Although many graduate students at The University of Alabama may have hopes to work as a professor at the Capstone, most departments will only hire graduates after they have gained professorship experience at other schools first.
Departments follow an unwritten rule that suggests hiring recent UA grads from their own department can cause problems for students and faculty.
“It is more efficient to hire somebody that graduated from other universities to bring in new ideas and techniques by improving and expanding the department,” said Paul Aharon, a professor in the department of geological sciences. “It’s not a written policy but it’s an accepted policy.”
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Aharon said hired graduates would be buried in the tradition of the department if they didn’t follow unofficial policy. However, he added the department would hire graduates who have spent some time outside of the University, because they have had opportunities to learn in a different environment.
Michael Murphy, chair of the anthropology department, said his department does not consider their own recent doctoral students for tenure positions, and doesn’t know of any other anthropology department that does.
“If someone gets a Ph.D. from us, we want them to distinguish themselves somewhere else, and then after the passage of five years we might consider them for that position,” Murphy said.
Murphy said there are benefits associated with this rule.
“One reason is to enhance intellectual diversity in the faculty. If you think about it, a person who has earned a doctorate from our program has learned all of their chops from the already existing faculty members. We want them to show their stuff somewhere else,” Murphy said. “We and other departments in various disciplines in the United States have this rule to ensure there is not too much intellectual inbreeding. This enhances the experience of our students and also invigorates the faculty.”
Additionally, Murphy said this practice helps minimize favoritism within academic departments.
“The second reason it to avoid academic impotence,” Murphy said. “Hypothetically, let’s say we have a senior professor who is a relatively powerful person in the department and has a student of his or hers they want to get a job in the department. That has the potential for creating difficulties within the department. We make decision about who we want to recommend to be hired. We don’t want to have issues like that.”
Murphy said many may look at the policy as an insult to recent graduate students, but the unofficial policy is not meant to suggest that recent graduates are not good enough to be hired at UA. He said he thinks they are capable of fulfilling duties the position requires.
“Our students have been hired by FCC universities relevant to ours. We definitely think they are prepared and worthy, but we just want to avoid those two problems,” Murphy said. “If we hire professors wisely, everyone benefits, especially the students.”
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