New faculty as colleagues

This study, based on repeated interviews, tracked four sucessive cohorts of new faculty at a large state university over each of their semesters on campus. It documents trends for these new hires, notably in how they coped with social and intellectual isolation, with conflicts between their own and senior faculty's values, and with finding social support. New faculty evidenced differences as a function of the degree of their experience and of return from non‐academic careers. Older and more experienced new faculty found fewer friends and social supports on campus. New faculty needed at least three years to feel a real part of campus.