Q. & A. for Ph.D. Students Professional Development Series

1. Q. &A. for Ph.D. Students Professional Development Series Richard Barth, Ph.D., MSW Dean and Professor February 16, 2012

2. What is a dean looking for in a faculty member? • Someone who has a high likelihood of: • Getting tenure • Teaching that is good or better • highly relevant to practice • Fitting in with colleagues (making them better) • Giving more than they get (generous) • Supporting needed changes in the school • Impressing others who count (e.g., other administrators, Board, deans)

3. What is a dean looking for in a faculty member? • A terrific person—one with good judgment, communication skills, awareness of scientific, cultural, and psychosocial issues who can represent the school in a way that leads to communications that say, “I had the pleasure to work with {Name} on a project and I don’t know if it will be funded/started/completed but I was sure impressed with her/his ability to advance the process.”

4. What worries a dean most about faculty members? • Faculty won’t be happy or stay • Students will march on the dean’s office to complain about teaching • Faculty will be a squeaky wheel on a wagon that moves slowly and hardly ever delivers anything • Faculty is more interested in politics • Faculty will work “with their back to the door” • Faculty won’t communicate often or well

5. What is a dean's role in a search? • It ranges: • Some deans sit in on the screening interviews and meet everyone • Some deans only meet with the final candidate • Many deans have a role in between and consult with the search process to ensure that a candidate is selected who the dean and the faculty can agree on • Almost all deans meet with the visiting candidates and, later, negotiate salary and other matters

6. What are some good questions to ask when the dean says:  "do you have any questions for me?" • What are your goals for the next five years and how do you expect faculty members to help you achieve those? • What is the most important quality that you seek in your faculty? • Are there any new campus strategic directions that you want your faculty to help advance? (Visiting faculty should, of course, know if there is a campus strategic plan.) • If you haven’t heard this from the search committee chair, “what is the decision making process from here?” • If you have another offer, “I have another offer and it would be helpful for me to hear from you by DATE—does that seem feasible?” “If not, I can ask for another date if you can indicate when I might hear from you.”

7. When do you ask the dean about salaries and parking and the rest? • Not during your first interview with the dean (unless you have a very firm offer and want to know if an offer from this school is likely to be competitive).

8. When, if ever, do you ask the dean about tenure processes? • This question could possibly be off putting to some deans, “If they have to ask about it then they must lack confidence that they can meet any standard?” or “Why didn’t they discuss this with the search committee?” • But, getting the Dean’s perspective on tenure is different than getting the search committee’s perspective. So, don’t be afraid to ask how the decision making process works and what is weighed the most in the final analysis.

9. How much can you bargain with a dean? • A LOT • They may tell you that there are steps and everyone comes in at the bottom of the ladder but it isn’t the whole truth and nothing but the truth • You can ask for a lot of things—start up costs are easier to give then ongoing [base] salary (in some cases) • Dean’s will generally respect someone who asks for what they are worth and knows that they will also do that with funders and others who might, otherwise, undervalue them

10. What do you say if the dean says that s/he needs your decision in the two weeks (or gives other tight deadlines)? • You can say that you will work with that deadline but wonder if it is possible to ask for an extension … (now or later), because • Spousal or family concerns • Other competing offers with slightly different timelines

11. When, if ever, do you tell a dean that you are going to other schools for interviews (and which ones)? • This is very helpful to tell a dean, especially if other schools are well-resourced or in a similar strata • WAY TOO MANY APPLICANTS fail to mention this “I think it may be helpful to you to know that I have 2 other job visits in the works, to Oxford and the Sorbonne, and that these will be done by the end of February”.

12. Once you get an offer, what do you ask for? • You should have a matrix of topics that you ask about that are relevant to your decision or will make your success more likely • Salary (base) • 9-month or 10-month base • Salary for summer (up to 3 summers) • Teaching load • Sabbatical program (two types) • Travel $ for data collection or collaboration • Intramural funding support • Grant preparation support • Course buy back if you get grants • Administrative support • Mentoring programs

13. What if you have a partner in academia or otherwise employed? • This is very common so don’t feel awkward about it • If the dean asks you whether you have “any other contingencies that s/he should know about in order to clear the way for a move to Metropolis-X” you have to handle that carefully. • Option A: “I think it’s too early to talk about that.” • Option B: “At this point, no.” • Option C: “Yes, I have a spouse who teaches Ancient Serbo-Croatian Drama who will need a job in this university or a nearby one”

14. Does it matter whether it is a School of Social Work or a Department? • It may not matter at all… • Dean’s usually have more authority and resources, but not always… • Some departments are well resourced (e.g., UCLA School of Public Affairs just got a $100m gift) • It may be useful to know how that affects tenure processes/decisions

15. How should you feel after meeting with the dean/department chair • This is someone you could go to in order to talk about how you are doing and ask for help for unanticipated problems • That you have some sense that even if this dean left (and they do) that there would be continuity