Tenure-Track Geology Faculty Search
Frequently Asked Questions
Link to job ad on the Provost’s website.
(1) Can you say a little bit about Lafayette College?
Lafayette is a liberal arts college of ~2700 undergraduate students, nearly all of whom live on campus. The College attracts good students through competitive admissions in a diverse applicant pool. There are no graduate students or graduate programs at Lafayette. While the Department of Geology & Environmental Sciences is within the Division of the Natural Sciences at Lafayette, we have strong research and teaching collaborations with disciplinary and interdisciplinary colleagues across campus, and students from all academic paths frequently take our courses. Unusually among liberal arts schools, we have an undergraduate engineering program, with about 1/4th of Lafayette students majoring in engineering fields. See Lafayette at a glance for more details.
(2) What is the teaching load for faculty at Lafayette?
The teaching load is officially 2+3, meaning 2 one semester and 3 the other semester, each year. Lecture sections count as 1.0 and lab sections count as 0.5. Another way that many of us in Geology & Environmental Geosciences reach the 5.0 yearly teaching load is to teach 2.5+2.5. A faculty member in their first year has a reduced load of 2+2 and is excused from academic advising responsibilities.
(3) What support is available for research at Lafayette?
Lafayette provides funding for research students through the EXCEL Scholar and Bergh Fellow programs. Lafayette provides faculty with basic desktop/laptop computing for both office and laboratory needs. There is funding for faculty members to attend up to three professional conferences per year. There is a research leave available in the fourth year of the tenure track (one semester off of teaching and service at full salary, or one year off of those commitments at half salary) and sabbaticals after tenure. For more info: Research Support, Faculty Travel Support
(4) Where can I find more information about the promotion, tenure, and review processes at Lafayette?
The review process, as well as expectations for faculty teaching, scholarship, and service, are detailed in Lafayette’s Faculty Handbook. The link to the current faculty handbook is here.
The faculty handbook can also be found by linking through the Provost’s website.
Here are the scholarship guidelines for the Department of Geology & Environmental Geosciences.
(5) Do you do anything interesting or unusual in your geology curriculum?
So much! And we are always thinking of more! For example, we require our geology majors to take both a physical geology introductory course and an historical geology intro course. Usually this happens before students proceed onto mineralogy and other upper-level (2xx & 3xx) courses. Our AB and BS major curricula value both breadth and depth, with courses that emphasize hands-on, experiential learning through creative learning modules and activities. We take advantage of our proximity to fantastic field sites, research collaborative institutions, and major museums in our teaching, and have our own department vans to facilitate these opportunities for our students.
(6) What employment benefits does Lafayette offer?
Lafayette College offers a competitive benefit program for employees, described in detail at the HR benefits page.