Tips for Smoothing the Tenure Track
Know the Ground Rules!
1. Read the current Master Agreement (at www.uni.edu/unitedfaculty ) -especially Article 3 on “Evaluation”.
This Article lays out the ground rules faculty members and administrators are to follow for assessment for tenure, promotion and merit pay considerations.
2. Read next your own Department PAC (Professional Assessment Committee)
Procedures. These are the ground rules the tenured colleagues in your Department will be following in making your yearly assessments.
Note: Each Department has developed its own procedures to supplement the
guidelines provided in the Master Agreement. Thus assessment procedures in
one department may vary from another!
3. If you have any questions regarding any of the assessment procedures, be sure
To ask your mentor, a senior member of your department, the United Faculty-AAUP President, Frank Thompson, United Faculty-AAUP Executive Director, Chuck Quirk, or one of the UF-AAUP Executive Board/Central Committee members listed at www.uni.edu/unitedfaculty
Note: If do not have a mentor and would like UF-AAUP to find you one,
please contact the UF-AAUP President, Frank Thompson.
4. Be sure to follow all procedures faithfully.
That way you know you cannot be faulted on matters of process!
5. If you see that an assessment procedure is not being followed, politely query
colleagues (or the year's PAC Chair) on the matter.
Tip: Sometimes colleagues forget and need to be reminded of the assessment rules
all have agreed to follow.
Build and Exemplary Evaluation File
1. Begin from your first day to keep a clearly organized Evaluation File – one that best showcases all your contributions.
Suggestion: Consider using an accordion file to facilitate organization, also look into developing a website and building a set of e-mail storage files to capture and document contacts with students, committee members, professional activities.
2. Create file folders with as many of the following headings as seem appropriate:
Current Vitae
Course Materials (syllabi, course handouts, new course teaching ideas, etc.)
Student Assessments
Curriculum Development (new courses/programs/certificates designed, etc.)
Letters from Students (expressing thanks for your work/help/teaching)
Copies of Letters of Recommendation for Students along with Successful place of students in graduate school
Collaborative Work on Teaching (with faculty at other institutions, as part of a committee to improve teaching)
Published Book/Articles/Reviews/Works
Works Currently Circulating (under review, revised and resubmitted)
Works in Progress (getting ready for presentation, being revised after a conference presentation)
Papers Presented (Exhibitions, Performances, Proceedings)
Editorial Work (reviewer, associate editor, work for a publisher)
Grants Written/Awarded (granting agency, RFP, amount of the grant, outcome)
Committee Contributions
Departmental/College/University Committees
Community, State, Regional, National or International Service (including service to professional organizations)
Professional Assessment Committee (PAC) Assessments
(findings, follow-up, ways you've improved in the areas where recommendations have been made)
Letters [of thanks or praise] from Outside the University
Letters [of thanks or praise] from University Colleagues
Letters [of thanks or praise] from UNI Administrators
Honors
Tip: This is not the time to hide your accomplishments!
3. Consider adding to your file of publications a list supplying:
a. The names of the journals/magazines you have published in (and that appear on your current c.v. and are in your Evaluation File);
b. A brief description of each journal/magazine (what it publishes; how often it is published; whether it is refereed; and its stature);
c. Do the same for book publishers if you think colleagues might not be aware of the publisher's pedigree.
Note: This will help your colleagues to properly value your publications.
4. Decide whether to create a Teaching Portfolio (due to the limitations of student assessments the need for a teaching portfolio has become much more important at UNI these past few years)
Tips:
a) Find out if your Department or College requires or recommends a Teaching Portfolio for faculty going up for promotion and tenure.
b) If a Teaching Portfolio is required (or recommended), ask your mentor, PAC Chair, or Department Head if models of exemplary Teaching Portfolios in your department are available for your to examine.
c) Teaching Portfolio's take time to assemble! Give yourself plenty of time to develop a portfolio that will fill you with pride. The time and effort should pay dividends later on when being considered for tenure or a position at another school.
5. Place items in the appropriate files (or in the Teaching Portfolio) as they accumulate! (teaching materials, publications, grant applications, editorial work, letters of acknowledgement for service, service with committees and professional organizations)
This will save you much searching and sorting later on.
6. During the time colleagues re reviewing your Evaluation File for assessment,
check your file periodically to make sure it remains in user-friendly order.
Tip: It may be helpful to have two files – one which you submit, and the other which is a copy of the submitted file in correct order. Should materials get jumbled, you can then easily rearrange the file copy.
Note: Sometimes colleagues don't leave files as pristine and orderly as they found them.
Work to Make Classroom Visits Positive Professional Experiences – For You and Your Visitor
1. If classroom visitors are assigned, contact each visitor before his/her scheduled visit and ask if you can have 15 or 20 minutes of his/her time to go over your course materials – to prepare the colleague for what he/she will be seeing.
At this meeting, have a folder of class materials prepared to leave with the visitor once you have gone over your vision of the course. (This will make the visitor's work easier!)
2. Before or after the classroom visit, don't hesitate to make it clear to your visitor that your hope the visitor will share with you any thoughts he/she has regarding ways you might improve as a teacher/scholar or in your service to the profession.
This shows you are eager to grow as a professional.
3. When you receive you copies of your visitor's letters, or the official PAC letter you may be unsure how to interpret a sentence- or section. Do not hesitate to make an appointment with your mentor, respected tenured colleague in your department, UF-AAUP leader, and ask if they might interpret for you the context for the particular statement(s) that concern you.
Tip: Knowing the context will help you respond appropriately and professionally.
Tip: Consider following the same procedure with respect to evaluations from your department head, dean or provost.
4. As a faculty member you have the right to respond to any assessment
documents placed in your Evaluation File. Do not hesitate to make use of this opportunity when it seems appropriate!
Note: Section
5. If your assessment at any point recommends “Continued Probation with
Difficulties to be Overcome,” take steps immediately to address the “difficulty” or “difficulties” cited – be they in respect to your teaching, research and publication/creative activity, or service.
Tips:
a) Seek support and assistance from your mentor or from valued
Departmental or university colleagues, feel free to contact the leadership at UF-AAUP.
b) Consider making an appointment with the PAC chair or with your
department head, dean or with the provost to seek practical suggestions for addressing the concerns expressed.
Most of all: Don't wait till the last year of probation to address any
“difficulties” indicated. By then there may not be enough time for your
efforts to bear fruit!
One More Idea: At the beginning of the assessment period some faculty
have written a letter to their departmental PAC which then becomes a part
of your Evaluation File. Effective letters help those assessing you to
understand your teaching philosophy and professional goals (this
information may also be a part of your website) – so they can help you
achieve them! They can also indicate the ways that you see yourself
contributing to the missions of your department, college and the university
as a whole. Such passages can help colleagues recognize that you are
making significant contributions – indeed, that you are in-expendable
and colleagues may even quote from your letter in their own letter of
assessment. These letters also can share with those assessing you any
steps you may have taken over the year to address any concerns that
might have been expressed in the past assessments. Once again, this
shows that you are a conscientious professional.
Helpful Hints Regarding Scholarly Research, Publication, and Creative Activity
1. At the same time you are striving to be a stellar teacher, embark as well on research or creative activity that leads to publication/performance/exhibition in your area of concentration. At the same time diversify your research and creative agenda to include collaborative efforts with colleagues in your department and at other institutions.
Tip: Giving papers and performances at state, regional, national,
and international conferences or events is a good place t start. Then tailor your paper/performance/exhibition for further “publication” – perhaps at a higher level. Look at ways to expand your efforts in other areas.
2. Persistence pays! Never give up submitting your work, always seek
to establish contacts that will provide you with the feedback you need
to be a successful publisher/performer.
3. Try to attend state, regional, national and international conferences in
your field each year.
Note: That's how you can do the networking that leads to more
presentations/performances/exhibitions and publications/awards! It can
also lead to grant work.
Finally
Remember that tenure is a process not an end result. All your efforts should be towards developing your craft and seeking relationships and working environments that will allow you to excel. The coordination of professional time and energy is a lifelong challenge and that you have many supportive colleagues, particularly in UF-AAUP who are willing to help you feel your way to the best decisions for you in your individual profession.
Don't Hesitate to Ask for Support Particularly from UF-AAUP.
Material originally developed by Professor Barbara Lounsberry, UNI Emeritus Faculty in the Dept. of English, and adapted by Dr. A. Frank Thompson, UNI Professor of Finance,
.