In the fall of 2008, in rapid succession, I turned 40, lost my father, and was denied tenure.
By the time I was flying halfway around the world in a desperate bid to arrive at my father's deathbed in time to hold his hand and relay messages from family members who couldn't get there, I knew that tenure was unlikely. The department's positive vote had been close enough that the various committees and higher-ups wouldn't be under much pressure to keep me, given the scarcity of my publications. In the middle of my mad scramble to procure the requisite visa for travel, my department chair had come into my office, apprised me of the vote, and, ethically I thought, advised me to start looking for another job.
In retrospect, I might have earned tenure by the skin of my teeth if I had chopped up my book manuscript and published all of its chapters separately. I heard through the grapevine that a colleague in another department was awarded tenure with just one more essay published than I had. But I had gambled on getting a book contract in time. I really wanted the book contract, and was felled by a supportive letter asking me to revise and resubmit. The letter was encouraging but not what I needed.
I've never been a fast writer, needing to think for long periods before putting pen to paper. I'm built on the lines of tortoise rather than hare, and I suspect there is little room anymore for tortoises at desperately trying-to-compete-with-the-richer-flagship-just-down-the-road universities trying to up their research profiles without junior sabbaticals and additional money.
When I returned from a soul-numbing week of memorial service, cremation, and ash scattering (thankfully, I had made it in time to say goodbye), it was clear from the change in behavior of many of my colleagues that I was already considered the proverbial dead man walking, fresh from the scene of actual death. Double stench.
I continued to get up each day and drive myself to work. That was an effort. Exhausted, humiliated, angry, disappointed, and, above all, mourning, I didn't much feel like eating and lost a few pounds over the next few months. Quite a few colleagues would greet me with compliments. "How are you doing it?" asked one woman admiringly.
At the time, I responded with a blank face and a (possibly) rude stare. With time and perspective, I understand that any insensitivity was inadvertent. People are often awkward around real and metaphorical deaths (what to say, how to act?), and I compounded the confusion by cultivating a certain in-your-face stoicism in order to cope.
For example, one of my go-to survival strategies—employed to amp myself up for teaching—was to strut in heels and pencil skirts across the campus listening to anthemic music at eardrum-shattering levels, preferably either AC/DC's "Back in Black" or the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage." I suppose I actually did look rather fabulous. And I continue to believe, although I never did read my evaluations from that year, that my teaching was the best it had ever been because I taught with a ferocious abandon. I taught without regard to pleasing the institution, but rather only to satisfying my own sense of mission.
Flashback to the previous spring, when I received a telephone call from the chancellor letting me know that I had won one of the university's two top awards for teaching excellence. As was tradition, I was asked to give the December 2008 commencement speech (yes, the speech). Quite an honor, especially for someone as yet untenured.
I had privately joked that the speech constituted a punishment rather than a reward. As the writing on the wall became clearer and more ominous about my tenure case, I wondered sincerely whether I could get through the speech without breaking down or blacking out.
I confess to many j'accusatory fantasies. I imagined a thousand different speeches ranging from devastating critique to scandalous exposé to asking audience members for a job. "Dear Graduates, much like many of you, I stand before you today with no job and few prospects." I never would have done it because those occasions should only ever be about the students; I have seen too many ceremonies hijacked by speaker narcissism.
I have often wondered what conversations might have taken place among administrators as the commencement date approached and word spread that my tenure case was doomed. Did they talk about disinviting me? What horrors might they have imagined? To the university's credit or indifference (it's more likely the latter), no one said anything to me about it.
That commencement was the first time I had ever worn doctoral regalia, having never attended my own ceremony. I had borrowed the robes and entered the preparation room feeling alone and awkward and a fraud—a sheep in wolf's clothing. Eventually, I approached two female senior professors, strangers to me, to ask for hood and tam instructions (what goes where, please explain) only to overhear the tail end of a sotto voce conversation that could only have been about me. Woman A, shaking her head, "So few publications in six years!" Woman B, shaking her head in shocked commiseration, "I know."
Later, as we lined up in order outside the arena, the provost, standing next to me, carried on a lengthy conversation with a security guard about staff concerns over coming layoffs.
I sat on the stage, still next to the provost (who must have had my tenure file in his office by then), feeling despondent. But just as I was being introduced by the new chancellor (both in that moment, and in the thank-you letter she sent to me afterward, she called me an "asset" to the university), I felt suffused by the presence of my father, and absolutely confident of his posthumous love and support. So I made my way to the podium.
I was in the zone, and my speech was just really, really good. That, I chose to believe, was confirmed by the head of the alumni association, who followed me at the podium saying something laudatory along the lines of, "Dr. Li, we think you rock," as well as by the sign-language interpreter who stopped me in the parking lot to assure me it had been the best commencement speech he had heard in recent years. The nadir, he further explained, had involved an extended metaphor about peeling back the layers of an onion.
The buildup to the ceremony had seen the publication of a number of perfunctory announcements in the local papers that I would be the speaker. I only knew that because, during one of my regular visits to the therapist I was seeing to help me through the traumas of the year, the receptionist congratulated me heartily and showed me the clip she had cut out from the paper. My therapist, by the way, who is the sister of an academic and who treated a number of colleagues, evinced no special surprise at what had been happening to me.
My commencement speech was followed by a small flurry of PR in which my picture appeared in the campus newsletter for faculty and staff members. Later in the semester, a campus group, obviously not clued in yet that I was on my way out, invited me to come to speak motivationally to first-year students and their parents about pursuing excellence, or something along those lines.
Still intent on being a good citizen and not wanting to appear churlish, I asked for the opinion of a wise senior colleague before I turned the group down. What message, other than an impossibly mixed one, would I have been able to deliver?
I had been deemed excellent yet untenurable—ceremoniously feted and terminated within the span of a year.
Comments
1. pete_l_clark - January 20, 2011 at 08:18 pm
Zing! Now that's a great personal essay. I look forward to reading more from this author.
2. trumanfan - January 21, 2011 at 07:03 am
I was a victim of a somewhat similar situation--honored commencement speaker to outcast in just three months. I know how devastated you must feel. May you continue to find the courage and strength to move forward.
3. henry_adams - January 21, 2011 at 08:57 am
Thank you for sharing your experiences. Like pete_l_clark, I look forward to reading more of your work, and like trumanfan, I wish you continued courage and strength as you navigate the insanity of academia.
Henry Adams
4. hartmajon - January 21, 2011 at 09:23 am
Well said. My friend and his partner achieved dual TT positions after a long slog. My friend's father died suddenly the year before the tenure offer. So the couple got to ponder your issue from another angle.
5. nickii - January 21, 2011 at 09:24 am
This column offers a perfect illustration of what happens when universities are run like corporations. Li poignantly depicts that horrible moment when we realize that our colleagues have aligned their perspectives with those of the governing bureacracy. Agree w/other commentators -- will look forward to reading future columns.
6. cdwickstrom - January 21, 2011 at 09:35 am
If we need any more evidence of the lack of emphasis on quality teaching in today's academy, it can be found above. Awarded for teaching excellence, but denied tenure ought to be a non sequitor. But I guess it always has been a "publish or perish" world we live in.
7. cwolkow - January 21, 2011 at 10:20 am
Refreshing! I'm in a similar boat. It helps to hear from others.
8. glomzx - January 21, 2011 at 10:46 am
No. 6 is quite correct--despite being an old complaint it has even more validity today in light of calls for more attention to the prime purpose of higher education--that of education. The recent "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses" and other reports underline the critical need for increased dedication to student learning to ensure national viability. Let the R-1s take care of the big research and hold their faculty accountable accordingly, but it's an egregious evil for "a small private university in the Midwest" to hold award-winning teachers or any TT faculty to the capacrious demands of "scholarship" minutae. I think it's time for deep self-reflection on our missions and values. Good luck Ms. Li--you'll need it even more now that you've been branded untenurable.
9. txloopnlil - January 21, 2011 at 11:32 am
Similar situtation occuring in our department right now, but in our case the faculty member had a near unanimous votes at the dept., college and university levels and was denied by the provost & president. He needed one final pub accepted by xx date to meet a particular research productivity formula. He had a pub that had been accepted with revisions; made and submitted the revisions, but the editor of the journal was out of the country and didn't send the final acceptance notification by the deadline. This faculty member won a system level teaching award, is a terrific mentor to grad students and undergrads and a great team member and our department is 100% behind his lawsuit at this time.
10. hyssop - January 21, 2011 at 11:40 am
Heartbreaking. Why can't the TEACHERS have a chance to get tenure? By no means I suggest research is less important, but why can't TEACHING be just as important as research? That's what the majority of undergraduate students pay for.
11. pete_l_clark - January 21, 2011 at 11:44 am
No. 6: "Awarded for teaching excellence, but denied tenure ought to be a non sequit[u]r."
So what are you saying, that research should not play the significant (even, at many institutions, primary) role that it does in academic careers? That's just not the job profile, and many academics (including me) wouldn't want it that way. Dr. Li's teaching was viewed as -- at its apogee, at least -- outstanding, her research was viewed as inadequate, and overall the close decision came back negative. It's certainly a tough, awkward situation that the author managed to craft into a compelling narrative (in fact the piece was so strong that I confess to be instinctively on her side and and have the suspicion that her lack of tenure will turn out to have been a serious mistake), but it doesn't point to some inherent flaw in the academic system. Would it have been better, knowing that Dr. Li was not going to receive tenure, to deny her the opportunity to speak at commencement? Of course not: the university did (in this decision, anyway) the correct thing and gave her the honor, probably knowing that there was some chance that she would have negative things to say. But Dr. Li had more professionalism than that and showed them the possible error of their ways by doing a bang up job. Good for her! (This was, of course, also the best thing for her future career.)
No. 8: "but it's an egregious evil for 'a small private university in the Midwest' to hold award-winning teachers or any TT faculty to the capacrious demands of 'scholarship' minutae." Seriously?? Okay, three things:
I. Dr. Li is *currently* at a small private university in the Midwest. The experiences she described took place at a different university two years ago.
II. capacrious demands? minutae? Yes, we academics are clearly placing too high an emphasis on scholarship.
III. Excuse me, I meant to say "scholarship", so as to properly convey my doubts that such a thing even exists at less than first rate universities. Yikes.
Finally: "Good luck Ms. Li--you'll need it even more now that you've been branded untenurable."
That's way harsh: whom are you trying to scare? Once again, close reading suggests that Dr. Li has already found another tenure track job. Sure, sometimes institutions make poor decisions about good people. But good people have a way of steeling themselves against bad breaks and bouncing back. It sounds to me like we're going to hear a story about that from Dr. Li: stay tuned.
12. boiler - January 21, 2011 at 11:58 am
I think that some of the comments here are unrealistic. Based on what's in the article, the author is indeed a very good teacher. But she works at an institution where you also have to produce scholarship at a certain level to get tenure. And as she says herself, her scholarly production wasn't up to that level. There's nothing inappropriate about not tenuring someone who's extremely good at only one part of the job. A teaching-oriented liberal arts college would be crazy, for example, to tenure a terrible teacher who publishes a lot.
Was it wrong of the institution to give her a prestigious teaching award and then let her go? Not at all. That award will look good on her CV as she applies for jobs at places where teaching is the top priority. I think it would have been much worse for them to have denied her the award because they didn't expect her to make tenure.
As for the idea that she's been "branded untenurable" -- I don't think that's true. She didn't make tenure at a certain kind of institution, and she's unlikely to get another shot at a similar place. But there are plenty of institutions that will prize the teaching ability that she's so amply demonstrated, and that aren't going to care about her publication rate. She'll probably be better suited to a place like that -- I'd be surprised if she didn't have a very successful career ahead of her.
13. nickii - January 21, 2011 at 11:58 am
To pete_l_clark: Like you, I don't read this column to be advocating a "let's get back to the *real* work of teaching." Scholarship matters too--at least to me. (My teaching/scholarship work in tandem.) But I do think you missed a crucial point, briefly stated in the original column: the university demanded scholarship as if it were a R1 but did not provide tenure-track faculty w/the means of obtaining it -- i.e. no junior faculty leave. So while it may be true that "good people have a way of steeling themselves against bad breaks and bouncing back," there are systemic problems that should be addressed. And that is what I think Ms. Li portrays in a compelling and chilling way.
14. pete_l_clark - January 21, 2011 at 12:14 pm
To nickii: I agree with everything you say. (In fact, I am at a university that is just below R1, really wants to be R1, and has no sabbaticals whatsoever. And I am a junior faculty member who worked like hell for one semester to get the next semester "off".) I did not mean to suggest that the university is playing a blameless role in this story: on the contrary, my gut feeling is that they did not properly appreciate Dr. Li's contributions and made the wrong decision.
And especially, the requirements for tenure can seem (and also be!) arbitrary and legalistic: I find it telling (but also encouraging) that Dr. Li rather casually throws off the retrospective insight that a mildly different strategy might well have earned her tenure. Ideally someone in her department should have stepped in and guided her better.
Let me especially agree that many institutions do have systemic problems that need to be addressed. (But they are *not* -- "Oh, why do we insist on this 'scholarship' crap?") I also think though that there is such a thing as a good fit: if a rather obviously talented and capable academic like Dr. Li is not appreciated at University #1, then perhaps the feeling is mutual and in the end she will be happier at University #2.
15. amnirov - January 21, 2011 at 12:34 pm
So she works there for six years and never attends a single graduation? Good riddance.
16. khuff55 - January 21, 2011 at 01:16 pm
amnirov, I don't think graduation attendance is a sign of excellence. I wish this author well and have often wondered if the ones that don't fit the "academic mold" in fact are wasted in other areas.
17. luigi - January 21, 2011 at 01:29 pm
My story is similar. I transferred to another school, continued to teach and write, and am now a fairly big name in my field. There is hope. There is life after an unfortunate tenure struggle. Just continue to teach and write and care and do your best.
18. amnirov - January 21, 2011 at 01:31 pm
There was no tenure struggle. She simply didn't publish enough. It isn't a mystery. And not going to graduation is a symptom of not really giving a good god damn about a job.
19. pacifica888 - January 21, 2011 at 02:14 pm
Amnirov, chill the invectives, dude. I've won two teaching awards at two different universities, am tenured, have won national awards for my scholarly publications, too. And I'm at an R1. I've never attended a graduation b/c I use that time instead to work on my teaching, research, and service commitments. Not attending graduation ceremonies can be a "symptom" of many things.
20. slr123 - January 21, 2011 at 02:28 pm
Being denied tenure was undoubtedly the most traumatic, eviscerating blow I've ever received. On the other hand, leaving that brutally bureaucratic meat-grinder of a university, in that poor southern city of howling loneliness, probably saved my life. Now I have a family, live in the mountains of Colorado, and teach at a small college with a warm and intellectually vibrant group of colleagues. I still have nightmares about my former department chair, but not more than once or twice a month these days. Life on the other side...
21. amnirov - January 21, 2011 at 02:45 pm
Not attending graduation is a slap in the face to students, teaching awards or not. And, pacifica888, absolutely no one on earth cares about your R1. And I should not have to note that too many teaching awards are entirely ego driven, won by the sociopath who hands out the easiest A's term after term after term.
22. yorgunbilimci - January 21, 2011 at 02:47 pm
I have similar or worse situation. I have more than thirty five published papers, grants, excellent teaching, excellent services and DENIED TENURE!!!
23. pacifica888 - January 21, 2011 at 03:14 pm
For heaven's sake. Sounds like someone is really bitter about something. Hmmmm.
24. tuxthepenguin - January 21, 2011 at 03:48 pm
I always like how the anti-research types jump on stories like this. "See, they don't care about teaching!"
No, if she had been given tenure in spite of poor teaching, that would be a valid reason to make your argument. She was denied for insufficient publications.
25. bfrank1 - January 21, 2011 at 04:42 pm
How much of this common scenario is due to bad hiring decisions and poor mentorship on the part of the tenured faculty? How many searches are really fishing expeditions, with departments unwilling or unable to come to a concensus on what is really needed, and who among the candidates is actually tenurable? How many young professors get hired to plug a leak caused by poor administration, with no real thought to what will happen in 6 years? How many young faculty are hired on split decisions, then used as whipping posts in some tenured faculty 'counterinsurgency'? How many careers founder because of some arbitrary admin demographic/budgeting issue, where it is easier to not tenure someone than do the hard work required to find sufficient resources to pay them? How many tenure track faculty have no shot at all, because some cynic has set up impossible or conflicting standards that permit the institution to suck someone dry, and replace them at a lower cost without accountability? How many young PhD's enter the labor force truly unaware that at many schools, and at most PhD granting institutions YOU CANNOT GET TENURE AS A TEACHER? And if there are more than one or two of these a year, what dark hole of subjugation are they being kept in while they write their dissertations? It is easy (and possibly correct) to blame the tenor of the times in higher education, but it is also likely that many of these horror stories are caused by bad management at the departmental level, particularly poorly trained chairs, who have the job thrust at them, who have little or no personnel or budgeting experience, who see the entire world as colleague, student or 'other', and who have little enthusiasm for leadership.
26. sellny - January 21, 2011 at 07:25 pm
As one who is currently undergoing the tenure denial process, this piece brings me hope. My case so typical in that tenure denials sometimes happen just because. I published more than enough peer-reviewed material--more than most of those in my tenure cohort. I have above average teaching ratings, and my service was described as stellar. My dean's denial letter acknowledged all of these things. Still, the conclusion was that my work did not fit with the department. My initial reaction was to panic over what this means for my career elsewhere. I have yet to see if I can land another position elseswhere.
The biggest challenge I face is with my colleagues. There is this outright pressure to fight the decision. I hear things like, "If you don;t fight this, they will continue to do these things." Folks also nod their heads and kind of tisk me for not being more outraged and outspoken about the matter. While everytime I hear "If you do nothing, then it is your own problem and a bad decision on your part", I wonder what this "something" is. If there is much to be outragerd about, shouldn't these colleagues make their feelings known to the powers that be? There is not a peep being said publically about my case. I conclude that it is not that outrageous then.
Throughout all of this, I continue to remind my colleagues that I do not see a need to do something or fight the decision because nowhere in my contract does it say that the university is obligated to award me tenure. The guidelines for making tenure are just that, guidleines. Please do not take my position as one of self-pity or admmitting of defeat. I simply believe that the university made me no promises. My decsion to focus on finding work in this horrid economy has to do with the fact that I do not want to expend energy on some fight about tenure because in the end, the fight is on my shoulders and not on the shoulders of the folks who seem to think I should be doing that magical something.
I wish there were more discussions similar that of the comments from bfrank1. There are a myriad a reasons that these things happen and as much as I would love tenure, it is not meant to be at this institution. I wonder if through all of the pain, fear, and anger that spends in the candidates' mind because of tenure denial, I wonder if we can look differently at tenure as not a career-ending situation.
27. reddwarf - January 21, 2011 at 07:52 pm
# 11 - Well said. My sentiments exactly. Dr. Li admits the scholarship shortfalls and missteps. If you want to be judged on your teaching, there are places that will allow for that and I hope Dr. Li has found her place. For some of us however, writing and scholarship are why we do this job.
I must admit to some pleasant visualizations of the heels and pencil skirts. Hope my wife isn't reading this.
28. irplanning - January 21, 2011 at 11:05 pm
This is a fantastic essay, Dr. Li. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.
29. texasguy - January 22, 2011 at 11:09 am
Schools that offer low teaching loads, say no more than two courses a semester, CANNOT afford to base their tenure decisions on teaching alone because teaching there is a part-time job. This it the way it is. People who want to be judged on their teaching should consider schools with higher teaching loads.
30. texasguy - January 22, 2011 at 11:11 am
Attending graduations is important in some schools and totally irrelevant in others. I skipped town before my own graduation and have only attended other graduations when asked by my chairperson or a graduating student.
31. alleyoxenfree - January 23, 2011 at 01:07 am
Dr. Li wasn't denied tenure because she failed to produce scholarship of a certain "level." She only failed to produce scholarship as measured by poundage.
A classic case of how the academy has trivialized itself, turning out peabrains with minor ideas while punishing profundity of thought that can't be twittered (the coming "scholarship" paradigm).
32. nand5399 - January 23, 2011 at 05:13 am
I enjoyed this writer's well crafted story. I think it says a lot about the foibles of life in current corporate-sponsored academia during the collapse of empire. The contraposition of valuable scholarship and good teaching is artificial but caused by the university-as-a-business model one works in if one choses to teach in an institution.
All this talk about 'insufficent publications', but not much being said about the actual value of these publications. Who reads them? Is the end goal of a university the establishment of its own prestige, or something more substantial? Silly question, I know.
I suppose ambition and advancement are important to some, but 'fitting in to the department' seems a dubious and suspect primary goal for either a teacher OR a research-producing scholar with real integrity. In practical terms, though, it is required if you want to play the game and be accepted.
I'm with texas guy on the attending graduation debate. You go when there are students who want you there and in those instances it means something to those to whom ceremony is important, but it is more what you do in the classroom and office hours that will be remembered or have any effect.
Inhabiting such a low level in this academic food chain, I have the luxury of making these comments, as I am a mere part-time worker and will never be a full time professor, let alone 'up for tenure'. I liked sellny's comments very much because he or she is very smart to not assume the burdens and opinions of colleagues who expect sellny to fight their battles for them. If the process excludes you, you have no obligation to do anything for the institution behind that process. Sellny, you have a lot better ways to spend your time and energy and I expect you will find a happier place to ply your trade if that is what you wish.
33. trendisnotdestiny - January 23, 2011 at 09:37 am
@ redwarf,
QUOTE
"If you want to be judged on your teaching, there are places that will allow for that and I hope Dr. Li has found her place."
Could you provide a brief list of these institutionst? I am curious as to how many of these institutions you think exist and to where. I wonder if there are not more ro1-wannabee emulating institutions who provide teaching lip service and grade out like their big brethern.
34. bthenen - January 23, 2011 at 12:53 pm
After declining an academic post ten years ago, and continuing a superb postdoc career, I now work for the Federal Government and have a nonpaid research associate position with a university. I am pretty happy despite not reaching my original academic goal. What I see most academics enduring these days, I feel fortunate.
Regardless, I am happy and still contributing. Life goes on, even if you do not reach that ideal goal. You still have many opportunities available, both in academia (likely a teaching university) or in business or government positions.
Likely, You Rock, so stay happy and keep contributing, whether as an academic researcher, teacher or not. Sometimes academia is not as Rosy as we envisioned. Not getting tenure may ultimately prove to be a positively life-changing experience.
- Cheers
35. duchess_of_malfi - January 23, 2011 at 03:45 pm
This is one of the best essays I've read in the CHE. Thank you for writing it. I look forward to the next installment.
36. thinking11 - January 23, 2011 at 04:11 pm
Thank you for this article. With fear that my situation will be recognized, I have to ask if anyone has been in my situation. Six months before going up for tenure, and with 3 formal reviews stating that my teaching, scholarship and service is excellent and commendable with unanimous votes in my favor in every instance, I am told that I will not pass tenure and is given a list with serious accusations in regards of professional conduct/ collegiality and service to the university. I am so confused and surprised, since I felt very safe at the University, noone notified that I risked tenure or even was accused of something like this. Has anyone been in this situation? My last review was completed one and a half semester ago and as I said before, passed with flying colors, including a very nice letter by the Senior Vice President.
37. 22287188 - January 23, 2011 at 04:14 pm
I greatly admire Dr. Li's strength of character. I would have used that convocation speech to make a point about the tenure decision, if I had been able to convince myself to make the speech (which I doubt). Given that brutal irony, I doubt I would have been able to keep living, let alone teaching.
38. egghead2 - January 23, 2011 at 09:56 pm
My chair in a previous job made a point of making my life miserable and would have probably tried to sabotage my tenure case if given the opportunity. I ended up leaving before going up for tenure. I heard through the grapevine that after I left, there was a system-wide hiring freeze and no one in my former dept. was very happy when they realized just how much more work they were going to have to do.
39. mitchellbantu - January 24, 2011 at 08:19 am
Been there. Done that. In Alabama, there are no tenure rewards for good teaching except in some few non-research institutions. Of course we do not have a common denominator either. Each flagship is independent and answerable to no one. Boards of Trustees are sovereign. There is no Board of Regeants. No over-sight, yet they are 'public' institutions. Teaching is an excuse for research-focused folk to be on campus and use public resources, sell their text books (ninth edition of the first edition) and to wax eloquence in hall-way discource with similarly situated 'write-a-lot' and 'teach-not' full profs. I'm a state legislator in Alabama, bitter after teaching and researching (in an unpopular direction) for eight years and then dropped with smiles through a revolving trap-door. I'll play the race card on another occasion. What?
40. glomzx - January 24, 2011 at 10:54 am
#36 thinking 11: You state having felt "safe" at your school, with supportable publishing and teaching, yet have been given the word other factors (professional conduct/ collegiality and university service) will sink the tenure app. This doesn't seem to be outside the bell curve of administrative options, I believe. I had a similar situation -- the nebulous "fit" factor doomed me. The department had a document holding "fit" as a major criterion, but left it rather ill-defined so that capricious decisions could be made regardless of the qualities of traditional measures of productivity and promise. Fit (not just colleagility) can be a worthwhile consideration when used upfront and with integrity (at the hiring stage and in mentoring junior faculty), but at this department it meant rigid conformity in thinking and behavior, subservience to the good ol' boy hierarchy, and sub-rosa decisions behind closed doors; diversity was clearly unwelcomed. I got along fine with colleagues (reasonable colleability) but sure, I said some things that were not mainstream and made a faux pas here and there, yet there was insufficient integrity from anyone, especially the confrontation-avoiding chair, to offer discussion, guidance or warning, let alone attempts to understand. The dean was hands-off. Fortunately, reading the "wall," I preemptively resigned before the big face-off and landed in a much much better situation--a win-win I suppose. I recommend finding out the details, if possible, and then making your appropriate decision before it is made for you. Good luck to you.
41. slr123 - January 24, 2011 at 11:42 am
Alleyoxenfree hits it on head with the observation that at so many institutions -- Dr. Li's as well as my own, at least -- tenure is decided by the number of publications, not their quality or subject, or even where they've been published or in some cases even gone through peer review. I was always so struck by that in my former department. I believe the thinking was that having no standards but poundage would generously make it easier for everyone to get tenure, but the effect was that people in that department who work on subjects like, in my case, Milton, simply couldn't churn out the same volume as those who worked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Lost and posted their articles to websites. Luckily, when I was denied tenure I went back out into the world with a list of publications I could be proud of. Not a long list, but a solid one.
I wonder how widespread the disinclination to evaluate scholarship and the tendency to just count pages instead has become. I was in a service department without a degree program (4-4 load) at a school where there were periodic efforts to abolish our department altogether and farm our Gen Ed courses out to the community college. Maybe departments with more credibility still weigh type of publication, peer review, etc. in addition to page counts. Anyway, the whole scheme, at least as it ran at my former school, ran like something concocted by The Company in _Heart of Darkness_.
42. aandrews - January 26, 2011 at 01:14 pm
Tenure denials a/k/a little murders. The scarlett letter (R for reject)branded on one's career plans and goals forever. Dr. Li's narrative was painful to read particularly, I suppose, because it called to mind the pain and anguish caused by my own tenure denial, a rejection that has taken me 10 years to recover from on an emotional level. I do thank her for so movingly describing and sharing the impact on her of what so often feels like being on the receiving end of a brutal and soul-scarring battering by alleged colleagues. There has to be a more humane way of weeding out those the academy does not want, however subjective and/or arbitrary that determination may be.
43. tuxthepenguin - January 26, 2011 at 02:11 pm
@aandrews
In my department you would know well in advance if trouble was brewing. We don't have tenure denials because weak assistant professors will leave after the third or fourth years. Even at that it is difficult to tell someone he/she is not meeting expectations.
44. meinohama - January 26, 2011 at 11:12 pm
#36 thinking 11: I was in exactly the same situation last year. I must agree with those who say it is comforting to know it didn't only happen to you. I had only excellent reviews but then during my tenure year received a letter with complaints by all my colleagues about my collegiality and behavior toward students. During the process where my whole (small) department had suddenly turned against me, I was totally confused as to where the problem had come from. My colleagues alleged that students had complained about me but looking at my student evaluations this was a totally bogus claim. I too had felt safe in my department and so was completely flumoxed by the change in attitude. I went to see the ombudsman and she basically scolded me for not being able to recognize my own bad behavior. I finally found a friend in a colleague from another department who had seen the department chair act the same way toward other untenured professors. Because the case was unanimous against me at the department and chair level, no one else up the chain went against this decision. I appealed to the University level promotion and tenure committee, who voted in my favor, but the president still denied me tenure. My recommendation to someone in the same situation would be to start looking for another job. It's not fair but there's probably not much that can be done about it.
45. kathrine9 - January 27, 2011 at 10:25 pm
forgive me, but I don't see tenure as a god-given right, especially these days - it's pretty much a 'do what you can' but the luck-of-the-draw is the final governing principle - welcome to the real world. At least you didn't compromise your integrity as a person and a teacher by 'acting out' when you delivered the commencement speech - well done, keeping your integrity in tact during testing times is (I think) the most useful personal growth one can have (dare I say, more useful than a tenure position).
46. jaybernstein - February 03, 2011 at 12:16 pm
I didn't read the rest of the comments yet, but the moral of the story is: when you get a tenure-track job, give priority to writing the required number of journal articles and do not write your book until those articles are done (unless no one in your department gets tenure without a book). I learned that important lesson by observing experience of a professor at my undergraduate college. But Professor Li is fortunate that she had this terribe experience at the relatively young age of 40. I didn't get on the tenure track till I was 45. If her book manuscript is not yet published she should hold off on publishing it until she gets her next tenure track job, then she should quickly publish it, and use that to win accelerated tenure and promotion.