Although the University has denied the Urban Studies Program's most recent attempts to hire new faculty, the program plans to submit a proposal for the hiring of a new professor within the next couple of weeks.
But as the program prepares to submit this proposal, it is unclear how the Plan for Academic Enrichment will affect its ability to hire, according to J. Vernon Henderson, professor of economics and the program's director.
The program has been unable to hire a new professor for several years, though it continues to seek out potential candidates for a joint-appointment position in conjunction with a department in the humanities.
But the interdisciplinary nature of the program makes hiring new faculty difficult, said Professor of Sociology David Meyer. The program hires professors in line with other departments, meaning that professors hold positions in two different fields. This policy of joint appointment differs from many multidisciplinary programs at Brown, which are collections of faculty members from various departments who do not hold an official position within the program, Meyer said.
Although this format can complicate the hiring process, Meyer said he believes joint appointment ensures that professors are committed to the advancement of the program.
"(Joint-appointment professors) have a vested interest in keeping the program successful, because the program is part of our faculty appointment," he said.
The program aims to hire someone with expertise in both urban and humanities topics, reflecting a shift in the program's philosophy, which now emphasizes a broader approach encompassing various humanities-related fields.
Urban studies faculty decided to expand the program beyond its roots in sociology and reach out to other humanities disciplines about four or five years ago, Henderson said.
The University rejected an attempt to hire a joint-appointment professor a couple of years ago, Henderson said. Although this request for a regular faculty search was turned down, Henderson said the program was encouraged to search for candidates who would qualify under the Target of Opportunity program, which allows departments to bypass normal hiring protocol to get top prospects faster. But approval for the special hiring process is not guaranteed, he said.
And Henderson said the University will not permit the program to hire more faculty under "historical staffing" quotas.
"But that doesn't mean we can't go in and say, 'We need somebody,'" he said.
The program currently has six faculty members hired as joint appointments and four additional professors who were hired by other departments. Although these additional professors are not officially affiliated with the program, they offer courses that fulfill concentration requirements and regularly attend urban studies meetings and events.
But the lack of an official affiliation can pose staffing problems, Henderson said. When professors go on academic leave, the urban studies program does not always receive replacement teaching, he said. For example, when Professor of History of Art and Architecture Dietrich Neumann went on sabbatical this year, many of his urban architecture courses that count towards the concentration were not offered.
The program's most recent hire was Professor of Political Science Marion Orr in 1999. Orr offers courses in the political science department that focus on urban issues and count toward the urban studies concentration.
Some professors say the program would benefit from the hiring of a professor with expertise in urban planning and development, although this type of position would be difficult to accommodate given the program's interdisciplinary hiring structure.
The program's reliance on joint-appointment professors makes hiring someone who specializes solely in urban planning or architecture nearly impossible, Meyer said.
An urban planning or architecture expert who has no experience with other humanities programs would be in the "odd situation" of being the only professor dedicated full-time to urban studies, Meyer said.
"We've never resolved that," he said. "It's just a structural thing."
The current lack of a more specialized faculty member "is not a shortcoming," according to Associate Professor of Sociology Hilary Silver.
"We're making do with the resources we have. We don't want to be exclusively urban politics or urban planning," she said.
But some concentrators said the program would benefit from the hiring of an urban planning or architecture professor.
"I'm more interested in the policy than the urban literatures," said concentrator Melissa Epstein '06. "I think it would be nice if there was someone who was more specific. I'd definitely like to see someone more focused in what I'm interested in."
Epstein said she believes an urban planning professor could potentially develop a course on urban design, covering material the program currently does not offer.
Cali Pfaff '08, a potential concentrator, said she has heard complaints from other students that the program is "too unorganized and not specific enough."
"If I was on track to be an urban planner I think I would want a more concrete program," she said.
But Pfaff said she benefits from the "broad focus" and interdisciplinary nature of the program because she does not have a specific urban career in mind.
The decision to broaden the program's humanities offerings was partly influenced by the University's lack of a graduate program in urban studies and urban planning, Silver said.
Meyer said the program has "no intention" of developing a graduate program in urban planning. Brown's small size and the proximity of top planning programs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and New York University make such a goal unrealistic, he said.
"The infrastructure you would need for that is huge. It wouldn't fit in with a liberal arts institution," he said.
Professors said the program hopes to take advantage of the growing number of course offerings that address urban topics in a variety of departments.
Since the program received official approval from the University in 1973, the number of professors with urban interests and expertise "has really expanded," Henderson said.
"I think that 20 years ago the urban offerings were from people who had a specialty in something else and interest in one specific urban topic," Henderson said. Now a growing number of professors have a more well-rounded foundation in urban studies, he said.
"It's nice that you can have the option to take more of those courses," Epstein said. "It's nice to know that the department is expanding to include other means of study."
