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The University of Iowa was found to be exceptional in five of eight categories evaluating the job satisfaction of pre-tenure faculty members at four-year colleges and universities, according to an analysis being released today by Harvard University's Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education.
The collaborative, known by its acronym COACHE, has produced a series of highly regarded surveys of tenure-track faculty members on the issues that they care about in job satisfaction -- issues that extend well beyond the prestige of the institutions that employ them. From time to time, COACHE also releases lists of "exemplar" institutions that, based on the project's surveys, do particularly well in faculty surveys. (There are only 127 institutions in COACHE so it is quite likely that there are other institutions with outstanding policies, and COACHE releases its list to encourage discussion, not as an official ranking.)
COACHE leaders have long stressed that good policies and procedures involve a range of factors and that some of them (like clarity about the tenure process, and collegiality) don't have price tags. As a result, some of the exemplars named by COACHE typically aren't the wealthiest institutions, and Iowa has had a series of tight budget years of late.
Likewise, the four institutions that were ranked as exemplars in four categories include two institutions with large endowments (Brown and Duke Universities) and two without (City University of New York's Lehman College and Queens College).
Tom W. Rice, associate provost for faculty at the University of Iowa, said that the university was thrilled with the faculty reviews for its programs -- and he stressed that Iowa has a range of efforts for junior faculty, from help for dual-career couples to find suitable positions for both partners, to automatic tenure-clock extension for bringing a child into the home (one year per child up to two children) for both mothers and fathers (with the extension available also to those who added a child up to two years before being hired), to a series of mentoring initiatives.
The new list of exemplary institutions included four each from doctoral institutions (with five in one category in which there was a tie) and two institutions each for master's and baccalaureate institutions. The COACHE website features details on the qualities generally associated with best practices in the various categories.
Exemplars for Junior Faculty Members
| Category | Doctoral/Research Universities | Master's Institutions | Baccalaureate Institutions |
| Tenure practices | Brown U. U. of Alabama at Tuscaloosa U. of Connecticut U. of Iowa | California State U. at Fullerton Queens College (CUNY) | Hendrix College Kenyon College |
| Clarity of expectations for tenure | North Carolina State U. North Dakota State U. U. of Connecticut U. of Iowa U. of Kansas | California State U. at Fullerton Lehman College (CUNY) | Hendrix College Medgar Evars College (CUNY) |
| Nature of work (overall) | Dartmouth College Duke U. U. of Chicago U. of Notre Dame | California State U. at San Marcos James Madison U. | Bowdoin College Wesleyan U. |
| Nature of work (research) | Dartmouth College Duke U. U. of Chicago U. of Notre Dame | Loyola U. Maryland Queens College (CUNY) | Bowdoin College Wellesley College |
| Nature of work (teaching) | Brown U. Duke U. U. of Chicago U. of Notre Dame | Leman College (CUNY) Rowan U. | Bowdoin College Wesleyan U. |
| Work and home balance | Lehigh U. U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign U. of Iowa U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | Queens College (CUNY) Rowan U. | Ohio Wesleyan U. Wesleyan U. |
| Climate, culture and collegiality | Auburn U. Brown U. U. of Iowa U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | California State U. at San Marcos Lehman College (CUNY) | Saint Olaf College Trinity College (Connecticut) |
| Global satisfaction | Brown U. Duke U. U. of Iowa U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | Lehman College (CUNY) Queens College (CUNY) | Mount Holyoke College Trinity College (Connecticut) |
