Eighty tenured, tenure-eligible members join the ISU faculty

Iowa State hired 80 tenured or tenure-track faculty members between last September and this month. Seven started during the spring semester, 10 have upcoming start dates between mid-September and Jan. 1, and the rest arrived on campus this summer. The group includes seven full professors, 10 associate professors and the rest at the assistant professor level.

The size of the group is consistent with last year's 76 new faculty. Partner accommodation, in which the university is able to offer a position -- tenure-track, non-tenure eligible or professional and scientific -- to the spouse or partner of a new faculty member, increasingly impacts the final hire number, said associate provost for faculty Dawn Bratsch-Prince.

"Iowa State has to have a robust dual career program. We're not a community with multiple institutions, and some may perceive us as having fewer employment opportunities for partners," she said. "If we're going to be competitive in attracting outstanding faculty, we have to assist them somehow."

The university's participation in a regional recruitment consortium is another tool that helps faculty spouses and partners find appropriate careers in the area.

Bratsch-Prince estimates that, on average, one-third of new tenure-track faculty each year request help in finding employment for a spouse. Fifteen years ago, that was an infrequent occurrence, she said.

"Work-life balance is important to them. It's also important to us because if we have two employees who are happy at Iowa State, we're more likely to retain them both," she noted. National job satisfaction data also supports that, she said.

And it's not unheard of for the partner to become a superstar, she added.

"We hire some really outstanding couples," she said.

Patterns?

Thirty-five percent of the past year's new hires came in the School of Education and four departments: management, electrical and computer engineering, computer science and animal science.

Bratsch-Prince said there are two influences at work:

• Hires to replace faculty who resigned or retired. The School of Education is an example.
• Hires to grow large programs that are "mission-critical" to Iowa State. Software engineering/big data and animal science are examples.

Eighteen departments made a single tenure-track faculty hire in the last year. She thinks that's a reflection of the February state appropriation reversion and the need to be more conservative with growth plans.

Looking ahead

With new data on faculty retirements and resignations for the budget year that ended June 30, college leaders are strategizing hire plans now for the year ahead. Bratsch-Prince said the goal remains to chip away at lowering Iowa State's student-faculty ratio below the current 19-to-1. Tuition increase decisions to be made later this fall by the state Board of Regents, following a summer discussion of funding needs at the three regent universities, could impact those plans, she said.

By college: Tenured, tenure-track faculty hires, Sept. 2016-Aug. 2017

*Ten faculty members have start dates between Sept. 16 and Jan. 1, 2018