IU departments see marrying of minds

As the biggest employer in Bloomington, it's no surprise some spouses both end up working for IU. Sharing a common employer makes for some unique circumstances most married couples will never have to navigate. However, many couples say the University offers benefits for those who share a home and a workplace.\n"These days it's increasingly likely that both husband and wife aspire to professional careers," said the School of Journalism Dean Trevor Brown, whose wife Charlene Brown also works for IU. "In a small community like Bloomington, it may be difficult for both partners to find meaningful work. To have the University, which provides a great variety of work, is a great advantage to couples."\nBoth worked out of the same office at one point, but now Charlene Brown works as associate director of extracurricular activities for the Honors College.\n"It has been an absolute delight for my husband and me," Charlene Brown said. "It's like we've been able to go to college, so to speak, for most of our lives."\nShe said she enjoyed working alongside her husband.\n"I consider him a great colleague as well as a spouse," she said. "It is intellectually invigorating to work with him."\nThe Browns said that while raising a family, being academics allowed them flexibility to take care of obligations at home.\n"The University is so wonderful for couples because the nature of the work is so flexible," said Trevor Brown. "The life of an academic isn't really an eight-to-five job. It enables young couples to manage child care ... They can set up a schedule so there is no time when someone can't get home if they have to. That isn't always possible in other work places."\nBill and Julie Head, professors in the Department of Criminal Justice and the Kelley School of Business respectively, also found flexibility to be one of the best aspects of both working for IU.\n"When one of us has to work late, we call to see who goes home for chauffeur duty and to go to the kid's events," Bill Head said. "The job is pretty flexible. We have a lot of control over when we work."\nBecause both spouses tend to teach large introductory classes, Bill Head said they usually have a fair number of students in common. At one time the two might have one-third of the freshman class between them.\n"It's amazing how many don't make the connection," he said. "We both talk about our kids."\nWhen students do realize the common last name is not a coincidence, Bill Head said he believes it adds a personal dimension to their classes.\n"(Students) have a close bond with their professor," he said. "It's kind of unique."\nJulie Head said the large amount of students the couple has had during the year sometimes makes it hard to have a night away from work.\n"When we go out, invariably someone says 'Hi, professor Head'," she said. "We both turn around because we never know who they are talking to."\nThough both work on the same campus, they said working in different departments means they don't have much contact professionally. Julie Head said there is also no competition between the two.\n"We never argue about salaries," she said. "I think that would be silly. We want each other to make as much as possible. It's all going into the same joint checking anyway."\nJeanne Sept, vice chancellor for academic affairs and dean of faculties, said in an e-mail that besides normal conflict of interest and conflict of commitment rules, no special rules apply to dual-career academic couples. Excusing oneself from a tenure vote on a spouse is an example, she said.\nShe said all faculty are treated as individual colleagues first and partners or spouses second.\n"We have a number of faculty couples who have done marvelous collaborative work, in addition to working on their independent research," Sept said.\nOne such couple is Gerald Wright and Christine Barbour, both professors in the political science department. Not only do they work in the same department and team teach Y103, but they have also co-authored the text they use in the class titled "Keeping the Republic." \n"Of course it's a challenge," Barbour said. "We have lots of tug of wars, but it always works out. We really, really like each other, and that helps a lot."\nThe couple said the main downside is that their work tends to follow them home.\n"When there is a deadline crunch, tension goes up in the whole household," Wright said. "We really had to work on stress management and have good communication."\nThe stress can prove to be too much for some couples, especially those who are in a similar situation to Wright and Barbour.\n"We know a couple who wrote a book together and were divorced before it came out," Barbour said. "You either learn the skills or you don't."\nShe said they both make sure to have interests and activities outside of work.\n"He goes to the golf course, and I write a food column," she said. "We also travel to Paris for Valentine's \nDay every year. We've developed rituals and traditions to get away."\nWright said students who take the class they joint teach benefit from the experience because they have two professors on the same wavelength. However, some are surprised to find out the two are a couple.\n"They always giggle when they find out we're married," he said.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Haley Beck at habeck@indiana.edu.