A timetable for your tenure journey (opinion)

For many people, landing a tenure-track position is the culmination of years of work as a doctoral student. Gaining tenure itself has, of course, many benefits: a pay raise, the promise of further employment in the field and more autonomy and academic freedom. But successfully navigating the tenure process can be a challenge, as tenure has significantly decreased at institutions across the nation. In fact, as many as 75 percent of faculty positions are not tenured today.

If you are on the tenure track, what can you do to increase your odds of actually gaining tenure in this environment? While it varies somewhat by institution, we’d like to share a timeline of the steps we took that helped us successfully complete the process. Even though we both completed the tenure and promotion process at a teaching institution, we believe our advice is relevant to anyone on or thinking about the tenure track.

• First year. You need to do three key things. For starters, you should collect the documents that describe the tenure process and expectations for earning tenure at your institution. Those documents can be your contract; tenure and promotion guidelines from your department, college and university; sample tenure and promotion files; and any rubrics that apply for gaining tenure at your institution. Institutional guidelines will help you determine what counts for teaching or librarianship, scholarship, and service, and the formal requirements for each.

For example, scholarship requirements differ by institution—and sometimes by departments within the same institution—when it comes to the number and type of peer-reviewed publications that count as examples of acceptable scholarship. This information is especially important to know, as often publishing cycles can be long and completing quality research takes time.

In our case, these documents also provided information on who would be on our tenure-review committee as well as what software we were required to use throughout the process. If you must use certain types of software, make sure to talk to colleagues about any specific features or quirks within the system.

The second thing you should do in your first year is to determine how to organize evidence of your scholarly growth. Also, establish a schedule of work time to complete various tasks toward gaining tenure. The years-long process of collecting and curating evidence demonstrates you are doing what is required of your tenure-track position and doing it well.

During your first couple of months on the tenure track, ask for and review the dossiers that colleagues have submitted. That will allow you to see what a successful one looks like, as well as what expectations your department, college and university have. In fact, consider reviewing dossiers at least once a year to ensure that you are gathering the right evidence for your own file.

In our cases, we kept copies of key emails by printing them or saving them to a folder. We also made a point of regularly scheduling time each month to curate and collect evidence, input data into institutional software, and update our CVs.

We also realized that working on our materials and holding meetings with colleagues about the tenure process should be part of our normal work habits. Tenure and promotion should not be an extra task that is conducted off the clock. Instead, dedicate a couple of hours in your working week to curate data, update records and build evidence for your tenure dossier.

In addition, put a note on your calendar for when you are expected to apply for tenure—your initial appointment letter should give you an indication of when you are eligible. Bear in mind, some institutions’ tenure processes are based on calendar years and others on academic years.

The third thing you should do is to determine the level of support that you’ll receive as you navigate the process. Does your department or college offer some form of mentor support, formal or informal? Does it provide release time for you to work on your tenure dossier? Can you receive extra professional development or travel funds? Also, do you need to advocate to receive support or resources, or are they automatically granted to you? How long does the support last? To get the answers to such questions, talk with your colleagues and supervisor, explore your provost or chief academic officer’s webpage, review faculty senate documents and/or reach out to your union if your institution has one.

• Second through fourth year. These are the years when you should focus on gathering data and planning activities that help you to meet your tenure requirements. We advise you to strategically plan what conferences, professional development activities and areas of service you want to volunteer for to best meet your requirements. It can be easy to say yes to too many things, and managing your time will help you create a better work-life balance.

We also recommend using your two-year review as an opportunity to discuss your progress toward tenure and promotion with your supervisor. For example, do you need to grow in certain areas, or are you focusing too much on one? Start networking with colleagues inside and outside your institution, as you may need people to write letters of support, depending on what your institution’s requirements are. Also, keep asking colleagues about their experiences, reading other tenure dossiers and raising questions.

• Final (or fifth) year. Nine to twelve months before your tenure application due date, you should create a timeline of what you need to accomplish. Below is a sample nine-month timeline that you can modify based on your institution’s requirements and your specific needs.
  • First month. Identify your cohort members or a fellow tenure partner with whom you can work on your dossiers. This helps you be accountable, encourages reflection and provides general social-emotional support during the process. It also allows you to develop an interdisciplinary, cross-campus understanding of each other’s roles, particularly if you aren’t in the same department or college.
    • Schedule a time and space to meet that isn’t in either of your offices—it will help you focus on what you need to do that day that’s specifically for gaining tenure. Review all the institutional documents you gathered in your first year, and verify that you have the latest versions. If you have questions about information in them, reach out for answers. Create a timeline for yourself based on those documents and your established work habits, so that you meet and follow the process.
  • Second month. You should now begin organizing the evidence you’ve collected, beginning in your first year. Ensure that your activities are documented in any required software. In addition, if you are using mandatory software for your dossier, run a report to see how the report pulls the information and how many pages it is—which is especially important if you have limits on its length.
    • Last, talk with your direct supervisor—your chair or dean—about applying for tenure and promotion. During that discussion, gauge their belief in your ability to be successful in the process. This is also a suitable time to see if they recommend a category or categories for you to focus your application on—teaching or librarianship, scholarship, or service—and if they have any other general recommendations.
  • Third month. Request letters of support, and be strategic about it. Ask people who can speak to the category you plan to focus on. For example, get students to write letters to support your teaching, or identify faculty members who know your scholarship. Provide each author context for what you would like them to highlight.
    • Remember, you can ask for letters and acknowledgment of your work throughout your tenure process and later add these to your dossier. As always, make sure to follow the official and informal policies of your institution regarding internal and external letters.
  • Fourth and fifth months. Begin drafting your narratives for your dossier. They provide a summary and context about the data generated by the software and explain why the institution should want to keep you. In these months, you should also continue to collect and organize your supplemental evidence, including following up with any supporting letters requests. You will need supplemental evidence to support what you write in your narratives.
  • Sixth month. Determine a cutoff date for adding more evidence of your work in the report, as this should be near the end of the semester. In this month, you are compiling everything you need for your dossier—verifying you have your letters of support, creating your appendices structure, organizing your supplemental evidence and so on.
  • Seventh month. Continue to edit and revise your narratives and add any supplemental material you need. Depending on your institution, you may be able to ask a departmental member, writing center and/or faculty support center to review and provide feedback on your entire dossier.
  • Eighth and ninth months. Finalize the narrative portion of the report, including any revisions for content or formatting. Once you’ve turned it in, you may or may not be able to make any changes, depending on your institution’s guidelines. Finally, submit your entire dossier on time, and in compliance with your institution’s procedures.

You’ve done it—from the collection of evidence to writing the narratives to organizing supplemental evidence. Hopefully, using our advice, the process did not feel too overwhelming. Definitely, take time to relax and celebrate your work, growth and achievement demonstrated in your submission.

Then start planning for your next promotion dossier.