faculty recruitment

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Not a thumbs up moment for Janet in her new job

Byuclafaculty

The University of Michigan has raided UC San Diego, hiring a pair of young computer scientists who’ve been drawing attention for their efforts to help Google find better ways to operate online. Jason Mars, an assistant professor, and Lingjia Tang, a member of the research faculty, decided to leave UCSD’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering only a year after they arrived. Mars is the first African American in the department’s history to hold a tenure track position. “They’re both excellent researchers. This is the single biggest setback I’ve had as chair,” said Rajesh Gupta, who took over the fast…

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Robert Anderson’s Presentation on the Future of UC Funding (With Slides)

Byuclafaculty

Robert Anderson The prior post on this blog carried the audio (only) of the forum sponsored by the Faculty Association at UCLA on the Future of University of California Funding held November 7, 2012 at the UCLA Faculty Center.Each of the three presenters used slides as part of their talks.  Below you will find two (alternative) links to the slides used by Prof. Robert Anderson along with the coordinated audio for his presentation.  Use whichever works best for your connection.

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Cautionary Note About CalPERS Long-Term Care

Byuclafaculty

Although UC employees are not covered by the basic CalPERS retirement plan, they are eligible to buy long-term care insurance through CalPERS as state employees, if such policies are offered. Some UC employees, who would be reluctant to buy such policies from commercial insurance companies, may have bought or considered the CalPERS version in the past. Today’s Sacramento Bee carries a cautionary story for you, if you have bought a CalPERS long-term care policy or might consider doing so in the future (if they are again offered).  Excerpts below: …CalPERS is considering imposing a 75 percent increase in premiums on…

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More and More Getting Off Scale

Byuclafaculty

The Daily Bruin today has a piece on proposals for dealing with faculty salary scales which have grown increasingly outmoded.  As the table, based on a graphic in the Bruin, illustrates, most faculty at UCLA are paid off-scale.  The University, for recruitment and retention purposes, tries to meet the external academic labor market.  In effect, since there are only so many dollars to go around, paying more than the official scale has to mean a higher student/teacher ratio than would otherwise prevail. Percent of faculty off scale as of 10/2010:Merced 88%UCLA 80%Santa Cruz 73%Berkeley 72%Irvine 66%Santa Barbara 66%San Diego 64%Riverside…

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A Message from Faculty Association Chair Dwight Read on Faculty Pay

Byuclafaculty

Annual Faculty Equity Adjustment The Faculty Association proposes a new annual Faculty Equity Adjustment to Salary that could incorporate a number of widely-used indicators, such as the mid-point salary point between UC’s Comparison-8 Universities, the level of the regional California Consumer Price Index (CPI), or the increased employee cost of the combined annual benefit increases (such as retirement and health). The point is that there should be an Annual Faculty Equity Adjustment. We realize that until the California economy recovers and the unending budget crisis is resolved, state funds will not be the source for funding the proposed Annual Faculty…

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Op Ed by Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the UC-Irvine Law School on UC Funding

Byuclafaculty

Invest in higher education: Over the years, the state’s contribution to the University of California has not kept pace with its needs. The risk is letting a great system become a mediocre one. (Excerpts) Erwin Chemerinsky, Dec. 27, 2010, Los Angeles Times The proposals for the University of California now being considered in Sacramento — limiting tuition and fees, freezing executive and faculty salaries and increasing legislative control over the UCs — are well intentioned. But they are a recipe for ruining a great public university system. A public university has only three choices: It can be subsidized by the…

Faculty Hiring: Not Looking for Support

Byuclafaculty

Inside Higher Ed carries a story today that letters of support for female faculty job candidates use words that make hiring less likely. Excerpt below: You are reading a letter of recommendation that praises a candidate for a faculty job as being “caring,” “sensitive,” “compassionate,” or a “supportive colleague.” Whom do you picture? New research suggests that to faculty search committees, such words probably conjure up a woman — and probably a candidate who doesn’t get the job. The scholars who conducted the research believe they may have pinpointed one reason for the “leaky pipeline” that frustrates so many academics,…

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U of Virginia Implements Strategy of Faculty Raids

Byuclafaculty

An article in today’s Insider Higher Ed quotes U of Va. Dean Meredith Jung En-Woo of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences: “What we wanted to do was take advantage of the very anemic environment that’s out there, [luring] very good people that would be difficult to hire in other times,” she says. At the outset of the economic crisis, many anticipated that the institutions that found resources could actually take advantage of the downturn. With extreme candor, Woo says that’s exactly what Virginia did. “The part of [the strategy] we think is wonderful is the ability…