Wanna Be a Department Head?

The University of Florida is seeking a chair of its journalism department. I'd usually not bother writing about this, but UF is my alma mater (masters and PhD, finishing in 1991), and thus it's a program I always watch. They ran this search a few years ago and Wayne Wanta, who has worked nearly everywhere, got the gig. He's stepping down, so a new search is under way. Here's an interesting bit of the job description:

A master’s degree is required for this 12-month position. 

Not a doctorate, just a masters, and "the successful applicant will (1) hold the rank of professor or meet the University of Florida’s criteria for full professor upon hire and (2) be eligible for tenure upon hire." In other words, either be a full professor or have a significant enough background to justify that rank. A bit unusual for a Research 1 university like UF, but not so unusual in a journalism department.

I could not for the life of me find the job description from a few years ago, so I can't say for certain whether it required a doctorate for the job back then. If it previously did require a doctorate (and all of the finalists for the job back then held one), then I wonder whether this job description is written with someone in mind, perhaps someone already in the department. I have no idea, and it's the dean* who ultimately decides these things. Coincidentally, she has a bachelor's degree -- from UF -- so it's hardly a surprise that she'd open up the search for a department head to include someone without a doctorate. The professional and academic fields are changing.



* in full disclosure, the present UF j-school dean,
Diane McFarlin, was my boss while I was a reporter
at a Florida newspaper.