The great thing about teaching classes in high-demand fields is that students who create it through the program can get great jobs that pay well.
The frustrating thing about them is the difficulty of finding qualified faculty who are willing to give up the type of salary that students have in mind when choosing the field.
I recently spent years trying unsuccessfully to fill a position in cybersecurity. Eligible applicants can earn several times the college’s annual salary by working in the industry. The level of cut we asked them to take was too high.
(For instance, public organizations with unions do not always have the ability to ignore responsible pay schedules.)
The same market that lures students also lures potential teachers.
Stanford in the world, I guess, could buy their way out of trouble. But most community colleges have very limited ability to do so. Even if there is a political and / or legal room, there is often no budget space.
So I’m writing in the hope that someone has looked around this corner and come up with a reasonably elegant (and ethical) solution.
Has anyone out there found a sustainable way to get and keep faculty in areas where they could easily earn three times the salary of a general faculty? If so, I’d like to hear about it. You can contact me at deandad (at) gmail (dot) com or on Twitter (@)deandad)
Thanks in advance!
