Tenure Guide
Overview of this Guide
In respose to the needs of minority and senior women faculty, and the relationship between tenure and faculty equity, the Office of Strategic Hiring and Support offers this Tenure Guide. In doing so, we hope to demystify aspects of the tenure process that have daunted women and minority faculty members in the past. Below are several scenarios that this guide seeks to "troubleshoot":
- Women and minority faculty members may be left out of informal networks in departments or schools. This exclusion may result in their having less information about the tenure process and in feeling more isolated.
- Women and minority faculty members often feel that they are scrutinized more carefully. Their peers may view them as "affirmative action candidates" and may perceive them as being less qualified than white male candidates. Because of these misperceptions, women and minority candidates sometimes must use different strategies to validate their abilities.
- Women and minority faculty members often feel that in addition to or instead of overt, official tenure criteria that have been clearly stated by the university, they are judged by constantly changing, covert, unwritten criteria that are more difficult to meet.
Foreknowledge of a potentially unfriendly or unreceptive environment can help faculty members to understand that their "subjective" experiences in that environment may in fact be a product of the system. This guide offers strategies for responding to these and similar circumstances. However, this document is not focused on changing the current system. Roughly organized in an order intended to parallel the tenure process itself, the guide begins with "Pre-tenure Tips." The remaining sections include: "The Tenure Process," "Childbirth, Leaves, and the Tenure Clock," "Unwritten Expectations," and "Campus Resources."
Note that the scope of this guide is limited in that it:
- Does Not Include Promotion Information: In an effort to keep this a brief, easy-to-use document, this guide is limited to coverage of the tenure process. It does not cover promotion issues. For information on promotion, faculty should refer to the Bloomington Academic Guide.
- Refers to Tenure-Track Faculty Only: The scope of the guide is limited to tenure-track faculty. It does not include tenure information for Librarians.
- Does Not Include the School of Nursing:This guide only covers the tenure process for the following schools: Business, COAS, Education, HPER, Journalism, Law, Library/Information Science, Music, Optometry, and SPEA
- Covers the Bloomington Campus Only:The scope of this guide is limited to academic appointees at Indiana University's Bloomington campus. It does not include tenure information for academic appointees at other Indiana University campuses.
Although the tenure process can be very arduous, it is by no means insurmountable. While reviewing the recommendations noted in this guide, candidates should keep in mind Indiana University Bloomington's strong tradition of faculty governance as well as the desirable aspects of an academic lifestyle. In addition, candidates should be aware of the feasibility of achieving tenure. Many minority and women faculty members have achieved tenure at IUB, and candidates are urged to look to these faculty members as role models and mentors. Finally, since this is an informal guide, faculty members should refer to the Bloomington Academic Guide for more detailed information and for the "official word."
