—ACS hosts new faculty workshop “” More than 70 first-, second-, and third-year faculty from 58 institutions gathered at the American Chemical Society’s headquarters building in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 4–6 for the Cottrell Scholars Collaborative New Faculty Workshop. During the workshop, faculty facilitators provided guidance on teaching, running a research lab, and managing the many responsibilities required of new faculty. Now in its fifth year, the workshop builds a cohort of young faculty who will continue to interact through monthly webinars supported by the ACS Education Division. This year, the program expanded to include faculty from both research-intensive and primarily undergraduate institutions. “Starting a new faculty position is a stressful time for most people.
by Linda Wang | October 03, 2016
“” Growing discussion about the role of non-tenure-track faculty at colleges and universities and their part in undergraduate education prompted the ACS Committee on Professional Training (CPT) to survey 1,012 chemistry programs about their faculty employment and course staffing practices. Departments were asked to provide data on faculty gender, ethnicity, and level of training.
by Cynthia K. Larive, Chair, and Lee Y. Park, Vice Chair, Committee on Professional Training | October 18, 2010
Faculty Roles & Demographics. Of all the faculty positions reported, about 30% were tenure-track, had unlimited or rolling contracts, or were other types of effectively permanent faculty positions. Contingent faculty, including adjunct and temporary faculty, filled 49% of all reported faculty positions, and the remaining 21% were long-term faculty (that is, faculty with one- to three-year contracts). Additionally, 22% of the responding institutions reported having no permanent chemistry faculty, 23% reported having no contingent faculty, and 10% reported having contingent faculty in full-time positions. While contingent faculty made up almost half of the chemistry faculty and instructional staff at the reporting two-year colleges, they taught just 34% of all chemistry lecture sections and 38% of all chemistry laboratory sections. Permanent and long-term faculty members taught the remainder of the sections and were more concentrated in lecture sections and courses designed for chemistry majors. Approximately 40% of reported faculty were female and 68% were Caucasian. The highest chemistry degree obtained was a doctorate for 47% of the faculty and a master’s for 43%.
by Mary K. Carroll | June 13, 2011
Currently, 66, or 6.4%, of the 1,026 MIT faculty members come from these groups. A sampling of broad subject areas reveals that at MIT, these underrepresented minorities make up nearly 10% of 164 humanities, arts, and social sciences faculty. Seven percent of the 370-member engineering faculty is from these groups. In the sciences, only 2.8% of 282 faculty members are underrepresented minorities. Currently, no one from these groups is on MIT’s chemistry or biology faculties, and over the past 20 years, there have been no such hires to the faculties of chemistry, nuclear science and engineering, or mathematics.
by Linda R. Raber | January 25, 2010
—Women Faculty Make Little Progress “C&EN's annual survey again shows women underrepresented in top chemistry departments” Faculty Scorecard Once again, the only news about the percentage of women faculty members in the top 50 chemistry departments is that there is no news. For the sixth year in a row that C&EN has examined this topic, there has been little growth.
by Corinne A. Marasco | October 31, 2005
—Guidelines Offered For Disabled Faculty “” Every faculty member must be able to perform certain “essential functions” regardless of any physical or mental disabilities they may have and for which they are provided “reasonable accommodations.” This was the message of an American Association of University Professors report containing guidelines on the rights and responsibilities of faculty members with physical or mental disabilities. Examples of essential functions that a faculty member must be able to perform, with or without accommodation for a disability, include mental agility, mastery of a complex subject, and ethical behavior, the report says. The report also describes an interactive process between an institution and a faculty member to establish reasonable accommodation for a disability, such as modifying physical spaces or adjusting a teaching schedule.
by Cheryl Hogue | February 13, 2012
The discussion of academic employment, including tenured and tenure-track faculty, is an important and complex one. Tenure-track faculty lines are in peril, and universities have been intentionally formed without including tenure as a feature of faculty employment (C&EN, Sept. 19, 2016, page 28). Our task force is focused on the employment status and safeguards for non-tenure-track faculty working at institutions that employ both tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty. Sensible advocacy efforts aimed at improving conditions for non-tenure-track faculty are needed, along with efforts to protect tenured faculty lines. At many institutions, both types of faculty are needed to fulfill teaching and research missions. WCC’s advocacy work began with a 2009 white paper on non-tenure-track faculty.
by Laura Sremaniak, Chair, ACS Women Chemists Committee | April 17, 2017
—Small Increase In Women Faculty “C&EN's annual survey shows women making slow progress” DESPITE SOME PROGRESS gained over the past year, women continue to suffer from low representation on chemistry faculties in the U.S. At the 50 chemistry departments that spend the most on research, the proportion of women on chemistry faculty rose to 15% from 14% last year.
by Linda R. Raber | December 24, 2007
AAUP also presents data on the institutional cost of benefits for faculty members. It averages $20,800, or 27.5% of salaries. When full-time faculty of all ranks, from full professor to instructor, from all schools—from those granting Ph.D.s to two-year colleges that rank their faculty—are combined, just over 40% of the total are women, according to the AAUP survey.
by Michael Heylin | July 14, 2008
Chemical & Engineering News: Education - Women Faculty Make Little Progress Education October 31, 2005 Volume 83, Number 44 pp. 38–39 Faculty Scorecard Women Faculty Make Little Progress C&EN's annual survey again shows women underrepresented in top chemistry departments Corinne A. Marasco Once again, the only news about the percentage of women faculty members in the top 50 chemistry departments is that there is no news.
by Corinne A. Marasco | October 31, 2005