political science job rumors

Things may get weird. Trying to fix the problems.

1. SLACprof
   .edu verified member

   I am a new faculty member at a SLAC with a political science progam that has been in a state of "disrepair" for several years. Few majors and minors in poli sci, with most of the courses in the catalog largely unrelated to the current state of the field. The faculty who have been here (left or leaving) were largely mailing it in the final years before retirement. I was told (after being hired away from a string of one-years) that the expectation from the administration is for me to work to right the ship in the next couple of years. If you were in this position, with only a few other faculty in your program, where would you start?

   Note: Assume that either because of the job market or personal reasons you are going to be in the post for at least 3-5 years. Finding a new job in this market is NOT the best place to start.

   Posted 3 years ago #

2. Aristotle
   Member

   The first thing to do would be to make your program attractive to students again. That probably means revamping the course selection. Let the older faculty teach what they want to teach and start offering important courses around that.

   Are you going to have the opportunity to hire new faculty?

   Posted 3 years ago #

3. SLACprof
   .edu verified member

   I have started asking the upper class majors what sorts of things they think would play well. Getting things back like conflict and peace studies, which seems to a growth industry around the country. Not really what I do, but it would be a start I guess.

   In terms of new faculty, I was told when I was hired that they would add an extra line in a couple of years, but was told once I got here that the new line was dependent on increasing the number of majors. Reasonable I suppose; but it may be necessary to increase capacity before you increase service.

   Posted 3 years ago #

4. spamprof
   Member

   I remember someone posting in the old anon days who was trying to decide whether to take a job that sounded much like the situation described here. There was some advice in that thread you might look up if you aren't that same poster. At least one senior SLAC prof id'd himself and offered to chat (Paul Gronke at Reed). I'd think this is a situation where you especially would want to talk to some more senior profs at other LACs; they'll probably have insights that the grad students and very junior people here won't.

   Any way to do an inter-departmental offering with a dept that is popular? Like an environmental policy class if there's a strong environmental science major (and if that's even vaguely something you could teach). That might be an easy hook for students, and helps you to get some allies and the dept to have backing elsewhere in the college.

   Or, there may be plenty of pent-up demand. Poli-sci usually is pretty popular; it's not like you're trying to build a big Classics department -- truly amazing LAC faculty can do that, but to have decent poli-sci enrollment you probably just need to make the department not suck. The mere fact of a new prof offering a course that sounds halfway interesting might bring a lot of students in pretty quickly.

   Posted 3 years ago #

5. The_Dude
   Member

   It's a great opportunity. Look around what top programs offer and learn from them. I'd assume coming from a PhD granting institution you have some idea what's important and not too. Make the program close to what you wanted yours to be. As I said, this is a great opportuity.

   Posted 3 years ago #

6. leader_of_cheer
   .edu verified member

   Also, if the college has a postdoctoral fellowship program, try getting a slot devoted to a Ph.D. in Political Science (of course, this will require someone providing service to the search). Usually these fellowships will require at least a 1-1 teaching load, and my guess is that you could find someone who would teach something very interesting to students.

   Posted 3 years ago #

7. Fiona
   .edu verified member

   Brand the department. Any way you can. Seriously, get student events sponsored by Political Science, even if it's only you showing a movie about a relevant topic at the student union. Draw on current majors to be active for the department, maybe organizing/running events for you. Also ask majors to start a student group that will have a visible face on campus. Start initiatives for student internships in Washington, the state capital, or with local NGOs and advertise those in the advising offices, student unions, and orientation packets.

   Plus follow the previous recommendation about offering "cool" classes. All of these strategies will help you drum up student demand and subsequently get more funding to grow the department.

   Posted 3 years ago #

8. SLACprof
   .edu verified member

   Thanks for the advice everyone. The branding idea is certainly a good one, as is the course offering suggestion. One of the problems, though, seems to be that the cross-listing issue is a bit of a problem on steroids. There are a number of cross-listed courses on the books, which helped to fill classes in the past. The problem seems to be that now that the other departments are "requesting" that these courses be taught on a regular basis as a way of take some of the pressure from their own rotations. What's more, the faculty that I talk to from the other side seem to be very concerned that the courses not be to "sciencey" so as not to hurt GPAs.

   I think that trying to develop courses that people in other disciplines may want to take as electives is a direction to go. Just need to be careful that the courses don't get too watered down as a result.

   Posted 3 years ago #

9. Anonymous
   Unregistered

   As a former student at a SLAC, I think that there may be low cost things you can do help with branding. For example, can you hook up with the career center and host an information night on career opportunities with a poli sci degree? Even better, can you host an information lunch and buy all the students cheap pizza as an incentive? Or, after teaching some intro courses, can you identify some students that you'd like to see in pursue a political science major or minor and host a department picnic so that they can meet other faculty, learn about the department, and build a sense of community?

   I know that to a lot of people this might sound really cheesy, but it's a hell of a lot easier than prepping a bunch of new courses in "hot topic" areas.

   Posted 3 years ago #

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