Enriching the Academic Environment

Exploring Faculty Satisfaction

Emory University recognizes that our most valuable asset is our faculty. The One Emory strategic framework calls for fostering an academic environment that attracts, promotes, and retains scholars, researchers, and teachers of the highest caliber and achieves Emory’s full potential for an ethically engaged, diverse community. An inclusively eminent faculty is one in which all faculty sense they belong and find opportunities for professional growth and achievement. Articulating the details of this vision was also championed by faculty and administrative partners in the Class and Labor Report, now advanced as Toward Faculty Eminence: Inclusivity, Equity, and Professional Development.

To deepen our understanding of the faculty experience and assess faculty satisfaction on multiple dimensions, Emory is partnering with the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and will administer their Faculty Satisfaction Survey and Workforce Mobility Survey during the 2019-2020 academic year.

The Faculty Satisfaction Survey covers every aspect of a faculty member’s academic life, including facilities and work resources, opportunities for interdisciplinary work, mentoring and recognition, and a range of university policies related to benefits, promotion, and governance. Emory expects to gain actionable insights that will be shared with the faculty community beginning in Fall 2020.

Emory and COACHE are committed to the integrity of the survey and safeguarding the privacy of our faculty. Responses are completely confidential and will be handled through the COACHE project team. Participants’ privacy will be maintained in all published and written data, and anonymity will be ensured in the broad, summary analysis that COACHE will share with our campus.

January 2020

Launch of the Faculty Satisfaction Survey. Look for your invite from COACHE.

October 2020

Results shared with the Emory faculty community.

Fall 2020

Town halls to engage faculty in addressing insights.

About COACHE

COACHE is a research-practice partnership within the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Its mission is “the discovery of and insight into the postsecondary faculty experience.” More than 250 institutions and higher educational systems have participated in the collaborative. Leaders and faculty at these institutions gain actionable insights that help them “identify the drivers of faculty success and to implement informed changes.”

Learn more about the Collaborative

COACHE Steering Committee

Committee Chair

Christa Acampora

Deputy Provost for Academic Affairs

Members

Jan Barton

Associate Professor of Accounting

Christopher Beck

Professor of Pedagogy

Nancy Bliwise

Vice Provost for Academic Planning

Yolanda Cooper

Dean and University Librarian

Carol Henderson

Vice Provost for Diversity and Inclusion; Chief Diversity Officer

Tim Holbrook

Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs

Randall Lucius

Director of Organizational Development

Carolyn Meltzer

Professor/Chair of Radiology; Executive Associate Dean for Faculty Academic Advancement, Leadership, and Inclusion

Deboleena Roy

Professor/Chair of Women's Studies

Nancy Seideman

Vice President, Academic Communications and Reputation Leadership

Justin Shepherd

Director of Institutional Research and Decision Support

Eric Weeks

Professor of Physics; Director of Center for Faculty Development and Excellence

Frequently Asked Questions about the Survey

A: COACHE (Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education) is a consortium of institutional leaders working to improve outcomes in faculty recruitment, development, and retention. The organization developed and administers the COACHE Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey and has published a series of Benchmark Best Practices and Special Reports that feature promising practices from member institutions, including the ways in which COACHE data informed their decisions and strategies.

A: The comprehensive surveys cover every aspect of a faculty member’s academic life, including satisfaction with facilities and work resources, opportunities for interdisciplinary work, mentoring and recognition, and a range of university policies related to benefits, promotion, and governance. We are committed to doing all we can, using these findings, to make Emory a better place to work for all faculty.

A: In researching the best survey tool to elicit the information we need to improve the environment for faculty at all levels and in all areas of the organization, we found that the COACHE program—as evidenced by its successful track record—provided us with the most effective and comprehensive approach. Beyond survey results, the COACHE program provides Emory with a series of benchmark best practices and special reports and tools that will enable us to use data in enhancing faculty satisfaction across the university.

A: Yes. Emory and COACHE are committed to the integrity of the survey and to safeguarding the privacy of our faculty. The survey is completely confidential and will be handled through the COACHE project team. Participants’ privacy will be maintained in all published and written data, and anonymity will be ensured in the broad, summary analysis that COACHE will share with our campus.

A: COACHE has informed us that we cannot change the questions, but we can add a specific number of additional questions that will enable Emory to update and clarify certain data (e.g., in documenting gender identification).

A: Yes. Information about the findings, process, and resulting action will be shared with the faculty and entire university community.

A: Upon receiving the survey results, the COACHE Steering Committee and faculty with relevant expertise will work together to develop action plans to address issues identified by the survey. The action plans will be vetted with various constituencies.