Transatlantic flights can clock in at a pricey $1,400 round-trip, but the University will foot the bill the next time Professor of History Tim Harris travels to England for academic research or a speech at the University of Cambridge.
Harris, who specializes in 16th- and 17th-century British history and has published several books on the period, said the Faculty Travel Fund provides professors with one trip a year for academic or professional purposes. The Office of the Vice President for Research also funds travel for research, he said.
But the University's travel fund is not as important to sciences professors, said Professor of Biology Ken Miller '70 P'02. Most professors in his department use funds from foundations such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation to cover traveling expenses, he said.
Although employees are reimbursed for costs incurred traveling on University business, Professor of History Gordon Wood said he did not take advantage of that benefit when he drove to Boston last month to speak at the regional launch of the Campaign for Academic Enrichment.
"However expensive gas is, it's not that bad that I need to ask the University to pay," Wood said.
Although travel compensation is a useful benefit for professors, some value the tuition benefits provided even more.
Tenured and non-tenured full-time faculty who have worked at Brown for four years receive $10,000 off each child's undergraduate tuition each year, regardless of where they go to school, said Michael Chapman, vice president for public affairs and University relations. While many institutions provide incentives for faculty to send children to their universities, Brown does not, according to both Miller and Harris.
Before 1979, the University gave faculty an amount equivalent to Brown's tuition to use for their child's tuition at any university, said Professor Emeritus of Engineering Barrett Hazeltine. Since Brown's tuition was higher than most schools, children of tenured faculty usually went to college for free.
Hazeltine, who has been teaching at the University since 1959, used the old tuition benefit to send his three children to the Stevens Institute of Technology, Tufts University and Swarthmore College. Not paying any tuition was the best perk he received in his 47 years as a professor, he said.
Harris, who came to Brown in 1988 and missed out on the old benefit, said the new one is mediocre.
"A lot of peer institutions will give more," he said, but he added that other Ivy League schools, such as Yale University, provide the same financial support that Brown does. Harris said the low tuition benefit was a factor when his children decided where they would attend college. His son is currently enrolled at McGill University in Montreal, which has lower tuition than American schools of similar quality, Harris said.
Miller came to Brown in 1980 and also received the newer tuition benefit for his daughters. His younger daughter graduated from Brown in 2002, and students assumed Miller did not pay any tuition, though he paid the majority, he said.
"Compared to our peer institutions, it's not a generous benefit," he added.
While Harris said the tuition benefit falls short, Miller said Brown's contribution to faculty pension funds is "substantial." Rather than taking the retirement money out of professors' salaries, the University places an additional amount of roughly 7 to 10 percent of a professor's salary in a TIAA-CREF pension fund, he said. The University also offers faculty the option of transferring money from their paychecks to the fund, Miller said.
The University also provides support for faculty research both monetarily and in the form of sabbaticals. Still, in his 17 years at Brown, Harris said he has taken only two and a half years off from teaching, adding that he spent his time off on campus.
Beyond their own retirement and their children's education, faculty members' academic livelihoods benefit from the University's support for their own research, Harris said. Although not completely satisfied with research support and leave-taking policies, Harris said the University has improved these efforts in the past few years.
Unlike many other universities, Miller said Brown does not give professors grant money for research. Instead, Miller said he and his colleagues apply for grants from the NIH and the NSF. Before faculty begin working at Brown, they determine with the University how much they will receive in start-up research money, a figure that usually falls between $50,000 and $300,000, he said. Highly competitive grants of $15,000 to $20,000 are also awarded to new faculty members, he added.
"Once you get started, you're expected to generate your own funds," Miller said.
Vice President for Research Andries van Dam said Brown is not the only institution that expects its faculty to be "self-supporting." The University does help underwrite the costs of research by giving professors lab space and partially funding expensive equipment. The construction of the Life Sciences Building, van Dam said, reflects the University's increasing support for researchers.
Undergraduate Teaching and Research Assistantships also provide faculty with research assistance while giving students an opportunity to gain practical academic experience, van Dam said.
Van Dam said his office makes sure professors in the humanities are not forgotten. Humanities researchers have fewer sources of funding for travel, and the University's aid is often a great help. "A small amount of money makes a big difference for a lot of (humanities professors)," he said.
Although faculty in the sciences always wish for more funding, van Dam said he believes most researchers are not "wildly dissatisfied." Those faculty who believe they might get a better aid package at another university may choose to leave Brown, he said. Such situations arise at every university, he added.
"Naturally, most faculty would like to see their benefits increase," Miller said.
Despite his comments on the shortcomings of some benefits, Harris said he profits from his role as a Faculty Fellow and contact with students in the classroom. Intangible benefits far outweigh any possible financial perks, he said.
The Faculty Fellows program fosters interaction between students and faculty by placing faculty in houses near residential halls.
Five Faculty Fellows live in University-owned houses rent-free, Harris said. Two non-residential fellows receive a stipend as compensation for their work with students. While Harris said he enjoys living on campus, he said the real benefit comes from building relationships with students outside the academic arena.
"We have the privilege of mixing with the brightest people of the next generation - I think that's exhilarating," he said.
At the same time, Harris said, "one can never leave the job." Juggling his role as a Faculty Fellow with his duties as a professor and his research can be difficult, he said, "but I enjoy doing it."
"I could have gone elsewhere for more money and better benefits and I chose to stay here because I felt Brown was a better place," Harris said.
