In electing Teresa A. Sullivan as its eighth president, the University hired a top administrator who spent years at the University of Texas and the University of Michigan, two public schools whose mission and goals closely align with those of the University. But with so much attention cast on Sullivan, her husband, Douglas Laycock, flew somewhat under the radar when he accepted a position at the Law School after his wife's appointment.
When considering whether to become president at a large university, Sullivan was "only willing to move at a good university with a good law school," Laycock said in January.
This may be the most high-profile example at the University, but there are certainly other professors at the University who work alongside a spouse and have found challenges and benefits in sharing both their workplace and their home.
Media Studies Prof. Bruce Williams has been married to Andrea Press, the chair of his department and a sociology professor, for 13 years. The couple met when they were both teaching at Florida Atlantic University during the 1980s. At the time, Williams worked in the political science department and Press was an assistant communications professor. After doing their own research in separate fields, they both decided to focus on the study of media.
"On the positive side, we have intellectually shared interests," Williams said, adding that they recently finished writing a book together called, "The New Media Environment: An Introduction."
In fact, it is quite common for professors to meet their spouses when working in the world of academia.
"It's pretty easy to get isolated," Music Prof. Bonnie Gordon said, adding most of her friends are "U.Va. couples." Gordon, for example, met her husband, Environmental Science Prof. Manuel Lerdau, in 1999 at a faculty function at New York University.
Law Prof. Zahr Stauffer is another example of this trend. She met her husband, English Prof. Andrew Stauffer, at a graduate student party at Cambridge University when she was a studying for her doctorate at Harvard University and he was a professor at Boston University.
"While I was in graduate school, Andy often came across the river from Boston to use Widener Library at Harvard, so our paths crossed more naturally," Stauffer said.
Now that she now works at the Law School and he works on Central Grounds, it is more difficult for the couple to see each other throughout the day, but Stauffer said they occasionally attend talks together. Gordon also noted that she and Lerdau occasionally manage to schedule a lunch together.
Even for those professors who run into each other more frequently, spending time together during the work day is not a guarantee. Williams, who works in the same department as his wife, said the couple's schedules "don't overlap much," and they have to arrange both of their schedules around their kids: Jessie, 16, and Joshua, 12. This could potentially be a benefit, however, as any "sense" of politics within the department may be a negative aspect of working together.
Although there are difficulties, the advantages of having a spouse on Grounds are "huge and endless," Lerdau said, noting having free summers and someone close by to help with child care. "Our lives are so much easier logistically."
In terms of accommodating jobs for couples, Lerdau and Gordon both agreed the University was amenable when they both applied for jobs as professors.
"My husband initially got the job, and so they made a job available for me," Gordon said. "I'm a spousal deal."
She was quick, however, to add that the University "is not going to hire anyone who's not good enough ... It's just an accommodation to get good people."
After all, she noted, "When married professors teach [different subjects], they are more likely to look for jobs closer together."
While living in Florida, Williams and Press had to commute to different places, Williams said.
"Universities did not see the need to do anything special for couples," he said.
During the last 15 years, he said he has seen universities becoming more obliging in their "policies to make it easier to find a position for the 'trailing spouse,' as they call it."
These policies mean professors are more likely to remain at one institution for longer, which benefits not only the couples involved but the students as well.
"[The consistency] of keeping professors at the University benefits the students," Lerdau said. "U.Va. rightly considers itself a top-tier university and they do see the value of trying accommodate people's partners and I think everyone benefits"
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