Tenure and How to Improve Your Chances of Getting It

1. Tenure and How to Improve Your Chances of Getting It Andy Johnson October 20, 2005 disclaimer - andy accepts no responsibility for the use or misuse of this information

2. Ranks • Lecturers • Research Assistant Professor • Assistant Professors (tenure track) • Associate Professors (tenure) • Full Professors (tenure) • This is in general - tenure and rank do not always go together

3. What is Tenure • As an Assistant Professor on the tenure track you are typically on a yearly contract • With Tenure you pretty much have your job until you want to leave • Roughly 75% (60% - 90%) of faculty are tenured at U.S. Universities • And you get more money (10% - 15% raise) • And you get to vote on other people's tenure

4. When is the Decision Made? • Do paperwork at the end of year 5 • Submit in fall at beginning of year 6 • Hear the results next spring (end of year 6) • Can go up a year early if you are doing really well • Or you can do it the easy way and get hired into a department with tenure

5. Who Makes the Decision? • All tenured professors in your department * • Then your department chair or head * • Then a college level committee • Then the dean of your college • Then a campus-wide committee • Then the provost of the university • And finally the regents of the university at the state level rubber stamp it

6. Who Makes the Decision? • The most critical group is your department • Each tenured faculty member can vote yes, no, or abstain on you getting tenure • Ideally you want a unanimous or nearly unanimous vote within your department • A 60/40 split in the department is damaging but you still might make it • Less than 50/50 you aren't going to succeed • The College usually goes along with Department • The University usually goes along with College

7. The Department Level Meeting • Usually 1 or 2 assistant professors are going up for tenure at the same time • Meeting takes a couple hours • A Tenured faculty member presents your case (see slide about your mentor coming soon) • All the voting faculty members have a copy of your paperwork (see paperwork slide coming soon) • One voting faculty member has sat in on one of your classes to evaluate your teaching • Lots of Discussion of the paperwork • Secret Ballot

8. The College Level Meeting • Usually roughly 10 assistant professors going up for tenure at the same time • A faculty member from your department on that committee will present your case • Discussion and balloting • I have not sat in on one of these meetings personally

9. The Campus Level Meeting • At UIC there are 27 full professors on committee • 18 elected by faculty and 9 appointed by provost • Currently: Physical Therapy, Art History, Information Decision Sciences, Social Work, Biological Sciences, Library Health Sciences, Psychology, Nursing, Occupational Health Sciences, Urban Planning, Emergency Medicine, Nephrology, Criminal Justice, Pharmacology, Restorative Dentistry, Education, Mechanical Engineering, English, Biochemistry, Digestive Disease & Nutrition, Pharmacy, Chemistry • On average they discuss 100 cases over 5 days • Primary and secondary reader for each case • Most cases are straightforward • They can only talk about what is in your paperwork • Paper must speak to reviewers in multiple disciplines • I have not sat in on one of these meetings personally

10. What is the Success Rate? • At UIC the success rate is about 80% if you succeed in your department • What if I don't get tenure? • Typically you get a 1 year contract for year 7 • Allows you to wrap up work and find a new job • What if I get Tenure then want to leave? • Usually you would ask for tenure to be part of your offer, and you would probably get it

11. The Paperwork • Very specific format for the paperwork - and they may tell you what that exact format is • Need to make it very easy on reader • Number everything so its easy to count up grants and papers, etc • Use very consistent formatting • Lots of data to keep track of - so its better to do it as you go along

12. The Paperwork • Impact - you should have a national reputation at this point • Continuity of Thought / Consistency / Common Theme in your work • Stress your Independence • Put accomplishments in context • What are the norms? • What is the availability of funding in your discipline? • Do certain courses always have lower evaluation numbers? • Confront problems in a straight forward way and explain them

13. The Paperwork • The key is this is being read by a wide variety of professors • Not just in your field, or even in your department, or even in your college • There are lots of things you need to be good at • Strengths in some areas can compensate for weakness in other areas

14. References • At UIC the requirement is full professors at research-1 universities, or the equivalent in foreign countries. Other schools have different rules • Need 6 to 8 of them • Can give (non binding) list of inappropriate referees • You send out a vita (resume) and a couple select papers to each

15. References • References typically wont agree to be a reference unless they will give you a positive review • How do the references know about me? • They meet you at conferences and workshops • They meet you at grant review panels or retreats • They read your papers

16. Grants • At least 1 serious grant (> 250K) with you as PI • An NSF CAREER grant is really really helpful • Preferably more grant $ (> 150K per year) • Average CS in ‘04 was 240K per person per year • Need to get beyond grants with your PhD advisor

17. Teaching • At UIC, student evaluations average 4/5 • 3.5/5 or lower will get noticed • You don’t need to be a great teacher, just not a bad teacher (assuming a research university) • You should produce a few MS Thesis graduates before you go up for tenure • MS Project graduates are less helpful • You need to show you can attract and manage students and a research agenda • If you can produce a PhD graduate that’s a bonus

18. Service • Need to do enough to show you care (department committees, faculty senate, honors college, etc) • But not that you care so much that it disrupts your research time • It’s a good way to show you are reliable and a team player • Contribution to ‘diversity’ becoming more important • Serving as reviewer or chair of major conferences or journals helps

19. Papers • Need to get beyond writing papers with your PhD advisor • Conference papers are better than journals • Shows you are out there meeting people • Only high-end conferences really count • Should have a few journal papers too by years 4 and 5 • Only high end journals really count

20. Collaborators • Typically there is a place in the paperwork to talk about collaborative work • Its good to have collaborators include letters in the paperwork to define roles • Need to show you have a specific piece of the work and responsibilities that you carried out • Collaborating with known people looks good • Collaborating with people in other fields makes it easier to show how the work was divided up

21. How does the University Help You? • Typically you discuss progress with your department head or chair at the end of each year • More serious review with you department chair or head at the end of year 3 • You have a reduced teaching and committee load for the first couple years to help you concentrate on your research • University has seminars on how to get tenure • Even in low-money times there is usually money for tenure based raises • You can get a 1-year rollback for childbirth or serious hospitalization issues

22. Importance of a Mentor • Might be senior person in your area of research in the department • Might be your department chair or head • You need someone to help you with grant writing, department politics, and how to balance research and teaching • Typically your mentor will present your tenure case to the department committee (unless your mentor is your department chair or head)

23. What Can Go Wrong? • Staying too close to your PhD advisor (or your Post Doc advisor) • This is ok for a year or two, but then you need be on your own • The Post Doc period is a really good time to transition away from your PhD advisor’s work • Not focusing your research • Again, its ok for a year or two but then you have to stick with something • Not publicly showing, talking, writing about your work

24. What Can Go Wrong? • Departmental politics • Your colleagues need to see you as a responsible, reliable person • And preferably someone they would like to have lunch with • You may run afoul of department cliques - your mentor is very helpful here • You may have the department chair or head from hell - that’s a big problem

25. Why Talk About This Now? • Good to know how to prioritize your time • Good to know what to look for in a department that hires you as an assistant professor • You need to start thinking about connections to potential references • This affects thinking about joining an established group or starting new one • Established groups: ease your way into grants and publishing but its harder to show independence • Starting your own group: harder to get into grants and publishing, but its easier to show independence

26. Commitment • Like getting a PhD, getting tenure requires commitment • It has to be your priority • If you focus on it early, and make steady progress, it is less likely that you will feel the need to go to the dark side later on to get it

27. Questions?