A message to all the new professors

It gets better.

Don't get me wrong; it isn't that things get easier.  Professors are still overworked and (especially at PUIs) underpaid.


But it does get better.


When I first started teaching, it took me about four hours (sometimes more!) to prepare a one-hour lecture.  Now my prep time is a third of that.  Sure, the "free" time is now filled with committee work, various meetings, and research.... but that sure beats staring at a textbook, willing everything to fall into place for the morning's lecture.


Today was one of those days where I surprised myself with how efficient I can be.  It's nice to have a measure of how far I've come since my first day on the job.  How do you measure your progress?

Magic numbers

People say that three's a crowd, it takes two to tango, and one is the loneliest number.

But what's the magic number when it comes to publications?

How many pubs do you need to get tenure?  When I ask around, the answer varies.  At my PUI, I've heard anywhere from one up to five as the magic number that will ensure a worry-free pass on the research front.

My favorite response so far?  "Enough.  You need enough."


Maybe there isn't one magic number for publications.  But it does make me wonder: is there a national standard for demonstrating publishing prowess?

The role of gender in tenure

What would you do if someone in your department told you that you were going to get tenure because you are a woman?

What if they told you that your tenure packet was going to be reviewed less rigorously than a male colleague's?

Would it matter as much if the person saying this was outside of your department? What about at a different school? Or a spouse of a colleague?

Unplugging to preserve my sanity

Geekmommyprof recently posted about the question that seems to plague all academics on vacation: to unplug or not to unplug?

I come from a very, very long line of workaholics. Some were famous in their academic circles. Some weren't. And some went bonkers (literally!) from their need to constantly work.

I attended a very rigorous liberal arts college for undergrad. As a student body, we worked extremely hard Sunday through Friday morning... and then binge drank Friday and Saturday nights. This is in stark contrast to my PermaU students. They only go out on the days that end in y. At my undergrad, virtually no one went out during the week. It's still a toss-up as to what I was closest: Cuervo or Kant? Vodka or Voltaire? Scotch or Smith? (Just kidding. I hate scotch.)

In graduate school, I was in a brand new research group. Being in the first crop of grad students of The Boss meant lots of one-on-one interaction (whether we wanted it or not). It also meant a lot of pressure to obtain grants. We submitted seven R01-type grants (and dozens of smaller grants) while I was in the group. In addition to getting preliminary results in the lab, graduate students were responsible for making grant figures, writing portions of the text, navigating the grants and contracts office, and making the FedEx runs. I can count on my hands the number of times Monday-Friday I was home before 7. And I left the house by 7 am. During the typical week, I worked 7 days and averaged 70-80 hours per week. During grant times, I never worked less than 14 hours straight. One memorable submission required two weeks straight of 16+ hour days. No food breaks--- meals were delivered or fetched by an undergrad.

Looking back, I am proud/shocked/sad that I pushed through it all.

Fresh out of grad school, as a visiting ass., I still did not know how to reign in my workaholic tendencies. I worked straight through weekends. During the week, I was on campus by 8 am and rarely left before 10 pm. I told myself I worked hard because I had to. Really, deep down, I knew I worked so hard because I wanted to. I felt compelled to pull such insane hours.

Then I moved and got on the tenure track. I got a Puppy. I was reunited with N.A. I knew that in order to maintain a long-term relationship AND keep up with Puppy, I would need to approach my work time in a very different manner. I could no longer pull such insane hours.

More importantly, I recognized that I didn't have to pull such insane hours. By being smarter about my work allocations during the week, I could tend to the house, the Puppy, and my life on the weekends.

So I self-imposed a no-campus policy on weekends. That is, I do not go into campus Sat/Sun. No matter what.

Being at a PUI allows me to do this. Also, my research is not such that I have to check on reactions each day. And my students can certainly survive with just email contact from me. The world will not end if I only work Monday through Friday.


At least that's what I'll keep telling myself until the senior members of the department notify me otherwise.

Transferring tenure

As I approach the one year mark on the tenure-track, I'm already keeping an eye out for other opportunities. How sad is that?

A whole host of Unbloggable Issues have come up here at PermaU--some of which are not unique to my school, some of which are.

Unless something drastic happens before September, I'm not looking to go on the market (anyone else break out into hives at the mention of That Word?) for 2011-2012.

But.

I'm not sure what I'll do in the next few years. Strike that. Not sure what N.A. and I will do in the next few years. (ah, the lovely two-body problem potentially rears its sticky head.)

The question is, is it better to get tenure here and then try to transfer it? I know this happens at R1s, but has anyone heard of this happening at primarily undergraduate institutions?

Tenured but not promoted?

Tenure and promotion are two separate situations. I didn't realize this when I was at LargeU, mostly because there were not two separate committees to handle T&P.

Promotion is given based on what you've already done.

Tenure is (mostly) granted (if you ignore all the political BS) for what you will get done.


You can get tenure without being promoted. I am told that it happens, since the two situations are supposed to be considered independent of one other (in space but not necessarily in time).

....but does it actually happen?


If I got tenured but not promoted, I don't think I would stay around.


Still. I haven't heard of a case where someone gets tenured but doesn't becoming an associate prof. Have you?

Is it really that crazy?

Although we (profs) would all hope that our students would be reasonable on evaluations, there will always be exceptions. I think Anon brings up a good point in the comments on my last post: tenure committees will ONLY have the evaluations, not necessarily the whole reason(s) behind the comment.

It might sound insane that a student would complain about lack of availability just because of a missing cell number (but not actually mention the cell phone part).

But consider this: a colleague at my previous institution got reamed on her evaluations the semester she returned after maternity leave. Over and over, students commented about her office door being shut during working hours.

The reason her door was closed, at scheduled times, for 20-30 minute stretches? She was pumping. Try explaining THAT in a tenure packet.

Should we lower the bar for contact time with students?

In my last post about texting with students (ugh!!), Anon 5:45 pointed out the following:

"...if you refuse to give out your cell phone number and accept calls or texts, you appear unaccessible compared to other faculty in the department. This can show up in student/instructor evaluations, which are considered in the tenure process (and I am pre-tenure)."

Well, crap. Already my teaching and research accomplishments are lacking relative to those of my colleagues. Now I have to worry about not being (technologically) available enough to my students?



In theory my tenure packet will be judged on its own, without comparison to anyone else's. I strongly suspect that in reality, that couldn't be further from the truth.

Vacation ov-ah!!

Yes, my darlings, my vacation is over. Classes start in one week. (AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!)

The students are (virtually) back, my syllabi are done (in my head), and my grant is written (down on my to-do list).



It's going to be a loooooong semester.

I'm not an alcoholic-- I'm untenured

What got me through today was a dangling carrot.

(My dangling carrot being a cold beer. Or two.)



Why is spring semester so much harder than the fall semester? (This is not meant to be a rhetorical question.)

just slap a sandwich board on me...

...or maybe I should just put up a big banner in the hallway: Students, Dr. Reaction is leaving this year. No, it is not your fault. No, there is no crying in science.

Every day for the past, oh, eight or so days, I've had to inform a student (or a whole lab section) that no, I will not be teaching here at TempCollege in the fall. I have a job. A job that should turn into a tenure track position.

While it is touching that my students (and students that I haven't actually taught!) get (so) upset when they realize I'm leaving, it's freakin' exhausting to have to address their concerns about my departure! I keep hoping that word will finally spread, but maybe I should just put a big sign on the student union, or take an ad out in the student paper?

Open minded?

My department has had its share of problems. Recently, another grad student pointed out that, despite our department's supposed reputation for being open-minded, no current faculty are "out."

A handful of tenure-track professors are rumored to be gay, which doesn't seem to bother graduate students (as I don't think it should). However, my friend pointed out to me that if other faculty knew assistant professors' sexual orientation, then tenure would be a complete bust.

For a department that's supposedly very progressive-thinking and one of the best in the world, I find this extremely out of place. This doesn't seem to be a concern in the humanities divisions here at LargeU.


So is this just an issue with the LargeU science departments, or is this common at other schools, too?