The Virginia Informer

Last Updated:2/9/10 Section: News

Thirty percent of the humanities faculty at the College of William and Mary are currently on the job market, according to the recently released faculty survey. Eighteen percent of the faculty as a whole is actively searching for new employment. Fifty percent of the faculty has at least considered leaving the College in the past two years.

These are among the selection of the results of the 2009 Faculty Survey that were presented to the Board of Visitors during their meeting last Thursday. This survey is the seventh conducted by Faculty Assembly; surveys have been administered every two or three years since 1993. The most recent survey is notable for the record level of faculty participation. Introducing the survey during his address to the Board of Visitors, Provost Michael Halleran stated that, "obviously [the survey] has good validity. There's a lot of rich data there." Nearly 72% of the faculty completed the survey, a response rate which sociology professor Katherine Slevin described as "absolutely fabulous."

Prof. Slevin described the survey in more detail for the Board of Visitors, drawing attention to a few particularly interesting results. Among other statistics, Prof. Slevin noted that job satisfaction is particularly low among more experienced professors. "Assistant professors are the most satisfied. Associate professors are the least satisfied," she said. Furthermore, the highest levels of dissatisfaction are in the schools of education and business, she reported. She paused to note that business school faculty had only just moved into the newly completed Miller Hall when the survey was being conducted.

The survey also revealed that, while 71% of the faculty overall agreed that female faculty are treated fairly, the results were strikingly divided along gender lines; 80% of men, and only 56% of women agreed. Also striking is that only 56% of self-identified minority respondents to the survey agreed or strongly agreed that minority faculty are treated fairly at the College of William and Mary. 10% of minority respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed.

The survey also asked faculty respondents to choose their priorities from a pre-selected list. Faculty members overwhelmingly chose "increased funding for salaries" as their first priority. Other priorities, in order of precedence, include increased support for faculty research, increased support for graduate and professional students, and increased support for research presentations at professional conferences. Over 90% of the faculty listed increased funding for faculty salaries as their first priority, and faculty members "were in strong agreement on the top three or four," according to Prof. Slevin.

Board of Visitors member Charles Banks expressed some concern over the results. "Their priorities were very 'me' focused," he said. "I was just struck when you mentioned all those priorities that the only things that weren't about the faculty personally were about graduate research," he added. Prof. Slevin responded that the survey was worded so as to encourage faculty members to list their personal priorities. "This was geared to get faculty opinion, so it will be from their perspective," she said. "It doesn't mean they're not capable of taking an institutional perspective."

While Prof. Slevin expressed enthusiasm about the success of the survey, she cautioned that it could be easily misrepresented. "If you look at this survey, it's a very complicated, sophisticated document," she said. "One of the dangers of what I just did, by just giving a flavor [of the results], is that I end up oversimplifying." The full document is 314 pages long.

The full results of the faculty survey will be discussed in depth by the Board of Visitors during their meeting this April.

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