One Semester on the Tenure-Track

About a month ago, my daughter and I decided to take a hike in a nearby park. As a ten-year resident of western North Carolina, I may be using the word "hike" very loosely here, but for a nearly three year old, a little walk on a mixed use trail qualifies as a hike. We encountered the little hill in the photo, and I found myself thinking about that hill for days and days. We went back later, at least in part because I wanted to take a picture of the hill.

I don't think my metaphor is that complex or hard to guess. As I drove past this area on my way to work for the next several days, I thought about the slow and steady rise of the tenure track, and this hill somehow became the perfect image for the tenure clock.

Over the next several years, I need to build a solid record in the three basic areas of TT academic life: research, teaching, and service. So in this post, I want to take a look at the slow climb in those three areas.

Research: Prior to the beginning of the semester, I finished both a co-authored chapter for an edited collection and an article revision for a major journal in my field. Over the first couple of weeks, I spent time setting up priorities for the semester, and rather predictably, I seriously overestimated what I could produce in four months. I started another co-authored project that has languished in limbo, mostly because I took on more than I could manage at once. I also started two other article drafts drawn from small slices of my dissertation. Finally, I needed to write two grant proposals. I did in fact write those proposals, and I secured the grants that will enable me to start research for my first monograph next semester. I also made significant headway on one of the articles. From a certain perspective, I suppose this is a reasonable amount of work to complete in the first semester. So I'll cap off this category with this observation: I'm glad to have continued many of the productive habits I developed to complete my PhD, and I'm glad to have gotten some work done in the first semester, but I wanted to get more done. Imposter syndrome? Maybe. Unrealistic expectations? Probably.

Teaching: I teach three courses per semester, and I chose to plan for two preps for each semester for my first year--a pattern I would like to continue for the foreseeable future. Two preps reduces the amount of work required for each course. Of course, since I teach writing, this means I spend a remarkable number of hours responding to student drafts. Coming out of grad school, where I taught at most two courses, I've needed to adjust back to a heavier teaching load. In some ways, this has been a real source of pleasure. As a grad student, my first obligation was to my coursework and my dissertation. Now, teaching is a much higher priority, and since I got a PhD in writing because I love teaching, this is great. I am looking forward to developing new syllabi for existing courses and, even more exciting, proposing new courses for the writing concentration in the English major.

Service: I am something of a rare academic: I like service. This, of course, gets me in trouble. Halfway through my grad program, I adopted this mantra: protect your time. I adopted it. I was never actually good at it. I have learned so much from my time on committees and working in writing program administration, things I would not have had the chance to learn if I was better at saying no. I am fortunate to be in a department where tenured faculty members will whisper, "Be careful," when I agree to another service obligation. I also serve at the national level, which is a tremendous privilege and pleasure. All told, I took on several service obligations, and I am learning to be careful not to take on more. This will be especially important starting next July, when I become a WPA.

At the end of my first semester, I'm struck by my deeply felt sense that I have done absolutely nothing this semester. I've learned a great deal about my new institution, I've managed to give a healthy amount of attention to my research, and I've maintained a healthy distinction between work life and home life. I suppose as far as the first semester on the tenure track goes, that really is just about the best I could ask for. After all, working toward tenure is a gradual upward hike. The marathon pace of the PhD is behind me, so while the tenure clock keeps ticking (tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock), it's crucial to discover acceptable rhythms and, most important of all, to forgive myself when I don't meet every goal I set for myself.

When I lived in the mountains, I hiked some pretty tough, steep trails. But I only hiked for four or five hours at a time. This hill isn't that steep, but I'm going to be climbing it for years.