I was going to write about academic record keeping to support your evaluation, reappointment, tenure, or promotion decisions today. But, the other day while scrolling my Facebook feed, I saw an anonymous message that caught my eye because I’ve been right where she was. She’s a nursing mother and an academic. And she’s navigating the on campus interview process with a nursing infant.
Of course, I jumped on her post to provide insights and strategies that I’d used before – albeit over a decade ago. I remember agonizing over how to handle these details; so, I thought I’d use to blog to share some support for other nursing parents.
Before the Campus Interview
Getting an invitation for an on campus interview is exciting. When you having a nursing infant that excitement can pretty quickly turn to uncertainty in maneuvering the campus interview. If you’re not sure what all a campus interview entails, you can learn more from the workshop I hosted.
Of course if you have a nursling you may decide to bring the baby (and a caretaker) with you on the campus interview or you may leave everyone at home and still need additional breaks and a secure and comfortable location for pumping and a storing milk.
Determine If You’re Bringing the Nursling
Before you know exactly what adjustments you may need, you’ll need to decide if you’re bringing the infant and a care taker on the campus interview trip or if you’ll be leaving them at home. Your decision will likely depend on the length of your visit, your baby’s willingness to take a bottle, and your budget.
My oldest never took a bottle – ever. We couldn’t convince her. Really we didn’t have much incentive to convince her since I was staying home. When I went on the job market, we didn’t have much choice. My husband and the baby attended each campus interview with me.
Most institutions make your personal flight arrangements. At that time I never thought to have them take care of my husband’s arrangements (and me reimburse them). I’m not sure they would have been willing to do that anyway.
Generally, I flew to the interview city with the baby. We made and paid for travel arrangements for my husband. Due to budget he usually flew on a different flight. Often he arrived before me and rented a car and installed the car seat.
Some institutions plan to pick you up from the airport. I told them I had transportation. If they wanted to pick me up I let them. I handed off the baby before they arrived.
Determine Your Needs in Relation to the Schedule
Usually you’ll get an email (or a call) inviting you to a campus visit. You’ll want to ask about the schedule as soon as possible.
To create fair (although not necessarily equitable) interview processes, search committees usually have to have the same process for every campus visit. Of course you’ll need to meet with all of the same constituents. To keep the process simple the committee usually copies the schedule from one candidate to another.
Asking about the schedule as early as possible is important so you can determine if you need additional breaks in the schedule. This will also allow the committee time to made any needed modifications.
When I was doing campus interviews with an infant almost 20 years ago, some of the schedules had sufficient breaks built in. I did not need to request additional breaks, and I never told them my infant was coming with me.
That was not always the case. If you need additional time in the schedule to feed your baby or pump milk you’ll need to communicate your needs as early as possible.
Communicate Your Need for Breaks
If you look at the schedule and it’s clear you’ll need some additional time away, you should reach out to the search committee chair.
Even though most search committees will be happy to support your needs, they may be uncomfortable with the request. Since asking about your family status is not legal in the U.S., many committee members will be very uncomfortable when you bring it up because they are not sure what they can and can’t say.
You may decide not to tell the committee why you need adjustments to the schedule. I personally told them why I needed the additional break. You could use something like this, adjusted as needed:
Thank you for providing the tentative schedule to me so promptly. I appreciate the breaks provided throughout the day. Because I am lactating, I will need about 20 extra minutes added to the 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM breaks. I will need a private room during that time to pump and store milk. If it is convenient to our meeting locations I could use the designated lactation room in the XXX building.
If you’ve reviewed the institution’s website you can provide helpful information – like the location of a lactation room or a reasonable alternative (private office or meeting room).
You may need to be flexible with how the schedule gets rearranged due to other schedules. So, instead of telling them when you need breaks you may want to just let them know that you’ll need 2 45 minute breaks in a private location.
Their Response Tells you Important Information
As a reminder – you’re interviewing them too! When you make a request for accommodations you’re getting a glimpse into the culture of the department and institution.
If they seem willing to work with your scheduling needs that’s a good thing. If they take a bit to get back to you or work out the schedule, I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions about what it means.
As I said before, they like things to be the same for each candidate. They may have to run changes by multiple levels of approval to make changes or they may have to change all of the schedules to match.
If you’re going to be bringing the baby and a caretaker be sure to get a parking pass that allows for quick access to your locations throughout the day.
Strategies for While You’re on the Campus Interview
How you’ll navigate the daily schedule for the campus visit will vary if you’re bringing your baby or if you’re leaving them home.
Pumping During Your on Campus Interview
Even if you’re not pumping during your campus visit, I recommend asking for a place to store your things. If you are pumping, I’d ask to put my things away and get settled into that location early in the day so you do not need to carry your pump around. You can also confirm it meets your needs. You can confirm an outlet and no windows.
When you have free blocks scheduled, some nice people may want to continue to chat with you. This is especially true if you’ve hit it off, or if they aren’t aware of your full schedule. You can tell them you are going to pump if you want. Or you can say something like, “This is my down time to prepare for my next meeting. I look forward to seeing you again soon.” Then go to your private space.
This same strategy will be true once you’re a full-time faculty member as well. Whether you need to pump or not, you should protect the time.
Feeding the Baby During a Campus Interview
This is a little trickier than pumping. Unless you plan to go outside or meet in a different location to feed the baby, people will see the baby. Not really a bad thing, but it does draw a bit more attention to the whole process. Oohs and ahhs over the baby may also take critical time away from the nursing time. If the little one is well into the curiosity stage it may be difficult to get them to actually nurse in a new location – they’d rather explore.
Here are some tips to help the process go as smoothly as possible.
Have a meet up plan
The caretaker should have your full schedule and should know when and where to meet you. They should have your full schedule with locations.
One strategy we used was to take advantage of travel time from one campus location to another. I enjoyed getting outside. So, I’d nurse my baby in the sling while walking from one meeting to the next. I just let the committee know that I would meet them at the next location.
Have a plan for last minute changes
There should be a signal or backup plan if the original plan needs to change. Cell phones are so useful for this. When I was doing my interviews quick texts were not a thing!
You really don’t want to have to hear your baby crying all the way down the hall as you’re trying to finish up a meeting. Well, maybe your boobs work differently than mine, but that would have been a nightmare for me. I also would have been embarrassed to make all that noise in a place where there are usually not babies.
Predetermine expectations about “social” functions
On campus interviews often include less formal “social” functions. A lunch or dinner with committee members or other faculty, staff or students from the department. During at least one of my campus visits, my family was invited to join for the meal when they saw them on the walk to the restaurant.
We hadn’t discussed a smooth way of responding to those requests. I did not want to be distracted by minding my family and trying to interact with potential colleagues during the meal. I sent my family off to fend for themselves. This is what I’d recommend in these situations. Babies are so unpredictable. However, the people I was having lunch with seemed genuinely fine with having them join us.
Be Prepared for Clothing swaps
Don’t forget to bring an extra shirt or full outfits for yourself. You know how often spit up or diaper disasters happen on regular days. You for sure want to have back-up clothing if you don’t want to wear that all day long. Don’t ask me how I know to give you this recommendation; you already know why.
After the Campus Interview
The same rules apply here as in other situations. Don’t forget to send a follow-up thank you. These days most people do this via email. Some people still send a thank you via the mail.
Do what feels best for you.
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