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[mountainguy]

As many of you already know from my posts on the job market check-in thread and from exchanged PMs, I will be starting a new job in August as a full-time lecturer with a 1-year renewable contract. I'm excited about the job and like my new colleagues so far (at least from the interactions I had with them on the interview and in email exchanges since then). But given that this is a new role for me, I want to be sure that I'm a good colleague myself.  Therefore, o wise forumites, I ask: what advice would you give to a new faculty member in such a position??

[erictho]

Long-time lecturer on a renewable contract here. My advice is: Act like a colleague -- that is, don't isolate yourself ("i'm just a temp!") but rather participate fully in the life of the department. Volunteer to serve on committees that interest you, attend departmental functions, go for coffee with your colleagues, and don't neglect your research and publications! Find out if you're eligible for internal or external research awards, and if you are, apply for them. Consider serving in your union / faculty association. In my experience, it's hard to get those not on the tenure-track to serve and so often the contract academic's voice isn't heard.

In short, you're not a poor relation, but a full member of the family. Enjoy! And publish if you want to get on to the tenure track.

[changinggears]

I just finished my first year in a similar position, so I'm not as wise as I wish I were.  But, one thing that has been the most beneficial to me is introducing myself to other dept. members and chatting them up whenever I bump into them at the copier/lounge/common area.  I'm shy and not great at social chit-chat with strangers, so it took me a semester before I finally could force myself to do this.  I ended up with an invitation to serve on a committee during one of these chats and this led to me developing several new relationships in the dept. and creating a little niche for myself through my work with the committee, which has helped to pad my annual review and CV and has earned me some praise from fellow committee members, who've communicated all of this to the chair.  They've also offered me invaluable advice on the ins and outs of the dept., do's and don'ts for meetings and interactions with other colleagues, and other ways to improve my annual review.

So my advice would be to make as many friends as you can and volunteer for one project or committee outside of your requirements.

[erzuliefreda]

I would agree with the advice to be involved and appear to care about the institution. But I would also add that it's a great time to STFU. I've seen senior faculty here overreact to junior faculty speaking up about how things should be done, but never more so than when the speaker is non-TT. That has triggered very negative reactions. What folks here want to see is the demure "just so happy to be here and grateful for this opportunity" attitude.

Best of luck!

[educator1]

Another long time (>20 yrs) lecturer here on a renewable contract. You have gotten great advice above. Generally, if you don't behave as an outsider, you won't be treated as one. Consider yourself as a full member of the departmental team. If you have been hired for your well-developed teaching skills, volunteer to share your knowledge.
I have only one other thing to add. Make sure that this is the job that you want and that you aren't doing it for something else (e.g. that elusive TT job). Doing this while waiting (sometimes interminably) for that is a path to becoming an embittered employee.

[voxprincipalis]

If you have been hired for your well-developed teaching skills, volunteer to share your knowledge.

This bit of advice strikes me as unwise, at least as phrased above. "Dear new colleagues, if any of you have questions on how to improve your teaching, I would be happy to help you. I also recommend that you read the following books..."

(And MG, you are awfully fond of recommending books. I would definitely NOT do that in the new place.)

I think that you can definitely thoughtfully participate in teaching conversations, but I would not "volunteer to share" anything in the way that is suggested above.

You should also probably prepare yourself for different policies and standards than you had at PepsiU. There are some issues (classroom management, grading, attendance, whatever) that you might not have had to deal with because PepsiU fortuitously had a policy that covered whatever-it-was. Now, though, you might find that you have to make a whole lot of those decisions on your own, and you may or may not get support from the department for doing things the way you have been doing them in the past. That's not an untenable situation, of course, but preparation and thinking ahead go a long way towards making those important but non-content-related parts of teaching go more smoothly.

VP

[crowie]

MG I have not been following the jobs thread as I wanted to take a break from thinking about such things for a while, so this is the first I am hearing this news.  So, congratulations!  As for advice, I would say for teaching, be prepared for the students at your new institution to be different in good and bad ways from your previous institution.  This may be an obvious point.  But I think I "knew" it intellectually or superficially before I really understood it in practice.  For example, in-class strategies that went over fantastically at one institution for whatever reason will go down like a lead balloon in another place; so don't be afraid to tweak your syllabus and class plans accordingly as you get a sense of the students.  

For research, allocate non-negotiable time for research work each week.  I know, easier said than done, but you will feel better about yourself and your job if you don't let your research slide.  

As for service, I have to say erzuliefreda is right.  Serve on committees and attend faculty meetings but listen much, much, much, MUCH more than you speak.  Listen carefully and after a year you will have a better understanding of the departmental politics (and even in the friendliest departments such politics exist--not necessarily in a toxic way, but they are there).  You will then be in a position to intervene in more fruitful and understated ways that do not alienate your colleagues.

I'm not sure I agree entirely with educator1.  I think it's perfectly possible to enjoy your job and make a positive contribution to your department in a full-time contract job while still keeping an eye out for TT possibilities and positioning yourself (through continued publications and new experiences in service and teaching) to move into such a position if that is what you want.

[educator1]

If you have been hired for your well-developed teaching skills, volunteer to share your knowledge.

This bit of advice strikes me as unwise, at least as phrased above. "Dear new colleagues, if any of you have questions on how to improve your teaching, I would be happy to help you. I also recommend that you read the following books..."

You are correct, bad phrasing. To announce that you are available for consultation without being asked would be disastrous!
However, I have found that many TT track faculty, once they know that you have developed successful classroom strategies, tend to subtly suggest that they would like to know more about them. At this point, being helpful is a contribution that significantly helps your perceived value.

[seniorscholar]

And oh remember the advice to any new faculty member in any department -- make nice to the clerical workers and the administrative assistant, and find out as quickly as possible which one(s) of them know a great deal more than the department chair or even the most senior faculty about what the REAL rules are, and where you go to find out obscure things, and how to handle silly problems, and who it's ok to ask to do copying for you and who will be insulted because copying is work for the student assistants . . . and, for that matter, which of the work-study people in the department office know a great many things you won't learn from faculty about how issues for students play out and where they go to get help.

[tuxedo_cat]

Congrats, MG!  And congrats to your new institution for their wisdom in hiring such a thoughtful and creative teacher.  

I will echo the advice to seek balance between looking after your own career (keeping up research, being on the job market), and learning whatever you can about your current institution.  That knowledge will serve you well during interviews when you're back on the market, especially if your new place of work is a slightly different type of institution (are you moving to another large university?  public?  private?)

I would actually avoid serving on any committees that will suck up your time.  On many campuses, full-time lecturers are not expected to commit time to such service work because they are usually teaching a higher course load.  As changinggears suggests, choose just one committee that ties into your own teaching or research interests somehow.  Instead, try to attend any faculty meetings where you can observe how the place runs, how faculty interact, how decisions are made, what kinds of institutional initiatives are urgent right now.  I agree with others that -- even though we all know that you probably *could* teach your new colleagues a thing or two -- as erzuliefreda has commented, some faculty do bristle at lecturers who are too vocal during large meeting discussions, especially since people are generally antsy to get through the agenda as efficiently as possible.

As for social events, be judicious and protect your time:  choose the events that will not take up a lot of time but still allow you to interact with colleagues (i.e., don't feel you need to attend weekend or evening events).

Ask to see the list of questions that appear on the course evaluation forms and use some of the language in those questions strategically in your interactions with students.

Lastly, you might ask around to find out which Lecturers have had a good history of being reappointed in the department and are regarded well, and ask for their "survival" tips and advice.  Once you get to know that person a little better, ask if they would be willing to share a copy of their Annual Faculty Report (or whatever it's called), so you know what things to keep track of to submit with your own report, which is often due in the middle of the spring semester and kind of a time-consuming hassle the first time you have to write one.

Good luck!

[hesitant]

Congratulations, Mountain Guy! I have no advice for you, but the thread is really useful for me, so I am bookmarking. (I am also starting a new NTT position this Fall)