D. The Negotiation Process

Once you are offered the position, the critical process of negotiation begins. Applicants often are not aware of the importance of this process to their potential long-term survival within the institution. In addition, they may be uninformed about how to proceed to ensure their greatest advantage throughout the negotiation process. In fact, without the proper mentoring and advising throughout the negotiation process, applicants may not realize the impact these negotiations might have on their future satisfaction and ability to succeed in their academic careers. Often, applicants are naive about promotion and tenure and the importance of establishing, in advance, the criteria for moving successfully through this process. Therefore, you, as an applicant heading for negotiation, should recognize and understand: the importance of degree requirements, salary, equipment, and research space; what the department expects of you; promotion and tenure standards and procedures; and the availability of sabbaticals and other types of leave.

1. Degree requirements

Although most 4-year and graduate training institutions require the terminal doctoral degree, you should be aware of two things: First, many other types of institutions, particularly those without graduate training programs, will often accept candidates with a master's degree. Second, even institutions that require the terminal degree will often accept candidates who have completed all but the dissertation requirements for their terminal degree (PhD, PsyD, or EdD). Employment offers are often made at a lesser rank or salary, with advancement linked to a requirement that the future employee will complete the degree in a specified amount of time. However, it can be difficult to start a new job, take on the many service requests frequently expected of ethnic minority and female faculty members, and still complete the degree in the required time period. If you find yourself in this situation, try to negotiate for release time from faculty duties (e.g., committee assignments and/or course load) in the first semester or first academic year to complete your degree requirements. Find out when the tenure clock starts counting toward your tenure. It is critical that you protect that time, as regular faculty duties and service requests can easily take it up.

2. Salary, equipment, and research space

Salary, equipment, and research space are points for negotiation. Effectively negotiating these points requires you to have a certain amount of information and skill. Good mentoring can be critical in this process. You need to have some knowledge of the range of typical starting salaries both for the institution you are considering and for similar regional and national institutions (the annual "Faculty Salaries" survey published by the APA Center for Psychology Workforce Analysis and Research (CPWAR) is one source for such information).

In state institutions salaries are often public information available in the reference section of the college library or through the Affirmative Action Office. Your receipt of research grants and external funding can be used to positively influence salary negotiations. You may also negotiate additional prerequisite packages including moving expenses, travel allowances, research funds and/or space, time and/or space for private practice, support for continuing education and training, and support staff. Even when salaries are restricted to a particular range, there may be some leeway to purchase startup equipment such as computers and laboratory supplies. If your research program will require space in addition to your primary office, you should negotiate this also. You should also discuss the availability of research or teaching assistants and clerical help.

3. Departmental expectations

The representative(s) of the recruiting department should clearly articulate the expectations for the role and performance of any prospective new member. This should include not only the general faculty role expectations, but also whatever duties the new member would have with regard to diversity in the department and within the institution. These expectations should relate directly to those things that will be assessed during performance evaluations and the promotion and tenure decision making process. You need to clearly understand and inquire about:
• What your roles and responsibilities will be;
• What the roles and responsibilities of other faculty members will be. Ask about teaching loads, advising and mentoring, committee and service responsibilities with regard to women and minority faculty versus those of White, male faculty members of similar rank;
• What counts for performance evaluation and whether your job expectations will be heavily counted towards tenure and promotion;
• If added or unique responsibilities are heavier than those of other similarly ranked faculty, and if these responsibilities would be further compensated and/or documented in your annual review letter.

There may be some big differences in the department's expectations for White women than those for ethnic minority women. Minority applicants are often expected to be knowledgeable about ethnic minority psychology-some will be and some will not. The ethnic minority candidate should make a point of determining whether the department expects him or her to teach the ethnic minority psychology class, to mentor minority students, and to serve on the minority committee. Being prepared to respond appropriately to these expectations might make or break an applicant.

Women and ethnic minority faculty members are often overwhelmed with extra committee assignments, service responsibilities, and student advising and mentoring. In many research institutions, these activities all fall under the evaluation area of "service," which is often the least valued area in promotion and tenure considerations. For example, Suinn and Witt (1982), in a survey of graduate programs in psychology, found that "minority service" was viewed by department chairs as the number one obstacle to earning tenure. In a more recent follow-up survey to this study, Suinn (1996) found that minority service continued to be identified among the top four obstacles to earning tenure. If the department expects you to engage in committee and service activities related to "minority issues," it is critical to negotiate for their added weight in the evaluation process. If these expectations are not made clear from the beginning, but you observe that other women and ethnic minority faculty on campus are heavily engaged in these types of activities, you must be cognizant of the potential implications of your choice to engage in such activities.

In some cases, it is possible that you will be the only ethnic minority member of the faculty on campus. If that is the case, and students of color are on the campus, you can expect that those students will be directed to you for advising and mentoring. Because ethnic minority faculty members often share a deep level of understanding and empathy for the struggles of ethnic minority students, they often welcome, or find difficult to turn away, this type of activity. However, even if it is encouraged at the departmental and/or institutional level, you should know from the beginning if it is likely to be rewarded or overlooked during the evaluation process.

4. Promotion and tenure criteria

You should seek to obtain agreement with the department on the exact criteria used during the promotion and tenure process. Ethnic minority faculty members are often inundated with service requests within the department, the university, and the community. This may be because of the need for ethnic minority representation on various committees, the need for ethnic minority role models for students, or because of the perceived or demonstrated expertise of the ethnic minority faculty member in diversity issues. Although serving in these roles is valuable, the time required often competes with time needed for faculty duties, such as teaching, advising, and developing a research program. Further, if the promotion and tenure criteria reflect only more traditional faculty roles, you could be at a distinct disadvantage. This is most often reflected in the slow development of a program of research. If your duties will include diversity functions, you should negotiate while you are a candidate as to whether or not promotion and tenure criteria will also reflect these service and diversity roles. Some institutions, in order to ensure the promotion and tenure of new faculty, reduce the teaching loads for the first few years, especially if new faculty members are doing a great deal of service with community and ethnic minority students. This is an important option to explore.

5. Sabbaticals and other types of leave

Traditionally, sabbaticals, a period of time (often one or two semesters) during which a faculty member is released from duties to pursue a research project, write a grant, develop a new course, etc., are awarded after a faculty member has been tenured. However, some institutions are now utilizing leaves or sabbaticals in innovative ways. It is often the case that the most important time for an individual to have uninterrupted time to research and publish is before the tenure process. Some institutions have developed special programs in which they grant leaves to junior faculty of color and female faculty for the purpose of preparing for tenure. This is something that you may negotiate during the hiring process.

You might also inquire about other types of leave a junior faculty may get to pursue professional development opportunities such as funded postdoctoral research or study, or a congressional fellowship. Maternity and/or family leave policies should also be discussed. Be sure to understand the positive or negative impact each type of leave might have on the "tenure clock."

Make sure that any agreements are put in writing as part of the final offer that you will accept and sign.