10 Reasons You Want To Teach At Mercyhurst (We Are Hiring!)

The Department of Intelligence Studies at Mercyhurst College is looking to hire a new professor for the department. Here are the official details:

Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA invites applications for a one-year visiting assistant professorship in the Department of Intelligence Studies for the 2010-2011 academic year. The position begins August 26, 2010 and has the possibility of renewal as a full-time tenure-track faculty position. The successful candidate will teach undergraduate courses in intelligence and national security and an elective course at the graduate level. Applicants should possess a J.D. or Ph.D. in a discipline related to intelligence studies (ABDs are encouraged to apply). Special attention will be given to those applicants with practitioner experience and the ability to manage applied analytic projects. Instructional duties include curriculum development, service to the profession, and participation in college and department activities.

And here is what to do next:

Applicants must send a letter of interest, teaching philosophy, curriculum vitae, and transcripts to: Department of Intelligence Studies, Mercyhurst College, 501 East 38^th Street, Erie, PA 16546, Fax: 814-824-2008 or e-mail mhenderson@mercyhurst.edu

So, in reverse order, here are the top ten reasons you want to work at Mercyhurst College in general and within the Mercyhurst College Institute of Intelligence Studies in particular:

10. Low cost of living. If you were moving from DC, your groceries would be 9% less, your healthcare 11% less and your housing 62% less (That's right: You can actually afford a house on a professor's salary).

9. Great location. Its not DC. Really. Think about it. Yeah, if you want to be hip-deep in PDBs and NIEs, stay in DC but if you are going to teach, to research, to think, don't you deserve a little breathing room? Besides, Erie is in the center of things regionally (You are only a couple of hours away from Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Toronto), DC is only 6.5 hours away and you can take the train to NY or Chicago.

8. Winter activities. Lots of people comment on "all the snow" in Erie. If you like skiing or hockey or tubing or any of a bunch of other winter activities, however, that makes this a great place. As for how much "all the snow" bothers us? My kids did not miss a day of school this year and have missed only one day in last seven years.

7. Summer activities. Sandy beaches, boating, tall ships, hiking, soccer, scuba diving, baseball, golf, top 100 spot in the US for hunting and fishing. The list goes on...

6. Good schools, good healthcare. The days of Erie being a heavy industry town are long gone. The top exports today are the students from the four local colleges and universities. The second largest group of employers is the collection of very good hospitals (including one of the top 100 hospitals in the country). The elementary, middle and high schools in our area are very good as well, producing some of the best students in the country (See #7).

5. Commute. Mine is 10 minutes door to door. The average for the area is 16.3 minutes.

4. Excellent facilities. The college has launched a campaign to build a new building to house intel studies because we have outgrown our current digs. We will be bringing all of our current capabilities and adding new ones in the next few years.

3. Exciting opportunities for growth. Professors here can pursue opportunities in almost whatever direction their interest takes them. If you want to do research, we actively pursue grants for that; if you want to do analysis, agencies and companies routinely come to us to do custom analysis; and if you want to do more teaching, we teach a wide variety of courses in locations all over the world.

2. Great colleagues, strong alumni community. Whatever intelligence community you belong to (business, law enforcement or national security), you have an unparalleled opportunity here to work with colleagues from the other communities (including growing international and non-governmental communities). In addition, our alumni network is large and always ready to help.

1. Great students. This is really the best thing about Mercyhurst. We have about 350 here on campus (300 undergrad and 50 graduate students) and another 100 or so in our graduate certificate program at any given time. These students have all self-selected to become intelligence analysts. They work incredibly hard in what we consider a challenging program. They are all genuinely eager to learn and each one is a real pleasure to teach.