you're entitled to one semester's leave. If you serve 6 years, you could take a full year's leave at the end of the second term.

As chair, you will automatically get a course reduction of one course per semester. None of the forgoing has to be negotiated - it's standard.

If you think you will need financial or personnel support to fix or expand things in any of the following areas, these items can be negotiated:

1. additional technical staff

2. additional or upgraded administrative assistant(s)

3. additional Teaching & Research, Professional Specialist and/or Adjunct lines

4. new equipment, or an equipment repair budget

5. office space, or lab space.

6. increases in various budget lines

It's best to go into the negotiating meetings with the Dean and Provost with a ranked list of priorities. Of course your success in these negotiations will depend on how much they want you and how much you want the job. If you don't get what you think is absolutely essential for you to do a good job, you can refuse to take it.

As for your personal requirements, it is reasonable to expect to negotiate for some personal research funds (if need can be demonstrated.) You might also be able to talk about issues of rank-for example, if you are an associate but nearly ready to go up for full, you might ask for a leave before you start in as chair, so that your promotion could go through and you could then serve in the higher rank. Otherwise being chair might end up keeping you longer at the associate rank because of all the work involved. For this and other reasons, some external reviewers have recommended that only full professors serve as chairs.

It is not reasonable to expect to negotiate your own salary. (Of course you can try it.) Chairs get an extra 2/9 of their current salary for chairing - your base salary itself doesn't increase. When your term(s) is over, you could find yourself back where you were before you were chairperson. (One chair advised that you never come to understand that extra 2/9 as a permanent raise, for when you return to normal academic life, you will then feel your salary has been reduced, and might experience severe loss.)

On the other hand, it has been known to happen, that if you're doing a good job as chair, the Dean or Provost might just award you a little something extra in the way of salary increases as the years of your chairing roll on.

Why then should anybody agree to be a chair? Because you might have some ideas about how your department could be improved and have an idea about how that should be done. And you might even have some impact beyond your department-through your contacts with the dean and other administrators, your role on the chairs' council, and so on. Remember, after you're done being chair, you will go on living in that department for the rest of your academic career at this university. Why not make it better.

It is not at all a thankless job. Some chairs have greatly improved the status of Adjuncts and Professional Specialists in their department, and been thanked for it. Some chairs have instituted more democratic proceedings in their CAP committees, and been thanked for it. Some chairs have gone out of their way not to place unfair burdens on untenured faculty, and been thanked for it. Some chairs have instituted year-end reviews of all graduate student, and even of all untenured professors, and been thanked for it. Some chairs have made great strides in soliciting women and other minorities to apply for jobs and have helped to get some of these hired, and have been thanked for it.. etc. etc. All of which is only to say that you could make a big difference. The advice of one current chair was to have a limited list of initiatives to make sure that you can focus on the most important ones.

Another chair said that, yes, there are lots of little things to take care of and keep track of, but the hardest thing - and the project that takes the most time (and which can produce agony) - is personnel matters: renewing and tenuring, hiring and all the attendant paperwork. Another chair said that the budgeting/accounting part (the part that scares some of us the most) is not at all hard, especially if you have a good administrative assistant. This chair processes about $100,000 a year (not including salaries), and says that other than salaries, which are untouchable, there's a great deal of flexibility.

In addition to all the others, women have some particularly good reasons to serve as chairpersons: to add a female voice to some of the highest level negotiations on campus; to serve as a model for other women and attract more and better women to this campus; and of course to help right some institutionalized gender wrongs here, there and everywhere on this campus. Enough said?

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f. The Office of Institutional Equity

The Office for Institutional Equity was put in place in September 2001. It's responsible for four activities: assisting academic departments and all other units of the university in recruiting; maintaining the statistics required by the government on hiring, promotion, and terminations; making sure ND is compliant with disability laws; and investigating and reviewing cases of discrimination brought to it by individuals (and I guess groups) around issues of equity, specifically race, religion, gender, age, sexual preference, and disability.

After investigating complaints (inequities in salaries, promotions, leaves, responsibilities, etc.) the office makes recommendations to the appropriate chairs, deans, etc. Although these are only recommendations, they tend to have the "force of the law" behind them, and can't therefore be easily disregarded). The office is run by a staff of four, headed by a director, who is responsible to the President of the University only, and who will broke no interference from Provosts and Deans.

On March 7th, 2002, addressing the Faculty Senate, the director of the office Rhonda Brown said that her job is to raise the number of female and minority professors. "Faculties are vested entities in this place", Brown said. "With a weak faculty you have a weak institution. With a strong faculty you have a strong institution. She said her office would be playing an active role in faculty searches and hiring interviews in the fall of 2002.

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