Achieving Tenure For Construction-Area Faculty

Introduction

This paper has been prepared based on this writer’s successful experience in achieving tenure plus innumerable conversations and first-hand observations with other colleagues. Many of these colleagues from around the country were granted tenure by a variety of institutions and unfortunately a few were denied tenure. This is the foundation for this paper. The summation of these learning experiences should prove helpful for other construction faculty on the tenure track. Tenure is typically a long and difficult process that, at most institutions, culminates in a tenure approval or denial decision during the faculty member’s sixth year of service. This writer has seen faculty colleagues and himself make numerous mistakes in this tenure process. Fortunately in most cases the subject faculty were able to recover from these mistakes. At most institutions there may be a mid-process review at the three-year mark and some institutions have reviews at the two-year and four-year marks before the final review during the sixth year. Tenure is an up-or-out process in that those unsuccessful faculty don’t gain "a second chance" to remain with the institution in a faculty role. Tenure provides a certain degree of job security and academic freedom. "Faculty can still be terminated for incompetence but not for personal or political reasons" (Lahidji, 2000). Evaluation at most institutions will be based on the three areas of teaching, scholarship, and service. Besides departmental and college reviews, faculty senate committees, dean’s administrative councils and finally regents or trustees of the institution may evaluate faculty tenure. Over the years at academic conferences and other forums one can hear a common refrain from construction faculty that they lack respect from other campus sectors. Some other academic areas view construction courses as trade school in nature and so too perhaps the subject faculty. This incorrect perception can hamper construction faculty seeking tenure. Construction faculty need to focus on those key items that will assist them in achieving tenure. They also cannot command the necessary respect required for tenure from the institution while submitting a poor record of scholarship. Construction is fighting much the same negative perceptions that other academic areas have previously had in higher education. Hotel/restaurant majors know about more than simple cooking operations and construction majors know about more than simple carpentry tasks. Business at one time, after all, was not viewed as an academic subject.

Teaching

The standard method for evaluating the faculty member’s performance in this area is through student evaluations. In selected instances administrators such as department chairs and deans or faculty colleagues may sit in on selected lectures. Other feedback may be from a student or students particularly upset with a faculty member who complains to an administrator or other colleagues. Similarly students may praise a faculty member to those same individuals. Garnering the "best teaching award" for a given academic unit is also meaningful but difficult to do given the numbers of faculty in most colleges. Construction faculty may be at a disadvantage in some academic units because they don’t have the numbers of students comparable with larger areas. However, mandatory student evaluations accumulated over the teaching period remain the most common teaching evaluation instrument. How does a faculty member achieve good or excellent evaluations from the students? An answer with a blinding glimpse of the obvious is to do a good job in the classroom! This writer has seen a few faculty make a mistake with handing out high grades to practically all students in a class through easier tests and assignments. Back channel feedback received from the better students in the class was that they resented these "easy classes." The better students were resentful because they studied and worked harder but received the same grade as those students giving minimal effort. While there are many excellent texts on improving teaching and presentation skills, students really appreciate faculty that are well organized, treat students fairly with respect, and say something important. Part and parcel of treating students fairly is grading tests and papers on an accurate basis. Handing this student work back in a timely fashion is the other side of the coin in that they want and need feedback.

Scholarship

Scholarlship is typically defined as those activities that result in publications and/or funded research. For construction-area faculty, funded research is very difficult to obtain. Construction firms with their traditionally low margins do not generate sufficient profits to fund research (Ogelsby, Parker, Howell, 1989). Construction industry associations do fund some research although the funding is typically at low levels compared to the need to feed "research-hungry construction faculty" at a number of institutions across the United States. Look for local or regional funding sources since there is less competition. In addition, there may be funding available in partnering with other faculty at the same university where construction expertise is part of the research. One should also focus on areas of expertise rather than unrealistic efforts. Manufacturers serving the construction industry with a dominant market position may provide research funding particularly if a construction institution happens to be located nearby. The more prestigious the institution the better since this stamps the research with a certain cachet. This manufacturer-supported research may help to validate certain claims of the product to those in the construction industry. Two recent examples noted by this writer include concrete formwork systems and structural insulated panel systems. The next target of opportunity is government agencies at the local, state, and federal level. Again, there can be tremendous competition for these funds but the funding levels are higher. Most of these research projects are often only tangentially related to construction.

Publication opportunities for the faculty member are typically in conference proceedings or journals. Whether publishing in proceedings or journals these publication avenues need to be peer-reviewed publications to carry weight in the tenure process. Publishing articles in industry trade magazines or non-peer-reviewed conference proceedings typically carries little weight with tenure reviewers. Tenure failures are replete with examples of faculty that failed to produce a satisfactory publication record. Based on a number of conversations with construction faculty around the country, to a person, they recommended avoiding textbook publishing until after the successful achievement of tenure. Authoring a textbook is a time-intensive exercise that shoves aside the opportunities for additional conference and journal publications. Unfortunately in the publications area, "bean-counting systems" for numbers prevail and tenure-track faculty need to be cognizant of this fact. Moreover, at some institutions a textbook will not be considered as a peer-reviewed publication! While this writer and other colleagues may disagree with this poor treatment for textbooks, it is often a reality. Conversely, the authoring of a book chapter in a text comprised of multiple authors with an esteemed academic editor(s) in charge may be considered as included under the peer-review umbrella.

Publication in journals and conference proceedings is a lengthy process. Between manuscript submission and publication, twelve to eighteen months or more can elapse. Thus tenure-track faculty need to start early and put in consistent continuing performance in this area. Before starting effort on a paper or article, the faculty member should identify target publications. Is this topic something that they would find of interest? Review previous year’s proceedings and journal issues to ascertain the appropriateness of the topic. Contact the editor of the subject publication for further guidance particularly when in doubt. Exercise due diligence by performing a comprehensive literature review of the subject publication to avoid duplicating previous articles. Unfortunately others may have thought of the same good topic covered in the same fashion. This process also helps to refocus the work to cover areas that have not been adequately addressed by others writing in the same areas.

Finally, keep foremost in mind the reality that only published articles and papers count in the tenure review process. It is fine to work on multiple manuscripts at one time but prioritization is also the rule. One needs to avoid spreading their efforts too widely. Non-published submissions will typically not be counted by tenure reviewers. The lone exception here will be a letter from the publication’s editor verifying their intention to publish the submission.

Service Activity

In the service area, work on departmental, college, and university-wide committees, student advising, and trade/professional associations are the primary categories. Service work to the university and trade/professional associations is essential since these groups are only successful through the volunteer efforts of many. Having been involved with numerous trade/professional associations both before and since their academic career started, this writer has found this work very valuable, informative, and personally satisfying. Unfortunately in tenure review, service work is typically only given token consideration at many institutions. Reasons given include the difficulties in evaluating individual faculty effort amongst others. In addition, service commitments can be uneven. Committees, student chapters, and professional associations exhibit significant differences in time consumption. The overwhelming consensus of faculty colleagues at a number of institutions is for tenure-track faculty to hold service activity to a low level. Once granted tenure, faculty can devote more time to this area. Again, it will depend on the institution since some institutions give substantial tenure credit for service work including student chapters and student advising. Also, one cannot ignore service particularly to their own construction program. Construction programs are typically comprised of five or fewer faculty (Rosenbaum, 2001). Therefore, some service work is mandatory or else the construction program can suffer.

Department/College/University Tenure Documents

To determine how much importance is placed between the areas of teaching, scholarship, and service consult all relevant academic unit documents. At institutions without graduate programs teaching elements usually count more. Research/scholarship elements predominate at institutions with a research focus and graduate programs. The distinct trend with academic institutions across the country is towards greater weighting of the research/scholarship category with less emphasis on teaching and much less emphasis on service. Institutions are locked in an inter-institutional battle to gain prestige and the way to do this seems to be research/scholarship. One needs to perform a self-assessment to determine if their goals fit with the goals of the institution. Faculty that prioritize teaching/service work over research activity will probably not find success at a Research Level 1 Institution. Discuss with other colleagues in the academic unit their thoughts on tenure essentials. Colleagues serving on departmental or college-level tenure/promotion committees and those recently tenured are particularly key sources. Confidentiality issues protect tenure files of those recently-tenured faculty but those same faculty may be willing to allow one to review them on a personal basis. This can provide substantial guidance. Do not wait until a mid-tenure review to find out what is important. Most institutions have faculty annual reviews conducted by the departmental chair that provide guidance to the faculty member as well. In addition, all institutions of which this writer is familiar with provide annual tenure seminars. Attend several of these tenure seminars and pay particular attention to questions asked by other faculty in the same situation. If nothing else these seminars make one feel better in that they are not alone in their dilemma!

Your Strategic Plan Formulation

These aforementioned document reviews will set what is important to the institution. From this process one should formulate their own strategic plan for achieving tenure. From this writer’s perspective, a construction faculty member is running his or her own business. They are CEO and owner without at least some of the risks of the private sector. One has certain set obligations such as meeting classes at mandated times and faculty/committee meetings also at mandated times. Failing to strategically plan for tenure and meet the plan means going out of business due to termination. This is analogous to the contractor that loses too many bids or bids far too low and thus the organization goes bankrupt. One needs a strategic plan for their construction faculty business. However, the strategic plan should not be cast in stone. Changes in the university administration at the dean’s level or higher may mean new emphasis in certain areas. Mid-course corrections are difficult to make but the closer one’s strategic plan aligns with institutional goals from the academic unit and higher, the better the chances of success. One must differentiate here between strategy and tactics. Strategy is the broad outline of what one needs to do in achieving tenure. Tactics are the detailed steps taken to carry out the strategy. A balance needs to be struck between enough detail to make the strategic plan a useful document and over-arching detail that is impossible to forecast in advance. One might list in the strategic plan general numbers of publications required for tenure but leave details to tactical analysis.

The Tenure Matrix

From analysis of aforementioned tenure documents, one can develop a matrix of tenure requirements to assist strategic planning. Matrix application can assist in striking a balance towards achieving tenure requirements. Exhibit 1 is an example (Kauffman, 1999).

Develop The Tenure File

Accumulating the information requisite for the tenure process is a continuing effort. Significant items from the areas of teaching, scholarship and service should be deposited into this tenure file when they occur. Each area deserves its own file. Items for inclusion cover published papers, awards, funded grants, student faculty course evaluations, committee reports (authored or co-authored), and commendation letters from trade or professional or other groups for service activities. At the same time the curriculum vitae should be updated via computer contemporaneously. The vitae includes courses taught and co-taught, guest lectures, presentations at seminars and conferences, conferences/continuing education attendance and any other germane information. Leaving this updating process to the mid-tenure review point or the final tenure review is guaranteed to shortchange the deserving faculty member. Busy faculty members during the course of any given year are involved in an incredible variety of activities. Trying to remember what happened a couple of years ago ends up usually as a difficult task. Unfortunately this writer and other colleagues have seen tenure submission files that were unbelievably sloppy given the importance of the process. Coffee-stained and food-stained articles don’t inspire a high degree of confidence in a tenure file. Neither do misspelled words in a faculty member’s vitae inspire confidence. A tenure file should not look as if it was constructed by sweeping up scraps of paper off the floor. Hopefully the tenure file contains original clean copies of all items that can be placed on high quality bond paper, spiral bound [or other binding method], and index tabbed for ready reference by tenure decision makers. One wants to present a professional image for the sum total of their professional work to this point in time. Have a trusted colleague proofread the tenure file prior to submission.

As a sidebar comment, three faculty colleagues at three other institutions several years ago, realizing this writer was coming for tenure, graciously offered unasked to write letters of support. They were each at three well-regarded institutions and all three were or had been in charge of their respective construction programs. These three letters provided the icing on the cake for the tenure file submission. This writer will always be eternally grateful for this professional courtesy. Others may want to consider this too for their tenure files.

Collegial Relations And Subjectivity

Left unsaid in all the tenure documents is the factor of collegiality with colleagues including administrators. If there are discrepancies between faculty with like records in tenure evaluations this area is truly the "X-factor" or unquantifiable factor. A faculty member can be popular both with other faculty and students yet for one reason or another be persona non grata with immediate of higher up administrators. Similarly a faculty member can have a very strong record but be in an academic unit that is undergoing political turmoil at the time of the tenure decision. This faculty member might unfortunately get caught in this crossfire. Those faculty with marginal records can have more problems, which highlights the need for as strong a record as possible.

Insofar as possible try to maintain cordial relations with students, colleagues, and others. There are many upsetting problems in academia from lack of adequate funds through to bureaucratic problems with other campus units. Other faculty and administrators realize these typical problems but are usually powerless to correct them. Project a calm and professional image as much as possible. Avoid going over other’s heads and try to avoid unit and campus politics. Henry Kissinger remarking about his days at Harvard before the State Department in discussing campus politics stated, "the reason politics are so vicious at the university level is because the stakes are so low" (Smith, 1973).

Time Management

Success in your strategic tenure plan means successful time management. Starting out as a new faculty member, six years seems like a very long time. The pressures of classes, lecture preparation, student advising, committee assignments, and other tasks make the time pass quickly. The academic year and semester/quarter ends when it seemingly started last week. Moreover, the faculty member typically does not have a full six years. Instead tenure file submissions are due in many instances in September or October of the start of the faculty member’s sixth year. The tenure time frame is often really five years plus a fraction. Cantilevered over this process is a lack of support in terms of resources. Construction faculty, particularly when coming from the industry, are usually amazed at the lack of resources available to faculty. One may have had their own secretary and other assistants to help them in their work. Most universities are staff-poor and the secretary is assigned the work of many faculty members. Other resources such as up-to-date computers, office space, and office furniture are also in short supply. Faculty at many institutions find that they must do more with less as contrasted to the private sector.

The largest asset available becomes time and its management. The university offers many distractions such as conversations with interesting faculty, staff, and students. There are numerous lectures and seminars available to attend including those of nationally and world-prominent speakers in many cases. Students need help, student chapters need help, other faculty need help, and administrators need help. In one sense, all of these can be viewed as clients. Construction is a service business that successfully exists based on client service. In construction we learn to serve clients. These service values are passed on consciously and subconsciously to take residence in one as a construction faculty member. Successful client service means saying no to a client as little as possible. In addition, it is this writer’s hypotheses that those construction faculty attracted to academia in particular have a strong service ethic. Construction faculty as a group feel they have something important to contribute to construction education. In the faculty role, one has to learn to say no and say no often.

Certain time management techniques such as delegation are less effective at the university level since often there is no one to delegate to except yourself. That is probably why the task came this direction in the first place from students, student chapters, faculty, and administrators. Continue to practice saying no. In the case of a construction program with graduate students, quality graduate students can be of immense help with grading papers and work on research projects.

One needs to avoid trivia and busy work. Be selective. Close the office door and lock it or find places to work without interruptions. This may be the library or own home office. The overriding principle to effective time management is to ask this when performing a task, "is this the best use of my time?" as one time management guru noted (Lakein, 1996).

Maintaining Faculty Work Continuity

Course material preparation and learning new material when first starting out as a new faculty member consume inordinate amounts of time. Once a course is taught for the first time, subsequent repetitions of the course are less time consuming since one is building on previous foundational work. This is especially important given the time consumption demands for learning course-specific software in the areas of estimating and scheduling.

Problems are created for the new faculty member when course assignments suffer a continual shifting of responsibility. If at all possible strive to continue the same courses or multiple sections for a significant time period. This will allow the further refinement of existing courses plus allow more time for scholarly activity.

Avoid Extraneous Teaching/Consulting Commitments

Tenure-track faculty may be approached by their department to teach additional coursework in the summer. They may be approached by trade and professional associations or other groups to conduct training sessions. Consulting opportunities may also present themselves during the tenure period. Insofar as possible, try to limit the time demands of these activities. One may think that these additional activities help to build the curriculum vitae but they take valuable time away from the scholarly work sector. However, at some institutions that focus on teaching and service work, additional work on seminars may gain favorable ratings. Similarly, faculty may be given credit for consulting activity. Most often, consulting and extra teaching activities are not given weight towards tenure. At most institutions, the notable exception might be when the opportunity arises to utilize consulting work to subsidize research activity or as the basis for a journal or proceedings article.

Invest In Yourself

Universities are resource poor which extends to the offices and equipment available for faculty members. It is amazing that institutions invest $50,000 per year in a faculty salary but not invest $5,000 to make this faculty member more productive. Unfortunately, this is reality as imposed by budgeting processes and state legislators in the case of public institutions. Need a couple of file cabinets or bookcases for the office to contribute to better organization? If the faculty member can’t get action from a department chair, best tactics may be to spend $150 each to buy two decent quality file cabinets at an office supply store. Another tactic may be to purchase quality file cabinets or bookcases at a used office furniture store of even higher quality at reasonable prices. A weekend afternoon with an airless spray gun and automotive-quality paint can make these used purchases look new. Have a faculty office that was last repainted 20 years ago with a color that drives one up the wall? Deferred maintenance at academic institutions is the rule rather than the exception. Come in on the weekend and repaint the office. Don’t tell anyone and no one will notice! Remember that the end goal is to create a productive and comfortable environment for faculty work. A faculty office is a reflection of the individual.

The standard university-issued computer system may be under specified for the particular faculty work demands. Whether it is a larger hard drive or a larger monitor because doing CAD on a 15-inch monitor is intolerable, see if one can improve the system through contribution of additional funds. A small part of a research grant financed a computer system in this writer’s office with a 21-inch monitor due to aging eyesight. Faculty members have a myriad of tasks to complete including student advising, committee meetings and other assignments. Paper or electronic organizers assist greatly in these tasks. Find a system that works and make the investment.

A number of faculty may recoil at spending their own money on office items and taking the time for painting tasks. This writer, from experience, has found this investment to be trivial compared to the long-term benefits.

Build A High Tech Home Office

A key element for faculty improvement can be the home office. Effective home offices can be created from limited space so if feasible develop your own home office. A number of creative arrangements can be developed to leverage areas with categories including dedicated, dual-purpose, put-away and awkward-space home offices (Phillips, 2001). Prices of computers, printers, scanners, and fax machines have fallen through the floor over the past few years. Instead of trekking to the university office on the weekends or late at night to complete a test, it can be much more convenient to work at home. Family considerations need to be taken into account, but even on a limited-use basis this can be a key investment. This writer works from a home office every morning for a few hours before heading to campus. Typically, due to the lack of interruptions, this home office period is the most productive part of the day.

Items such as computers and other office equipment should be purchased on a quality basis since one is making a long-term investment. There may not be requirements for the fastest premium computers unless involved with CAD or other graphics. Leverage technology including software by learning how to effectively use it both at work and at home. Academic institutions typically have numerous free software course offerings.

Manage The Paper

As one who came to academia from the construction division of a Fortune 500 manufacturer, the first and continuing impression is that of the university as a paper generator without peer. This writer previous to this had thought large private-sector firms had cornered this paper generation championship. They are no matches for higher education. Flyers, newsletters, memos and in sundry other pieces of paper clog faculty mailboxes on a daily basis. Trying to hang on to even a small part of this paper blizzard is a monumental task. One must be relentless in discarding the overwhelming majority of this paper. Paper substitutes such as e-mail are also a part of this problem. With e-mail learn to utilize the delete key on a frequent basis.

Essential correspondence, departmental actions and other important paper needs to be organized in a timely fashion into notebooks or file folders depending upon your personal system. Many faculty, including this writer, are reluctant to throw away something that they may have a need for in the future. One question that some colleagues ask is if thrown away is there another source for this item? Often, departmental files can provide the necessary repository.

Faculty should learn to avoid the creation of class handouts where possible. Copying class handouts is expensive for the department and becomes a logistics management chore for the faculty member. A graduate construction management course is the only class for this writer where due to the lack of an adequate text for this master’s level course, extensive handouts are utilized. publishing of handouts is another alternative that allows students to view the information electronically or download it to hard copy to meet their needs. The drawback to Web publishing is when the handout requires class discussion and the classroom is not equipped with computers. Judicious use of e-mail and organized computer archival can further save paper.

Balance Your Life

One needs to strike a balance in their life between faculty workload and their own health and personal/social needs. The event of having a good friend and colleague die of a heart attack at age 36, the author’s age at the time tends to focus one on achieving balance. Faculty workloads are such that one cannot be successful just simply putting in a forty-hour week. However one needs to set an upper limit. The Greeks had a phrase that roughly translated into "a sound mind in a sound body." Maintain a healthy lifestyle through exercise and sound nutrition. Similarly ignoring family and friends can lead to a number of problems including staleness and divorce. Rather than just spending hours make sure that hours spent in faculty pursuits are productive hours. This author has had some of his very best ideas while working out on the stairmaster at the health club or hiking up in the nearby mountains.

Summary

Achieving tenure for construction-area faculty is difficult. Success means effective work habits and concentration on those elements that will provide concrete record in one’s file. Requirements differ from institution to institution meaning that the faculty member needs to understand completely the requirements. Elements such as strategic planning, time management, a tenure file, and personal productivity enhancement can all play a role in tenure success.

References

Kauffmann, P., Fernandez, A., Keating, C., (1999). A QFD Model for Selecting Service, Teaching, and Research Opportunities. ASEE 1999 Annual Proceedings, 2275-3.

Lahidji, B., (2000). Preparation for Tenure and Promotion – Quality and Quantity. ASEE 2000 Annual Proceedings, 2275-1.

Lakein, A., (1996). How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life. New York: New American Library. 4.

Ogelsby, C., Parker, H., Howell, G. (1989). Productivity Improvement in Construction. New York: McGraw-Hill. 358-359.

Phillips, B., (2001). The Home Office Planner. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. 8-9.

Rosenbaum, D.B., and Rubin, D.K. with Powers, M.B. (2001, October 29). Special Report: Construction Education: The Nation’s C Schools Engineering News-Record, 247, (18), 30.

Smith, B.L. (1973). The Tenure Debate. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc. 104.