Interdisciplinary Environmental Programs: Opportunities and Challenges For Faculty and Students

1
Interdisciplinary Environmental Programs
Opportunities and Challenges For Faculty and
Students
Chronicle 2005

• Stephanie Pfirman, Barnard College
• Sharon Hall, Arizona State University
• Tom Tietenberg, Colby College
• Diana Rhoten, Social Science Research Council and
  NSF

2
Background

• Site visits to environmental programs at liberal
  arts colleges for the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
  
• EST May 2005 Pfirman, Hall, Tietenberg, and
  PKAL Resource Hall, Tietenberg and Pfirman
• Council of Environmental Deans and Directors
  (CEDD) analyses
• Chronicle of Higher Education, February 2005
  Pfirman, Collins, Lowes, and Michaels, and PKAL
  Resource
• Interdisciplinary Hiring and Career Development
  Guidance for Individuals and Institutions
  November, 2007
• Women and interdisciplinarity
• Rhoten and Pfirman, 2007, Research Policy, Inside
  Higher Education and upcoming Workshop November
  12-13, Columbia

3
Exciting thinking often lies at the borders of
academic disciplines, and neither scholarship nor
teaching should be constrained by the boundaries
of disciplinary training.Citizenship with its
challenge of solving complex problems, and
scholarship as an intellectual pursuit, cannot be
limited by these departmental distinctions.
UNC website
4
Exciting thinking often lies at the borders of
academic disciplines, and neither scholarship nor
teaching should be constrained by the boundaries
of disciplinary training.Citizenship with its
challenge of solving complex problems, and
scholarship as an intellectual pursuit, cannot be
limited by these departmental distinctions.
UNC website
5
Environmental Program AnalysisBarnard, Bates,
Bowdoin, Colby, Colgate, Colorado College, Hobart
William Smith, Lewis Clark, Middlebury, Mount
Holyoke, Whitman

• Common Directions
• Local environmental engagement and service
  learning
• Interdisciplinary student research
• Building community
• Common spaces and resources connecting via GIS
• Campus greening programming

Jill Bubier (Mt. Holyoke) and students at a
wetland research site in New Hampshire Photo by
Ralph Morang
6
Common Challenges

• Staffing courses
• Cross-departmental commitments
• Team teaching
• Staffing activities
• Balancing education and scholarship
• Program management
• Service learning
• Campus greening
• Student internships

• Diversity
• Faculty
• Students
• Junior people (women) in difficult positions

7
Recommendations from Mellon Review

• Institutions should take responsibility for
  interdisciplinary programs and faculty
• Invest in community building (on campus and off)
• Incentives and rewards for cross-departmental
  contributions
• Staff programs
• Institutionalize faculty career path

EST May 2005 Pfirman, Hall, Tietenberg PKAL
2005 Hall, Tietenberg and Pfirman
8
Interdisciplinarity and Academia

• Challenges
• Recommendations

Pfirman et al., Chronicle 2005
9
Spectrum of Interdisciplinary Involvement
10
Students

• Best served by department or program with own
  space, control over staffing and resources
• Balanced, sustainable curriculum
• Continuity in academic and career advising
• Up-to-date facilities
• Sense of community
• Opportunities for research

11
Problems with Joint-Appointment, Junior,
Tenure-Track Hires

• Even if the chairs are committed and all
  agreements are put in writing, what happens to
  the junior hire when the chairs rotate off?
• Burden on junior hire to figure out how the units
  will get along
• Department does not feel as responsible for hires
  sponsored by another source as they do when they
  invest their own resources at the outset
• If they were really good enough, they would have
  been hired the regular way

You dont adopt a child to sort through whether
or not you want a marriage
Art Small, III
12
But Junior, Joint Hires Are Not The Only Ones
With Concerns

• Graduate Students
• Reported that interdisciplinary activities have
  adverse effects on their careers, but they are
  convinced of its value
• Interdisciplinary Researchers Biocomplexity
  Awardees
• About 30 percent reported that their
  interdisciplinary affiliations had not helped or
  had hindered their careers

Research by Rhoten on Biocomplexity Awardees
Rhoten , D. and A. Parker. 2004. Risks and
Rewards of an Interdisciplinary Path. Science.
Vol. 306 2046 (December 17).
13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15
Are there impediments to interdisciplinary
research at your current institution?
Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research, 2004,
Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public
Policy (COSEPUP) Convocation
16
What Can We Do?CEDD Interdisciplinary Hiring and
Career DevelopmentPfirman and Martin, co-chairs,
2007
17
Tenuring Interdisciplinary Scholars

• Letters from external evaluators
• In half of the 12 (!) cases reported in our CEDD
  survey, when letters were sent to external
  evaluators, they were specifically asked to
  comment on interdisciplinary contributions and
  impact
• Annotate CV
• Individual contributions to publications
• Publication choice
• Guidelines documenting FAQ
• Recognize and confront systemic issues so that
  the review committee does not see this particular
  candidate as weak, just because these issues are
  raised

18
Valuing Interdisciplinary Scholarship
Rhoten and Pfirman, 2007a,b
19
Time Spent on Interdisciplinary ResearchUK
Gender Differences
Responses from 5,505 researchers in higher
education institutions in the United Kingdom,
Evaluation Associates, 1999
20
Related, but not the Same

• Disciplinary
• Hierarchical
• Departmental
• Mainstream
• Specialized
• Discovery
• Specialization
• Laser
• Basic
• Established

• Interdisciplinary
• Collaborative
• Interdepartmental
• Non-mainstream
• Diverse
• Integration
• Integration
• Searchlight
• Applied
• New

UWisc
Leahey
Boyer
Porter
Gardner
21
Study of Faculty Worklife at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison Faculty Perception of
Colleagues Valuation of Research by Faculty of
Color and Majority Faculty
http//wiseli.engr.wisc.edu/initiatives/survey/res
ults/facultypre/profact/interact/summary.htm
22
Conclusions

• Institutions have a responsibility to the people
  they hire and teach
• They should create a culture, implement
  procedures, and allocate resources that will
  allow interdisciplinary scholars and students to
  thrive and prosper
• If women and minorities are indeed more attracted
  by interdisciplinary research
• Institutions interested in increasing their
  diversity may have a greater chance for success
  if they value interdisciplinary scholarship
• Institutions interested in increasing
  interdisciplinary research may have a greater
  chance for success if they involve women and
  minorities