The Chronicle of Higher Education: NSFW

“Francis, Jamaica Plain, Mass.,” 1971 Your Business Blogger eagerly awaits each issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education. And not just for the articles…

Most every issue has nude photos of women (art, of course) that is Not Safe for Work.

Not family friendly. View and get fired.

Unless you are self-employed — or in the academy where no professor is ever terminated for sex offenses including seducing co-eds (whether by grades or degrees). (Although Professor Leacher does sometimes get caught.)

Alert Readers will remember the, well, uninhibited, photo shoots of Professor Diana York Blaine. NSFW.

Not family friendly.

But times might be changing even if The Chronicle doesn’t. Charmaine et. al. recently spoke at Princeton University where the faculty were most proud of recent human resource changes to encourage parents with children.

To be more family friendly. Princeton should be proud.

Princeton is on the right (tenure) track.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Be sure to see academic marketing from Princeton University Press.

Full Disclosure: Charmaine’s dissertation was on family leave policies and tenure in academia. More at the jump.

Photos by Henry Horenstein in the article Family on Film, April 6, 2007, B19. The photos are of “…[M]y people…I grew up with as a kid… and met along the way…while making that awkward transition from adolescence to adulthood.” The relationship with the nude woman is not described. And I really don’t want to know the details.

Although it is surely a topic of academic discussion.

From insidehighered.comStopping the Clock — Without Asking

One of the most common policies adopted by colleges seeking to help their professors who are young parents is allowing them to stop the clock so that they get extra time before the tenure review that typically is based on six years of work.

In theory, this benefit lets new parents devote more time to their children without fear that it will hurt tenure reviews. In practice, many academics are afraid to stop the clock and feel that taking advantage of this benefit will stigmatize them and hurt their chances. A series of reports have urged colleges to find ways to take away that stigma, so that more parents — mothers and fathers alike — feel comfortable stopping the clock.

Princeton University may have found such an approach. The university is now giving all new parents an extra year before tenure review — automatically. Many colleges promise to award the year to anyone eligible who asks. But at Princeton, you don’t ask — it now just happens. And it can happen multiple times for people who have more than one child (and those who have twins can get two extra years at that time).