Submitted by Steve Street, Dec 28, 2007 11:43

Nationwide searches for new full-time faculty can lead to stimulating new colleagues for existing tenured faculty and valuable new perspectives in their departments, and many such new hires will indeed eventually form commitments to their campuses and make substantial contributions. But the costs of such hiring range from travel and accommodation expenses for job candidates to the time, often years, it can take for new hires to adjust to their campuses and students -- and often, when the newly credentialed are hired, to teaching itself. My department at one SUNY campus had to offer workshops for new tenure-track faculty and conduct list-serve discussions in pedagogical skills and priorities that had become second nature to me in over a decade of adjunct service. Why not draw from the pool of faculty who have already demonstrated their expertise and commitment to public education in New York and save money at the same time, instead of starting over from scratch for each new full-time faculty hire?

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