Understanding the Promotion and Tenure Process
Summary: 2006 presentation in the Rice University NSF Advance Conference entitled “Negotiating the Ideal Faculty Position”. The focus of this presentation was educating graduate students and post-docs who aspire to academic faculty positions regarding the university promotion and tenure process. The authors of this presentation were Julia Morgan, Earth Science; Jennifer West, Bioengineering; and Kathleen S. Matthews, Dean of Natural Sciences.
Workshop Authors: Morgan, J., West, J. and Matthews K.
Slide 1: 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
- Consistently evaluate your own progress
- This process is the accumulation of years of effort
- THINK AHEAD!!!
Slide 2: Understand the General Process
- Learn about the promotion and tenure process at your institution
- Ask about the process when you interview
- 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
Slide 3: 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
- If you should submit 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
Slide 4: Publications
- Demonstrate your contributions
- Provide evidence of your independence
- Issues of collaborators
- How many?
- How much of your time?
- Issues of collaborators
- Used to assess your productivity
- Numbers vary widely among disciplines
- Type of publications expected also vary widely
- Used to assess the quality of work produced
- Citations
- H-factor
- Impact on the field
Slide 5: Factors Considered
- Research
- Teaching
- Service
- These factors combine to reach a decision — but the specific combination varies widely across institutions
Slide 6: 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 at multiple conferences
- Present at 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
- Include students mentored at all levels (primary and secondary mentoring)
Slide 7: 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 of portfolio of your teaching
- Syllabi
- Handouts
- Problem sets
- Other written materials
- Computer-based materials
- Examinations
- Copies of graded papers where there is a significant writing component
- Evaluation by a colleague
- Student evaluations
Slide 8: 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
Slide 9: 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 makes final decision
- Multiple levels of review — no one person makes the decision! Many voices are part of the process.
Slide 10: 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
Slide 11: Are there answers to my questions?
- How many publications do I need?
- How much grant funding?
- How many graduate students? Post-docs?
- 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!!!
Slide 12: Questions?
Ask many, ask often….
Comments, questions, feedback, criticisms?
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- E-mail the author of the module, Understanding the Promotion and Tenure Process
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Last edited by Susan Cates on Jul 31, 2007 1:15 pm GMT-5.