What Colleges and Universities Want in New Faculty
by Kathrynn A. Adams

2. Research
Although the specific criteria for research vary at different institutions, active scholarship is considered essential to the success of all faculty. Research expectations usually follow from the mission of an institution. At a minimum, institutions require that faculty stay informed about developments in their field. At the other extreme, research expectations are defined by qualitative and quantitative criteria, and publication and grant success define the path to prestige, salary increases, and tenure. Some institutions have expanded their definition of research following the publication of Scholarship Reconsidered (Boyer 1990) to include, in addition to the scholarship of discovery, the scholarship of integration, application, and teaching. Today, urban institutions often value practical and applied research that assists their communities, while liberal arts colleges often support interdisciplinary as well as more traditional disciplinary research.

Regardless of the type of institution, faculty are expected to develop a research program that fits with current practice based on the institution's mission. For most new faculty this means that research plays a different role in their academic life than it played at the research university where they earned their doctorate. They often must disperse their research activities around the primary task of teaching. Since resources are likely to be limited, new faculty may not be able to continue their doctoral line of research. The collaborative research process that seemed so natural in their graduate program may not exist in their new position because they may be the only one in their institution pursuing their particular research area. New faculty may not have graduate research assistants. Many campuses now emphasize undergraduate research, and they may need to learn to include undergraduates in their research. Where do graduate students learn about modifications that will be necessary when they become faculty members at different kinds of institutions?

Recommendations to Graduate Faculty
Graduate faculty must understand that their students' time and energy in graduate school have been devoted to a task that may not have the same primacy in many new faculty positions. Faculty need to become familiar with the conditions surrounding research activities at different types of institutions. For example, unless graduate students have been hired at a research university, they will not have the same resources available to accomplish their research. Space, money, and assistance may be scarce at their new institution. As new faculty, they may need to consider alternative methods or alternative lines of research.

Faculty should assist their students in preparing for an environment that expects research to be accomplished at the same time that other responsibilities exert more immediate demands (e.g., graduate students could develop projects in their research area that do not require many resources).

Graduate students need an introduction to the growing practice of incorporating undergraduates into their research projects.

Just as new faculty benefit from having previously taught a variety of courses in different settings, they benefit from conducting research under different conditions while still in graduate school. Graduate faculty should consider these needs as they mentor students in developing a research program.

Faculty from a variety of institutions can serve as a valuable resource to doctoral programs by sharing information about the different kinds of research activities at institutions where this responsibility is not the primary focus of faculty.