Faculty Survey 2015Sponsored by CNS (includes COE and CICS)

Buju DasguptaDirector, Faculty Equity & Inclusion, CNS

Goals of the Survey

1. How do faculty feel about their department culture/ climate, and experiences in terms of research, teaching, and service

2. Do these experiences vary by faculty gender, rank, race/ethnicity? What’s going well and what needs work?

3. Recruitment: What makes UMass a “destination of choice?” Can we leverage these assets in future recruitment efforts?

4. Retention: Why do faculty think of leaving? Can we leverage this knowledge to address dissatisfactions early?

5. Come up with set of actionable agenda items going forward

Sample

• N = 383 faculty (82% response rate) from CNS, COE, and CICS.

• Gender: 63% men, 33% women, 0.2% other gender, 4% no response

• Rank: 43% full, 18% associate, 20% assistant, 13% lecturers, and 6% non-tenure research

• Race: 82% White, 12% Asian, 1% African American, 4% Hispanic, 0.8% multiracial and other racial groups

• National origin: 69% U.S. born, 31% immigrants

Department climate & cultureEquity

TransparencyFairnessValued

CollegialityCollaboration

Faculty perceptions of department climate: Gender differences and similarities

Men vs. women’s perception of department culture diverge most in departments with very few women

Men vs. women’s perception of department culture diverge most in departments with very few women

Transparency of policies, procedures, and decision-making Perceived gender equity

Mentoring

Who has mentors? When is mentoring is most useful?

• 60% had mentor within home department, 38% had mentor outside department, and 29% had both

• Chosen mentors were more useful than assigned mentors, p < .001

• Mentors outside the home department were more useful than mentors inside one’s department, p = .003

• Mentoring was more successful when faculty were grouped by common interest regardless of department

• Often praised: CNS women’s mentoring program, UMass-wide Mellon Mentoring program

Recruitment and Retention

Recruitment: What makes UMass a “destination of choice” for faculty?

1. Quality of department and university2. Quality of life in Western Massachusetts 3. Work-family balance

Quality of department is significantly correlated with department climate

** p < .001

Retention: Why do faculty think about leaving?

Retention: Who considered leaving UMass?Rank differences

• 44% of all faculty in this group received outside offers

• 34% of faculty in this group have a spouse living in a different city

• No gender difference in retention

63% of all survey respondents considered leaving

Spousal employment

• 40% of survey respondents have a spouse employed at UMass• Big gender differences in types of spousal employment

Table 2 What type of job did/does your spouse/partner have at UMass?

Tenure-system faculty

Non-tenure system lecturer

Short-term

research

scientist

Staff position

other - please specify:

Male faculty

Count 30 8 2 21 11% within

41.70% 11.10% 2.80% 29.20% 15.30%

Female faculty

Count 31 3 2 4 9% within

63.30% 6.10% 4.10% 8.20% 18.40%

Total Count 61 11 4 25 20

Tenure-system faculty

Non-tenure system lecturer

Short-term

research scientist

Staff position

other - please specify:

Male faculty % within 41.7% 11.1% 2.8% 29.2% 15.3% 100%

Female faculty % within 63.3% 6.1% 4.1% 8.2% 18.4% 100%

Total 61 11 4 25 20 121

What type of job did/does your spouse/partner have at UMass?

Total

Spousal Employment

• Gender difference: Spousal employment played a bigger role in women faculty’s decision to come to UMass (p = .046) and to stay at UMass (p = .037)

• Generational difference: Younger faculty’s decisions to come to UMass (both men and women) were more influenced by spousal employment than older faculty’s decisions (p < .001).

Research

Satisfaction with research facilities: Wide variation across departments

Satisfaction with support around grant applications: Wide variation across departments

Teaching

Teaching concerns and satisfaction

Satisfaction with TA allocation and support handling struggling students varies by department

Satisfaction with teaching classrooms and labs varies by department

Six actionable steps

1. Inadequate research facilities is a top priority for faculty in some depts. Affecting morale and retention. We need to fix this problem

2. All depts need high quality internal staff support for grant submission and equal access to CNS staff

3. Identify departments with toxic climate. Figure out ways to intervene early. Another reason for retention problems.

4. Create a spousal employment network by actively coordinating with Five College Consortium, UMass-Worcester, local employers

Six actionable policy implications (cont’d)

5. Identify “matchmaker” at university level who gathers information about job opportunities from local networks and connects units in need of a spousal position

6. Create free or subsidized bus service between Amherst, Worcester, Boston, NYC to make it convenient for faculty spouses to commute to jobs.

Having a bus service has benefit of expanding geographical region within which faculty spouses could look for jobs

Thanks!