Promotion Package Preparation Groups

This panel discussion was the first of three workshops that were offered as part of the P³ Group   program. Any interested faculty member could attend any of the three workshops, participation in the P³ Group was not required. All full-time faculty who wanted to submit a strong package for promotion OR were planning to do so in the near future were invited to the session, including tenured faculty seeking promotion to full professor and non-tenure track faculty seeking promotion to Senior or Principal Lecturer. AdvanceRIT, Council for the Representation & Engagement of Women Faculty (CREW), and Faculty Career Development facilitate the formation of peer support groups for faculty submitting their packages for promotion to full Professor and Senior or Principal Lecturer.

Panelists for this session included Jeremy Haefner, Provost; Doreen Edwards, Dean of KGCOE; Anne Haake, Dean of GCCIS; Sophia Maggelakis, Dean of COS; Twyla Cummings, Dean of Graduate Education; and Danielle Smith, Professor of Sociology & Honors Program Director. Questions provided to the panelists prior to the event included:

• Can you give an example of a strategy someone used in making their case for promotion that you thought was particularly successful?
• Can you share what you think are common mistakes that candidates make in preparing their package?
• If your time since last promotion has involved both mostly-administrative time and teaching/research time – do you have suggestions on packaging our narrative to address needs of promotion guidelines?
• Are there ever quotas or limits placed on the number of faculty who can be promoted in any given year?

Participant feedback from this event included noting takeaways such as “include more evidence in application” and “update my CV annually.” All respondents agreed that attending the session was a valuable use of time and that the session enhanced the way they think about presenting a strong case

This session was the second of three workshops that was offered as part of the P³ Group program. Any interested faculty member could attend any of the three workshops, participation in the P³ Group was   not required. All full-time faculty who wanted to submit a strong package for promotion OR were planning to do so in the near future were invited to the session, including tenured faculty seeking promotion to full professor and non-tenure track faculty seeking promotion to Senior or Principal  Lecturer. AdvanceRIT, Council for the Representation & Engagement of Women Faculty (CREW), and Faculty Career Development facilitate the formation of peer support groups for faculty submitting their packages for promotion to full Professor and Senior or Principal Lecturer.

Participants were asked to bring the university policy AND your college policy on promotion to   professor. Topics covered during the session regarding promotion included: What’s required? What’s the timeline? Tips, e.g. list what you did/accomplished in scholarship, in service - highlight leadership activities, in teaching - describe how you provided learning opportunities for students outside of the classroom, etc. Facilitators included members of the AdvanceRIT Leadership Team and newly promoted faculty.

Participant feedback included noting learnings such as the “difference between college and university policies.” All respondents agreed that attending the session was a valuable use of time and that they plan to take action to improve their practices related to understanding university and college promotion policies.

This session was the third of three workshops that were offered as part of the P³ Group program. Any interested faculty member could attend any of the three workshops, participation in the P³ Group was not required. All full-time faculty who wanted to submit a strong package for promotion OR were planning to do so in the near future were invited to the session, including tenured faculty seeking promotion to full professor and non-tenure track faculty seeking promotion to Senior or Principal Lecturer. AdvanceRIT, Council for the Representation & Engagement of Women Faculty (CREW), and Faculty Career Development facilitate the formation of peer support groups for faculty submitting their packages for promotion to full Professor and Senior or Principal Lecturer.

During the session, participants explored how to best prepare materials for external reviewers and  identify potential reviewers. Attendees were asked to get a copy of a colleague’s promotion package (or  a portion, such as their research statement). We did not share these with each other, however we discussed what we learned from reviewing someone else’s statement by answering the following questions:

• How well did they sell their work?
• Were there interesting strategies/formatting used?
• Were there things you thought could have been done better?

Additionally, participants were asked to contact at least one potential external reviewer (some of you have already had to complete this!). We shared strategies for selecting the reviewers and our experience with the process. Did they say yes? What does the university policy say regarding external letters? We asked everyone to bring information from your college policy. Pre-session homework also included identifying what you want external reviewers to write about – are there specific areas that would be best addressed by different people? Facilitators included members of the AdvanceRIT Leadership Team and newly promoted faculty.

Participant feedback included takeaways such as “Revising my CV to include context notes” and “make your promotion packet easy to read.” Over 88% of respondents strongly agreed the session was a valuable use of time, and all agreed that the session enhanced the way they think about external letters and research statements, and they plan to take action to improve their practices.