Tenure has been traditionally held up as the "Holy Grail" for those in academia-however, some new faculty make a conscious choice to pursue non-traditional academic roles. In this paper, three new engineering educators relate how their interests, priorities, and family situations led them to seek out non-tenure track faculty positions and candidly discuss the benefits as well as the drawbacks of the paths they have taken. The objective of the paper is to help both prospective and current faculty become aware of the non-tenure track role as a valid and rewarding career path.

Mont., where she teaches construction practice, construction estimating, and construction scheduling from the professional practice point of view. Lutey earned her bachelor's of science in construction engineering technology, and minor in industrial and management engineering, Montana State University, 1996, and a master's of construction engineering management from Montana State University in 1997. Primary research included incentive programs for productivity in construction and TQM approaches in small construction firms. Her current research encompasses safety culture, the pedagogy of safety, and ethics in construction practice.

is a teaching professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at North Carolina State University. She received her B.S. in chemical engineering from NC State and her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. She served in engineering and management positions within Eastman Chemical Co. from 1991-2000. A faculty member at NCSU since 2000, Bullard has won numerous awards for both teaching and advising, including being named as an NCSU Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor, the ASEE Raymond W.

Knoll was in the commercial design-build sector of construction in Phoenix, Arizona, from 1987 to 1999 and owned her own design-build construction firm for eight years before retiring the firm to take the full time position at Montana State University in 2000. She is the program coordinator for the Construction Engineering Technology (CET) program as well as the graduate program, Master of Construction Engineering Managment. These programs are housed in the Department of Civil Engineering. Professor Knoll teaches the CET capstone course, CET 408, Construction Project Management and various graduate courses. Ms. Knoll earned her M.S. in Construction Management and B.S. in Construction from Arizona State University.