Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Rarely Blue

Diversity applies to Dean’s and Chair’s Reviews for tenure and promotion: Lehman’s new faculty discovered the differences in their year-end review processes through discussion in May’s new faculty workshops. Faculty from Natural & Social Sciences, Education, and Arts & Humanities took a few hours to explore documents and forms from their deans and chairs in their faculty resource ePortfolios, followed by partner activities with inventory matrices. Gina Rae Foster, the Director of the Lehman Teaching & Learning Commons, shared lists for organizing and prioritizing review materials to build on the findings from the matrices. Each of the two faculty groups (one Tuesday, one Wednesday) offered advice, found direction, and clarified their individual research and teaching emphases for presentation.

We found that the review process varies a great deal across divisions/schools and departments/programs. Some deans actively engage faculty in preparing review materials throughout the academic year; others work more closely with the chairs to disseminate review information and expectations. Chairs of some programs may provide self-analysis questionnaires and planning forms while others may offer more general guidelines. We realized that the Provost’s information for all faculty members was not sufficient for the review processes in individual departments and programs and that having both the College’s guidelines as well as one’s own chair’s and dean’s expectations was a key part of preparing a successful review that reflected one’s work and career progression.

Two highlights of the session: Rebecca Arzola, one of our new Library faculty members, won a Distinguished Faculty award, and Cameron McNeil, a new Assistant Professor in Anthropology, passed around an ancient piece of chocolate (A.D. 347, from a Mayan archaeological dig). McNeil is working with Ed Kenelly in Biological Sciences to test the chocolate in a combined research project.

Our new faculty workshops this term built community among our new faculty and helped many of us to begin to see our academic careers in terms of gradual steps towards developing our research, service, and teaching over time. We shared resources, knowledge, and a great deal of sympathy and laughter over the challenges of higher education. Next year, we are looking forward to a series of fall workshops on mentoring, student resiliency, and research alliances.

The inventory matrix and planning guidelines can be found in the Files section of the Lehman Teaching & Learning Commons group on the CUNY Academic Commons. Here are links to the photos from May’s workshops:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/grfoster/sets/72157626727026953/

Short URL: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjuMFBRt

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

1 Response to Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Rarely Blue

  1. A new slant, thought provoking and stimulating, thank you for sharing. God bless you.

Comments are closed.