Survive and Thrive - Wendy C. Crone Synthesis Lectures on Engineering

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Library services

      • Shared facilities available for research

      • Buyout policy

      • Undergraduate advising load

      7. There are a number of seemingly small issues revolving around departmental resource allocation that can affect how you are perceived in your department. Consider:

      • What is viewed as a fair share of the office support for typing, photocopying, purchasing, etc.?

      • Is there an established system for requesting library purchases?

      • How will remodeling for your laboratory space be accomplished?

      • Do you know what it takes to get tenure at this institution?

      • What is your timeline to tenure?

      • Are there options for coming up for tenure earlier or later?

      There is a tendency for junior faculty to focus on and even obsess about tenure. Even though your purpose in taking a faculty position was not to guarantee yourself a job for life, it is easy to loose sight of your personal goals with the “ax” looming over your neck. Being denied tenure is not the end of the world (see Section 6.3) and, surprisingly, being granted tenure can feel anticlimactic.

      Being aware of the requirements for tenure and working towards them are important, but don’t loose sight of yourself in the process. The best strategy is to find an alignment between your own interests and the tenure requirements and pursue it with gusto. If your heart and mind are fully engaged, then you will perform at your best and achieve up to your potential. At many institutions, there is some flexibility to how scholarship is defined so that your tenure case does not have to look exactly like your colleague’s.

      A few years ago, two of my colleagues and I were asked to speak to a group of junior faculty at our institution about our tenure cases. It was a good panel because even though we are all three at the same institution and in similar fields, our cases looked quite different from even though we were all considered to be “success stories.” We had each established ourselves in our respective research areas – a requirement for our institution – but we had struck very different balances between research, teaching, and service. Both the contrasts and similarities were helpful to see, and it became clear in our remarks that we had each been guided by our passions. Because we had focused on things we felt strongly about, we had more energy and enthusiasm for our work, and we were able to achieve more. Most institutions appreciate that they need a range of different kinds of faculty members to make the place work well and meet all of the institution’s needs.

      1. Have you taken time to get to know the institution you have joined? Look for information on the following topics:

      • The mission and vision of the university and college

      • Recent annual reports

      • Faculty policies and procedures

      • Tenure procedures and criteria

      • Collective bargaining agreement (if faculty are unionized)

      • Accreditation standards for the major and/or institution

      2. What milestones have you set for yourself, and when do you plan to achieve them? What are the expectations of your department and institution? When does the first official performance evaluation occur?

      3. Do you know what it takes to get tenure at your institution? What are the tenure metrics? How do you get the information you need about the requirements? Consider:

      • Asking for written tenure guidelines

      • Talking with your department chair, mentors, senior faculty inside and outside your department

      • Talking with peers at your own and other institutions

      • Taking advantage of orientations, workshops, and seminars designed for new faculty

      • Attending professional conferences and meetings

      • Observing the progress of others

      • Observing the mistakes of others

      • Reading general literature about academia and the tenure process

      Remember that the rules change - what was true several years ago may no longer be the case!

      4. When are the decision points for renewal of contract and/or tenure? Have you considered the tenure clock and how it fits into the rest of your life plans? In assessing the timeline, consider:

      • departmental and institutional requirements/expectations.

      • personal responsibilities (debt, child care, elder care responsibilities).

      • possibility and desirability of stopping the tenure clock.

      5. There are a number of larger factors that affect your job and how your energy is focused. Talk to people about the:

      • vision of your department/college/institution.

      • timeline of your faculty appointment.

      • characteristics of the undergraduate and graduate student populations.

      • methods used to recruit and retain students.

      • facilities for teaching laboratory courses and equipment for using technology in the classroom.

      • level of expectation for obtaining external funding.

      • amount of secretarial and accounting support provided by the department.

      • the methods of decision making used in the department.

      • the characteristics of a successful faculty member in your department.

      • Are you becoming an active member of your professional organization(s)?

      • Have you identified senior colleagues that you can connect with through professional organization(s) in your field?

      Becoming a recognized member in your field can be done in a number of ways, but one of the best and most efficient mechanisms comes through joining a professional organization. In some fields, there is one choice – the organization that “everyone” belongs to – and in other fields, there may be multiple choices. Particularly if your interests are interdisciplinary, you may find that you need to make connections to more than one organization. There are also sometimes local or regional chapters of research and/or teaching-oriented societies that you might consider.

      In my particular areas of research and teaching, there are far too many options. I could easily go to a dozen conferences a year, but I don’t have the time, money, or inclination to do so. In the first few years of my faculty position, I went to the conferences of several different societies, some of them accompanying my senior colleagues. Each society and conference was different from the next, some in subtle and others in very distinct ways. I no longer regularly attend some of these conferences. In some cases, I found that my research was not a good fit, and in other cases, I found that the personality of the society was not a good fit.

      At this point in my career, I have three societies that I am active in, regularly attending the conferences, giving

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