Back to the Faculty?

In the past few days I've been alerted -- twice -- of opportunities to be faculty again.

1. Tenure-track job opening up in the math/cs/stats department at a nearby small liberal arts college. I would probably be very good at that job. They have seven faculty in the math/cs/stats department. Four have their Ph.D. from the institution where I currently work, two from other institutions, and one lists a highest degree as an "ABD" which is annoying way of saying "masters degree."


2. The other option would be as a grant-funded research assistant professor in the EECS department here. The Powers That Be have done some annoying things, administratively, so my boss is thinking of "firing" me as staff and rehiring me as fake-faculty.

I've been raised to believe that the tenure-track job is the holy grail and much better than having a grant-funded position on someone else's grant under an uncertain funding environment. But I think that option #2 sounds more interesting.