The Department Chair's Role in Developing New Faculty into Teachers and Scholars (review)

The Department Chair's Role in Developing New Faculty into Teachers and Scholars, by Estela Mara Bensimon, Kelly Ward, and Karla Sanders. Anker Publishing, 2000. 232 pp. $25.95 (paper)

If studies and reports over the last decade are any indication, attracting, developing, and retaining early career faculty continues to capture the attention of scholars, academic administrators, and faculty development leaders in higher education. Many of these studies have suggested that intellectual, social, and resource support from senior faculty, chairs, deans and other campus administrators are critical to the success of new faculty. In particular, findings point to the essential role played by the department chair. Hence, Bensimon, Ward, and Sanders' examination in this book of the role that chairs play in "repopulating, remaking and repositioning the American academy" is both timely and needed. As the book's title suggests, the authors focus on the pivotal role the department chair plays in socializing new faculty members, in assisting them in reaching their greatest productivity. Indeed, Bensimon, Kelly, and Sanders take a broad view of new colleagues' initiation into the culture of the department and institution, comprehensively exploring three distinct phases in the development of new faculty.

The first area the authors explore is the recruitment and selection process of candidates, including practical advice about the wording of position announcements, interview questions, and letters of appointment. They also include guidelines for planning effective campus visits and providing relocation support, suggesting that management of the recruitment process plays a critical, and often overlooked, role in a candidate's integration into her department. Bensimon, Ward, and Sanders then target the development of faculty in the first year, emphasizing the role of the chair in helping newcomers become effective teachers and productive scholars. They provide persuasive evidence that a range of both formal and informal orientations are an essential ongoing process for providing information and support. Finally, in examining the development of faculty beyond the first year, the authors discuss the role of the chair as mentor. They recommend a mentoring system, clear advice on the tenure process and evaluations, and the creation of effective--and balanced--commitments to teaching, research, and service to meet the expectations of both departments and institutions.

Throughout all the chapters, Bensimon, Ward, and Sanders emphasize the importance of demystifying the process for new faculty: from helping a new colleague negotiate a benefits package to understanding the unspoken rules for being awarded tenure, senior faculty possess the information new professors may not want--or know--to request. Much of the advice in this book is directed toward helping the new faculty member identify and effectively confront common difficulties faced in the process of socialization into a new institution: a lack of adequate teaching preparation, making wise decisions regarding committee work, neglecting research work in favor of more immediate concerns (like teaching), and confusion about the institution's priorities.

Offering practical advice, Bensimon, Ward, and Sanders rely on a variety of sources, including interviews with new faculty, hypothetical scenarios to demonstrate the dilemmas faced by new faculty coupled with effective and appropriate responses, and examples from successful campus programs. Particularly attractive is the hands-on approach of this book. For example, in each chapter, the authors raise critical questions and then provide advice in the form of concrete materials such as samples of position announcements, candidate interview questions, letters of appointment, and annual plans that can be readily adapted to individual contexts. Each chapter concludes with a series of checklists, such as "Candidate's Disqualification" (to help manage a high volume of applications), "Topics to Include in Year-Long Orientation Programs," and "What the New Faculty Member Will Need to Know before Arriving on Campus."

While the volume includes a wealth of advice, often in the form of "Do's and Don'ts," it avoids being prescriptive and limiting. With an underlying acknowledgment that...