Friday, May 19, 2000

When You Want to Stay on Campus (and You Don't Want to Teach)

Question: I'm completing my Ph.D. this year. My adviser is annoyed with me because he feels I've "wasted" a lot of time in student government, serving as a student representative on university committees, and so forth. I agree with him that I might have finished my dissertation earlier without this "distraction."

However, I've found this type of work more challenging and interesting than either my own research or my classroom experiences, although I've been successful in both. If I get a tenure-track job and tenure some day, I'd like to be a department chair and a dean, but it seems as if it will take forever to do that. Is there a way I can go directly into academic administration and make a career for myself that way?

Julie: You certainly can go on directly to a career in academic administration but it won't include the possibility of holding positions of department chair, dean, or provost. Those positions, which involve oversight of faculty hiring, tenure review, and promotion, are filled almost entirely by faculty members who have advanced along an administrative track, after working for some time as faculty members.

Mary: Yes, the fairly typical promotional ladder Julie describes is the route to take if you dream of making educational policy for an institution and of perhaps someday heading one. The more selective and competitive the institution, the more common this path.

On the other hand, the typical administrative path usually begins with obtaining tenure, and if you're already tired of research and teaching, you may well not want to undertake another seven years of them. There certainly are administrative career paths that don't begin with a tenured position and that can take you to some very interesting places, both inside and outside the academy.

Julie: There are also interesting administrative and managerial career paths on the "outside" that could lead back to higher education. If you look at the most senior levels of higher-education administration, particularly the role of president, you see individuals who have achieved eminent positions in a variety of endeavors, from law to business to politics, who have never worked in higher education. Other presidents, of course, have worked their way up ladders of progressively responsible administrative experience within higher education.

Mary: On the other hand, before you plot your administrative future in higher education, step back a bit and ask yourself if you're thinking of academic administration because that's what you really want to do, or whether it's simply the easiest alternative to a faculty position for you to visualize, given your current immersion in an academic environment.

You mentioned being excited about committee work. Ask yourself whether that is because you cared passionately about the specific academic issues involved or because you simply like the give-and-take of meetings and are interested in a closer view of how a large organization works. Or is it because you frankly enjoy having a position of influence? If it's the things like team structure or influence that energize you, consider that access to those spans the whole spectrum of employment.

Julie: You also indicated that you have been successful as a researcher and as a teacher, even though you said you're tiring of those activities. As you answer the questions posed above and try to determine why you like committee work so much, also ask yourself if you really want to leave the academic pursuits that originally brought you to graduate school.

While indeed the academic job market is competitive and the process of seeking a job can be arduous, how will you feel five years from now if you never give it a chance? Were you to get a faculty position and eventually achieve tenure, you would have numerous opportunities for a wide variety of committee work and possibilities for administrative advancement. Sometimes it's the synergy of research, teaching, and policymaking that makes each of those endeavors exciting, whereas, for some, doing only one can become tedious.

Mary: Let's assume you've done some soul-searching and concluded that, for you, the best next step is an administrative position in higher education. Your recent involvement in your own institution can be expanded to help you reach your goal. You might start by looking at your institution and seeing what kinds of administrative positions exist there.

Julie: Ideally you'd do this some time before finishing your degree so that you can add additional administrative experience to your portfolio before you go on the job market. There are probably a variety of interesting part-time positions on your campus typically filled by advanced graduate students. At the same time, gaining experience at an institution unlike yours broadens your background. If you're getting your degree from the only institution of higher education in town, you'll be limited to opportunities there. In many cases, however, you're studying at an institution that is within commuting distance of others.

Mary: To get an idea of the kinds of administrative career possibilities in higher education, take a look at The Chronicle's Career Network job listings. Click on administrative positions. There are more than 25 categories ranging from admissions and registrars offices to student affairs and services. Some kinds of positions, such as librarian and psychological counselor positions will require specific degrees. Many, however, are open to people with a wide variety of educational backgrounds.

Julie: If you notice that you tend to be interested in jobs in particular categories (development, graduate or professional admissions, international advising, institutional research, etc.), look for professional associations that represent those fields. For example, you can find information about institutional research from the Society for College and University Planning. If you are interested in enrollment management, you'll find information from the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. Gale's Encyclopedia of Associations, will make it easy to identify relevant organizations. From these you can learn more about fields of potential interest and begin the process of networking.

Mary: As Julie said, start talking to people at your institution before you finish your program. The career office of your graduate and undergraduate institutions will have alumni representatives working in higher education with whom you can make contact. This will give you an opportunity to talk with administrators from institutions of different sizes, orientations (e.g. research/teaching), and affiliations (e.g. public/private or religious/nonsectarian).

Julie: Be sure to ask people about how higher education is changing and how those changes are affecting their jobs. Pay most attention to what you learn from those who seem to be most aware of changes. Also, get a feel for the "industry" as a whole by reading The Chronicle, not just this careers site, but the whole issue. If you don't have an individual subscription, doubtless your graduate institution does and you can find a paper copy on campus. However, the whole publication is so important for academic administrators that we encourage you to take out your own subscription. (This is truly not a plug for our sponsors, just good career advice.)

Mary: Julie's point about how job functions may be changing is crucial. Higher education is going through many changes now and will probably continue to do so for the next decade. One practice that has been adopted from business and government is outsourcing. Many aspects of college and university administration that are tangential to education, such as running bookstores and administering benefits, have been outsourced to private companies. However, if the trend continues, other areas may also be affected.

Julie: Also consider the growth of distance education and for-profit higher education. Neither is without its critics, but they are important marketplace realities that barely existed a decade ago. Both offer opportunities for either adjunct or part-time teaching or for very senior professors. Some full-time jobs suitable for relatively recent Ph.D.s with related experience are also beginning to develop. Additionally, you may choose to take a broader view of what "education" is. If your interests tend toward research, then you may think of "knowledge or information creation." If you're a teacher at heart, then you may think of "training and development," "outreach," "public education," and so forth.

Some of the most exciting possibilities in higher education in the future will probably turn out to be roles we can't describe here because they don't exist yet. If you have a good tolerance for ambiguity, you may look for jobs that help to define educational change. It might be that these will take you back and forth between organizations traditionally viewed as "academic" and "nonacademic."

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