Advice for Tenure Track Faculty on the Process of Tenure and Promotion
Going up for tenure or promotion “can feel like an awkward process,” said Provost Alec Gallimore. His first piece of advice was simply to take a deep breath. Reassuring the audience of tenure track faculty members at a Duke Faculty Advancement workshop, Gallimore told them that “you would not be here if we didn’t have 100% satisfaction that you have the wherewithal to be able to get to through this process.”
Excerpts From the Discussion
Provide context and make your dossier broadly accessible
“When you are writing your content in your dossier, when you’re writing your intellectual statement, when you’re choosing your top ten papers, always give us the context.” –Terrie Moffitt, Nannerl O. Keohane University Distinguished Professor of Psychology
“Be really clear in annotating all aspects of your dossier. Say, I have put this as rank #2 because...” –Abbas Benmamoun, Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement
“[In] the synopsis for intellectual interest, try to let your hair down. You should be handing it to family members and friends that are not in the academic realm and see if they can [end up] thinking what you do matters a lot.” –Aaron Franklin, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs in the Pratt School of Engineering
Spell out your contributions
“It’s really important to be clear, if you are in a collaborative field, about the nature of your participation in collaborations. How much effort in the collaborations is yours?” –Jennifer Nash, Jean Fox O’Barr Women’s Studies Distinguished Professor of Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies
Describe your teaching and mentoring impact
“Teaching is really, really important. It’s why we’re here versus a National Lab. And teaching comprises both in-classroom teaching but also the mentoring of students. We look at those things very carefully.” –Alec Gallimore, Provost
Be strategic about choosing service opportunities
“Identify things of interest in the service world and actually volunteer for service that makes an impact, that allows you to develop new skills and to meet interesting people. Service can be a really important strategic tool.” –Alec Gallimore
Follow up on advice
“I think that [the third-year review] is the most important document you receive as a junior faculty. It’s really important to sit down with your chair and go through it on multiple occasions, because that review will travel with your dossier and we will look at it and say, did you respond to the advice that you were given?” –Jennifer Nash
Continually update your CV
“On the promotion to full side, one thing in Pratt we’ve started to do is when a faculty member raises the interest, the first step is we ask them to provide an updated CV where they’ve highlighted everything that’s new since they were tenured.” –Aaron Franklin
Resources
- School and departmental promotion guidelines
- Faculty Affairs guidance on appointment, promotion and tenure
- Faculty Handbook Appendix E: Schools’ Appointment, Promotion, Tenure and Other Procedures
- Office for Faculty Advancement
- NCFDD institutional membership and Faculty Success Program