Making The Case for Tenure

A pre-GSA Workshop for Early Career Faculty

Saturday, October 27, 2007, in the Colorado Convention Center, Room 608

Note: this workshop was held in 2007.

Join us for a half-day workshop focused on selected topics related to building a case for tenure and preparing a tenure package. Participants should be in a tenure track (or equivalent) position in a two-year or four-year college or university at the time of the workshop. Lunch will be provided. Participation will be limited to the first 30 applicants. You can join us either for the whole workshop (starting at noon), or at the beginning at each of the subsequent sessions (1:30 PM and 3 PM; see program schedule for details.

Workshop goals for participants:

Evaluate the quality of selected teaching activities/assignments, discuss how they might be improved, and consider how they can be used as evidence of teaching excellence for tenure application
Analyze example components of successful tenure packages from a range of institutions to identify features and strategies useful in making the case for tenure
Discuss topics of high interest to registered workshop participants
Leave with ideas and strategies for building your tenure case and a support network of other early career faculty

Program:

12:00 —1:15 Introductions, lunch & discussion
1:30—2:45 Analyzing Your Teaching

In this session, participants will review teaching activities and discuss how they could be used as evidence of excellent teaching. In particular, we will compare these activities to what research on learning tells us about effective teaching.

2:45—3:00 BREAK
3:00—4:30 The Tenure Package

In this session, participants will examine excerpts from tenure packages from a range of academic institutions to develop a better understanding of them. Participants will analyze these examples to identify features of successful tenure packages and the strategies used to make persuasive arguments for tenure and to address apparent weaknesses.

4:30—4:45 Closing Remarks

Cost:

The cost of this workshop (including lunch) is $20.

Conveners:

Heather Macdonald, Department of Geology, College of William & Mary
Kristen St. John, Department of Geology and Environmental Science, James Madison University

This workshop is part of the On the Cutting Edge professional development program for current and future geoscience faculty, sponsored by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers with funding provided by a grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Undergraduate Education.