November 17, 2006

2006 faculty reflect diverse academic trends

By Trina Wood

As UC Davis continues to grow — attracting more students, building new facilities, and expanding teaching and research — the campus must also recruit new faculty members. This year, Dateline showcases 113 new Academic Senate members in an insert this issue.

Academic Senate hires include faculty in the professorial series (tenure-track positions), the clinical professor series and the professor-in-residence series.

"I really do believe being a faculty member at a research university is one of best jobs out there," said Vice Provost for Academic Personnel Barbara Horwitz. "You are not only engaged in research focused on your intellectual interests, but you are surrounded by young people who are energetic, inquisitive and interested in hearing what you have to say — they keep you on your toes."

Horwitz said the ongoing efforts to recruit women and minority applicants to UC Davis continue to be successful. Of the 118 new hires in the past year (from Nov. 1, 2005, through Oct. 31, 2006), women account for almost 46 percent; approximately 30 percent are faculty of color. (Five of the 118 were profiled in last year's insert, and so will not appear in this year's version.)

She noted that the campus's nationally recognized family friendly policies adopted in January 2003 (which were recently acknowledged by an Alfred P. Sloan award) have also played a role in recruiting junior faculty with young children or who plan to start families. While the medical center campus has its own policies, the general campus allows for one quarter of leave for birth mothers and primary caregivers with respect to adoption or foster placement, with a second quarter of modified duties for primary caregivers when a new child comes into the family; the primary caregiver policy applies to men as well as women.

The policies also allow an extension of the probationary period between assistant and associate professor by one year for each birth event-adoption (up to two years). More information can be found at academicpersonnel.ucdavis.edu/worklife.cfm.

"We truly care about providing the support faculty need to balance their commitments to work, family and community," said Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef. "That commitment is surely one of the reasons we've been able to consistently attract such promising and accomplished faculty."

One of those efforts, the Partner Opportunities Program, which assists partners of faculty to find either academic appointments or jobs in the community, continues to draw more couples to the university.

For Christopher Thaiss, newly hired Clark Kerr Presidential Chair and director of the University Writing Program, moving out west is a big change after teaching at George Mason University in northern Virginia for 30 years. Attracted by UC Davis' mission of making students better learners and communicators in their respective fields, he said living in a sunny climate near wine country is a bonus.

Trina Wood is a freelance writer.