Questions for Interviewing Faculty about Their Roles and Responsibilities

The sample questions below can serve as a guide when you are interviewing faculty. You can use these questions and/or develop your own.

General Questions

• What aspect of your position surprised you the most as a junior faculty member? How do you feel you could have been better prepared to handle this responsibility/activity/role?

• How does your current faculty position compare to what you expected as a graduate student or junior faculty member?

• How many other positions did you apply for? Were they all at the same type of institution (e.g., research, liberal arts, religious)? What motivated you to choose the school you are at now?

Teaching

• What have you discovered about yourself as a teacher in the last _____ years?

• What have you discovered about your students in the last _____ years?

• How many undergraduate students do you advise? How many graduate students?

• What kinds of technology do you use in your teaching? (e.g., course management, grade determination, information seeking, personal response systems)

• How has your use and view of technology changed over time?

• How do you anticipate that new technology might change your teaching over the next five years?

• How is teaching rewarded and evaluated, and how does it fit into promotion and tenure decisions at your institution?

Service

• How many committees do you serve on? What is the scope of those committees?

• How much time do you spend in non-teaching and non-research faculty roles? Are you able to choose in which activities to participate?

• Does your service extend to the broader community through civic engagement?

• What do you enjoy the most about your service to the university and the community?

• How is service rewarded and evaluated, and how does it fit into promotion and tenure decisions at the institution?

Research

• Recall your first grant-writing process. How has that process changed?

• Is there pressure to "publish or perish" in your field or institution? How do you go about getting published? Does your department offer resources or support to help you get published?

• What kinds of technology do you use in your research (e.g., statistical analysis, data management)?

• How do you anticipate new technology might change your research over the next five years?

• How is research rewarded and evaluated, and how does it fit into promotion and tenure decisions at your institution?

Questions for More Experienced, Senior Faculty

Over the course of your academic career...

• ..how has your role as a faculty member changed?

• ..how has graduate education changed?

• ..how have undergraduates changed?

• ..how has the university changed?

• ..how have society's views toward higher education changed?

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