Faculty searches continue against odds

Despite the financial setbacks the College has faced during the economic downturn, the administration has continued to actively search for and hire new faculty members, including members who will occupy tenure-track positions.

According to Dean of the Faculty Jim Ralph, the College most actively recruits new faculty members between November and February; however, Middlebury has already hired 17 “very strong” faculty members this fall.

Eight of those new professors will be occupying tenure-track positions: Will Amidon in the Geography department; Ellie Bagley and Vasudha Paramasivan in the Religion department; Anne Goodsell, a Physics professor; Rivi Handler-Spitz, with the Chinese department; Louisa Stein, who is teaching Film and Media Culture; Linda White, with Japanese Studies; and Orlaith Creedon in the French department. The College will pursue an additional eight tenure-track searches and 12 term positions over the course of this academic year.

Unlike Middlebury, other peer institutions have chosen to cancel faculty searches and to place a freeze upon current member positions.  According to President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz, this has “created one of the best markets for faculty talent in decades.”

In his address to the College on Sept. 22, Liebowitz said that one of the school’s primary goals in terms of classroom education is to maintain a student-faculty ratio of nine-to-one. These new faculty hires, he said, would help to protect that goal. Though he recognized that the continuation of faculty searches might “appear contradictory to the goal of exercising restraint,” Liebowitz justified the College’s decision.

“To have delayed or canceled the searches would have compromised our commitment to classes of a certain size for our students [and] reduced the level of engagement between students and faculty that is the foundation of a Middlebury education,” he said.

Will Amidon, the newest member of the Geography department, echoed Liebowitz’s words.

“I think Middlebury is doing the right thing by continuing to hire,” he said. “There are noticeably fewer jobs than before the economic downturn, and it is certainly a buyer’s market right now. There are a lot of very bright people floating around the job market.”

In order to combat any economic repercussions the school might feel from this decision, the College aims to increase revenues through fundraising and to limit replacement positions for those professors who took part in the early retirement and voluntary separation program.

“We chose the slow and deliberate path,” said Liebowitz. Continuing to seek new faculty members may cause financial setbacks in other areas, but it will allow Middlebury to hire a talented group of new professors who are delighted to be at the College.

“I could have stayed as a post-doc … on the West coast,” said Amidon. “I just wanted to be here more than any place else.”