A number of people have asked me what I think of the State College of Florida trustees’ decision to abolish continuing contracts for new faculty and to establish a bidding system to fill jobs. Let me make a few remarks about how one hires college faculty so you can understand how it affects the College and the community.  

Universities that genuinely value teaching hire faculty members who love their discipline and who love teaching. To love one’s discipline means that you are expert in it, absorbed by it, contribute to it and think constantly about it. To love teaching means that you care deeply that each student learns and that you are constantly seeking ways to engage each one. You feel their pain, you revel in their accomplishments and you are always juggling your available time to make the biggest difference to the most students you can.  

Professors at high quality institutions are pulled in different directions by the demands of their discipline and by their students. They love what they do, and they work 60, 70, 80 hours a week, and often much longer, often to the detriment of their personal lives. When college is not in session, they do research in labs or in the field or in archives. They write papers and books, and they learn and master new developments in their fields.   

Both New College and State College are very high quality institutions. They hire nationally. When hiring, New College seeks individuals with both established research programs and a willingness to work collaboratively with students on research that students suggest. Successful candidates are typically one to five years after their PhD (or MFA if their field is in the arts). State College accepts all students who apply, so it seeks faculty with advanced degrees who are able to teach well at all levels, which is different from, and often tougher than, teaching students with more homogeneous academic backgrounds.       

How many such individuals are there? Fewer than you might think.  

Each year the number of new PhDs in the United States in a core academic discipline ranges from a little over 100 in fields like classics or medieval history to over 3,000 in psychology.  This sounds like a lot until you realize that well over half have no interest in teaching—other jobs pay more and demand less. And each year, most of the 4,000 institutions of higher education in the U.S. are seeking faculty in core disciplines. So there is much competition, and it is not unusual for a search to fail.    

The best candidates usually have multiple offers. How do you get such a person to move here? It’s not salaries—Florida pays less than most other states. Candidates must see that what they love—their discipline and teaching—aligns with what the institution wants. Teachers who make those commitments to their students and their disciplines want to see a similar commitment to them from the institution. They look for institutions who expect them to succeed, to settle in the area, to build programs and to be there for their graduates who will need letters and support many years after graduation.  

Donal O'Shea is president of New College of Florida.