"To make junior faculty senior tutors will thin out the sense of scholarly community in our already fragmented department," he says.
Climbing the Ladder
The biggest concern for most junior faculty members, though, is that assuming a senior tutorship would hamper their chances of getting tenure.
"As a junior faculty member there are many factors which work against becoming involved with undergrads in the Houses or as a [senior] tutor--the main one, of course, being that the reality is, or is perceived to be, that the tenure decision is based almost entirely on research achievements," Ekstrom says.
"The bottom line is, I guess, that the University has to not only express [its] interest in seeing junior faculty involved, but also somehow show that it counts when promotions are under consideration," Ekstrom says.
Slowing down the tenure clock may not be enough. Age is also a concern, Dickinson says.
"There's a risk, and the risk is that you're older when you get turned down for tenure," Dickinson says. "Now you're competing with people who've produced an equal amount as you have and they're two years younger."
"I think you're going to be a less attractive candidate," he says.
Mobley, however, has taken that risk. His goal is to be a professor, and he has "mixed feelings" about the effect his five years as a senior tutor will have on his tenure chances.
"I think people who want to become senior tutors want something more or something other than a full plate of academic research and teaching. To that extent, we choose our own fates," Mobley says.
"You don't get many brownie points for being a senior tutor," he says. "If you want to get in the game, just to get on board as a player in this academic Monopoly, then being a senior tutor won't help a bit."