The Lawrence Fellows in the Liberal Arts and Sciences program has two primary goals. First, to help develop the professoriate of the future by providing mentoring, teaching opportunities, and research collaborations for persons who have recently finished their graduate degrees. These activities are designed to better prepare them for careers at selective liberal arts colleges. Second, to bring young scholars to campus who will enrich student learning, share new research directions being pursued at distinguished graduate programs, collaborate with faculty on research and performance, and further strengthen the ability of Lawrence University to offer one-on-one learning experiences for all students.
The program was initiated in 2005 with the hiring of eight Fellows for the 2005-06 academic year. Fellows are appointed for two years, during which they teach courses, offer individualized instruction opportunities to students, and continue their professional activities as scholars and/or performers. A unique aspect of the program is its scale and breadth. All fields represented by departments or interdisciplinary programs are eligible to apply for Fellows.
Evolution of the Program
Since its inception, the program has evolved in several important ways. These are summarized below:
+ Fellows Appointments and Tenure-Track Appointments
One of the benefits of the Fellows program is that the two year appointment allows Lawrence to learn a great deal about the characteristics of Fellows. We have extensive information about their teaching abilities, their scholarly potential, and their personal qualities. This knowledge can be very useful when tenure-track openings occur for which a Fellow may be suitable. This knowledge is deeper and more extensive than can be learned in a brief campus visit- the typical method of evaluating potential tenure-track hires. In four instances we have appointed persons who came to Lawrence under the original Fellows program to open tenure-track positions. One former Fellow has now been awarded tenure at Lawrence, while two are currently on the tenure track. The other left for personal (not professional) reasons.
The possibility of extended evaluation of Fellows has led us to use the Fellows concept in a Mellon Foundation funded program of phased retirement. Faculty who have elected to retire are given half-time teaching appointments over a two-year period and we hire a Fellow as a possible permanent replacement at the beginning of the two-year period. If we are pleased with the Fellow, that person is offered a tenure-track appointment at the end of the two year period. Otherwise, a standard national search is undertaken. The advantage of two years’ worth of familiarity helps us to make good choices in appointing new faculty and also helps the Fellow become acquainted with the responsibilities and expectations of Lawrence during an extended phasing-in period.
+ Philanthropic Development
The Fellows program has been successful in attracting endowment and other gifts to Lawrence. As of 2013 we have four endowed Fellow positions. We have two Fellows supported through a program of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest that is modeled after Lawrence’s program. Finally, we have four Fellows positions as part of the Mellon funded phased retirement plan.
One of the attractions of the program is that donors can invest in Lawrence through gifts that stimulate new curricular programs without a complete commitment to have a program that may or may not be successful. This is attractive to potential donors. In addition, the level of funding that is necessary is lower than that needed for full funding of a tenure-track position.
+ New Program Development
The Fellows program has allowed us to experiment with new programs without a complete long-term commitment to a curricular change that may not turn out to be advantageous. If new curricular initiatives brought to the campus by a Fellow appear to have potential for continued success, we can invest longer term resources. This characteristic has allowed us to plan for an enhanced film studies program that includes film production, and an ethnomusicology initiative. In the ethnomusicology example, a Fellow with expertise in gamelan music was so successful that we have appointed her to a tenure-track position and have used that position to introduce ethnomusicology courses into the curriculum. In the film studies example, our Fellow was so successful in teaching film studies courses that we decided this was a fruitful area for expansion.
