Facilities and work resources

COACHE found a number of facets of the physical workplace for faculty to be especially important to faculty satisfaction, including office, lab, research or studio space, equipment, and classrooms. In addition, many faculty need support for technology, administrative work, and improvements to teaching.

Personal and family policies

The COACHE survey measures faculty beliefs about the effectiveness of various policies--many of them related to work-family balance and support for families. This is especially important because more than three-fourths of COACHE respondents are married; nearly half of assistant and associate professors and one-third of full professors have children under the age of 18. In addition, more than one in 10 professors are providing care for an elderly, disabled, or ill family member.

Health and retirement benefits

Health benefits, once a given, have been steadily eroding as the costs of insurance skyrocket, and many faculty put their retirements on hold in the wake of the recent economic recession. To encourage timely retirements, phased programs have become more prevalent. Some allow individuals to enjoy institutional affiliation, intellectual engagement, and contact with students and colleagues, while the institutions realize salary savings and more reliable staffing projections.

Salary

Faculty attitudes about their salary are also included in this visualization, although you can find related sentiments in the Best and Worst Aspects tables under "Global Views".