Queries related to professors, a highly accomplished and recognized academic and an expert in their respective discipline.
19
votes
5answers
563 views
Can one excel in graduate/post-graduate school with a demanding family life?
The essential gist of my question relates to what the real, unvarnished realities are of graduate, post-graduate, research, fellowship, and professorship attainment - when you aren't a single person ...
5
votes
1answer
173 views
Is it ethical for a part-time professor to use his position for other interests?
There is a professor who works part-time at a university as a moderator of one of their student groups. He does not teach any actual classes but spends a hugely considerable amount of time with the ...
8
votes
3answers
401 views
Academic freedom and unpopular or offensive views
Academia values academic freedom. However, there may be some practical limitations on academic freedom. What repercussions might an academic face for voicing unpopular or offensive views in the name ...
5
votes
2answers
106 views
Master's Degree Curriculum and its Effects on Teaching Opportunities
I have been working as a entry-level web developer for approximately a year now. I am looking to go back to school to get a Master's Degree in hopes that I will be able to teach ...
6
votes
1answer
63 views
What should new faculty focus on when meeting with the university public relations representative?
I am a new faculty member at a medium-sized liberal arts university that focuses on undergraduate education. I have recently been contacted by the university public relations representative and he ...
7
votes
1answer
72 views
What sources of funding do faculty in Computer Science dept. in US universities have other than NSF?
I made the question a bit more specific (location:US, discipline: CS) as I'm interested in answers pertaining to those details, but I can make it completely generic if the community so suggests...
By ...
22
votes
2answers
360 views
How to handle ego clashes within an academic department
I am a new assistant professor in my department. While all faculty members have been welcoming so far to me, I find there are two or three distinct groups or coteries within the department. The ...
8
votes
2answers
140 views
What are the benefits and drawbacks of a professor being interdisciplinary when they seek tenure?
Possible benefits: More grant money through other departments
Possible drawbacks: A significant fraction of their research might not be seen as research that benefits the department's standing in the ...
8
votes
3answers
226 views
How to invite potential collaborators for personal visit?
No starting point for scientific collaboration is better than face-to-face conversation. Conferences are good places to meet potential collaborator, but another way is to invite them to visit your ...
14
votes
5answers
901 views
How to deal with racial insensitivity in an academic environment?
I am an undergraduate research assistant in a biology lab. I was having an informal conversation while working at lab with my professor and a colleague of him. In the middle of our conversation, my ...
3
votes
3answers
317 views
Professorship without PhD in the United States
In the discussion made in comments to this question, it has been stated that in France, it is possible (though improbable) to become a professor without having PhD. It made me curious if there is such ...
7
votes
2answers
203 views
How to arrange sabbatical leave?
Sabbatical leave is very common as it is nice to spend a year as a visiting professor in another university and experience a new environment.
It is very beneficial for the host university to have a ...
5
votes
1answer
149 views
How to balance application for a faculty position between exceptional and ordinary?
Following the opposite factors described in answers to the question What makes securing faculty positions difficult?, I came to conclusion that an application for an academic position should be ...
11
votes
1answer
131 views
Disabilities in the Classroom
Are there any special provisions provided for students who have schizophrenia (for example)? Is there an "adjustment" to grading? Or perhaps there is no adjustment to the grading process per se, but ...
4
votes
3answers
318 views
Proper way to address yourself
I feel awkward addressing myself as Dr. X or Prof X. I know that this is common practice (e.g. in emails, letters, etc..). In emails, I prefer to just use my initials or first name. Is this a common ...
5
votes
1answer
191 views
How do I plan for my PhD now that I have graduated with a Masters degree without thesis?
A bit of background: I am an Indian citizen with an undergraduate degree in Electronics from India and a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Computer Science (Funny, it is called ...
17
votes
7answers
953 views
How do “lecturers” differ from “professors” in large universities?
I notice that some universities have academic positions known as lecturers. Are these positions different from professors? Are transitions from instructors to the professor track relatively easy. This ...
9
votes
8answers
1k views
What is the advantage of becoming a full professor if you already have tenure as an associate professor?
What is the advantage of becoming a full professor if you are already an associate professor with tenure? Why not just stay an associate professor for life? What is the key difference between an ...
8
votes
1answer
173 views
Special professor titles?
I have noticed several special professor titles and I was wondering what are the exact details behind them. For example:
Stan Franklin, W. Harry Feinstone Interdisciplinary Research Professor
I ...
32
votes
4answers
1k views
What lessons have you learned over the years as a TENURED FULL Professor that you wish somebody had told you when you started as an Assistant Prof?
As a Tenured Full Professor and given your long experience in Academia, what valuable lessons have you learned over the years that you wish somebody had shared with you earlier when you started as an ...
13
votes
3answers
344 views
How do I get recommendation letters?
I have had a different set of professors every semester and as batch sizes are pretty big ~80, and with every professor dealing with 3-4 separate batches of equivalent size, for barely 3-4 months at a ...
6
votes
1answer
102 views
How important is the academic staff to student ratio?
I've been looking at some universities abroad (I'm from Norway) like in Hong Kong (HKUST), but the academic staff to student ratio seems dreadful compared to others with 1:23. Still, people seem to ...
18
votes
1answer
883 views
What to do if one has had an unsuccessful PhD (because of others' fault)?
I was talking to a friend of mine, and he just feel in a deep depression due to finishing his PhD.
He will be defending in the coming weeks, and there is a high likelihood he will pass.
In his ...
16
votes
1answer
300 views
How Long Should a Professor Stay?
When you accept a tenure-track position in the USA, how long are you expected to stay? Does it look bad if you change jobs a couple times after a few years at each university? Is there an unspoken ...
52
votes
3answers
659 views
Life as a math professor
I am currently an undergraduate math major in my 3rd year (in America). I have taken lots of pure math courses, and anything I put in my resume tells potential employers I'm probably going to be an ...
3
votes
1answer
34 views
How to encourage faculty involvement as judges in a local research exposé?
Our university has a an annual event showcasing graduate student research projects and has a competition for best presentation. However, faculty involvement (as judges for the event) was very sparse ...
2
votes
2answers
194 views
How many years of industrial experience needed for a Mechatronics Professor?
I have a Bachelor's in EE and Master's in Automation and 3 years experience, including 2 in software development. For me, an academic career would be both more meaningful and professionally rewarding ...
8
votes
1answer
223 views
How to respond to the teacher who puts the feet up while talking to student?
A friend of mine who is from Japan told me that his professor in USA puts the feet up while talking to him. He was saying that he felt very bad with that. Is this acceptable culture in USA academia?
29
votes
5answers
987 views
What tools make it easy to maintain (or avoid!) the N versions of your CV?
Academics need various forms of their CV, depending on what purpose it's being used for. In my case, here are reasons I've had to re-format or have a different version of my CV:
promotion and ...
10
votes
4answers
262 views
Till what point do you do exercises while studying?
I will try to make this as less subjective:
Till what point do you continue doing exercises at end of the chapter to learn something:
I do it in Grad school and that's where I really learn. Do ...
10
votes
4answers
760 views
How should an academic negotiate his/her salary?
This is a follow-up question to this question of mine, where I wanted to know if academic salaries can be negotiated.
How does an academic negotiate a pay package that has been offered? What special ...
11
votes
1answer
148 views
How to interview a faculty candidate?
When interviewing a faculty candidate, how should I structure the interview? What questions should I ask? How should I make the best use of the limited time available? Assume this is for a ...
6
votes
2answers
99 views
What are the roles and responsibilities of an adjunct faculty?
Is adjunct faculty's duty limited to teaching? Do they have any role in course design, grading, etc.?
What are the other responsibilities, as an adjunct faculty?
6
votes
2answers
185 views
How do professors change research interests?
My question is along the lines of How do professors usually discover "new" research interests? but more to do with "HOW"? The above question deals with how professors discover new areas, my ...
22
votes
4answers
672 views
Are relationships allowed between students and faculty?
What sorts of restrictions do universities place on romantic or sexual relationships between faculty and graduate students, and what are the underlying issues that motivate these restrictions?
For ...
10
votes
1answer
187 views
During an application/interview should an applicant justify leaving a current faculty position (pre-tenure)?
I have been in a tenure-track position for 3 years and am going back on the job market. Would I be expected to "explain" why I am leaving, especially when it is pre-tenure? I suspect that a search ...
13
votes
2answers
240 views
How to interview a candidate for a university teaching position?
We are interviewing some candidates for a part-time teaching faculty position to teach 2 upper level undergraduate courses in mathematics.
Since it is my first time to be in such committee and since ...
18
votes
6answers
294 views
Coordination of a class taught by different professors: how to be fair to the students?
A typical freshman course on calculus has about 100 students every semester. If the course is divided into 4 sections, each has 25 students and a different instructor.
Because the instructors are ...
14
votes
1answer
496 views
How to introduce myself briefly in a get together for new faculty members?
For the new faculty orientation, there is a get together where they will ask every new faculty member of all departments to say a few words about him/her self.
What are the best practices regarding ...
7
votes
1answer
87 views
How does shifting of jobs affect designation and tenure in academia?
I would like to know how job transfer of faculty members affects their designation. Will they retain their designation (Prof/Assoc/Asst.) in the new institution?
Similarly if a faculty member faces ...
6
votes
2answers
123 views
What is a “full-time teaching faculty” (and does advising count)?
Ed Tufte offers a discount to his seminars for "full-time teaching faculty" (as well as full-time students).
Does "full-time teaching" exclude full-time faculty who spend part time doing research? ...
4
votes
4answers
672 views
Incentives for professors to write recommendation letters
Is one incentive their ability to communicate their perceptiveness to people in their general community?
Are there other incentives?
16
votes
3answers
1k views
Romantic relationships between faculty and students
Romantic relationships between faculty members and students are often depicted in movies or books, and the student falling in love with his/her professor seems to be a bit of a cliché. But how common ...
27
votes
3answers
567 views
How is Google Scholar changing academic evaluation?
Google Scholar is making it very easy to track (their measure of) citation counts, h-index, etc. for individual researchers. Is this changing how academics are evaluated? Do tenure committees now ...
15
votes
1answer
255 views
What should a tenured professor do to move to a more research oriented school?
Much is written about how to get a job, but I've seen very little about how a professor with tenure (typically an associate or full professor) goes about changing schools. If a professor wants to ...
12
votes
2answers
4k views
Assistant professor vs Associate professor
What's the difference between an associate professor and an assistant professor?
What can one of them do that the other can't? and which is a higher level? can any of them supervise a PhD student?
9
votes
3answers
171 views
Tips for faculty members seeking administrative responsibilities
How does a faculty member seek administrative responsibilities in a Department? Do such positions come in a cycle only? Or should the faculty member make his/her willingness known in advance to the ...
14
votes
3answers
467 views
What makes securing faculty positions difficult?
This question is an off-shoot from this one, where it has been agreed by most that securing faculty positions is difficult in general. I would like to know what exactly makes this so.
Though in ...
7
votes
1answer
219 views
How common is faculty members changing jobs in the US?
Faculty members switch between universities for many reasons, but how often does this happen? Has there been any study/report on the frequency of job shifts and resignations in academia, especially in ...
5
votes
4answers
365 views
At what age do professors stop taking new students?
Assuming STEM, At what age do tenured professors stop taking new students?
I am a first year PhD student and have my eye on one professor who seems to be really interesting and I feel he finds me as ...
