Making the Leap

By Aviva Duffy

Continuing educators are a unique bunch. Nobody ever really plans on a career in this field, so our backgrounds are as diverse as continuing education itself.

As a regular reader of the First Person columns in The Chronicle, I've often identified with various aspects of others' job searches, but I have never seen one that speaks to my specific role in continuing-ed administration.

What exactly is continuing education? To many academics, unfortunately, it's simply Basket Weaving 101. But in truth, it's many things. Most of our offerings are in the noncredit arena: career preparation, licensing and certification, English as a second language, adult literacy, and welfare-to-work training. We also offer college-readiness courses: things like writing and math refreshers and study skills.

In most institutions, continuing education is the arm of the college that does work-force development and contract training for businesses. We do programs for the general public as well as for specialized segments of it, such as older adults. We often are responsible for distance-learning programs. And in many institutions, we administer some for-credit programs, run off-campus facilities, and in other ways cross the line between credit and noncredit.

If that sounds like we do some of everything, it also helps to explain why so many of us who administer these programs are jacks- and jills-of-all-trades.

We come from careers in sales, in foundations, in higher education, in the corporate sector, and in training, to name a few. Many of us are former or current faculty members. Our degrees are all over the place -- in business, in management, in higher education, in a specific discipline -- reflecting our original career paths. We have developed skill sets that not only serve continuing education but are transferable to other areas of academe.

I am currently an assistant dean of continuing education at a large community college in the Northeast. Our division's organizational structure has several assistant deans, each with large and varied portfolios, all reporting to a vice president.

In many ways, I have my dream job. My responsibilities are diverse, and I've learned a lot in my almost 10 years here. I administer both credit and noncredit programs in a college where continuing education is not only respected but is a vital part of the college's mission.

The vice president for our division sits on the college president's cabinet, and the president fully supports what we do. No begging for dollars here. In fact, the college averages 13,000 credit enrollments annually, of which almost a third are administered through continuing-ed programs, and we average 18,000 noncredit enrollments a year.

My supervisor, the vice president, allows me the freedom to explore new programs and ideas at will. My salary is more than generous. The staff, while not extensive, is certainly adequate, and is generally top-notch and professional. Finally, the partnerships between the noncredit and for-credit sides of the college are quite strong.

Sounds great, doesn't it? Here are the negatives.

Notice that the assistant deans report to a vice president. That's because the titles of "dean" and "associate dean" simply do not exist. Given our structure and the fact that new titles must be approved by the municipality from which we draw financial support, my position is not likely to be upgraded.

In other words, I'm stuck at the assistant-dean level, where I've been since I got here, until my vice president retires, and that could be some years from now. Even then there's no guarantee that I would get the top post, especially given the college's unofficial policy of not promoting from within.

The other big negative is that I live some distance from my college, and relocation is not an option, for personal reasons. Any dream job gets tarnished over time with a 200-mile round-trip commute every day.

If it sounds like I'm wishy washy about going on the job market, I am. I truly like my job. I like my college, my boss, and my colleagues. How many people can say that? I've learned that those are positives to be stressed, when weighed against the negatives of a wearying commute and no opportunity for advancement.

In the past two years I let my mixed feelings hold back my job search. I didn't actively look for a new position, but did a lot of soul-searching about what kind of position would entice me to give up my happy existence.

Here are the conclusions I reached:

• I'm not open to relocation, but am still willing to commute for the right position.

• Salary is important, and a pay cut is not an option.

• My next career move needs to be into academic administration, in order to accomplish my ultimate goal of becoming a provost.

• Once an administrator at a community college, always an administrator at a community college. Four-year institutions typecast you as such.

I think I bring a lot to the table that qualifies me to search for a position in academic administration: experience at both a two-year and a four-year college and extensive experience with both noncredit and for-credit offerings as well as with grant writing. I've worked on program development, evaluation, budgets, and marketing projects.

I've also taken care to become involved in many college activities, serving on curriculum, accreditation, and search committees, leading collegewide task forces, and generally volunteering whenever possible to stay visible.

Many continuing educators who earn a doctoral degree do so in an adult-education-related field. My doctorate is in an academic discipline, and I've learned that the for-credit folks see that as making me more like one of them.

Finally, I have the all-important faculty experience without which many hiring committees will not see you as an academic administrator. I started my career as a tenure-track faculty member (until budget cuts eliminated my job) followed by regular adjunct experience in my field.

I'm not the only one who thinks that that hodgepodge of experience qualifies me for a career in academic administration. In the past three years, I've applied for only two positions, and in both cases not only did the search committees find me interesting enough to invite for a chat, but I was a finalist for both.

Alas, both searches were abandoned for different reasons. So I've decided, all things considered, to test the waters again this year in a more serious way than ever before. We'll see if I can make the leap this time.