Skip to main content

Rockefelller, with 42 other institutions, to create regional academic job bank

A new partnership among 43 leading higher education institutions in the region, including Rockefeller University, announced its first product today: a comprehensive job bank of academic opportunities in the greater New York City and southern Connecticut region.

The partnership, known as the Metro New York and Southern Connecticut Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (MNYSC HERC), is one piece of a nationwide network designed to overcome the challenges of promoting diversity of faculty and staff and accommodating dual-career families in academia.

The Web-based search engine, available at www.mnyscherc.org, includes listings for all faculty and staff jobs at all member institutions and is available at no charge to anyone seeking employment in higher education.

“Having a single source of academic job opportunities in the region is unprecedented and will support our efforts to recruit the best faculty and staff members to Rockefeller,” says Michelle Keenan, Rockefeller’s director of employment.

Data show that dual-career families in which one spouse is offered a new job or a transfer to a new geographical area often are unable to make the transition without securing a job offer for the other spouse. The so-called “two-body” problem is particularly acute for women in science. Sixty-two percent of women with science Ph.D.s have husbands who also have science Ph.D.s, while only 19 percent of men with science Ph.D.s have wives with science Ph.D.s, according to one recent study.

Although the metropolitan New York and southern Connecticut area is home to more than 130 accredited academic institutions, no previous resource existed to provide comprehensive academic job listings. The centrality of job postings and regional resources, as well as the Web site’s ability to accommodate dual-career searches, distinguishes the MNYSC HERC from other employment Web sites.

The initial start-up expenses and ongoing coordination for the project are being funded by Columbia University, New York University and Yale University.

www.mnyscherc.org