Good Start: A Guidebook for New Faculty in Liberal Arts Colleges

While few would argue that young professors enter the academy equipped with the knowledge of their field, they are often unprepared to navigate the ins and outs of faculty life. Nor is there anyone to help steer them. Good Start is a guide for new faculty members commencing their teaching career at a liberal arts college. Using a combination of personal experience and substantive research, Gerald Gibson has written an engaging, practical book dealing with all aspects of being a faculty member.

The book begins with the basics about selecting the right college to work at, going through the application, interview, and negotiation process, and getting oriented to the job and the college. He expounds on finding one’s role within the larger liberal arts tradition, how to focus on good teaching, and deciding where scholarship fits into the equation. Gibson discusses the faculty member’s role in the department, the organization, and the community. He offers practical measures to manage time and stress, while staying effective, and gives guidance on working through career phases toward promotion and tenure. Concluding with counsel on “how to stay good” as a teacher, scholar, and citizen, Gibson demystifies the process of getting the job,  being a good colleague, contributing to a vital department, and developing a life-long plan of personal and professional growth.

GERALD W. GIBSON is Vice President-Dean at the College and Professor of Chemistry at Roanoke College, Salem, Virginia. He received his B.S. degree (1959) in chemistry from Wofford College, and his Ph.D. degree (1963) from the University of Tennessee. He received a certificate (1983) from the Institute for Educational management at Harvard University.
Gibson chaired the chemistry department at the College of Charleston for fourteen years, and served there as associate provost. In those positions, and as vice president-dean of the college at Roanoke College, he has had extensive experience in hiring new faculty and in designing faculty development programs, both at the departmental and institutional level. The faculty development program at Roanoke, which begins with two terms of First-Year Faculty Sessions, has been marked by greatly expanded faculty scholarly activity, coupled with significantly improved student response to teaching. Gibson has made presentations at national and regional conferences on faculty evaluation, faculty orientation, the orientation of new deans, academic budgeting, curriculum, and costs of operating academic departments.
He has publications in chemistry, in poetry, and in higher education. His books include Mastering Chemistry (1975), Mastering Organic Chemistry (1979), and Mastering Chemistry Problems (1988) (with Gary C. Faber). His poems, several of which have won awards, have appeared in the Cape Rock Journal, The Cresset, Patches of Carolina Sunshine, and other publications.