What new faculty women wish they'd known earlier.

It's not easy being green, especially as a woman new on faculty. Personal experience led Dr. Julie Carlson to focus her research on new women faculty and use it to build networks of support. She titled her session at the University of Nebraska's Women in Educational Leadership conference "If I Had Only Known."

With a background in elementary education, outdoor recreation and horses, she earned an EdD in educational leadership at Stephen F. Austin State University TX in 2002. She joined the department of educational leadership at Minnesota State University in Mankato, and in just three years won promotion to associate professor.

Even in her very supportive department, she found questions she wished she'd asked and realities she didn't expect. To see if her experiences were widespread, in her third year she started a qualitative study of other women's first-year faculty experiences. Besides contributing to the literature, she wanted to give first-year women a forum to discuss the challenges they faced.

Focus groups involved 18 new women faculty in four groups. Each met three or four times during the year, using their final session to consider preliminary results.

First year challenges

Time was by far their greatest challenge. "People came in with the perception that they were going to teach and do research," she told WIHE. There weren't enough hours.

Class preparation and grading chewed up time. Course schedules were intense. Office hours with an open door policy, meetings, committee work and email left no uninterrupted blocks of time. "Time management flew out the window," she said.