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Teacher-Scholar: The Journal of the State Comprehensive University

Abstract

Christopher J. Lucas and John W. Murry, Jr. New Faculty: A Practical Guide For Academic Beginners. Third Ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. 293 p. ISBN 9780230114869. $25. Lucas and Murry’s third edition of their primer, New Faculty: A Practical Guide for Academic Beginners, covers what are arguably the most important concerns for a new faculty member: teaching, publishing, advising, service, grant writing, and legal issues of the professoriate. The depth and academic rigor applied to issues common to new faculty such as institutional culture or mentoring will be appreciated and useful in the first year of academic life. Not much has been changed from the original edition published in 2002. The major sections are the same and any given page is largely identical as well. As in previous editions, the authors have compiled an extensive bibliography, bringing together the work of numerous experts in faculty career development, such as Boice, Boyer, Gamson, McKeachie, Menges, and Nilson. Yet, with a few exceptions in the grant writing and legal issues chapters, the vast majority of references pre-date the original edition. The two strongest chapters, in terms of their practical use, are the ones devoted to teaching and learning. These chapters are designed to help new faculty survive the first few weeks of teaching, navigate the final weeks of the second semester, as well as plan individual courses and participate in departmental and program level curriculum design.

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