Newly minted doctors of accounting and finance can practically write their own tickets. Starting salaries have soared to $125,000 and beyond.

Jim Castagnera

Perks can include generous relocation allowances, the latest hi-tech toys, and partner-quality offices. So how could a small teaching university, such as one where I once worked, hope to compete?

Add into the mix the high cost of housing in the Northeast corridor, where the school is located. Then layer on a board mandate to improve our record of recruiting minority faculty. The mission seemed daunting, indeed.

How did this school's accounting department succeed in recruiting three new assistant professors, including a Latina and an African-American? According to the department chair, quality of life has been the key to this success.

Recruitment efforts focused on the department's relatively small size; though a 'humble' junior faculty member, you won't get lost in the crowd. To the contrary, senior faculty are here to help you jump start your research stream and to keep it flowing through the sixth-year tenure decision.

HR policies which accommodated child-bearing and child-rearing demands, so that the biological clock need not be left ticking until after tenure, also appealed to young female candidates. These candidates came — and so far have stayed — despite starting salaries somewhat below the competition's.

The accounting department's recruiting efforts succeeded because — whether consciously or not — they tapped into a trend recently identified by Harvard's Graduate School of Education.

The survey found that tenure-track faculty cares more about departmental culture, climate and collegiality, than about workload and compensation levels.

Sponsored by the Ford Foundation, this survey of 4500 junior faculty at 51 institutions confirms it's a mistake to think your small less-than-affluent college can't attract and retain top-notch new doctors, including minority-group members.

Jim Castagnera is a Philadelphia lawyer and writer, who is the Associate Provost and Associate Counsel for Academic Affairs at Rider University.