For psychology professor Marcia Johnson, articulating why she is leaving Princeton is no easy task. She has developed a great affection for the school during her 15 years here. She enjoys her work in cognitive psychology and neuroscience and says she is fond of her students and colleagues.
Perhaps most importantly, she knows the Princeton administration — which matched the offer she recently received from Yale University — wanted her to stay.
And yet it was not enough. Johnson is headed to New Haven next fall, where she has accepted a position in Yale's psychology department.
"I have a huge respect and affection for Princeton," Johnson said. "People don't always leave because there is some problem."
The main reason Johnson accepted Yale's offer was her desire for change, she said. "I think what's hard to estimate or to convey to somebody else is the importance and the value of change once in a while for intellectual stimulation," Johnson said. "It's a challenge to get to understand a new institution."
Yale's hiring of Johnson was a rare loss for Princeton in the game of professor courtship, according to administrators.
"I certainly think most of the time we do persuade people to stay," Joan Girgus, chair of the psychology department, said. "We really provide a very good environment for faculty here. Faculty very rarely leave because they think their professional lives will be better served at another university."
Dean of the Faculty Joseph Taylor said the University generally loses only about one percent of the faculty — or about six to eight professors — per year to competing schools. Taylor added that the University is usually able to retain about nine out of every 10 professors who receive outside offers.
The process of negotiating to retain a professor begins with a meeting between the professor and the chair of his or her department. "The chairperson is usually the point man, so to speak, in talking to the faculty member," economics chair Ben Bernanke said.
Taylor and several department chairs said one of the reasons Princeton is able to retain so many professors is its ability to meet salary demands.
"I think our salaries in general are very competitive, if not a little more than that," Taylor said of the University's willingness to offer salary increases to help retain professors. "I certainly would not like to think ever that we lost a faculty member we wanted to keep because of financial reasons alone."
History department chair Philip Nord agreed that, in his experience, the University has been willing to spend money in order to retain professors. "Where cash issues are concerned, I think we'll go as far as we need to," he said.
In Johnson's case, the University did match Yale's proposal. "The details of the offer were responded to in a very satisfactory way," Johnson said.
Other factors
Administrators are not the only ones who work to retain faculty, however. Colleagues also play an important role.
"Individual faculty members will certainly talk to their colleague," Bernanke said. "They'll try to provide moral support and persuasion."
Johnson said her friendships at the University entered into her consideration of whether to leave. "It is a factor," she said. "You could imagine a person would do better in an environment where they had support."
In the end, however — as in Johnson's case — the decision to leave is often personal.
"Although the reasons are as varied as the individual people, it's almost always personal rather than professional," Girgus said.
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