U of Michigan - sociology TT

[kangaroo]

from ASA JobBank:

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN.
The Department of Sociology anticipates making one or more tenure-track appointments at the rank of Assistant Professor, to begin in the fall of 2012. The position, which will have a university year appointment, is open with regard to specialization. We are seeking candidates who have demonstrated exceptional promise in sociological research and teaching. Screening of applications will begin September 1, 2011 and will continue until the position is filled. Applications may be submitted either electronically or in hard copy form via regular mail. If applying electronically, please e-mail .pdf files of your letter of application, curriculum vita, three letters of reference, samples of written work, a statement of current and future research plans, a statement of teaching philosophy and experience, and evidence of teaching excellence (if available) to: [e-mail]. If sending hard copies of your application, please address them to: Chair, Personnel Committee, Department of Sociology, University of Michigan, 3001 LSA, 500 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1382. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. The University of Michigan is supportive of the needs of dual career couples and is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

Company: University of Michigan
Department: Department of Sociology
Contact: Linda Williams
Email: [e-mail]
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Address:
500 S. State St.
Ann Arbor , MI 48109-1382
USA

Domestic Partner Benefits:
This employer offers employment benefits to domestic partners of employees.
Discrimination Policy:
This employer prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation/preference and gender identity/expression.

[yep]

If I may ask, how's the state budget doing?

[Doesnt matter]

Unlike other state schools, Michigan has a remarkable amour of autonomy from the state budget, so this doesn't matter

[Curiouser and curiouser]

On Michigan: they've run a search the last two years without hires, right? Does anyone have any more knowledge on this? I am not trying to criticize or anything, just curious if this is true and, if so, if there is any particular reason for it.

[well]

They've made a hire in each of the last 2 years (semi-'inside' hires), i believe

[anon123]

The lack of hires (aside from the "semi-inside" hires) had nothing to do with the budget but rather going after candidates who had multiple offers from high ranked institutions. The cuts in state funding have been made in such as way as to spare faculty from feeling them (e.g., streamlining in administrative functions which has resulted in fewer staff but not faculty). If you go to campus, new buildings are being built and numerous amenitites are evident.

[Wolverine]

The weather is worse than the budget Even though UM is a public institution, it gets relatively little of its $ from the state. On one hand, some people argue that it makes it feel private at times (lots of out of state students, about 20% of undergrads have family income over $200K). On the other hand, that means the continually failing economy has less effect on the daily operations than other places. So the financial crisis that is screwing over some schools and even has the UCs freaking out is not too big of a deal here b/c the state has been in financial crisis for years. Of course there have been changes at the college level --like many universities, you no longer automatically have a tenure line if someone retires or leaves, cost savings go into a U pool, not necessarily the departments. But that is an overall trend. Andthe U seems mostly fine. For example, UM recently bought the huge old Pfizer property to accomodate more offices. The Soc grad computer lab just got new computers this summer. You can check out faculty salaries via out campus newspaper's yearly supplement. Still pretty healthy...

[heh]

First they were state-funded universities. Then they were state-supported universities. Now they are state-located.