Thirty percent of faculty members are dissatisfied with faculty spouse support, according to a poll conducted by The Herald earlier this semester. While about one-third of faculty was not familiar enough to answer, only 19 percent indicated satisfaction.
Faculty frustration is most likely directed at situations where the University tries to simultaneously hire both partners in a couple for two academic positions, said Elizabeth Doherty, senior associate dean of the faculty.
When academics land job offers, they may be unwilling to accept unless their partners are also offered positions at the University. In this case, the couple works with the Office of the Dean of the Faculty to work out a hiring solution.
"When we recruit faculty, it's not infrequent that someone has a partner also in academia," Doherty said.
The University does not distinguish between legally married, non-married and same-sex couples. "A partner's a partner," Doherty said.
In some cases, there is an available position in the partner's field, and the University hires both partners at once. Such was the case with Ross Levine, professor of economics, and Maria Carkovic, professor of economics and director of commerce, organizations and entrepreneurship, a couple hired in 2005.
"From the beginning, it was clear to Brown that our hiring was a joint search," Levine said. "It worked out quite well, because at the time they were recruiting me, there was a director spot available in COE."
But cases such as Levine and Carkovic's are "coincidences," Doherty said, adding that the dual-career partner placement process is not always smooth sailing.
"We try to accommodate married couples as best as we can, but there are not always positions available," Doherty said.
When there are no vacancies, the Office of the Dean of Faculty turns to individual departments to negotiate solutions. When both partners are within the same academic specialty, negotiation is easier. But when partners pursue different disciplines, hiring can turn into a bargaining game.
"Sometimes departments may hire a spouse with the understanding that the other department will help them out in the future," Doherty said.
More often than not, the University arranges a temporary agreement with the partner who is not being recruited, Doherty said. The University will usually offer the partner a three- to five-year teaching contract with the hope that he or she will land a more permanent position at a nearby institution.
But these agreements can sometimes be ambiguous, as was revealed in 2010 when Beverly Haviland, senior lecturer in American civilization, filed a complaint against the University after a breach in her employment contract.
Haviland and her husband Paul Armstrong, professor of English and former dean of the College, were hired by the University in 2000 as a dual-career placement. Haviland accepted the position based on the understanding that her contract would be automatically renewed for five years, according to a Rhode Island Superior Court decision clarifying the contract.
But the University only renewed her contract for two and a half years, using a different set of standards to judge her competence than Haviland believed was agreed upon in the 2000 contract, according to the decision.
While Haviland believed the contract had stipulated she would be reviewed by the standards held to tenured faculty, the department evaluated her based on different "excellence in teaching" standards, according to the decision. Haviland appealed to the superior court, which sided with Haviland.
To make the dual-career hiring process easier, Brown joined the New England Higher Education Research Consortium in 2006. The consortium consists of institutions that post available positions on a central website, so job-seeking professionals can search for opportunities in the New England area.
Though the consortium represents cooperation between higher education institutions, ultimately the process of dual-career partner placement is a game of fierce competition. Couples may receive several offers for dual-career placement and can be swayed by factors such as benefits, salary and tenure.
"Spousal programs are based on competition, not on any particular desires. … Basically, it's not out of the goodness of anyone's heart," Levine said. "People are married. They want to live together. They are going to go to the best university that can hire them jointly."
Hiring couples benefits the University because it increases position stability, Doherty said. The dual-career job search can be such an arduous process that couples are less likely than individual faculty members to switch jobs.
"There's not a whole lot we can do," Doherty said in response to dissatisfaction reflected in the Herald poll. The hiring process can evolve into a game of give-and-take among the hiring institution, the couples and individual departments, all with contradicting priorities.
Dual-career hiring can be complex, Levine said, but his priorities are straightforward. "The most important part of my life, besides my kids, is my relationship with my wife," he said. "The job will follow the marriage."
