PFF logo Symposium on New Faculty for the Academy of the 21st Century
Association of American Colleges & Universities
Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA
Wednesday, January 17, 2001

Any profession that values its future must give special attention to the preparation and socialization of its new professionals. Today, as large numbers of senior faculty are retiring and as roles and expectations for faculty are changing on most campuses, it is critical that serious attention be directed at the preparation, recruitment, and development of our new faculty.

Serious mismatches and discontinuities exist in the pipeline for new faculty.

  1. Colleges and universities are raising their expectations for new faculty in regard to research, teaching, or service ... sometimes in all three areas.
  2. Doctoral education continues to focus on traditional research preparation largely unperturbed by the changing roles of faculty and the expectations of them.
  3. Activities of the academic departments, institutional priorities, and graduate preparation often are based on different premises and are in tension, if not in direct conflict.

At the same time, significant change is taking place in doctoral education through the Preparing Future Faculty program that AAC&U has been supporting since 1993 in collaboration with the Council of Graduate Schools. Professional associations, both disciplinary and interdisciplinary, have launched new faculty programs and other efforts to support new faculty members. And foundations have supported a number of projects focused on the changing nature of faculty work. These innovations are pointing to a new kind of professoriate.

This symposium will examine these developments and their implications. It will provide insights into the kind of faculty we are likely to have in the academy during the early decades of the 21st Century.

Preliminary Program
8:30 am Welcome and framing the issues
8:45 am Innovations in doctoral education: The Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) program
  • Brief history of PFF
  • What we know about the operation of the PFF program
  • The impact of PFF on faculty careers: PFF alumni report
  • The impact of PFF on the culture of a university
10:00 am Campus practices in hiring, orienting, and, supporting new faculty
  • Perspectives of new faculty hires and department chairs
  • Programs to mentor and support new faculty
  • Strategies to recruit and support faculty of color
11:15 am Small groups by institutional type brainstorm one of two sets of related questions:
  1. What is wrong with doctoral preparation and what can/should be done?
  2. What is wrong with faculty early career expectations/experiences and what can/should be done?
12:30 pm Luncheon Speech: Tensions between graduate education, departmental values, and university priorities
2:15 pm Roles of the disciplinary professional associations in building the new faculty: How do the disciplinary programs supplement the work of graduate schools and campus programs?
3:15 pm Closing Observations, responses, and comments

Leaders:

Registration Information:
Visit the AAC&U website Annual Meetings page, or call (202) 387-3760, or send an email.

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