Professors receive $200,000 for 'career flexibility'

By Liz O'Brien

Santa Clara is among six schools in the nation receiving a $200,000 grant for faculty career flexibility -- a concept that focuses on helping professors balance their professional and personal lives.

Announced last Tuesday by the American Council of Education, the Alfred P. Sloan Award for Faculty Career Flexibility will be used to carry out a three-part plan that furthers the university's existing policies and implements new programs in faculty flexibility.

"What we're looking at is a much better system of communication of what the university's policies are about," said Don Dodson, senior vice provost. "We do have some more flexible policies right now that probably some faculty members aren't aware of."

Flexibility issues include maternity or family leave, employee assistance programs, such as financial or psychological counseling, and course scheduling throughout the academic year.

Religious studies professor James Reites, S.J., said maintaining a comfortable balance as a faculty member can be overwhelming, especially on a 10-week-long course schedule.

"The quarter system is just so hectic that it makes it really hard," said Reites. "There's so many demands on your time that it's very hard, as far as balancing a personal life and professional life. I think that just about any faculty member will say that."

ACE is the major coordinating body for the nation's institutions of higher education and has paired with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a philanthropic non-profit organization, to offer this award for the second year in a row.

Santa Clara was invited to apply for the grant late last summer, along with 324 other master's institutions. Application invitations were limited to those universities that offered master's programs, and of the 56 that responded, Santa Clara was one of the six winners, along with nearby San Jose State University.

"What we looked for was the degree to which the faculty experience of flexibility matches the intent of the administration addressing it," said Kathleen Christensen, program director for Workplace, Workforce, and Working Families at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Santa Clara's proposal consisted of three initiatives: creating a pedagogy for change, improving career flexibility policies and strengthening the infrastructure for career flexibility.

The first initiative seeks to improve communication about the university's existing policies on flexibility through a Web site that describes university policies and provides resources for faculty.

The Web site is set to launch in mid-March, and will be followed in June by an informative brochure. Also included in the first initiative is a training program for gatekeepers, those who oversee and evaluate faculty members. The proposal anticipates that training programs will be planned by mid-March, as well.

The second initiative proposes changes in the duties, appointments and course scheduling for tenured and tenure-track faculty. The third initiative seeks to modify the Kids on Campus program to better meet faculty needs. As part of the third initiative, the provost's diversity council will incorporate elements of faculty flexibility into its agenda.

First-year communication professor Hsen-I Cheng said Santa Clara seems to "provide much more attention to helping faculty members to strike the balance" than her previous institution, Bowling Green University in Ohio.

"To have, for example, a day care service for faculty members really reduces a lot of anxiety and helps to strengthen family relationships in a way that is very beneficial for job performance and whole well-being," said Cheng.

Though most of the benefits of the grant will be realized by faculty, students may feel the award's effects as well. An undergraduate course that corresponds with faculty flexibility will be offered in the spring of 2009, according to the proposal.

"It would focus generally around the way people balance their work lives with the rest of their lives and how that gets caught up in gender roles," Dodson said.

Though the proposal is intended for all faculty members -- both tenured or otherwise -- Dodson said that those with families may be most appreciative of its changes.

"To me, it provides a sense of security, because I do plan to have a family," said Cheng. "Knowing that the benefits for things like maternity leave goes for both genders is really attractive to me."

The university is allowed to distribute the money as it deems appropriate, Dodson said. However, the university will need to submit annual and final reports to ACE and the foundation at the end of a two-year period, according to Christensen.

"We want to ensure that the universities work steadily toward achieving their goals," she said.

Dodson said that a large portion of the money will go to creating the Web site and brochure, as well as training gatekeepers.

The grant proposal ultimately came from the Provost's Office, but there were a number of contributing groups.

The Women Faculty Group and the Faculty Development Office met with faculty and staff from the Provost's Office in September to outline the proposal, which was submitted Oct. 1.

Contact Liz O'Brien at (408) 554-4546 or eobrien@scu.edu.