Portfolio Preparation: Faculty Experience Amy Kaleita Professor & Associate Chair for Teaching Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering

You don’t get promoted because your packet is excellent. First things first. You don’t get promoted because your packet is excellent.

Faculty Handbook on Rank

Faculty Handbook on Rank The CV establishes your record. External reviewers also evaluate your reputation. Faculty Handbook on Rank

Faculty Handbook on Rank The CV provides the data about your trajectory. The portfolio describes and illustrates that data in context. Faculty Handbook on Rank

Faculty Handbook on Rank The CV provides the details on the evidence of scholarship. The portfolio helps the reader understand its excellence.

Faculty Handbook on Rank Contribution implies value to the community. Portfolio describes that value and impact.

Faculty Handbook on Rank Potential means that we extrapolate from the past & present into the future. Make sure the trajectory is clear. Potential also means you aren’t done yet.

Faculty Handbook on Rank Effectiveness is about impact, not just execution. CV lists your executed work. Portfolio describes the impact of your work.

Faculty Handbook on Rank Satisfactory service is that which adds some value to the institution. List service in the CV. Explain that value in the portfolio.

Faculty Handbook on Rank All in the interpretation! Portfolio must explain how your contributions are of appropriate magnitude and quality. CV lists the contributions. Porfolio describes the value. Positive & sustainable trajectory

How to think of the portfolio The “cover letter” to your CV The discussion group to the Cliff’s Notes The “lecture” to the handbook CV contains the record of accomplishments and facts The portfolio provides the context; interprets the evidence; describes the trajectory.

How to prepare? Literature review! Provost’s Office has many examples. What has been successfully done before? Find examples from people with different types of contributions, thus see a range of ways to document impact Get a sense of “standards of practice”. Some common (sometimes mandated)* ones: In your CV, list not only each publication, but also give short statements about your role, and the impact of the paper. Include impact factors for journals, to indicate you are publishing in outlets that people read and cite. Use other journal metrics as needed. Graphics that clearly illustrate trajectory (of publications, of grants received, of students graduated) Literature review! Provost’s Office has many examples. Talk to experienced colleagues! Document all the things! Then you have max flexibility in how you tell your story. * Check out the College’s P&T Templates. But not too fastidiously too early.

The CV provides the data; the portfolio provides the interpretation and explanation. In each area of your PRS, have an obvious underlying message, e.g., In teaching, I help my students learn, and I respond to feedback to improve. In extension, I enhance stakeholder knowledge that results in changes in practice. In research, my contributions have impact, and I am continuing to build that impact. In service, I am a contributing participant in a few meaningful service activities. How to prepare? Determine the main messages you want to convey. Decide on the best way to illustrate your messages the most clearly (tables & figs are powerful, then interpret them in the narrative). Craft the portfolio to drive those messages home. Be honest, but this is not the time for modesty.

Examples – illustrations & thought process

Example: List of pubs (CV) Novelty; cross-disciplinary application Application & impact

Example: Journal interpretations (portfolio) Some of the outlets I publish in have a particularly low impact factor for my area - but a long half-life! That’s why I included the second metric. Example: Journal interpretations (portfolio)

Example: Cumulative publication chart (portfolio) Trajectory

Example: Cumulative funding (portfolio) Is this “enough”? It mostly needs to be enough to support making “contributions of appropriate magnitude and quality” and needs to show signs of being sustainable. The numbers don’t matter as much as the impact and the trajectory Is there a trajectory here? It’s not clear. The narrative has to provide all the rest of the context to be convincing that yes, there is.

Example: Cumulative funding (portfolio) The numbers don’t matter as much as the impact and the trajectory Are you looking at this relatively flat period? Evaluators will too. My portfolio included a meaningful reflection of what was happening here.

Example: Teaching Evaluation Snapshot (Portfolio) All this white space seems like a waste, but the point I wanted to make was: look how high the numbers.

Example: Tabulated scholarly contributions (portfolio) Organizes the context

Final thoughts Start storyboarding early Find and use mentors to help you! Seek out ways to quantify and document your impact Give yourself zero tolerance for sloppiness in the final product Take feedback seriously, and find or make opportunities to get it