0.11 Understanding the promotion & Tenure process

Understanding the promotion&Tenure process

Goals

• Institution
  • Tenure is a life-long commitment by the university to you
  • Successful faculty – innovators, leaders, producers
  • Research objectives in line with institutional directions
• You
  • Faculty position that meets your own research and career objectives
  • Member of functional, innovative and forward looking department and institution
  • Security offered by tenure

What can i do now?

Think about your steps all along the way

• Consistently evaluate your own progress
  • Goals
  • Mechanisms to get there
  • Ways to learn from others and engage them
• Keep data on all your activities
• Ask for feedback
  • Grant writing
  • Papers
  • Teaching

This process is the accumulation of years of effort

THINK AHEAD !!

Understand the general process

• Learn about the promotion and tenure process at your institution
  • Ask about the process at every stage if you have questions
• Request a copy of the policy
  • Be sure when you are interviewing that the policy is consistent with your personal goals
• Understand the balance of teaching, research, and service that the institution AND the department will expect

General process

• Dossier
  • Summary of your independent career at institution
  • Information on all aspects of your career
    • Research summary (publications, grants, citations, awards)
    • Teaching summary (courses, evaluations, awards)
    • Service summary (activities, awards)
  • Inside reviews/letters
  • Outside letters
    • Writers identified by department
    • Also usually writers identified by individual
• Understand the timing of preparing the dossier, what you should submit and when
  • Think carefully about names for Outside Letters
• Understand the process completely
• Don’t wait until the last minute to prepare your materials
  • Think about your research/teaching summary
  • Ensure that your papers are submitted in a timely way
• Ask QUESTIONS if you do not understand
• Outside letters
  • Highly influential in decision process
  • May have opportunity to suggest names
    • Develop relationships - create a network MARKET yourself !
  • Post-decision: Ask about possibility for feedback from the letters (can be useful)

Anticipate whom you would want to write letters and get to know those individuals

Publications

• Demonstrate your contributions
• Provide evidence of your independenceIssues of collaborators
  • How many?
  • How much of your time?
• Used to assess your productivity
  • Numbers vary widely among disciplines
  • Type of publications expected also vary widely
  • Different expectations at different promotion points
• Used to assess the quality of work produced
  • Citations, H-factor, Impact on the field

Factors considered

• Research
• Teaching
• Service

These factors combine to reach a decision

• but the specific combination varies widely across institutions

Research

• Publications/Citations/H-factor
  • Way you are known for your work
• Grants
  • Demonstrate ability to secure funding for research
• Presentations
  • Invitations reflect status in the field
• Visibility/Engagement/Focus
  • Present a multiple conferences
  • Engage the leaders at those conferences
  • Invite leaders to your institution via department events
  • Reflect on level of focus in work and, if broad, engage multiple communities

Keep your CV up to date

• Include students mentored at all levels (primary and secondary mentoring)
  • Undergraduates
  • Graduate Students
  • Post-doctoral Associates
• Include advising responsibilities at all levels
• Refereed publications
  • Some institutions request an evaluation of % effort on each
  • Citations — check your “h-factor”
• Abstracts / Conference Proceedings
• Presentations
  • Seminars/Workshops/Panels/etc.
  • Posters
  • Invited talks at meetings

Teaching

• Effectiveness
  • Often evaluated by students
  • Ask assigned or selected mentor to provide review
• Innovation
  • Think about ways to do it better/more effectively
  • Engage students
• Range/breadth
  • Assignments may be focused or broad
  • Be prepared to teach beyond your comfort zone
• Enthusiasm
  • Convey why you love what you do
  • Occasionally volunteer for something extra
• Develop a portfolio of your teaching
  • Syllabi
  • Handouts, other notes on courses developed
  • Problem sets
  • Other written materials
  • Computer-based materials, notes on courseware
  • Copies of software developed for courses
  • Examinations
  • Copies of graded papers where there is a significant writing component
  • Evaluation by a colleague
  • Student evaluations

Service

• Department
  • Help your department accomplish the faculty’s goals
• University
  • Engage in the broad community, but wisely — most P/T committees are broad
• National Organizations
  • Choose wisely for visibility with minimum time
•  K12/Outreach Opportunities
  • Choose wisely, but make a difference

Sample dossier

Information on background

• Education
• Honors
• Teaching/advising/mentoring
• Citations
• Grants
• Publications

What happens after dossier is prepared?

• Department review
  • Tenured faculty generally involved in decision to recommend or deny tenure
  • Department chair writes letter
    • Some schools have subcommittee
• School review
  • Often school-level committee reviews and makes recommendation to dean
  • Dean makes recommendation
• Promotion/Tenure Committee (Provost)
  • Makes recommendation to President
• President sometimes makes final decision
• Multiple levels of review — no one person makes the decision! Many voices are part of the process.

P/t versus performance reviews

Ask your institution about frequency and nature of performance reviews

• Can be very helpful in guiding activities
• Opportunity for mid-term feedback
• Provide an internal view of accomplishments
  • Some may have external letters
  • Dossier can be similar to promotion dossier

Are there answers to my questions?

• How many publications do I need?
• How much grant funding?
• How many graduate students? Postdocs?
• How many committees? Which ones?
• How good must my teaching be? Does it matter?
• How do I know if I’m doing enough?

There are no “right” answers to these questions, because the process is a composite of all of these and varies from place to place:

FIND OUT WHAT YOU CAN ABOUT YOUR INSTITUTION - ASK QUESTIONS!!!

Compiled by:

Karen Butler-Purry, Texas A&M

Jason Hafner, Physics&Astronomy

Kathleen Matthews, Natural Sciences

Jennifer West, Bioengineering