"As an antidote to the triple threat of evaluation, isolation,
and overwork, I'd like to offer some advice drawn not only from
research on what helps new faculty succeed, but also from my interactions
with hundreds of new and early career faculty members, their mentors,
and their chairs."
Tomorrow's Professor Msg.#566 THE TOP TEN THINGS NEW FACULTY WOULD
LIKE TO HEAR FROM COLLEAGUES
Folks:
The posting below gives some excellent advice for beginning professors
on how to balance work and family life. It is by Mary Deane Sorcinelli
, University of Massachusetts, and is number 22 in a series of selected
excerpts from the National Teaching and Learning Forum newsletter
reproduced here as part of our "Shared Mission Partnership."
NT&LF has a wealth of information on all aspects of teaching
and learning. If you are not already a subscriber, you can check
it out at [http://www.ntlf.com/]
The on-line edition of the Forum--like the printed version - offers
subscribers insight from colleagues eager to share new ways of helping
students reach the highest levels of learning. National Teaching
and Learning Forum Newsletter, March, 2004, Volume 11, Number 3,
© Copyright 1996-2004. Published by James Rhem & Associates,
Inc. (ISSN 1057-2880) All rights reserved worldwide. Reprinted with
permission.
Regards,
Rick Reis
reis@stanford.,edu
UP NEXT: Answers to Common Questions About the Teaching Portfolio.
Tomorrow's Academic Careers
--------------------------------------- 2,213 words -------------------------------------
THE TOP TEN THINGS NEW FACULTY WOULD LIKE TO HEAR FROM COLLEAGUES
Mary Deane Sorcinelli
University of Massachusetts
When we seasoned faculty look back at the early years of our careers
in academia, what advice do we wish we had received as we started
out? What issues do new faculty struggle with today and what kind
of guidance might we offer them? More than a decade of research
has identified three core, consistent and interwoven concerns that
affect early career faculty as they navigate their way through the
first years. New faculty want
* a more comprehensible tenure system,
* a stronger sense of community, and
* a balanced and integrated life.
Studies also show that senior colleagues and department chairs
can play an important role in creating the kind of academic environment
that supports the success of early career faculty (Rice, Sorcinelli
& Austin, 2000; Sorcinelli, 2000).
As an antidote to the triple threat of evaluation, isolation, and
overwork, I'd like to offer some advice drawn not only from research
on what helps new faculty succeed, but also from my interactions
with hundreds of new and early career faculty members, their mentors,
and their chairs. The following are the top ten things I believe
new faculty members would most like to hear from their chair (or
senior colleagues) as they try to figure out how to live an academic
life-that is, how to teach well, produce fruitful research, earn
tenure, pay attention to a partner and children, lead an examined
life, and make plans for the future.
Getting Started
1) Remember: you are great.
We hired you for a reason-you may think that you somehow faked
your way in here, but my colleagues and I are pretty smart judges
of quality. And, we hired you for success. We make a huge, up front
effort to get talented young faculty and the goal is to have you
succeed. Newcomers, with new energy and ideas, help us improve our
department. You are rising stock, an investment in the future of
the department and institution. Despite your greatness, however,
you aren't expected to figure out everything about this department
and institution on your own. Reach out to all of us in the department.
Ask questions. Ask for help.
2) You don't have to be superman or woman tomorrow.
Or even next month. That superstar older professor who is an outstanding
teacher, has built a daunting research program, and is president
of his professional society did not get there in a year. I'm sure
there are one or two new faculty members who may appear to manage
it all in their first year, but in my experience, such an expectation
is unrealistic. It takes new faculty two or three years to get established;
so, pace yourself for the long run. Things will take off more quickly
than you think.
You might start by setting goals for your first two or three years
and reviewing them with me. You are entitled to your big dreams,
but try to sort them into manageable goals -that you can actually
accomplish-for yourself. Small successes are likely to motivate
you more than struggling to meet an unattainable plan.
Tenure Truisms
3) Figure out what matters.
Every department and college differs in its expectations for research,
teaching and service. And every department and college's requirements
will be vague or contradictory at least sometimes. Here again, don't
try to figure things out on your own. Talk to everyone. Talk to
your department chair and to the dean, but remember that what we
say may be constrained by pressures bearing on us at the moment.
We'll probably be at the helm for some time, but you can't always
guarantee the same administrators will be around when you go up
for tenure. Talk to recently tenured faculty and talk to that respected,
older, straight shooting professor who can give you solid, realistic
advice. Talk with members of the personnel committee to find out
what they think is necessary for a successful case. Better yet,
along the way, try to sit on the department personnel committee
so that you can measure the official version of how things happen
against what happens in practice. Finally, make an app!
ointment to meet with the department chair at least once a year-to
review those manageable goals we talked about earlier as well as
your teaching and research, your annual faculty report, and the
tenure timetable.
4) Decide what doesn't matter.
Everyone works hard. But you're not going to help your career development
if you are working hard on something that does not matter. For example,
we all want and need you to be a good department and campus citizen.
Here is where advice from older heads can help. Someone might relish
your chairing the department space or website committee, but let's
talk about how you can make the best investments in terms of citizenship
in your early years. For example, it's okay to be a bit mercenary
and serve in places that will be of some benefit to you. For example,
being on undergraduate or graduate admissions may garner you excellent
students with whom to work on projects. Being in charge of the departmental
seminar series may help you establish relationships with important
colleagues in your field. Invite them to give a departmental seminar.
Their input about your work will be valuable, and you will be expanding
your network of colleagues beyond our campus. A positive, national
reputa!
tion does not hurt in influencing local tenure decisions.
5) Teaching matters.
In your doctoral program, external funding, journal papers, and
books may have been pretty much all that mattered. But teaching,
especially a commitment to undergraduate students, increasingly
matters a lot in most departments. We know that early career faculty
find great satisfaction in being valued as a teacher and advisor
by students. At the same time, they find it challenging to sustain
satisfaction in teaching if it is ill-defined, poorly evaluated
and undervalued.
We, your senior colleagues, are here to help you figure out where
your teaching is going and why you are taking it there. You may
get off to a great start but even if you falter you will improve
over time. Someone in the teaching and learning center or your dean
or your department chair can introduce you to teachers in and outside
of our department who are committed to teaching and student learning.
They have a range of skills and experiences worth tapping-for making
lectures more effective, facilitating discussion, testing and assigning
grades, and teaching with technology. And you can also sign up for
consultation, seminars, grants and other offerings through the teaching
and learning center on most campuses. Put simply, departments can't
afford faculty who can't teach their way out of a paper bag. So
instead, we subscribe to the "open-bag policy": we regard
teaching as worthy, public, and always developing and evolving.
We'll be talking about and assessing teaching and st!
udent learning all along the way with you.
6) Make a plan.
As you are figuring out 3, 4, and 5, make a plan. Consult with
me (your department chair) about the priorities you set. As you
pursue your plan, here are a few tips.
Play to your strengths. This may seem obvious, but it can get lost.
Think about what you know, what you are comfortable with, and what
you are ready to teach.
Cultivate a specialty that you enjoy and do well (e.g., large classes,
junior year writing) as it will make your teaching more coherent
and enjoyable.
Just as you develop a "big picture" for your teaching,
you also should develop a big picture for your research and service.
Think about the kinds of questions you want to learn more about
and are ready to explore in your research.
Trust that we hired you because we recognize and want to capitalize
on your strengths. Do your thing well.
In a related vein, take a look at your department's planning documents.
Think about how you fit into the scheme of things. How are you helping
to define and complement the department's avowed teaching and research
mission? How will your work help to enhance the department? Finally,
try not to avoid or procrastinate on the important tasks in your
plan-on the things that matter. You should remember though, every
task and every handout does not have to be perfect. For some tasks,
"good enough" is good enough.
Collegiality and Community
7) Think "mentors," plural.
Those who are older are sometimes wise and can give you realistic
and solid advice on a lot of issues. I'll introduce you to one or
two senior faculty members in the department who have volunteered
to meet with you on an ongoing basis. Mentors inside the department
can help you with issues of teaching and scholarship and also on
how to read the culture-who's who, what visions people have. Again,
I also encourage you to reach out to colleagues beyond the department.
There might be someone in the college or at another institution
who can provide some distance from our community, and give you a
broader view of the discipline and academia. Your senior colleagues
are ready to help, but they are as busy as you, so you may have
to seek them out. Stop by our offices, e-mail us, make an appointment
for coffee or lunch. You're not being pushy or needy. You're being
smart.
8) Invite community.
It's the rare department that can unanimously achieve the ideal
in relationship harmony. But most of us want more collegiality.
If you share a sense of excitement about your teaching and scholarship,
it will bring colleagues to you who can contribute to your work.
Invite us to attend one of your classes or to read a manuscript.
Attend departmental colloquia and lectures; spend time in the faculty
lounge. This is a place where we meet to share works in progress,
to talk about our teaching and our students, and to socialize.
Almost everything you encounter, someone else has too. Track down
our successful scholars and teachers and consult with them. And
don't hide your own teaching and scholarship away. Tell us what
you're doing. Reach outside of the department as well-for example,
once again, to our teaching and learning center, our scholarly writing
group for junior faculty, or our community-service learning initiatives.
Of course, don't forget your own students. Be sure to invite their
feedback-they just might be your best teachers.
The Balancing Act
9) Don't work on 15 things equally all at once.
Nothing will ever get done. The good news is that as a new faculty
member, you'll probably get better at juggling multiple roles and
tasks. The bad news is it remains a challenge throughout an academic
career. Over the years, I've picked up a book or two on time management
and thumb back through them at the start of every semester. You're
welcome to borrow them. Something I did in my early career was to
pick one thing that mattered out of all the responsibilities and
tasks I'd outlined. I tried to make sure I was devoting at least
a quarter of my time to that one thing and splitting the other three-fourths
of my time among the 14 other things I had to do. Once that one
thing went "out the door," be it developing a new course
or writing a book chapter, I turned to the next thing that mattered,
so there was always one project getting a good chunk of my time.
It didn't always work, but it was helpful to hold as an ideal plan.
10) Have a life.
Take care of yourself and your life outside of work. Whether the
fatigue is emotional or physical, work can be an effort when you
are too tired to put on a public face, to smile and chat at the
mailboxes, to stand in front of the classroom. So you must take
care of yourself, "fill the tank," whatever that is to
you-working out at the gym, seeing a show, jogging, getting away
from town for a weekend, playing with your kids or someone else's.
If you are drained, you can't be imaginative in the ways your teaching
and research require. If you take care of yourself, you'll have
more time and energy to do what matters and you'll enjoy this job,
despite all the pressures. An academic career reminds me of what
Mark Twain once said of Richard Wagner's music: "It's better
than it sounds." For most of us, an academic career is better
than it sounds. For some of us, it remains the greatest job in the
world.
Conclusion
My advice ends where it began, by focusing on the personal-on what
newcomers, chairs, and senior colleagues can do to improve the quality
of academic life as we now know it. There is no doubt from studies
of new faculty that despite our best personal efforts, systemic
problems remain that prevent faculty, departments, and institutions
from being the best that they can be, especially in the pursuit
of excellence in teaching and student learning. But proactive, individual
actions can build hopes, dreams, and accomplishments. Re-envision
your career and your future in higher education. What is a meaningful
faculty career? What is meaningful faculty work to you? What will
you need to give-and receive-to shape an academic life and workplace
that matters?
References
* Rice, R.E., Sorcinelli, M.D., Austin, A.E. 2000. Heeding New
Voices: Academic Careers for a New Generation. Washington, D.C.:
American Association for Higher Education.
* Sorcinelli, M.D. 2000. Principles of Good Practice: Supporting
Early Career Faculty. Washington, D.C.: American Association of
Higher Education.
Contact:
Mary Deane Sorcinelli
Associate Provost and Director
Center for Teaching
301 Goodell, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003
Phone: (413) 545-1225
Fax: (413) 545-3829
Web: http://www.umass.edu/cft
Note: I gratefully acknowledge suggestions from Dennis Goeckel,
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Jung Yun,
Department of English, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
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