Each year of a professor’s career is moving the hand on the ticking tenure clock to ensure more room for research and job security. All professors must teach higher education for six years (not always at the same school) to begin the review for tenure. This year there will be five professors reviewed for tenure, potentially adding to the eight professors already teaching within their tenure. The candidates up for review this year study topics ranging from physics to fine arts. 

One of the five professors being reviewed this year for tenure, is Assistant Professor of English, Professor Michael New. Professor New went to school at University of Rochester studying English with a minor in art history, while soon following up at Penn State to receive his masters and PHD. Professor New’s ‘tenure clock’ began at Saint Anselm and will also be reviewed to continue here. 

While tenure ensures job security, Professor New also wants to enforce the deeper meaning behind tenure. “It’s meant to ensure a wide ranging, free discourse of ideas and diversity of perspectives.” 

While Professor New could have taught at many other schools, he states that “there’s a sense of community and mission, that is really in line with my own values and what I want to get out of my professional life.” 

New also enjoys the rigorous environment that Saint Anselm inhibits, and the motivation it gives students on the hilltop.The competitive nature at Saint Anselm does not only inhibit students in undergraduate studies, but also obviously lives within professors doing research within their broad topics of study. 

Professor Nicole Gugluicci is also among the five professors being reviewed for tenure, as the assistant professor of the physics department. Professor Gugluicci wants to continue her professional career at Saint Anselm as their research covers all aspects of their educational background. “Although it is in the physics department, it also has a component where I can work in the education department. My background is not only in astronomy but in education research as well, so it was a perfect fit.” 

Professor Gugluicci’s six years at the hilltop has also created relationships they wish to develop with more time. “I’ve really enjoyed the relationships I’ve developed here in the last six years, so tenure would allow me to continue that.”

While study abroad is an option at many schools, Assistant Professor of Music within the Fine Arts department, Professor Andrew Haringer, was inspired by his European roots to study music and history at Dartmouth, following that with  studying Historical musicology at Columbia, and receiving his masters in piano and a university in Hungary. Professor Haringer says that the major difference between studying in the United States and Hungary is the independence and hands off European models of academia. Professor Haringer explains the honor of tenure and how ‘liberating [it is] to express your views and pursue scholarly interests with a degree of autonomy.’

A common denominator within professors’ love of teaching at the hilltop is the values that the school and its students carry: the community, the individual, and the divine. The tenure committee is beginning to review these candidates and welcomes letters from the community regarding the professors being reviewed and relevant information towards their potential tenure by October 20th, 2021. For more information on sending in relevant information about these candidates, please check the Crier website.