Losing Strong Faculty Members

In another post I refer to the notion of having "a faculty that is hard to keep." They are very good, are actually happy where they are, but more prestigious or stronger schools bid them away. What you don't want is to have unhappy very strong faculty, unless you have decided that you are willing to lose them.

Not all faculty are equal. Some are much better. And it makes sense to build around the strongest faculty. Of course, if you have a small number of such very strong faculty, they can be picked off one at a time. To avoid this stripping of your faculty, those strong faculty need to have enough colleagues so that they see their values adequately mirrored.

Of course, we want to respect our colleagues. But that is different than believing they are of equal merit. And by merit, almost always we are talking about the quality of their research, the recognitions and awards they have received, and the students they train.