Editor's note: This is the next in a series of columns in which two assistant professors of education, Drew Kemp and Susan Edwards, write about moving toward tenure in their second tenure-track jobs. Meanwhile, the department chair who hired them at Augusta State University, Judi H. Wilson, offers her perspective on integrating new but experienced faculty members.
Susan Edwards: As I progress on the road to tenure, I have a couple questions related to service that are on my mind. Service is the third leg of the tenure stool, with research and teaching the other two legs. In many ways, the expectations about service are the most amorphous. Perhaps junior faculty members at other institutions are grappling with the same questions I have.
First, I wonder: How do I make my service contributions meaningful, connected, and related to a higher purpose? I often feel as if I am in a pinball machine, bouncing between student issues, e-mails, meetings, and committee work. I am an organized person and generally good with time management, but I have been unable to manage the onslaught of messages, meetings, and appointments. It is constant.
I have selected my service work carefully. Given a choice of committee assignments, I tried to pick ones that would overlap with my research and other duties. That strategy somehow seems feeble at this point as I try to dig my way out of the e-mail pit.
It seems obvious that the goals of your institution should align with your career goals. In academe we like to refer to that alignment as a "good fit," and I believe I am a good fit with my current position. But sometimes there is a tension between your own professional interests and the demands of your department and university. I understand that some departmental business just needs to get done; it's not going to be glamorous or involve noble ideas. But I want the majority of the time and energy I put into service to have a purpose. I hope to keep the mundane service tasks that I must do from choking out the noble ones.
My second question: How do you say no to opportunities that you have neither interest nor expertise in, and still be perceived as a valuable team player? No assistant professor wants the label of department slacker, but I want to make sure I protect my time so that I am able to accomplish the service I really want to do, and do it well.
I have heard rumors of departments (surely they are fictional) where senior professors dump unwanted work on junior scholars who must pay their dues as they seek tenure. Fortunately that is not the climate in my department. However, I do have many opportunities to do more work placed in front of me on a daily basis. Is there a limit to how many of those opportunities I can graciously decline?
One of the best aspects of working in academe is that you have a considerable amount of autonomy to decide what you want to do. The service portion of the faculty workload is, for the most part, within my control, and I hope that I will develop the ability to control where my time goes.
Judi H. Wilson: Service happens automatically at most institutions. New hires are assigned to committee work sometimes before they even arrive on the campus. The key is to get yourself assigned to committees you enjoy and are best suited for.
That doesn't happen naturally; you must be assertive and communicate with your chair. A good time to broach the subject is at the time of your annual evaluation conference. We all know that people work more effectively when they are serving in their "wheel house." You were hired by your institution because of your unique education, experiences, and passions. If you notice committees that fit you well, you need to speak up. If you fail to ask, you will never receive.
Service should be an extension of your personal passions, interests, experience, and education. Whenever possible, it should flow naturally from your discipline. Service can be overwhelming, and it can quickly become all-consuming. Again, communicating with your chair is essential in balancing those duties. Several years ago, I was assigned to serve on eight major committees. I went to my chair to see if anything could be done because we had several people in the department who had not been assigned to any committee work. He worked with me to negotiate my assignment down to a few of the committees. We had a strong working relationship, and he knew I wasn't a "whiner"; I was just concerned about serving well in so many areas.
When you sit on a committee, remember you are representing your department and your college—not yourself. Be careful to represent their interests before you take a personal stand. If you're in doubt about the departmental consensus on an issue, you need to ask your colleagues' opinion. Tell them about the deliberations and/or decisions.
Remember, the people you are serving alongside on a committee may someday be voting on your future promotion and tenure. They also have strong connections across the campus, so it is important to think before you speak.
Take your committee work seriously. Get to know other committee members. Be on time for every meeting, come prepared, and contribute. People do notice if you are not pulling your weight, and you will gain a "slacker" reputation quickly. Understand that your actions on the committee will have consequences and may often be discussed for years to come. Be willing to help expedite the work of the committee. Always be a team player.
Committee work is a powerful method of gaining visibility, name recognition, and respect across the campus. It is especially helpful if you can develop a method of producing scholarship through service work. That sometimes requires creativity, but it is always a wise investment of your time.
Drew Kemp: This year I am due for my pre-tenure review. Before you get stressed on my behalf, let me reassure you: I have done this before. At my previous institution, I went through a pre-tenure review. I get to do it again because of my mid-tenure-track move to Augusta State. The process has allowed me to become much more intimately aware of the relationship among teaching, research, and service.
Research and teaching have always been thoroughly discussed because of their fundamental place at the core of the profession, while service typically generates the least concern. However, I would argue that service is, while sometimes rewarding, actually the most time-consuming, the most frustrating, and perhaps the most useful one of the troika.
Using the customary logic of "if a is b, and b is c, then a is c," I wonder if a similar construction can make the case for service being ultimately the most important element of the tenure process: (a) To be successful at the service component of academic work, (b) a faculty member must be well rounded, and being so is (c) the most important part of achieving tenure. Therefore, being successful in your service duties is the most important part of achieving tenure. (Of course, the caveat here is that this would apply only at institutions that value all three aspects of faculty work, and not at research universities where scholarship far outweighs the importance of teaching or service.)
Tenure candidates must consider both formal (committees) and informal (peers) service in their dossiers. Formal service is the easiest because typically it is assigned, it is known, and it is required. However, I think it is important to go beyond the required to be successful, and being successful at your assigned duties is a given. A big part of the tenure-track process is also being known. Working across the campus can do just that. As far as informal service goes, it is vital to record work that you do in the department such as course design, creating writing groups with peers, teaching with colleagues, and the litany of other things that show you are not an island.
All of that obviously leads you to being well rounded. Successful service is a multidimensional duty that requires a faculty member both to lead and to follow, to create and to apply, to be bold and to be humble. There isn't another part of the profession that demands so much of the individual. Being able to multitask, multithink, and multiperform is the foundation of being well rounded.
Finally, I doubt that there would be much argument that being well rounded is the most important part of success in the tenure-track process. Even at a high-profile research university, skipping any of the triumvirate entirely could spell disaster. I think many in the profession want to be seen as successful at all three.
If my brief and overly simplified defense of these propositions is reasonable, it makes sense that the service component of the tenure-track process gives academics the skills to be well rounded—i.e., the key to gaining tenure.
It is only after a year at my new university that I have learned that while service is often seen as an afterthought, it has a central role to play. Service has allowed me to become more aware of the university, my colleagues, and the process of getting to know a university.
