12/12/06

Contact: Roy Summerford, (334) 844-9999 (summero@auburn.edu), or
Mike Clardy, (334) 844-9999 (clardch@auburn.edu)

HARVARD SURVEY SHOWS NEW FACULTY RATE AU AMONG NATION’S BEST PLACES TO TEACH

AUBURN - In a Harvard University-based survey, Auburn University’s tenure-track junior faculty have rated AU as one of the nation’s best places to teach.

The Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education asked new faculty at 31 doctoral universities how they felt about their careers, colleagues and institutional support.

Tenure-track junior faculty typically have been at an institution for seven years or less. AU’s tenure-track junior faculty gave their institution especially high marks for collegiality, policy effectiveness, tenure expectations and clarity and the institutional environment for work and family. Their ratings placed Auburn among the top four institutions in each category.

In addition to the overall picture of satisfaction levels of tenure-track junior faculty, the survey developed detailed data on a variety of questions, examined differences in response by gender and race and differences between expectations and reality encountered by faculty at each institution.

Those responses were also compared to the responses from faculty at five other institutions: Clemson, Iowa State, Kansas State, Texas Tech and North Carolina State. On most survey items, Auburn’s rating was significantly higher than the average for these five peers.

AU Provost John Heilman said Auburn joined the higher education collaborative at Harvard to identify the needs of junior faculty. He noted that AU has raised faculty salaries to the regional average and has taken a number of initiatives, such as establishing the nationally prominent Biggio Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning, to help new faculty improve their skills and stay on track toward tenure.

“We are committed to making sure that Auburn is a great academic environment for our faculty as well as our students,” said Heilman. “The COACHE survey shows us that Auburn is a national
leader in making that commitment a reality for tenure-track junior faculty.”

Heilman added that the positives will not lessen the university’s commitment to further improving conditions for junior faculty. “We plan to use the COACHE survey results to identify policies, practices and issues where we can further improve the working and teaching environment at Auburn.”

Researchers for COACHE conducted the survey between October 2005 and January 2006 with faculty hired before summer 2005 who were working toward tenure. The 67 percent response rate for Auburn faculty was significantly higher than the overall response rate of 58 percent. Drew Clark, executive director of institutional research and analysis at Auburn, said the response rates for AU and overall were very strong indicators that the survey produced an accurate reflection of junior faculty attitudes.

Auburn was the only institution in Alabama to participate in the COACHE survey. Among participating universities across the South besides Clemson and North Carolina State, the collaborative includes the University of North Carolina System, Duke, Memphis, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Tennessee and Texas Tech. Nationally, other major participants include Notre Dame, the California State University System and flagship universities in Washington, North Dakota, Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, Connecticut, Ohio, Minnesota and Michigan.

(Contributed by Roy Summerford.)

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Auburn University is a preeminent land-grant and comprehensive research institution with more than 23,000 students and 6,500 faculty and staff. Ranked among the top 50 public universities nationally, Auburn offers more than 230 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degree programs.

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