Tomorrows Professor

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Tomorrows Professor

• December 1, 2004

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Section I

• Setting the Stage

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The Academic Enterprise

• Unlike any other institution
• Carnegie Classification Changed in 2000!
• Doctoral/Research Universities Extensive
• Doctoral/Research Universities Intensive
• Masters I II
• Baccalaureate Colleges-- Liberal Arts
• Baccalaureate Colleges General
• Baccalaureate/Associates Colleges

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The Academic Enterprise

• Institutional Governance
• Bottom-up governance structure
• The institution of tenure
• The multiuniversity
• Challenges Facing Academia
• Budget cuts
• Demands for increased productivity
• Implications of University-Industry collaboration

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Key Points

• The academic institution is different than other
  business institutions
• There are many different types of academic
  institutions the important thing is to know what
  kind of institution you are dealing with
• Academia is currently going through a period of
  transition

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Sci. and Eng. in Higher Education

• Faculty are more loyal to their discipline than
  their department, and more loyal to their
  department than their university
• There are many differences between departments,
  even in one institution
• Interdisciplinary collaboration
• Scholarship across the disciplines

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Key Points

• Many factors that academics are affected by vary
  across departments and schools within a
  university
• While most faculty are most loyal to their own
  discipline, interdisciplinary collaboration and
  scholarship continues to increase in importance

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New Challenges to the Professoriate

• Forces for change in teaching and research
• Increasing use of communications tools
• Increasing use of computational tools
• Increasing focus on interdisciplinary programs
• Prospects of decreased government funding
• Increasing costs of doing research
• Changing role of industry in academic research

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New Challenges to the Professoriate

• Implications for Faculty Scholarship
• Balance between cooperation and competition
• Balance between basic and applied research
• Balance between high-risk and low-risk behaviors

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Key Points

• As mentioned before, academia is facing plenty of
  new challenges
• This means that, as new faculty, we must balance
  ourselves between extremes in several ways

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Section II

• Preparing for an Academic Career

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Chapter 4

• Your Professional Preparation Strategy

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Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

• Follow your passion
• Understand what you are getting into
• Make a calculated decision.
• Its a marathon, not a sprint.
• Do not try to forecast supply and demand
• Well, Im going to get my PhD in so-and-so cause
  that field is really hot right now

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Supply and Demand

• The Myth
• Got PhDs?
• 675,000 jobs!!! Where do I sign?
• Reality Bites
• Somebody call William Sherden.
• Graduate Student Birth Control.

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Three-Pronged Preparation Strategy

• Breadth-on-Top-of-Depth
• Capital T approach.
• Drilling for oil.
• Next-Stage
• Look Ahead.
• Research, Proposal Writing, Publishing
• Multiple-Option
• Concurrently prepare for academic and industry
  careers.

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Chapter 5

• Research as a Graduate Student and Postdoc

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Summary

• Choosing a Research Topic
• Choosing an Advisor
• Writing Research Proposals
• Publishing

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Choosing a Research Topic

• Can it be enthusiastically pursued?
• Can interest be sustained by it?
• Is the problem solvable?
• Is it worth doing?
• Will it lead to other research problems?
• Is it manageable in size?
• Can you make an original contribution to the
  literature?
• Will the results be reviewed well by scholars in
  the field?
• Are you, or will you become, competent to solve
  it?
• Will you have demonstrated independent skills in
  the discipline?
• Will the research prepare you in an area of
  future demand or promise?

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Choosing an Advisor

• Considerations
• Accomplishments in teaching and research
• Enthusiasm for advising students
• Experience in advising students
• Management and organization of his/her research
  group
• Reputation for setting high standards in a
  congenial atmosphere
• Compatible Personality
• Types of Advisors (Smiths classification)
• Collaborator
• Hands-Off
• Senior Scientist
• Types of Advisors (Martins classification)
• Authoritarian
• Coach
• Laissez Faire

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Writing Research Proposals

• Next stage activity
• Begin by reviewing others proposals and by
  contributing drafts of sections of others
  proposals
• Show drafts to others
• Academics in your specialty area
• Academics outside your specialty area (but in
  your field)
• Academics at other institutions

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Publishing

• For co-authored papers, be able to give a talk
  and answer questions at conferences on any paper
  for which you are listed as an author
• Author checklist (abbreviated)
• Is the article complete?
• Is the article authoritative?
• Is the article singular (does it make a
  contribution)?

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Key Points

• Get involved in research early
• Choose research topics that are narrowly focused
  and carefully defined, but are important parts of
  a broad-ranging, complex problem
• Choose your advisor carefully
• Be involved in as many next-stage activities as
  possible
• Writing research proposals
• Attending conferences
• Supervising other researchers
• Managing research projects and programs

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Chapter 6

• Teaching Experiences Prior to Becoming a Professor

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Why is it important to teach as a Graduate
Student?

• Confirm teaching is what one wants to do.
• Help prepare for ones first teaching assignment
  as a professor.
• Makes one more marketable.

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What can I do?

• Look and volunteer for teaching experiences
• Remember that the time spent teaching will
  generally be 3x the amount you expect
• Create a teaching portfolio

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What can I do NOW? (key points)

• Stay aware of teaching opportunities around you
• Start compiling your teaching portfolio now
• Make it a habit to file samples of your work

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Section III

• Finding and Getting the Best Possible Academic
  Position

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Chapter 7

• Identifying the Possibilities

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Deciding what you want

• Your type of institution
• Research, Doctoral, Masters Baccalaureate
• Different Institution characteristics
• Your type of appointment
• Full-time, Tenure-track
• Temporary, Part-time, Consulting , Adjunct etc.
• Your setting
• Physical and cultural environment
• Personal preferences and family considerations
• Relationship between the institutions you are
  considering and other local colleges and
  universities

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Research what is out there

• Background reading
• Guidebooks
• Program description
• College catalog
• Internet
• Talking to others
• Using the contact database you constructed
• Do not make information querying into position
  applying
• Visiting other institutions

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Preparing for the search

• Consolidate the information together and focus
  on a plan of the specific schools you want to
  apply
• Nonacademic positions?

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Chapter 8

• Applying for Positions

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Setting the Stage

• How New Positions are Established
• Vice president for academic affairs
• Dean
• Department
• What Departments Look for in New Faculty
• Teach
• Specialty
• Funding
• Finding out What is available
• Advertisement
• Known to a few faculty
• Internet
• Drawing on your Network

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Preparing your Application Materials

• The Cover letter
• The Curriculum Vitae
• Letters of Recommendation

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The Application Process

• Conferences
• Talk about research / teaching
• Keep in touch with your faculty and students
• Follow-up
• The Campus Visit
• Know the institution
• Seek info from the people you known in that
  institute
• Know more about the schedule
• Interview
• Other considerations
• The Academic Job Talk
• What do they want to see
• Customization
• Practice

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Positions Outside the Academia
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Chapter 9

• Getting the Results You Want

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Principles for responding to an offer

• Make sure you have an offer
• Know what you want ,And what you dont want
• Clearly communicate what you want but only to
  the right people
• Use your work quality/productivity to negotiate
• Make requests informally
• Negotiate hard on things that are out of bound
• Learn about the Tenure process
• Start as High as you can in institutional
  prestige
• Be realistic about salary but go as high as you
  can
• Keep options open dont say yes right away
• Combine logic and emotion when deciding

Dual-career couples
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Did not get the offer you want?

• The Decision to Try Again
• Try again?
• Find out what you did wrong
• Multiple-Option
• Staying
• Moving on to are temporary position
• Moving on to are permanent position

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Section III

• Deciding what you want
• Researching what is out here
• Setting the stage
• Preparing your application materials
• Applying for positions
• Negations
• If you do not get the job you want

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March-August
Continue to apply for positions Consider
interests and needs Consider negotiations
strategies Consider Multiple-Option approach
November-February
Continue to apply for positions Practice
interviews Prepare job talk
!! Explore earlier !!
September-December
Talk to your advisor Attend conferences Apply for
positions
August-October
Develop CV Obtain letters of reference Obtain
Employment packet
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Section IV

• Looking Ahead to your First Years on the Job
  Advice from the field

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Chapter 10

• Insights on Time Management

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Manage your time efficiently. Do the things right
and do the right things
The Problem

• Doctoral Student
• If I can just find a good problem

• Assistant Professor
• If I can just find the time

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The solution

• Set Long-Term Goal
• Establish Your Absence
• Keep things on the burner

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Key advices

• Be a Quick Starter, achieve balance.
• Set limits on lecture preparation
• Find time to do scholarly writing very week
• Social networking
• Involve in the campus community early on.
• Manage tasks to take time for the long term
  important things.

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Chapter 11

• Insights on Teaching and Learning

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Teaching and Learning Styles

• Learning Styles
• Sensory or Intuitive
• Visual or Auditory
• Inductive or Deductive
• Active or Reflective
• Sequential or Global

• Teaching Styles
• Concrete or Conceptual
• Visual or Verbal
• Inductive or Deductive
• Active or Passive
• Step by Step or Global

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Key Advice

• Motivate Learning
• Provide a balance of concrete information and
  abstract concepts
• Provide explicit illustrations of intuitive
  patterns and sensing patterns, and encourage all
  students to exercise both patterns.
• Use pictures, schematics in verbal presentation.
  Show films. Provide demonstrations, hands-on, if
  possible.
• Use computer technologies in teaching.
• Provide opportunities for students to do
  something active, like brain storming.

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Develop a teaching portfolio

• The Teaching Portfolio Capturing the Scholarship
  of Teaching, by Russell Edgerton.
• The process of preparing teaching portfolios may
  be more valuable because (1) someone was very
  interested and concerned about their teaching,
  (2)the portfolio captured evidence that looked
  like their teaching, and (3) selecting evidence
  and writing captions and reflections had impelled
  their to clarify their intentions and beliefs
  about teaching and students.

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Chapter 12

• Insights on Research

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New Priorities

• Doctoral Student
• Problem solving
• Conduct research
• Find projects w/funding

• Assistant Professor
• Problem finding
• Direct research
• Obtain funding

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Sources of Funding

• Gift or grant in aid - 10-50k, no oversight
• Grant substantial but you are accountable
• Coop agreement with government agencies (e.g.,
  USDA, EPA) that are hands on
• Contract timelines and deliverables
• Fellowships and Scholarships provide support for
  graduate students
• IRIS (Illinois Research Information System)
  provides info on sponsors, programs and deadlines

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Preparing Research Proposal

• Do your homework before making contact.
• Build long term relationship with the funding
  agency.
• Or you can start your research with under the
  tutelage of an experienced faculty member who has
  funding.
• Try to find help on searching funding from
  colleagues or universities.
• Elements of Found in Most Successful Proposals.
  See Appendix F.

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Key Advice

• Connect with experts in adjacent areas
• Seek out colleagues within institution
• Attend and present at conferences
• Publishing gains acceptance for your ideas while
  telling world the results of your hard work
• Peer reviewed journals are best

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Chapter 13

• Insights on Professional Responsibility

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Areas of Professional Responsibility

• Service to department and profession
• Ethics in teaching and research
• Authorship and scholarly reviews
• Consulting and other industry relationships

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Ethically Problematic Behaviors

• Falsifying data
• Fabricating experiments
• Misrepresenting funding requests
• Giving undue or no authorship credit
• Misleading research competitors
• Failure to secure informed consent
• Failure to ensure fair play in lab
• Plagiarism
• Demeaning competitors work
• Using findings in harmful way
• Publishing in Least Publishable Units
• Failure to blow the whistle
• Failure to carefully review paper when referee
• Biased reviews of funding requests
• Gaining financial advantage by biasing others
  research

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Key Advice

• Do not over commit, especially in your pre-tenure
  period. Focus on departmental committees.
• Review papers for journals
• Develop working relations with industry
• Be aware of impact of behavior on reputation of
  self, school, and field
• Ask older colleagues for advice in ethical gray
  areas

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Conclusion

• Engage in activities having value in themselves,
  but that also contribute to your primary mission
  of teaching and other forms of scholarship.

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Chapter 14

• Insights on Tenure

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Paths toward-and away from-tenure

• The traditional path
• The accelerated path
• The delayed entry path
• The late practitioner path
• The late career child-bearing path
• The from-one-school-to-another-school path
• The fail to get tenure try again path
• The fail to get tenure other career path
• The walk-away-from-tenure path
• The never-try-for-tenure path

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Key Advice

• It is important to understand the tenure process
  and requirements for your university.
• Establish a strategy to meet the requirements.
• Consulting your tenured colleagues. ASK HELP!
• Contribute to departmental service but avoid
  university-wide commitments until after attaining
  tenure

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Chapter 15

• Insights on Academia Needed Changes

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Conclusion Help Us!

• Help graduate students and postdocs prepare for
  academic careers
• Help graduate students and postdocs find academic
  positions
• Help beginning faculty succeed

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Tomorrow's professor! It is your turn!