The
high quality of teaching at Exeter has always
been central to the Harkness experience. Dynamic
teachers who challenge their students to challenge
each other make an impact that most Exonians never
forget. In order to preserve this exceptional
resource, an Academy Master Plan task force has
been avidly investigating trends and issues that
affect faculty at Exeter. The task force's research
will help ensure that Exeter continues to attract
and retain the best teachers in the nation.
Recruiting
in a Competitive Market
Not since 1930, when a generous gift made by Edward
S. Harkness permitted Principal Lewis Perry to
hire 25 new instructors, has the Academy faced
the kind of faculty turnover it is soon to experience.
Forty percent of Exeter instructors are age 51
or older and are expected to retire within the
next 15 years. Says Dean of Faculty Barbara Eggers,
"We're an older faculty, and we need to think
about how we'll replace those who are leaving,
especially in this competitive market. Though
our older faculty will retire over a period of
several years, we have to work hard now to ensure
that we continue to have great teachers at Exeter."
Faculty
recruitment is clearly a major concern for the
task force, as several current demographic and
economic trends have made this task increasingly
challenging. "We're competing in a market shortage,"
says Barbara. Many factors, she explains, make
the recruiting process difficult, including the
fact that recruiting is expensive. Yet it is attracting
recruits to a 24-hour teaching environment in
small-town New Hampshire that can prove most daunting.
As Barbara points out, "Exeter and the Greater
Seacoast region are not easily affordable places
on a teacher's salary, particularly after instructors
move out of the dormitories." And salaries are
clearly a factor contributing to the teacher shortage,
which is not exclusive to the Academy. The allure
of lucrative private-sector salaries, and the
urban cultural and social opportunities that often
go hand in hand with them, have drawn many talented,
energetic young professionals away from teaching.
It
is clear that Exeter must take steps to increase
faculty compensation. Using cash compensation
statistics, Exeter is essentially equivalent compared
to its peer schools. However, early to mid-career
teachers at Exeter tend to make less than public
school and private day school teachers, as well
as assistant professors at the college level.
If the Academy is to be successful in attracting
young professionals-the next generation of Harkness
teachers-salaries, benefits and housing will all
need to be carefully evaluated and improved.
Improved
Faculty Housing
To ease the difficulty of recruiting and retaining
top-notch faculty in an increasingly competitive
marketplace and to significantly enhance residential
life, faculty housing must be improved. Currently
75 percent of eligible instructors live in Academy
housing, compared with 100 percent at several
of our peer schools. The Lawrenceville School
in New Jersey, for example, houses 100 percent
of its faculty in school housing until they retire.
In addition to this housing shortage, the lack
of quality of some dormitory housing at the Academy
encourages turnover-to the detriment of residential
life.
Based
on task force recommendations, the trustees have
pledged to improve dormitory housing through ongoing
renovation projects and to expand faculty housing
through the purchase of property near campus,
when it is viewed to be in the best interest of
the Academy. A related plan, approved by the trustees
as of May 2001, is to build new units on campus,
a route many peer schools have taken in recent
years.
Not
only is improved housing expected to make recruiting
and retaining faculty easier, it is also expected
to have an enormously positive effect on residential
life at the Academy. The rising cost of New Hampshire
Seacoast area real estate has made it difficult
for teachers who have completed their 10 years
of dormitory service to find affordable housing
near campus. New units and the purchase of more
local property will ensure that instructors are
able to remain part of the residential community,
giving students more access to their instructors
and advisers.
|
|
 |
| Dean
of Faculty Barbara Eggers with students in
one of her history classes |
|
Varied
Experiences and Backgrounds = Rich Conversations
While education at Exeter, and in the world
at large, is certainly about gaining knowledge
in a variety of subject areas, it is also about
mentoring and looking for models on which to pattern
one's life-a fact that has been confirmed by survey
information provided by Exeter graduates. Excellence
in teaching and mentoring comes in many forms,
and the Academy must seek talented people from
all backgrounds to mirror the students of today.
Voices from a wide variety of ethnic, racial,
cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds are necessary
to expand and enrich conversations around the
Harkness table.
"The
recruitment of diverse faculty is very important.
Our student body is still far more diverse than
our faculty, and we need to work continually to
address this issue," Barbara emphasizes. The Academy
must expand its recruiting program and take steps
to ensure that the benefits and values of teaching
and living in a small-town residential school
environment are conveyed to candidates. New teachers
need better orientation to the unique pedagogy
of the Harkness system and supportive mentoring
relationships between senior and junior faculty.
In addition, the larger campus community will
need to stay involved through ongoing dialogue
about cultural issues.
Also
important is the John and Elizabeth Phillips Fellowship
program, which allows Exeter to bring to campus
faculty of traditionally underrepresented backgrounds
to teach for one, two or three year appointments.
Two new teachers will join the Academy this fall
as part of the program; however, Exeter still
seeks the funds to permanently endow this important
endeavor.
Time
for Professional Development
In a given term, most Exeter instructors have
four courses to prep and teach, in addition to
dorm service and coaching or extracurricular commitments-the
traditional "triple threat" responsibilities.
As Barbara notes in discussing the expectations
for Exeter teachers, "It is challenging to be
the best we can be at each of our responsibilities."
A 1998 Workload Study conducted at the Academy
confirms that faculty are currently stretched
thin. Short of finding a rift in time, creative
measures must be taken to ensure that faculty
are not so overburdened that their needs and the
needs of their families and students are neglected.
|
|
|
|
Betsy
Farnham, religion instructor
|
|
To
temper the hectic pace of Academy life, Barbara
and her colleagues will seek to redistribute workloads
and to expand and enhance professional development
opportunities. A majority of Exeter instructors
already participate in professional development
activities during the year, mostly during the
summer, so the goal is to give them more opportunities
and more time to engage in such activities. "We
would like to fund reduced teaching loads for
teachers from time to time, especially for teachers
who are doing innovative things with curriculum,"
says Barbara. "Teachers should have the opportunity
to keep up and branch out in their fields."
Getting
There From Here
As
with so many other critical campus initiatives,
recruiting and maintaining those instructors who
are most passionate about and committed to teaching
takes time, energy and resources. The recommendations
of the faculty task force can be implemented only
with the support of alumni/ae, parents and friends
who are equally as passionate about superb teaching.
Barbara says funds such as the Sarah E. Curtis,
2001, Faculty Development Fund (see article on
pages 14 and 15) are vital to the Academy's faculty
and students, and help set Exeter apart. She explains,
"These funds are doubly beneficial. The teacher
is supported in his or her continual learning,
while the school shows a commitment to the goal
of continued growth in one's field." Ultimately,
says Barbara, it is the students who benefit from
faculty invigoration, as they take what they've
learned around the Harkness table out into the
world and translate knowledge into action.
|
|
|
|
English
instructor Peter Greer
|
|
"We're
competing in a market shortage. We have to work
hard now to ensure that we continue to have great
teachers at Exeter." -Barbara Eggers, dean of
faculty
|
