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Spouses on the job market and the possibility of “line-sharing”?

Brian Leiter

A philosophy PhD student writes:

My spouse and I are on the market together this year, and I have heard quite a bit about "line-sharing" (spouses sharing a position) without any details about how common the practice is. I was wondering if readers could weigh in on whether their department would be open to this, if so, when might be a good time to bring it up, if it is even possible given institutional constraints, how this works with tenure decisions, etc

My spouse and I work in different areas and so it might be beneficial for a department, a small department especially, as they would get two philosophers (with non-overlapping areas of expertise) for the price of one, so to speak. But we aren't applying to the same jobs, unless they are open/open.

Faculty or job seekers with pertinent experience or knowledge, please weigh in.

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8 responses to “Spouses on the job market and the possibility of “line-sharing”?”

  1. Steve

    I don't think this is as common as it once was. At my previous institution (R1), we had one couple that had split a line for many years, but had grown deeply unhappy in mid-to-late career as they considered the cost they had incurred in pension credits and retirement plan accumulations. At my current institution (competitive SLAC), we attempted last year to write a policy that would support "shared positions," ultimately without success. In some ways, part time positions (including shared positions) are harder for a small department at an undergraduate focused institution, because of the importance to students of having continuity of faculty relationships. Even if the partners are fungible in their curricular contributions, they are not fungible in the lives of the students. So both partners really need to be present and teaching every semester, and in service obligations someone really can't be a half-time advisor or a committee-member only one semester per year. Promotion and tenure standards and timeline proved the source of great disagreement in the policy-writing committee. Some faculty strongly felt that tenure decision should be linked, or that a "surviving partner" should be entitled to take over the other half of the position if one partner leaves or fails to get tenure, but most of those ideas were either clearly illegal or were setting the institution up for risk of lawsuits over claimed retaliation if divorce were followed by adverse employment actions. We gave up.

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  2. Fritz

    We've tried to push for these in the past, largely without success. I think part of the problem, as Steve says, is that 1/2 + 1/2 < 1 in many relevant respects. Another part of the problem is administrators not being willing or able to figure out "creative" solutions. A third part of the problem is that administrators (correctly) think that these half-time lines are only temporarily desirable; the ambition is always to bump them up, which costs money. And there is just *so much talent* on the job market, there's often very little incentive to undertake one of these complicated solutions as opposed to just moving on to the next candidate.

    If you do bring it up, I'd recommend waiting until *after* you have an offer. Sometimes this turns out to be a secret everyone knows about anyway, but search committees might well pass on you as being an added headache; once the offer's extended, they'll be willing to try, though. (Also, depends a *lot* on the talent level of the spouse; 1/2 * great philosopher + 1/2 * not great philosopher is definitely not a win for the hiring department.)

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  3. Fritz Warfield

    My department searches almost every year. So far as I know this issue has never come up.

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  4. Richard Yetter Chappell

    Not directly on-topic, but re: "we aren't applying to the same jobs, unless they are open/open"…

    One thing to be aware of is that some universities have (immoral) policies barring them from "pulling in" candidates (including spousal hires) who were not in the original candidate pool. The risk of this means that it can make sense for spouses to apply for the same jobs — just to keep more options open down the line — even if one of them clearly doesn't meet the aos/aoc being asked for.

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  5. David

    If the institutions' faculty handbooks are online, you should be able to tell whether they allow for shared positions. I doubt it's worth bringing up — or at the least you're much less likely to be successful — if an institution has no provision for it already worked out. If an institution does allow for it, I would bring it up at the point of application; they're not going to want to make the decision without meeting both of you, and bringing it up after an offer would almost certainly leave the hiring department and administrators feeling sandbagged.

    My institution (bottom-of-the-top-tier national SLAC) has a shared position option specified in our handbook and has one shared position currently running and a few others in recent decades. The contracts for the two faculty members are entirely separate from the institution's point of view; typically one partner is 2/3 time, the other 1/3 time on a 3/3 load. This allows the 2/3 time partner to receive full benefits for the couple. It would obviously be a disaster if one were to get tenure and the other not: there's no language in the handbook that discusses what would happen, and it could leave both without benefits if it's the 1/3 partner who survives. Aside from work considerations, divorce would cut off the 1/3 partner from benefits. Fortunately, our remaining shared position couple is on the verge of retirement. I don't think our current dean would want to make such a hire without considering these issues afresh at the point of contract.

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  6. Anonymous Applicant

    My spouse and I are both applying this year, and we're just hoping one person gets TT and the other can get a visiting or adjunct position at the same school or one nearby. Our AOSs overlap, but are not the same; AOCs are totally different.

    I am concerned, though, about the headache factor. We apply to many of the same jobs (there are so many fewer this year!). I worry that departments do not want to interview us because (a) they do not want to choose one spouse over another, and/or (b) they do not want to deal with the future hiring headache. I'm curious to know if I am correct in perceiving that we are at a disadvantage for these reasons.

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  7. Eddy Nahmias

    From the armchair my intuition is that 1/2 + 1/2 should often be greater than 1 in these situations (contra Fritz's suggestion), since many of the intangibles that good faculty bring to a department can't easily be cut in half: Two people asking good questions at talks, two people talking philosophy with colleagues and students (unless they are really careful about being around only half the time of normal faculty, and of course many normal faculty are almost never around!), two areas of student interest covered (even if not as often), etc. I can imagine lots of potential headaches (including one not mentioned here–the difficulties involved if the couple split). But jeez, this seems like a case where the headaches could be cured with some good policies and should be cured to allow couples the possibility to get jobs in the same city.

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  8. anonmyous placement director

    I want to echo Fritz's comment above. Do not bring up any of this before you have an offer. Hiring departments are not allowed to inquire into your marital status (or anything of that order) and almost none of them will. If they do, just deflect. All of these questions can and should wait until you have an offer in hand.

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