|
Dual Careers
When we recruit new faculty, we want to help dual-career couples meet their professional objectives. Doing so is important to USC's success in building and nurturing an outstanding faculty.
Support for dual careers has been part of USC's heritage from the start. Among our first faculty in 1880 were a couple, Jennie Allen Bovard, Professor of English Language, and Marion McKinley Bovard, Professor of Moral, Mental and Natural Sciences and USC's first president.
Moving to Los Angeles
- Relocation advice
Quest and Firstline Mobility are relocation assistance services with which the university contracts. They can provide community information, information on real estate, schools, childcare, eldercare, transportation, diversity, cultural amenities, spiritual communities, recreation, entertainment, etc. For information on the relocation services, contact your dean's office or the Center for Work and Family Life.
The relocation services, or other university-approved vendors, offer special pricing on moving household goods.
The dean can sometimes support advance visits to the Los Angeles area by the couple, to review various neighborhoods.
- Discovering Los Angeles
The web page on Essential Guide for New Faculty gives information including * Getting Started at USC, * L.A. Orientation Guides, * Getting Around, * Discovering Neighborhoods and Buying a Home, * Schools for Kids, and * Life on Campus.
Seeking employment:
USC recognizes that spouses or partners often have dual careers and need assistance when seeking employment at USC or in the Southern California region. We want to help. When two outstanding partners are interested in USC, we understand the competitive advantage that being able to hire both partners offers to us; therefore our deans try to work together to pursue outstanding partners when it makes sense for their programs. If a position at USC isn't right for both partners, we try to facilitate looking for a position in the region.
- Positions at USC
- Seeking an academic position at USC
If both spouses or partners are seeking academic appointments at USC, the process is highly individualized. Recruits should contact the dean, or the associate dean of faculty, within their school to develop strategies for seeking a position.
In addition, a number of USC departments and schools post faculty openings on their own websites.
Deans can make use of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs to facilitate discussions with deans of other USC schools when that is appropriate to explore an academic appointment for the spouse or partner of a new recruit.
- USC Jobs website.
All USC staff and administrative openings are posted on-line through jobs@USC, the online portal for applications. USC is the largest private employer in Los Angeles.
Renee McAllister is a personnel specialist in the Office of Career and Protective Services who works with faculty spouses/partners in their job searches. She can be reached at the following email address: Renee McAllister or by phone +1 213 740 7252.
- USC policy
As an Equal Opportunity employer, the University does not discriminate in hiring. Having a family or other intimate relationship to a present or prospective faculty member is in no way a bar to employment. One family member should not be the direct supervisor of the other, as explained in the policy on personal conflicts of interest, see Section 3-G of the Faculty Handbook.
- Academic positions throughout the region
The Southern California Higher Education Recruitment Consortium, HERC, of which USC is a member, is a collaboration of public and private schools, colleges, and universities that helps spouses and partners find positions at regional member institutions. Their website has a large list of faculty openings in member institutions throughout the region, including University of California campuses, Caltech and Occidental College. The California Universities Consortium is another combined list of faculty openings in several local universities.
In addition, the California State University has separate listings of faculty employment opportunities for its campuses at Los Angeles, Northridge, and Long Beach. Similarly, Loyola Marymount University, Whittier College , Santa Monica College, the Los Angles Community College District, and Glendale Community College, as well as other local educational institutions, post their faculty openings.
A USC dean is often able to arrange a personal introduction to a colleague in another local academic institution that has an appropriate opening.
The Rand Corporation, the Getty Museum, and other Los Angeles cultural institutions also post their employment opportunities.
- General job searches
Los Angeles County is a diverse metropolis of 10 million people.
Renee McAllister (phone +1 213 740 7252)is a personnel specialist in the Office of Career and Protective Services who works with faculty spouses/partners. She can offer assistance such as * résumé/curriculum vitae critiques, * cover letter assistance, * community/networking resources, * coaching on interviewing techniques , * job search resource materials, * career coaching, * coaching in salary negotiation.
For those recruits who work with Quest or First Mobility, the relocation assistance services with which the University contracts, those services will work with the partner or spouse in seeking employment in the Los Angeles area.
Networking
The Center for Work and Family Life is a friendly source of advice. Its functions include *work/life support at USC, * counseling and consultation, * family and dependent care, * workplace health and wellness.
The University Club from time to time sponsors social events at which relocating partners can network with each other and members of the community.
The Trojan network is a volunteer-run organization which was established to provide career-related information for USC alumni and current USC students. It does not provide job opportunities or internships.
Academic and Family Life Balancec
The University seeks to assist faculty in balancing their academic commitments and family life.
Section 9 of the Faculty Handbook deals with * paid parental leave, * family responsibilities, * childcare responsibilities of probationary faculty, * length of probationary period, * expectations concerning scholarly productivity, * phased retirement, and * coordination and conditions of paid parental leave.
As President Sample wrote in the introduction to the Faculty Handbook when this section was promulgated: ... Section 9 on Academic and Family Life Balance ... was endorsed by both the Academic Senate and Provost’s Council.
USC has long been a leader in flexible faculty policies because we realize that faculty should have assistance in reconciling professional commitments and family responsibilities. It is a vital interest of both USC and society as a whole that the demands of childbearing and childrearing not discourage talented women and men from pursuing academic careers.
Having a family-friendly environment will help our faculty flourish academically, and will assist USC in achieving our goals of recruiting and retaining excellent faculty....
I encourage eligible faculty to make use of the flexibility these options provide.
And I call on senior faculty to ensure that there is a warm and encouraging climate for colleagues who take advantage of these new policies on leaves, exclusion of time from the probationary period, and work flexibility.
What is more, I expect departments to go beyond the letter of the policy and to show consideration for family responsibilities in other ways, such as the scheduling of meetings and the sharing of onerous assignments.
It goes without saying that no one making use of these policies should suffer any adverse effect on their careers, merit ratings or tenure decision. The Handbook also now makes clear that taking a parental leave or stopping the tenure clock will not raise the expectations for scholarly productivity on account of the additional time provided.
More information
See this research summary on dual-career academic couples.
Additional information is available through these sources:
|
