The new generation of faculty, working for the Associated New American Colleges (ANAC), a consortium of private Carnegie Master institutions, believes the recruitment and retention of new faculty is improving, according to a survey conducted by ANAC, and TIAA-CREF Institute, a research firm.
In surveying more than 400 respondents, still in their first five years as higher education faculty, the survey revealed that early career faculty at ANAC-member institutions agree with the mission of their institution, understand that their institution fits neither the classic liberal arts college nor research university type. Many enjoy the challenges of their jobs, and feel that their institutions treat them fairly.
Early career faculty are satisfied with many of their current fringe benefits: Retirement, supplementary retirement savings plans and health disability and life insurance, the survey reports, but would like their institutions to invest in new benefits like child care or home ownership incentives.
There has been a steady increase among faculty who are women at ANAC campuses over the past decade, although a much higher percentage of male faculty are tenure-track. Women constitute only 71 percent of tenure-track positions compared with 88 percent of men.
The only topic in the survey where more than 50 percent of the respondents disagreed on every survey item dealt with salary. Nearly two-thirds of administrators claim that they are not satisfied with the salaries and benefits their institution offers new faculty members. They are less satisfied with the faculty rewards, support for professional development planning, and assistance in setting in recent years. The survey confirms that a significant percentage of ANAC member early career faculty salaries are combined with other professional sources of income.
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