Money not only key for faculty who leave Penn

After more than 15 years teaching students and holding office hours in Bennett Hall, English Professor Maureen Quilligan -- a scholar of Renaissance-era literature -- left her colleagues and her students to start anew in Duke University's English Department. Even though the University offered Quilligan a "more than generous" counter-offer, she said she couldn't resist leaving Penn last spring to be closer to her husband's family in Chapel Hill, N.C. In her department, Quilligan was not alone. Two other English Department faculty members left the University for other institutions last spring -- English Professor Houston Baker also moved to Duke and English Professor Elisa New left for Harvard University. With Penn experiencing the loss of several distinguished faculty members over the past two years, School of Arts and Sciences professors say that many factors -- which sometimes outweigh financial incentives -- can enter into decisions about whether to accept offers from other schools. And many question if the University is doing enough to keep its faculty around. Last year, a total of 36 professors presented outside offers to SAS, and -- for reasons ranging from competing salaries to family and colleague issues -- the University lost nine of those faculty members. Penn President Judith Rodin said a series of elements come into play when making personal career decisions. "Many of us go through these mid-career feelings where we wonder where we're going to be for the rest of our lives," said Rodin, who is also a Psychology professor. While Quilligan cited family interests, New said she left Penn's English Department to work with specific professors at Harvard. "What Harvard offered -- an Americanist group and poetry faculty with interests closer to mine -- Penn couldn't match," New said, adding that Penn did everything it could to keep her. For English Professor Herman Beavers, it came down to a matter of family. When Beavers first received an attractive proposal from Northwestern University in 1996, the African-American Studies scholar was toying with the idea of leaving, saying that his ultimate decision would rest on his family's concerns. When he notified SAS of the offer, he quickly got a response, and decided to remain at Penn for the time being. "A week later Penn made a counter-offer," Beavers said. But many professors say that it can be hard to resist a good offer when it comes to the table, and in some cases, Penn could do a better job of keeping its faculty around. "Like any academic worth his or her salt, I would certainly consider a good offer from a good university," English Professor Rita Barnard said. "I do think that Penn could be more committed to the retention of faculty members who have proven their value to the institution as teachers and scholars," Barnard added. But SAS Dean Samuel Preston said that when faculty receive attractive offers from peer institutions, the University will "match the offer or beat it." Preston said Penn assesses the value of the courted faculty on an individual basis and makes a counter-offer reflective of their importance to the school, though he added that there are circumstances where the University chooses not to match the offer. Others criticize the general courting system as free-agentry, where professors are likely to join the highest-bidding institution. "People go for outside offers simply for the sake of upping their salary at Penn," one professor said, adding that the "game" is the only way to get more money. English Professor Nina Auerbach, who says she is not currently entertaining offers, said Penn deans could always offer more to retain its faculty. "[The process] can be sort of unfair and corrupt," she noted, saying upper-level hiring can turn into an auction. Faculty from across SAS confirm the market-oriented behavior characteristic in attracting faculty. College of Arts and Science Dean Richard Beeman said this type of external reward structure -- at its extremes -- undermines the task of educating undergraduates. "Quite simply, there is not an external market structure that rewards dedicated undergraduate teaching," Beeman said. Sociology Professor Charles Bosk, who has been at the University since 1977, agreed that meriting professors purely for their teaching does not happen often. "People don't get job offers because they are master teachers," Bosk said, pointing to the proposed experimental College curriculum and distributed learning programs as future opportunities for teaching to get more notice. Former English Department Chairperson Wendy Steiner agreed that professors can get fed up by the lack of attention paid to teaching. "So, when jobs come along that involve less teaching, more money and more institutional support, some Penn professors take them," Steiner said.