Nurturing an Endangered Species: A Constructive Approach to Faculty Development

Abstract

Retrenchment. Tenure. Burn-out. MBO. Budget cuts. Competencies. Like the Egyptians f old, col lege faculty members find themselves beset by plagues. And like Prince Hamlet, they are confronted with a choice: to be part of the faculty or not to be. Resigna tion provides faculty with one decisive solution. If they choose to continue, however, do they stay on the same old path? Do they move into administration? Or do they expand and become more effective as teachers and pro fessionals? If faculty choose the last option, the central question becomes: In what ways can faculty develop? Related problems of individual initiative, financial and moral support from administration, existing or new-found in terests, available opportunities, and factors of time and money complicate the issue of faculty growth and creativity. Ideally, faculty should respond to these prob lems in ways that will make them assets to the institu tion, too valuable to be lost and too enthusiastic to cease their renewed efforts. The goal is clear, but it is necessary now to find means to achieve it. There are some difficulties in needs between tenured and untenured faculty, and between those eligible for promotion and those at the top of the professorial lad der. In the case of the untenured and "eligibles," tenure and promotion criteria usually include *'evidence of continuing professional development." Tenured full