New series on tenure

Yesterday, I came across an interesting discussion on social media on what tenure requirements are at different schools. Because it is clear from that discussion and others discussions I have encountered that tenure requirements differ greatly at different institutions, I thought it might be good to run a short series on the tenure process and tenure requirements. It occurred to me that such a series might be of interest to a variety of the blog's readers, including job-marketeers (who might benefit from better awareness of differences in the tenure process and standards across institutions), tenure-track faculty who have not gone up for tenure yet, and members of the profession more generally.

Anyway, I tentatively plan this series to cover the following topics:

• What tenure processes themselves are like at different institutions
• How clearly and consistently tenure standards are stated and conveyed to job-candidates
• What tenure standards are like at different kinds of institutions
  • R1 (research) institutions
  • Elite liberal arts universities
  • Non-elite liberal arts universities
  • Regional public state schools (non-R1's)
  • Community colleges
• What tenure-denial is like and involves (including potential for appeals)

Are there any other topics the series should cover? If so, please let me know in the comments section below this post. Because the quality of information this series provides will depend on reader comments, I'd like to encourage readers to share posts in the series, so that readers who may have experience and insight in these matters can chime in! For now, I'd just like to solicit suggestions on any additional topics to cover in the series. The first substantive post in the series will come in the next day or two!

Comments

[Jonathan Ichikawa]

I think a helpful discussion will need to include finer-grained distinctions between kinds of institutions. R1s are the only kind on your list that I know well, but standards vary tremendously between them. Some R1s hire Assistant Professors with the expectation that if they do a fine job and publish a paper every year or two, they'll be tenured (and very rarely give tenure denials); others treat the tenure/promotion process as a very serious bar that few will pass. So I don't think we can speak in a very meaningful way about "tenure standards at R1 institutions" as a category.

[Marcus Arvan]

Hey Jonathan: thanks for the suggestion. How do you think the series should distinguish between them—maybe “elite R1’s” (e.g. Harvard, Princeton, Leiterific places) and “non-elite R1’s”?

[Singapore Academic]

Your list of different kinds of institutions is a North American list. Do you intend this series to be about tenure in North America only or tenure more generally? If the latter you might want to add other categories to cover the institutions in places like Hong Kong and Singapore that follow a tenure system.

[Marcus Arvan]

Singapore Academic: great point. Can you and others let me know what categories there are outside of the US system? I’m unfortunately not terribly familiar with institution types and tenure outside of North America.

[Jonathan Ichikawa]

I'm afraid I don't know the answer to your question, Marcus. I just don't have enough comparative information to be able to speculate very confidently. What I can tell you with confidence, based on my experience and that of some of my friends I've spoken at length with, is that among major research institutions, there are some vastly different tenure cultures. Level of prestige might correlate, but I just don't know. (I'd suspect university prestige is a better predictor than departmental prestige. The culture for this sort of thing typically happens at a much higher level than the department.)

Another factor that I'm sure makes a significant different is labour protections. An institution with a unionized professoriate is going to be much likelier to have more transparent procedures that make tenure denials on flimsy bases more difficult. Certainly that is my experience with UBC, where tenure denials are rare.

[TT Prof]

Private R2s? Or maybe it might make sense to discuss Unis with PhD granting programs -- not all of those are R1s.

Looking forward to the series! It's absolutely necessary. Tenure requirements vary wildly, are often arbitrary, and unevenly applied, even within a given department. It will be good to have this discussion. Thank you!

[Paul]

Nice idea for a series, Marcus!

As for institutional breakdown, perhaps:
1. Leiter-ranked R1s
2. Non-ranked R1s
3. R2s (broadly construed to include all PhD granting programs).

Or you could just be really broad and say that R1 includes all PhD granting programs with a 2/2 load.

No matter how you divide it up there will be some outliers.

Also, I am a philosopher on TT at an R2 but not in a philosophy department. That could also be a category...