ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR ADVANCEMENT Spring 2016 Workshop

Promotion Basics  WHEN? Minimum time frame to promotion is normally four (4) years in rank at associate, but exceptions considered upon application.  HOW? Performance review process essentially similar to tenure review, including preparation of a WPAF with Personnel Data Summary, One of a Kind File of five (5) significant items in teaching effectiveness, professional growth, and service, student evaluations, and evaluation letters since last promotion or appointment.  WHO can help? Complete information available at fa.sdsu.edu, plus chairs and college RTP representatives

The 2016 Associate Professor Survey  Faculty Advancement surveyed faculty in rank at associate more than seven (7) years  71% said they had a plan for promotion.  When asked if how well they understood expectations for promotion, 69% rated themselves 4 or higher (on a scale of 1 to 5).  When asked if they had been adequately mentored by senior colleagues, 18% rated their mentoring 3 or higher (on a scale of 1 to 5).

The 2016 Associate Professor Survey When asked to identify the most significant obstacles to promotion:  Time demands: service to department (70%)  Time demands: teaching load (58%)  Insufficient travel and research funding (51%)  Time demands: service to the university (48%)  Health or family issues (43%)  Stalled or shifted research agenda (38%)  Insufficient mentoring (31%)

The 2016 Associate Professor Survey  “I have a stronger sense of obligation to the needs of my students than I do to the needs of my promotion. Consequently, more time and effort is put into helping them achieve their goals. Many senior faculty in my department would not be effective mentors. Yes, they have achieved promotion to full, but I don't respect their commitment to SDSU. They are interested in self- serving choices. It has served them well to get promoted, but has not served our students well.”

The 2016 Associate Professor Survey  “A lower teaching load coupled with less service demands (less students) is key. Speaking to full professors, department chairs, and deans about how to support associate professors advance would also be helpful - for example, they can ask us to do less service work/join less committees and help create a teaching-friendly schedule (such as not ask us to create a new class or teach a class we haven't taught in a long time, not up our student enrollments so we can focus our efforts on less students in our classes...)”

Survey Follow-up  Results just in and to be reviewed by Faculty Affairs committees and Recruitment and Retention of Underrepresented Faculty working group  Clear message: more support needed for faculty advancement at all ranks  Plan for addressing key concerns to be developed next year  In the meantime, what can faculty seeking promotion focus on?

Five Most Important Things To Do Now 1.Clarify expectations for promotion Do not allow others to define standards for you: research and prepare to make your best case Get copies of Senate Policy File criteria and any department or college policies Talk to your chair, associate dean, and senior colleagues Talk to your peer cohort Ask to see the “box” or WPAF of a recently promoted colleague. Talk to colleagues at other universities to get a sense of benchmarks in your field Let’s close read the criteria!

Five Most Important Things To Do Now 2. Make a five year plan and keep it in an accessible place Set goals for hitting benchmarks in teaching effectiveness, professional growth, and service Work backwards from five-year mark, factoring in funding, grant and peer review timeframes, and time to publication Consider hierarchies of value in your discipline including genre (eg. conference paper v. article), co-authorship, venue prestige, and impact Look for ways to align teaching and research efforts

Five Most Important Things To Do Now 3. Build non-negotiable time to check in with your plan every week, even fifteen minutes 4. Build a cohort / accountability group and schedule regular meetings 5. Share your plan with your chair and senior colleagues and discuss baseline expectations for teaching and service

Additional tips Promotion to professor is awarded based on work accomplished since your last promotion. Do not include significant items that date from before your last promotion. On your c.v., draw a line at the point of your last promotion to distinguish work accomplished since then. In preparing your c.v., be sure to list all works in progress, regardless of stage (under preparation, under submission, in press). Only works listed on the c.v. are eligible for late add, and listing all works in progress allows the committee to see evidence of a “continuous pattern of professional growth.” If you can find a way to incorporate relevant, field-valued metrics of impact in the c.v. without overburdening the document, do so. Setbacks and lapses happen in every career. Don’t let them deter you from applying for full. Address them and provide context in your candidate’s statement.

The UPTRP: Perspectives  Overall process of the UPTRP’s deliberations  What makes a successful file?  What do committees look for?  How do committees read files?  What are some stumbling blocks to a successful career?  How do you explain your work to people who don’t know your area?  Is the process fair?  Late-Adds

Panel of Recently Promoted Faculty How did you understand expectations? How did you carve out time? How did you manage service demands?