Hi all, as someone who gets to see this particular kind of process work its way through the academic bureaucracy from an insider’s position, I can say a few hopefully useful things, some of which you probably all suspect already ;). I don’t endorse the current situation and am actively invested in changing it (like many of us in the Carpentries, I suspect) so hopefully I can help provide some understanding of what we’re up against!
First, there is a general move away from tenure track positions in academia, because they are expensive and it’s really, really hard to fire tenured faculty. (Google “adjunctification”.) Second, tenure track positions at R1 institutions are typically research centered, so any position that emerges from a teaching/training perspective is generally considered “non tenure track” by the current holders of tenure, from whom the administrators setting up these positions and institutes often emerge. Here at UC Davis we have some positions that are teaching+tenure, in effect, and I know that some of the people on the list have experience with this kind of position - would love to hear more! Third, I agree with Yuan that there is a lot of uncertainty about what data science is, who it belongs to, and so on. Hiring new tenure track faculty into such an uncertain situation is actually very problematic - the department is often the first line of evaluation and what *they* think you should be doing matters a great deal. For example: 9 years ago, I was hired into a CS department in an Engineering college as my tenure home, and it was a really, really, really, bad fit in many ways. (Oddly, Veterinary Medicine, which is a Professional School, has been an excellent home for me so far - not sure how Davis specific that is, but we do a great deal more community engagement here than in my previous colleges, and we care a great deal more about teaching because of our DVM program, so people not only “get” my passions but they fit in with college-level interests. Open source scientific software is a bit of a harder sell but not much.) I have very strong personal recommendations about what kinds of jobs you should AVOID taking if you are a Carpentry-inclined person… but it would take more tact and diplomacy than I have available at the moment (perhaps ever…) to write them down clearly :) Fourth (and I am very much speaking from a position of privilege here), tenure track profs spend a lot of time doing things that aren’t that interesting and the life of an assistant professor is pretty miserable in my personal experience and also my broader observation. We do people a real disservice in academia by mindlessly promoting academically focused careers over other careers. I do my best to support my students, postdocs, and other mentees in developing a clear-eyed appraisal of what various jobs actually entail, and I’m proud to say that as far as I can tell, no one has been too negatively surprised by the actual content of the job they ended up with. (I personally strongly recommend against entering academia at this point in time.) best, —titus > On Jun 15, 2018, at 1:31 PM, Yuan An <y...@drexel.edu> wrote: > > I have similar feeling and would like to ask the same question: why do > many institutes start DS programs while only want to hire non-tenure > track teaching faculty? I also have a little experience. We at Drexel > University started a Bachelor in DS two yeas ago and will start MSDS > this fall. We tried to hire two teaching faculty to lead the > curriculum since last year, very similar to what this Northeastern ad > describes. However, we haven't filled the positions yet. The hiring > process will continue this year. I have found that many other > universities are also hiring teaching faculty in DS. One thing I can > share about the mentality was that people were still unsure what > exactly DS is as a independent scientific discipline. People from a > variety of background claim they are doing DS research (CS, AI, > Machine Learning, Statistics, Math, Business Analytics, > Bioinformatics, you name it...) Are there any other thoughts? By the > way, if anybody is interested in teaching and leading the DS programs > at Drexel's College of Computing and Informatics in Philadelphia, > please feel free to contact me or look for the job ad. > > Best Regards, > > Yuan An > > On Fri, Jun 15, 2018 at 9:49 AM Hetherington, James > <j.hethering...@ucl.ac.uk> wrote: >> >> It looks like a great job, but do we need to discuss within the movement >> about why roles like this tend to be pure-teaching non-research >> non-tenure-track roles, rather than combined with research? >> >> >> >> Our findings at RSE4DS18 considered career structures for data scientists >> working on the open software stacks that underpin research >> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.software.ac.uk_index.php_blog_2018-2D04-2D05-2Dso-2Dyou-2Dwant-2Dstart-2Ddata-2Dscience-2Dinstitute-2Dachieving-2Dsustainability&d=DwIFaQ&c=nE__W8dFE-shTxStwXtp0A&r=SYmX1-nsUDOfo9qO3rPQ3w&m=LB5gV9QTVtYCTzk1JJKJ1VNSuI9I1k_e5sB6Ne-Rpvs&s=M_h34MPeJwdXq4jT7xTPElMAI4TYn8OXKQ1T6i2cyek&e= >> and there’s clearly more lobbying needed. >> >> >> >> -- >> >> >> >> Dr James Hetherington FBCS >> >> Director of Research Engineering >> >> The Alan Turing Institute >> >> >> >> >> >> From: Laurent Gatto <lg...@cam.ac.uk> >> Reply-To: discuss <discuss@lists.carpentries.org> >> Date: Thursday, 14 June 2018 at 21:03 >> To: discuss <discuss@lists.carpentries.org> >> Subject: [discuss] Job: Assistant/Associate/Teaching Professor & Director - >> Data Science Program >> >> >> >> Der all, >> >> >> >> I would like to draw you attention to this position at Northeastern >> University in Boston, MA. >> >> >> >> The College of Computer & Information Science and College of Engineering >> invites applications for the position of Assistant, Associate, or Full >> Teaching Professor & Director of the Data Science Program beginning in >> Spring or Summer 2018. This is a full-time, benefits-eligible, non-tenure >> track position. Primary responsibilities include teaching and overseeing all >> aspects of the professional MS program in Data Science. >> >> >> >> From what I know, the successful faculty can take this program in different >> directions (e.g., strengthening R/open source), and to have the wider >> carpentries community involved. >> >> >> >> For more information and application : >> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__neu.peopleadmin.com_postings_52293&d=DwIFaQ&c=nE__W8dFE-shTxStwXtp0A&r=SYmX1-nsUDOfo9qO3rPQ3w&m=LB5gV9QTVtYCTzk1JJKJ1VNSuI9I1k_e5sB6Ne-Rpvs&s=xt4MUTQhcIud8wRiCcNKxx7dS3y9SpZ6c8hfjLJTzw4&e= >> >> >> >> Best wishes, >> >> >> >> Laurent >> >> >> >> -- >> >> Laurent Gatto | @lgatt0 >> >> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__lgatto.github.io_&d=DwIFaQ&c=nE__W8dFE-shTxStwXtp0A&r=SYmX1-nsUDOfo9qO3rPQ3w&m=LB5gV9QTVtYCTzk1JJKJ1VNSuI9I1k_e5sB6Ne-Rpvs&s=l9rVndmk_TSlcYlCOt5cKVVklEUMtnaHPPbtJmANSj4&e= >> >> The Carpentries / discuss / see discussions + participants + delivery >> options Permalink > > ------------------------------------------ > The Carpentries: discuss > Permalink: > https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__carpentries.topicbox.com_groups_discuss_T3ef4c474f5e89e6f-2DMcf7ef685eb28f777f41f9b9a&d=DwIFaQ&c=nE__W8dFE-shTxStwXtp0A&r=SYmX1-nsUDOfo9qO3rPQ3w&m=LB5gV9QTVtYCTzk1JJKJ1VNSuI9I1k_e5sB6Ne-Rpvs&s=8w4_3y6KO6idXxFsj-x0_rxjCnYPeV-a-ApLpPhtPOc&e= > Delivery options: > https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__carpentries.topicbox.com_groups&d=DwIFaQ&c=nE__W8dFE-shTxStwXtp0A&r=SYmX1-nsUDOfo9qO3rPQ3w&m=LB5gV9QTVtYCTzk1JJKJ1VNSuI9I1k_e5sB6Ne-Rpvs&s=oY5AanZGK1frOcQ8HDUx87CJV8Xe_z9uGjKEQQ5A2Ig&e= ------------------------------------------ The Carpentries: discuss Permalink: https://carpentries.topicbox.com/groups/discuss/T3ef4c474f5e89e6f-Mcc17a2a036f93c47174e3690 Delivery options: https://carpentries.topicbox.com/groups
