TBers, 

The posting below gives some excellent advice for beginning professors on
how to balance work and family life. It is by Mary Deane Sorcinelli ,
University of Massachusetts, and is number 22 in a series of selected
excerpts from the National Teaching and Learning Forum. NT&LF has a wealth
of information on all aspects of teaching and learning. If you are not
already a subscriber, you can check it out at [http://www.ntlf.com/] The
on-line edition of the Forum--like the printed version - offers subscribers
insight from colleagues eager to share new ways of helping students reach
the  highest levels of learning. National Teaching and Learning Forum
Newsletter, March, 2004, Volume 11, Number 3, © Copyright 1996-2004.
Published by James Rhem & Associates, Inc. (ISSN 1057-2880) All rights
reserved worldwide. Reprinted with permission.



    THE TOP TEN THINGS NEW FACULTY WOULD LIKE TO HEAR FROM COLLEAGUES

Mary Deane Sorcinelli
University of Massachusetts

When we seasoned faculty look back at the early years of our careers in
academia, what advice do we wish we had received as we started out? What
issues do new faculty struggle with today  and what kind of guidance might
we offer them? More than a decade of research has identified three core,
consistent and interwoven concerns that affect early career faculty as they
navigate their way through the first years. New faculty want

*  a more comprehensible tenure system,
*  a stronger sense of community, and
*  a balanced and integrated life.

Studies also show that senior colleagues and department chairs can play an
important role in creating the kind of academic environment that supports
the success of early career faculty (Rice, Sorcinelli & Austin, 2000;
Sorcinelli, 2000).

As an antidote to the triple threat of evaluation, isolation, and overwork,
I'd like to offer some advice drawn not only from research on what helps new
faculty succeed, but also from my interactions with hundreds of new and
early career faculty members, their mentors, and their chairs. The following
are the top ten things I believe new faculty members would most like to hear
from their chair (or senior colleagues) as they try to figure out how to
live an academic life-that is, how to teach well, produce fruitful research,
earn tenure, pay attention to a partner and children, lead an examined life,
and make plans for the future.

                Getting Started

1) Remember: you are great.

We hired you for a reason-you may think that you somehow faked your way in
here, but my colleagues and I are pretty smart judges of quality. And, we
hired you for success. We make a huge, up front effort to get talented young
faculty and the goal is to have you succeed. Newcomers, with new energy and
ideas, help us improve our department. You are rising stock, an investment
in the future of the department and institution. Despite your greatness,
however, you aren't expected to figure out everything about this department
and institution on your own. Reach out to all of us in the department. Ask
questions. Ask for help.

2) You don't have to be superman or woman tomorrow.

Or even next month. That superstar older professor who is an outstanding
teacher, has built a daunting research program, and is president of his
professional society did not get there in a year. I'm sure there are one or
two new faculty members who may appear to manage it all in their first year,
but in my experience, such an expectation is unrealistic. It takes new
faculty two or three years to get established; so, pace yourself for the
long run. Things will take off more quickly than you think.

You might start by setting goals for your first two or three years and
reviewing them with me. You are entitled to your big dreams, but try to sort
them into manageable goals -that you can actually accomplish-for yourself.
Small successes are likely to motivate you more than struggling to meet an
unattainable plan.

                Tenure Truisms

3) Figure out what matters.

Every department and college differs in its expectations for research,
teaching and service. And every department and college's requirements will
be vague or contradictory at least sometimes. Here again, don't try to
figure things out on your own. Talk to everyone. Talk to your department
chair and to the dean, but remember that what we say may be constrained by
pressures bearing on us at the moment. We'll probably be at the helm for
some time, but you can't always guarantee the same administrators will be
around when you go up for tenure. Talk to recently tenured faculty and talk
to that respected, older, straight shooting professor who can give you
solid, realistic advice. Talk with members of the personnel committee to
find out what they think is necessary for a successful case. Better yet,
along the way, try to sit on the department personnel committee so that you
can measure the official version of how things happen against what happens
in practice. Finally, make an appointment to meet with the department chair
at least once a year-to review those manageable goals we talked about
earlier as well as your teaching and research, your annual faculty report,
and the tenure timetable.

4) Decide what doesn't matter.

Everyone works hard. But you're not going to help your career development if
you are working hard on something that does not matter. For example, we all
want and need you to be a good department and campus citizen. Here is where
advice from older heads can help. Someone might relish your chairing the
department space or website committee, but let's talk about how you can make
the best investments in terms of citizenship in your early years. For
example, it's okay to be a bit mercenary and serve in places that will be of
some benefit to you. For example, being on undergraduate or graduate
admissions may garner you excellent students with whom to work on projects.
Being in charge of the departmental seminar series may help you establish
relationships with important colleagues in your field. Invite them to give a
departmental seminar. Their input about your work will be valuable, and you
will be expanding your network of colleagues beyond our campus. A positive,
national reputation does not hurt in influencing local tenure decisions.

5) Teaching matters.

In your doctoral program, external funding, journal papers, and books may
have been pretty much all that mattered. But teaching, especially a
commitment to undergraduate students, increasingly matters a lot in most
departments. We know that early career faculty find great satisfaction in
being valued as a teacher and advisor by students. At the same time, they
find it challenging to sustain satisfaction in teaching if it is
ill-defined, poorly evaluated and undervalued.

We, your senior colleagues, are here to help you figure out where your
teaching is going and why you are taking it there. You may get off to a
great start but even if you falter you will improve over time. Someone in
the teaching and learning center or your dean or your department chair can
introduce you to teachers in and outside of our department who are committed
to teaching and student learning. They have a range of skills and
experiences worth tapping-for making lectures more effective, facilitating
discussion, testing and assigning grades, and teaching with technology. And
you can also sign up for consultation, seminars, grants and other offerings
through the teaching and learning center on most campuses. Put simply,
departments can't afford faculty who can't teach their way out of a paper
bag. So instead, we subscribe to the "open-bag policy": we regard teaching
as worthy, public, and always developing and evolving. We'll be talking
about and assessing teaching and student learning all along the way with
you.

6) Make a plan.

As you are figuring out 3, 4, and 5, make a plan. Consult with me (your
department chair) about the priorities you set. As you pursue your plan,
here are a few tips.

Play to your strengths. This may seem obvious, but it can get lost. Think
about what you know, what you are comfortable with, and what you are ready
to teach.

Cultivate a specialty that you enjoy and do well (e.g., large classes,
junior year writing) as it will make your teaching more coherent and
enjoyable.

Just as you develop a "big picture" for your teaching, you also should
develop a big picture for your research and service. Think about the kinds
of questions you want to learn more about and are ready to explore in your
research.

Trust that we hired you because we recognize and want to capitalize on your
strengths. Do your thing well.

In a related vein, take a look at your department's planning documents.
Think about how you fit into the scheme of things. How are you helping to
define and complement the department's avowed teaching and research mission?
How will your work help to enhance the department? Finally, try not to avoid
or procrastinate on the important tasks in your plan-on the things that
matter. You should remember though, every task and every handout does not
have to be perfect. For some tasks, "good enough" is good enough.

                 Collegiality and Community

7) Think "mentors," plural.

Those who are older are sometimes wise and can give you realistic and solid
advice on a lot of issues. I'll introduce you to one or two senior faculty
members in the department who have volunteered to meet with you on an
ongoing basis. Mentors inside the department can help you with issues of
teaching and scholarship and also on how to read the culture-who's who, what
visions people have. Again, I also encourage you to reach out to colleagues
beyond the department. There might be someone in the college or at another
institution who can provide some distance from our community, and give you a
broader view of the discipline and academia. Your senior colleagues are
ready to help, but they are as busy as you, so you may have to seek them
out. Stop by our offices, e-mail us, make an appointment for coffee or
lunch. You're not being pushy or needy. You're being smart.

8) Invite community.

It's the rare department that can unanimously achieve the ideal in
relationship harmony. But most of us want more collegiality. If you share a
sense of excitement about your teaching and scholarship, it will bring
colleagues to you who can contribute to your work. Invite us to attend one
of your classes or to read a manuscript. Attend departmental colloquia and
lectures; spend time in the faculty lounge. This is a place where we meet to
share works in progress, to talk about our teaching and our students, and to
socialize.

Almost everything you encounter, someone else has too. Track down our
successful scholars and teachers and consult with them. And don't hide your
own teaching and scholarship away. Tell us what you're doing. Reach outside
of the department as well-for example, once again, to our teaching and
learning center, our scholarly writing group for junior faculty, or our
community-service learning initiatives. Of course, don't forget your own
students. Be sure to invite their feedback-they just might be your best
teachers.

                       The Balancing Act

9) Don't work on 15 things equally all at once.

Nothing will ever get done. The good news is that as a new faculty member,
you'll probably get better at juggling multiple roles and tasks. The bad
news is it remains a challenge throughout an academic career. Over the
years, I've picked up a book or two on time management and thumb back
through them at the start of every semester. You're welcome to borrow them.
Something I did in my early career was to pick one thing that mattered out
of all the responsibilities and tasks I'd outlined. I tried to make sure I
was devoting at least a quarter of my time to that one thing and splitting
the other three-fourths of my time among the 14 other things I had to do.
Once that one thing went "out the door," be it developing a new course or
writing a book chapter, I turned to the next thing that mattered, so there
was always one project getting a good chunk of my time. It didn't always
work, but it was helpful to hold as an ideal plan.

10) Have a life.

Take care of yourself and your life outside of work. Whether the fatigue is
emotional or physical, work can be an effort when you are too tired to put
on a public face, to smile and chat at the mailboxes, to stand in front of
the classroom. So you must take care of yourself, "fill the tank," whatever
that is to you-working out at the gym, seeing a show, jogging, getting away
from town for a weekend, playing with your kids or someone else's. If you
are drained, you can't be imaginative in the ways your teaching and research
require. If you take care of yourself, you'll have more time and energy to
do what matters and you'll enjoy this job, despite all the pressures. An
academic career reminds me of what Mark Twain once said of Richard Wagner's
music: "It's better than it sounds." For most of us, an academic career is
better than it sounds. For some of us, it remains the greatest job in the
world.

                Conclusion

My advice ends where it began, by focusing on the personal-on what
newcomers, chairs, and senior colleagues can do to improve the quality of
academic life as we now know it. There is no doubt from studies of new
faculty that despite our best personal efforts, systemic problems remain
that prevent faculty, departments, and institutions from being the best that
they can be, especially in the pursuit of excellence in teaching and student
learning. But proactive, individual actions can build hopes, dreams, and
accomplishments. Re-envision your career and your future in higher
education. What is a meaningful faculty career? What is meaningful faculty
work to you? What will you need to give-and receive-to shape an academic
life and workplace that matters?

                References

*  Rice, R.E., Sorcinelli, M.D., Austin, A.E. 2000. Heeding New Voices:
Academic Careers for a New Generation. Washington, D.C.: American
Association for Higher Education.
*  Sorcinelli, M.D. 2000. Principles of Good Practice: Supporting Early
Career Faculty. Washington, D.C.: American Association of Higher Education.

Contact:
Mary Deane Sorcinelli
Associate Provost and Director
Center for Teaching
301 Goodell, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003
Phone: (413) 545-1225
Fax: (413) 545-3829
Web: http://www.umass.edu/cft

Note: I gratefully acknowledge suggestions from Dennis Goeckel, Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Jung Yun, Department of English,
University of Massachusetts Amherst.