So, You Want a Cushy Job Like Mine?

William Tapprich

University of Nebraska at Omaha

What is My Cushy Job?

Biology Faculty, UNO UNO, Recently reclassified as Doctoral/Research

Primarily undergraduate Primarily a teaching institution Research is expected and valued Normally workload is 75% teaching, 25% research Can make balance closer to 50-50

Biology Department at UNOhttp://www.unomaha.edu/biology/

21 faculty, very diverse expertise Plant science - 5 Animal Science - 9 Cell/Molec/Micro – 7

6 undergraduate majors BA, BS, Biotechnology, Environmental Studies,

Bioinformatics, Neuroscience Master’s degree

MS – thesis and non-thesis degrees

Why Would You Want My Job?

You enjoy interacting with students You want to help students make the transition from school to

profession Mostly this means you enjoy teaching But you also want to mentor undergraduates in research projects

You enjoy research But you won’t get too frustrated when teaching takes most of your

time You want to strike a balance in your career

There are several tenure profiles and all include contributions in teaching, research and service

How Do You Get a Cushy Job Like Mine?

Successful candidates must have a solid record of research productivity, good post doc is a must

We expect new hires to hit the ground running We expect new hires to attract funding early on Some, but not much, difference between candidates

at UNO and candidates at Research I institutions Teaching experience is a must in the current

environment Address the position, know the department

Nuts and Bolts

We are on a 9 month academic appointment For the 9 months starting salaries in my department

are around 54K, bennies are good Summer salary can come from grants or teaching Start up packages are dismal compared to research

universities Close to dismal compared to peer institutions Generally 30-80K in cash depending on the year and the

perception of “crisis” in the budget

Nuts and Bolts-Teaching

Workload is based on 12 hours per semester We are expected to devote 9 hours to teaching For a lecture course one hour of lecture time is

equivalent to one hour of workload So a 9 hour load would be three 3 cr courses per semester

For a lab course three hours of lab time is equivalent to two hours of workload So a course that has 3 hours of lecture and 3 hours of lab

each week is 5 workload hours

Nuts and Bolts-Teaching

Some (but not many) choose to teach 12 hour loads after tenure decision

No tenure if no research A 9 hour load usually works out to 2-3 courses per

semester We have TA help for the laboratories, but we are

expected to be in the lab with the TA If the TA is completely responsible for the lab then you

cannot claim workload

Nuts and Bolts-Research

Very little justification is necessary to get 3 workload hours per semester for research (0.25 FTE) Approved by the Dean

More justification is needed for more Must be approved by the Vice Chancellor Usually must have grant support to defray cost of hiring someone

to cover a course (buy teaching)

First year faculty have reduced teaching load There is very little pressure to generate your salary in grant

support (but this is changing)

Nuts and Bolts-Research

It is difficult to get grants, but possible Life is much better with a grant

Can hire technical help Can get post docs Can pay graduate students

In the periods between grants, there is a little internal money

Graduate students are good, but only two years Major challenge is finishing a project (publicon)

Nuts and Bolts-Research

Instrumentation is good, but no core facilities Collaborations are usually from the outside

Research loneliness is an issue You stay involved at the bench You do substantial training of both graduate and

undergraduate students Makes it difficult to be a full time grant

administrator, therefore it is difficult to be a leader in the field

Nuts and Bolts-Service

Very poorly understood component of workload Incredible number of committees and

administrative activities No workload credit So every service activity detracts from teaching and

research Must do fair share, it is evaluated for tenure Must decide if service is important to you, if yes,

can use it for tenure

Can You be Happy in a Job Like Mine?

Could be, there are many advantages You have a great deal of independence

Within the workload system, you determine how much effort to devote to research, teaching and service

Must show “distinguished” rating in two of three to get tenure without a fight

Required to show “distinguished” rating in either teaching or research to get tenure

Gratification from seeing students succeed

What Things will Make You Unhappy?

There are plenty of frustrations Teaching is hard, if you don’t like it, don’t do it

Student motivation can be uneven

Institutional support for research is spotty Very few resources to develop infrastructure Few requests justified by research are granted

Few colleagues in your field to talk to on a day to day basis