Why are the Faculty Leaving?

NICK WILLIS

Faculty are leaving Christian higher education institutions in record numbers. Many blame this on the “great resignation” and undoubtedly it is affecting most of the US economy. But shouldn’t an industry like Christian higher education be beating the trends? After all, becoming a tenured professor takes a lot of time and work. Why would faculty throw all that hard work away?  

I believe there are three metrics that all jobs are either pretty good at, or pretty bad at, that can add value to an employee, and why that value proposition seems to be changing for faculty at Christian institutions.  

Many different reasons may exist for why people like or don’t like their jobs. I propose there are three primary employee needs that contribute to liking or disliking a job. I call these the three job satisfaction metrics. I also propose a hypothesis that, in general, for an employee to enjoy and stay in a job long term, there must be two of these three metrics viewed positively by the employee. Most jobs are not great at all three. If you have all three, it’s a dream job. Most employees are very satisfied with two. And, if you only have one you probably don’t like your job very much. 

Here are the metrics: 

Metric # 1 - The Money

The Bible teaches us we are not to love money, but money is nice to have. In our current economic climate, inflation is on the rise and faculty are having to pay increasingly more for the necessities of life. I often hear presidents and administrators at Christian institutions describe faculty work as a ministry or a calling - which is a fancy way of saying that they will never be paying their employees a market wage. But that’s okay. Remember you can’t have it all. Talk to almost any faculty member in Christian higher education and they will tell you their choice of job has never been about the money. Faculty know what they are signing up for and often are willing to live with lower pay because of the other benefits of the job. That said, few faculty are just sticking around for the great money.  

Metric # 2 - The View that Society Holds  

We don’t really like to talk about this one very much, but this metric often matters deeply to employees. Employees want to be viewed as adding real value to society. Faculty want to be viewed as smart, to be viewed as a mentor, and to be viewed as a contributor in their chosen field of study. This is a winning metric for faculty members because being a professor is viewed very highly by society. Faculty at Christian institutions are typically respected and appreciated for their contributions. Under this metric, faculty appreciate their job quite a bit. 

Metric # 3 - Alignment with the Mission of the Institution

This metric can be stated more simply as – do you feel like you are part of something bigger than yourself? Historically, this is an area where Christian institutions have been amazing. Small faculties feel tightly aligned around a common mission. They feel loved and valued as part of the organization. This metric has been possibly the greatest pull to be, and remain, a faculty member. 

Traditionally, the faculty job has been a win for professors in Christian higher education. The pay isn’t great, but society appreciates what you do and you are closely aligned with an institutional mission. Two of our three metrics are in the faculty members favor which historically has been enough to retain great professors. 

But, something is changing. Faculty, and even long-time faculty, are leaving institutions at record rates. Why? As I see it, pay has always been a problem and nothing is really changing in this area. Low pay is making the problem worse, but it is not the root issue. On the flip side, the positive perception in society of being a faculty member is still a big win.  

That only leaves mission alignment.  

Many faculty at Christian institutions are feeling less and less aligned with the mission of their institution. There are many reasons for this: mission creep, toxic culture, changes in their job functions due to covid-19, regional cultural pressures, and bad hiring practices, etc. The reasons for this change are important, but no matter what the reason is for feeling less missionally aligned, Christian higher education is heading for a massive faculty resignation cliff if it can’t fix this problem.  

Here’s the key - many people who are attracted to Christian higher education chose to value mission over money. Talk to faculty for a little while and almost all would agree with this statement. But what happens if you take away the mission fit? Spoiler alert - it’s not good. With lagging missional alignment, faculty start looking at other employment options because -remember- they now feel like they are winning in only one of the three metrics. And when they look around, what do they see? They see they can make more money and have respect in their job elsewhere instead of only having one metric, respect, as a faculty member. If they can’t have mission fit either way, at least they can get paid.  

So if your institution's answer to the “great resignation” is to give everybody a big raise, I’ve got bad news. More money likely won’t solve the root issue. Pay is not the metric that has changed significantly. The pay has always been a problem. Culture and mission fit is the real problem. 

Working on your campus culture is difficult work, possibly even harder work than coming up with money for faculty raises. It’s also the work that will actually keep your faculty from leaving. If you are struggling with how to keep your faculty during this time of turnover, think about pay raises second. Look at your culture and mission first. Where you are going as a community, and how you are planning on getting there together, is more compelling to a university’s faculty than a few extra dollars in their wallets.  

Nick Willis (Ph.D., Texas Tech University) is a partner at TG Three – A strategy company serving Christian higher education. He previously served as a mathematics professor at both George Fox University and Whitworth University.