Monitoring Dept. Health and Welfare
Valuing Diversity in the Dept.
Supporting Pre-Tenure Faculty Career Development
Encouraging Mid-Career Professional Development
Faculty Development Programs, Benefits, & Resources
ENCOURAGING MID-CAREER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Encouraging mid-career professional development is equally as important as supporting pre-tenure faculty. Unfortunately, this area is often not well addressed. Although very few mid-career faculty development programs exist, there are steps that department chairs can take to help. Most of the ideas for encouraging faculty mid-career porfessional development relate to sharing resources and giving them some extra attention. Sharing something like the Faculty Professional Development Opportunities document is one way to begin a conversation.
NOMINATING FACULTY FOR AWARDS
MID-LEVEL CAREER TRANSITIONS
NOMINATING YOUR FACULTY FOR AWARDS:
Faculty at all levels appreciate being recognized for their contributions. In addition to the active appreciation ideas listed in Section 3, department chairs are also encouraged to actively nominate their faculty for awards and recognition. National and university awards are excellent professional development opportunities. Department chairs should work closely with all their faculty to identify potential opportunities and to create strong nomination packets. (See, for example, the handout on nominating faculty for awards and presentation from the Fall 2003 Leadership Workshop.)
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MID-LEVEL CAREER TRANSITIONS:
Sometimes faculty are unsuccessful at making the mid-level transition from associate to full professor. In some instances, the faculty member has changed focus to an area that is no longer part of the strategic direction of the department. More often, though, faculty become "stuck" at mid-level. Possible indicators include little or no research, few or no publications, no graduated Ph.D. students and none in the pipeline, poor teaching ratings, and/or a lack of research funding. Perhaps the field has changed or external funding is no longer available and the faculty is unable to transition to a new area, or perhaps s/he has simply become discouraged.
Frequently, faculty in these positions can identify a specific moment that caused them to stop being productive. Such moments are often identified as times when they felt they were no longer being valued, for example, when being denied a sabbatical or promotion; being passed up for a leadership opportunity; or discovering that their accomplishments were ignored by their colleagues and/or chair. (Ironically, passing up people at a time when they wish to become more involved with the institution may ultimately cause them to become substantially less involved.) This transition problem should be viewed as a career development issue rather than a promotion issue. A stalled faculty member may not be thinking broadly about all their different opportunities.
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ADDRESS CAREER DEVELOPMENT EARLY AND OFTEN:
The best time to address transitioning from associate to full professor is immediately upon promotion from assistant to associate professor. The faculty member has just received a strong vote of confidence in their abilities and their value to the department. At this time, they may be more receptive to constructive suggestions and to career development planning. Pro-actively helping faculty with their career development can lead to great pay-offs in the long-term.
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ENCOURAGE CREATIVITY:
To encourage creativity, a department may need to make some small, but worthwhile investments in a faculty's career. Providing some bridge money or seed money (See Transitional Support Program in Section 9) to encourage risk can give people an opportunity to transform their focus. Sometimes a small investment, such as seed money, can reap larger rewards later as the stalled faculty member now has some resources to invest. Stalled faculty may need to be taught how to be competitive with organizations other than their standard funding agencies. For example, the Associate Dean for New Initiatives in the College of Engineering offers a workshop on writing proposals for the National Institutes of Health, a nontraditional funding source for most engineering faculty. Department chairs could consider giving stalled faculty an internal sabbatical. Having more time may be all that they need to boost their research efforts. Or, the faculty may wish to focus temporarily on a new area such as education or leadership development. If they become energized in one area, they often can transfer that energy to their research interests. Success begets success.
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MENTOR:
Mid-career faculty also need mentoring. A department chair might work with these faculty on the presentation of their ideas, serving as a sounding board or offering extra guidance on communicating ideas. Matching the stalled faculty with research-active faculty both within and outside of the department creates another mentoring forum. People who may have been previously stalled and now are experiencing success may also be good mentors. For example, they may have failed at a granting agency several times before finding multiple successes at the very same agency. Talking with someone who has overcome a similar challenge can be inspiring. By finding ways to help create opportunities to achieve some level of success, chairs can help these faculty become productive (and satisfied) again. (See also Section 4: Mentoring.)
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Last Updated: July 07, 2005
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