Faculty Spouse/Partner Employment FAQs

The college knows that providing support for partners and spouses is crucial for attracting and retaining tenure-track faculty.

Listed below are questions frequently asked by hiring units, current and prospective tenure-track faculty:

  • Yes. Williams employs approximately 15% of all faculty partners/spouses. Williams invites potential employees to apply for open positions at the college, and to reach out to the Spouse Partner Resources Manager to discuss the process.

  • The college’s Spouse Partner Resources Manager provides transitional and job search support to spouses and partners of current and prospective faculty and administrative staff. Once an offer has been extended, spouses and partners of prospective faculty are encouraged to contact the manager to discuss their professional and personal relocation process.

  • The college is committed to doing its very best to provide teaching opportunities for academic partners and spouses, whether full- or part-time, for at least one year. In many cases this will be possible; in some cases it will not.

    Upon learning that a tenure-track finalist or job offeree has an academic partner/spouse interested in an academic position at Williams College, the Dean of the Faculty works with hiring chairs and the chairs of other relevant departments and programs to try to craft an appropriate teaching position.

    Such positions are most likely to be short-term visiting positions (1-3 years) intended to offer teaching experience, involvement in the intellectual community, and networking and professional development opportunities (by providing access to First3 and other opportunities such as roundtables and publishing day) so that the academic partner/spouse has a local base from which to seek longer-term academic positions, ideally within driving distance. Less frequently, it may be possible for an academic partner/spouse to become a continuing member of the Williams faculty, either as a lecturer or (rarely) tenure-line faculty member.

    Candidates may choose to disclose that they have an academic partner/spouse at any stage in the search process; hiring chairs ought to communicate with the Dean of the Faculty as soon as they learn about an academic partner/spouse interested in an academic opportunity at the college.

  • All academic partners and spouses are eligible to become Research Associates with library privileges and access to other campus resources. These appointments carry with them no compensation and no guarantee of access to office, studio or laboratory space. They do, however, offer a title and institutional affiliation.