Navigating the pre-tenure years

Lessons learned so far

I am just a couple of days away from starting my second semester as an Assistant Professor, and it seems like a good time to reflect on what I’ve learned so far. First, a brief background. I received a PhD in Ecology and Evolution from Stony Brook University in April 2014. I began a postdoc at the University of Connecticut in June 2013 (yes, there is something wrong with that). And I started as an Assistant Professor at Pace University in Westchester, New York in September 2015. Pace is considered a “National University”, with two campuses where almost 13,000 students attend classes. There is a strong emphasis on undergraduate education, but there are several masters and a few doctorate granting programs. The faculty are expected to have active scholarship/research, but we are not an R1 university. My teaching load is essentially 9 credit hours a semester, provided I’m scholarship active, but the way it gets counted means its unlikely that I, or many other faculty, will have to “prep” three full courses. In short, I teach a lot more than the faculty at Stony Brook or UConn did, but less than many other places. Like many universities, Pace has a fairly traditional tenure system. In my sixth year I will be given a thumbs up or a thumbs down, and proceed one way or another from there. In terms of what I’ll be evaluated on, the simplest way to describe it is 40% scholarship, 40% teaching, and 20% service. In terms of reaching those goals, here’s what I think I’ve learned so far.

I need to schedule time for research and writing – I’ve seen this advice in countless places, and even tried to implement it as a grad student to some degree. For me, it’s vital that I set aside time each day and block it off as if it is a class I have to teach, because …

There are always more meetings to attend – Whether it’s a faculty meeting, a curriculum committee meeting, a student advising meeting, there is always another meeting waiting for me. This is one of the things that surprised me most about becoming faculty, and I think this is partly because Pace is relatively small, and my department is particularly small (four faculty member). If there is a “departmental committee”, we are essentially all involved. Also I’ve attended many meetings offered by the university administration on topics such as syllabus development, grant writing, and advising undergraduates through our core requirements. You might think, “well, I know how to write grants, so why would I go to that meeting?”, but each institution has quirks about how grants get submitted, what overhead is charged on, or how much review they want to do on your budget before submission. I think it’s important to learn the institutional policies to be successful. And to be frank, attending these types of meetings helps people recognize your face.

I’m fueling my research right now, and that’s ok – Research/scholarship is important where ever you are. It keeps you connected with your areas of expertise. It inspires your teaching. And if you’re early career, you need to demonstrate scholarship for tenure, promotions, and staying competitive for other jobs. That said, by the time you have landed a faculty job, you are probably a pretty good independent researcher. I don’t absolutely need students in my lab, so I’m doing my research on my own and with mostly previous collaborators. I was advised to do this from a more experience faculty member, who suggested that I establish my reputation locally and let the lab grow organically. I’m looking forward to mentoring students on research related to my own in the years to come, but for now, the research I’m doing is sans students.

It’s hard to know what expectations to have of your students – In other words, assessment is difficult. Prior to coming to Pace, I’ve never been the “instructor of record” for a course, nor had I designed a full course from scratch. The greatest challenge I’ve had is not in deciding course content, putting together slides decks, or setting up class activities, it’s been in figuring out appropriate ways to assess my students learning. From a purely self-serving perspective, this is important with respect to my tenure package. I need to demonstrate “Teaching Excellence”, which in part means demonstrating adequate assessment – my students shouldn’t all be failing, but they also shouldn’t all be getting A’s. For the spring semester, I’m putting a lot more time into thinking about how to assess my students and trying to come up with objective ways that aren’t simply exams. But for now …

I’m sticking to my syllabus when it comes to assessment – I’ve gotten to the end of the semester. I’ve finished my grading. And my students all far exceeded my expectations. How did I grade them? I followed my syllabus and rubric strictly. Sure, my students received high grades, but I’m comfortable with that because in the end, the syllabus and rubric act as an agreement between me and my students, and it’s my opinion that I shouldn’t change my expectations after the fact. As an early career professor, I’m learning, and next year I’ll have new expectations. I just hope to not swing to far the other direction.

Matt Aiello-Lammens is assistant professor and interim director of the graduate program in Environmental Science at Pace University. He’s currently focusing on quantitative ecology and plant ecology, becoming a better teacher and mentor, and bringing his 15-month-old daughter to beautiful places outside.