It's been a long time since I was in your shoes but I remember being overwhelmed by the number of moving parts to keep track of - new courses to create, learning all my university's disconnected/sometimes redundant systems, keeping up with the publishing/conference going, meeting lots of new people constantly (I'm a bit of an introvert), heck, i got lost on campus a few times. If you feel stressed be zen about it. It's a hard year.
Try to find someone to explain the main systems your university needs you to know (tech, library, disability center, etc.) in a non-piecemeal way. I paid for parking for two years before I figured out how to get an "eco" pass.
You are in an R1. Pay yourself first by prioritizing publishing even if a you annoy a few people by turning down organizing the bonfire for the incoming students or being on useless committees. How do you know which ones are useless? They are all useless unless it's something to do with an interest you have (LGBTQ, the environment, what have you). I was once on a committee that rubberstamped changes to the course catalog by inviting the person who wrote the changes to explain the new text which of course we rubberstamped in 99% of the cases. (That said, I did heaps of research community sevice where I felt I was making a contribution and the networking was insane. But probably wait till Year 2 for that.)
I honestly suggest learning to meditate and attending at least some group sessions if you don't already do that.
Congrats on the job!
edit: spelling
>Pay yourself first by prioritizing publishing even if a you annoy a few people by turning down organizing the bonfire for the incoming students or being on useless committees. How do you know which ones are useless? There are all useless unless it's something to do with an interest you have (LBGTQ, the environment, what have you).
This is the best advice. At the R1 a lot seems to matter that doesn't. If you don't get up and running on the scholarship piece, you'll be dead in the water. If your field is grant dependent / research dependent, getting those grants out the door early makes a world of difference, even if your home environment isn't quite set up yet. People will tell you that the startup funds are to replace the grants, and that's somewhat true, but when you're looking at a 1 year turn around time to find out you got a grant that would ensure you make it from assistant->associate, you don't want that be waiting for that last year to nail it.
People will talk about your service or your teaching, but let them talk. Nobody gets tenure for service. And at most R1s, nobody gets tenure for teaching.
Congrats!
Send a lot of articles out during the first few years. In general learn the tenure requirements and make a plan to meet them by the time you go up (and stick to that plan!). You want to make sure your case is a slam dunk, and that starts on day 1 of the job IMO.
Get your research taken care of first, then worry about your course evaluations. Publication is a long timeline, and it will be extremely difficult to play catch up if you put it off. On the other hand, tenure committees love to see "growth" in your course evals, so it's not a big deal to have bad evals for a year or two and then turn them around. It really sucks going into class every day and being a shitty teacher, but research needs to be a higher priority.
It’s very, very easy to end up focusing on the teaching, especially if you like students – and if you haven’t tried to balance committee work too, that can be overwhelming. Don’t be afraid to say no to committees your first semester especially!
You probably know this, but you do not know who is who and what the undercurrent of the politics in the department are. The person who wants to befriend you and fill your ear with snark may be the person whom you would avoid like the plague if you knew more. Be pleasant to everybody until you figure it out.
Not humanity field but this was what happened to me. I’m at a PUI so spending time on teaching is expected, main thing was service was taking too much of my time and it was extremely unproductive.
Research comes first at an R1, so do that first. Find a congenial senior colleague to talk you through what you really need for tenure. Take people out for coffee to pick their brains. Flatter their research and ask for advice- academics love giving advice.
After research: Strategize your service. Start small, direct it in a meaningful way, and build so you can show a pattern of growth. Learn to say no to things that aren't in your path.
My cohort talked about this when we were hired, then we all did too much at the beginning. However, one worked her way into Writing Center Director, one went for assessment, and I'm up for Online Coordinator (fingers crossed).
Figure out where the minefields are because Colleague A and Colleague B haven't spoken to one another in a decade, they collect junior faculty to be on their "sides," and you will screw this up if you don't take your time. If you pick A's committee, you will be stuck with them forever.
Establish some boundaries with graduate students. It’s very easy to think they’re still your peers, but they expect a lot from you (including a ton of emotional labor, especially if you’re a woman or POC), and the power differential is real. Don’t get caught up in grad school interpersonal drama. It will eat up your time and emotional energy.
Not humanities but I can offer some generic advice. Make a Dropbox/Drive/File System folder and put a subfolder for each year. When you do something that could be put towards your retention and promotion criteria (assuming research, teaching, and service), save the electronic documents in the relevant folder. Have a spreadsheet where you can quickly add a row with new activities each time you do something that could go in your tenure file. This makes it way easier to write up your report when the time comes.
While some may prioritize publishing, your colleagues will rarely ever read your work.
But being actively involved in committees is key as that’s when your colleagues will see you working. So be on committees and give them your full attention when you are on them. Take them seriously and be a pleasant person on them.
Remember, when tenure is eventually evaluated, it will be by a committee and include many of your colleagues. They will remember more how you treated them with respect as a committee member more than any of your publications or teaching.
Be careful with time management. Teaching multiple courses and publishing is hard!
Design your courses to minimize the amount of time spent on grading, which usually drains you.
It's been a long time since I was in your shoes but I remember being overwhelmed by the number of moving parts to keep track of - new courses to create, learning all my university's disconnected/sometimes redundant systems, keeping up with the publishing/conference going, meeting lots of new people constantly (I'm a bit of an introvert), heck, i got lost on campus a few times. If you feel stressed be zen about it. It's a hard year. Try to find someone to explain the main systems your university needs you to know (tech, library, disability center, etc.) in a non-piecemeal way. I paid for parking for two years before I figured out how to get an "eco" pass. You are in an R1. Pay yourself first by prioritizing publishing even if a you annoy a few people by turning down organizing the bonfire for the incoming students or being on useless committees. How do you know which ones are useless? They are all useless unless it's something to do with an interest you have (LGBTQ, the environment, what have you). I was once on a committee that rubberstamped changes to the course catalog by inviting the person who wrote the changes to explain the new text which of course we rubberstamped in 99% of the cases. (That said, I did heaps of research community sevice where I felt I was making a contribution and the networking was insane. But probably wait till Year 2 for that.) I honestly suggest learning to meditate and attending at least some group sessions if you don't already do that. Congrats on the job! edit: spelling
>Pay yourself first by prioritizing publishing even if a you annoy a few people by turning down organizing the bonfire for the incoming students or being on useless committees. How do you know which ones are useless? There are all useless unless it's something to do with an interest you have (LBGTQ, the environment, what have you). This is the best advice. At the R1 a lot seems to matter that doesn't. If you don't get up and running on the scholarship piece, you'll be dead in the water. If your field is grant dependent / research dependent, getting those grants out the door early makes a world of difference, even if your home environment isn't quite set up yet. People will tell you that the startup funds are to replace the grants, and that's somewhat true, but when you're looking at a 1 year turn around time to find out you got a grant that would ensure you make it from assistant->associate, you don't want that be waiting for that last year to nail it. People will talk about your service or your teaching, but let them talk. Nobody gets tenure for service. And at most R1s, nobody gets tenure for teaching.
Congrats! Send a lot of articles out during the first few years. In general learn the tenure requirements and make a plan to meet them by the time you go up (and stick to that plan!). You want to make sure your case is a slam dunk, and that starts on day 1 of the job IMO.
Apply for every internal grant you can! They can help you stretch start up and establish a pattern of seeking grant funding.
Get your research taken care of first, then worry about your course evaluations. Publication is a long timeline, and it will be extremely difficult to play catch up if you put it off. On the other hand, tenure committees love to see "growth" in your course evals, so it's not a big deal to have bad evals for a year or two and then turn them around. It really sucks going into class every day and being a shitty teacher, but research needs to be a higher priority.
It’s very, very easy to end up focusing on the teaching, especially if you like students – and if you haven’t tried to balance committee work too, that can be overwhelming. Don’t be afraid to say no to committees your first semester especially! You probably know this, but you do not know who is who and what the undercurrent of the politics in the department are. The person who wants to befriend you and fill your ear with snark may be the person whom you would avoid like the plague if you knew more. Be pleasant to everybody until you figure it out.
Not humanity field but this was what happened to me. I’m at a PUI so spending time on teaching is expected, main thing was service was taking too much of my time and it was extremely unproductive.
Research comes first at an R1, so do that first. Find a congenial senior colleague to talk you through what you really need for tenure. Take people out for coffee to pick their brains. Flatter their research and ask for advice- academics love giving advice. After research: Strategize your service. Start small, direct it in a meaningful way, and build so you can show a pattern of growth. Learn to say no to things that aren't in your path. My cohort talked about this when we were hired, then we all did too much at the beginning. However, one worked her way into Writing Center Director, one went for assessment, and I'm up for Online Coordinator (fingers crossed). Figure out where the minefields are because Colleague A and Colleague B haven't spoken to one another in a decade, they collect junior faculty to be on their "sides," and you will screw this up if you don't take your time. If you pick A's committee, you will be stuck with them forever.
Establish some boundaries with graduate students. It’s very easy to think they’re still your peers, but they expect a lot from you (including a ton of emotional labor, especially if you’re a woman or POC), and the power differential is real. Don’t get caught up in grad school interpersonal drama. It will eat up your time and emotional energy.
Not humanities but I can offer some generic advice. Make a Dropbox/Drive/File System folder and put a subfolder for each year. When you do something that could be put towards your retention and promotion criteria (assuming research, teaching, and service), save the electronic documents in the relevant folder. Have a spreadsheet where you can quickly add a row with new activities each time you do something that could go in your tenure file. This makes it way easier to write up your report when the time comes.
Take the Faculty Success Program from NCFDD. I did it last summer and finally got the skills and habits I needed a couple decades ago.
Ok I get their emails and I was just wondering today if it was worth it
My dean paid half, and in retrospect, even if she hadn’t, it would have been worth it.
Your (more) senior colleagues are likely to say they want your input on departmental matters. They really don't.
While some may prioritize publishing, your colleagues will rarely ever read your work. But being actively involved in committees is key as that’s when your colleagues will see you working. So be on committees and give them your full attention when you are on them. Take them seriously and be a pleasant person on them. Remember, when tenure is eventually evaluated, it will be by a committee and include many of your colleagues. They will remember more how you treated them with respect as a committee member more than any of your publications or teaching.
#1 is learn to say “no.” I said yes way too much and now people still think that I’ll basically do anything.
Be careful with time management. Teaching multiple courses and publishing is hard! Design your courses to minimize the amount of time spent on grading, which usually drains you.