Oh, so only single people can contribute to this discussion? I've seen
a lot more hyperbole in this discussion coming from the anti-spousal
hire side. I've seen more confusing of terms (nepotism is hiring of
your relatives, not offering a job to an unrelated candidate and his or
her partner) from the anti-spousal side here.
I still wait to see Dossey offering documentation to his assertion that
spousal hiring is unethical. According to what authorities?
As for diminishing the quality of the institution, where's what David
Bell, former dean of faculty at Johns Hopkins, had to say in a piece
written for the Chronicle of Higher Education
(http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/65456/):
"Critics of spousal hiring often charge that the practice drags down a
university's academic quality, but my experience as dean laid that
concern to rest for me. To start with, we never forced a spousal hire on
a department or approved the hiring of a spouse who we felt could not
pass through the university's rigorous tenure process. After seeing the
pattern of spousal hiring in my report to the new president, I drew up a
list of the partners in question, wondering if it would look like a
rogues' gallery of our weakest professors. In fact, in terms of both
stature and productivity, it seemed like an entirely random selection.
The Stanford report notes that faculty members recruited as part of
spousal-hire arrangements have a level of productivity on par for their
institutions."
Some more thoughts from the Prodigal Academic here:
http://theprodigalacademic.blogspot.com/2010/05/spousal-hiring-in-and-out-of-academia.html
More facts (based on something called research) can be found here:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/gender/ResearchPrograms/DualCareer/index.html
On that page I recommend the report "Dual-Career Academic Couples: What
Universities Need to Know"
(http://www.stanford.edu/group/gender/ResearchPrograms/DualCareer/DualCareerFinal.pdf)
Later,
Dave
On 8/20/2011 3:25 PM, Julianne Heinlein wrote:
I think it's telling that the only people, at least is this dialogue,
who use words like "ludicrous" and "absurd" and resort to personally
attacking someone's character (note the whole "lesson" on how not to
live one's life as a bitter wretch) are those proponents of spousal
hire. Using such words and directions makes you look defensive and
incapable of having a discussion simply on the merits. You only use
words like "absurd" when you are trying to belittle someone's argument
not when you plan on providing a useful counterargument. As I would
bet that the vast majority of those supporters of spousal hire are or
have been married, or plan to use this marriage perk in the future, I
would ask that you take the YOU out of the discussion or at least
acknowledge that you are asking for special treatment because of your
marital status.
Julianne,
An apparently bitter, bitter, single scientist
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