Prepping for Tenure Submission

Tenure is one of the biggest milestones for tenure-track faculty. And while the metrics and outcomes of research, teaching, and service are important, it's also deeply dependent on our ability to stay organized! So, I made a Notion template for tenure submission (in terms of file organizations), which you can find and download in the Designs section! Enjoy~

I know I should probably have more advice here, but unfortunately, so much of the tenure submission process is tailored to your specific college or university guidelines. Well, in that sense, the best advice I can offer is to know your guidelines super well (like, your favorite restaurant where you can order without looking at the menu-level well). Some added advice if you aren't sure how to learn or know your guidelines include (but again, tailor):

• Always look at your faculty handbook and make sure you have a downloaded copy of it! (If you haven't done this yet, THIS is your sign to do it RIGHT NOW). 
• If there is a promotion and tenure committee, ask to meet with the chair if you're able and/or ask for a tenured faculty to help serve as a mentor for you (and double plus if you can have 2 mentors: one who in your program or dept. and one who is not). This helps with making sure your work is legible within and outside of your program/dept. 
• Talk to people about your narratives: people who know your scholarship well (to help with phrasing and framing the significance of your work), mentors in and outside of the field (who can couch your work in relationship to the field), and people who you know well but maybe are in a different field (again, to help with the legibility).
• Sometimes, it's helpful to know what were the metrics of the people who went before you, to get a sense of their advice, etc. since isomorphism is always a thing (from an institutional behavior standpoint)

Other advice (outside of being organized), give yourself the emotional time to process. I knew it was going to be emotional, especially given how the job market had felt as high-stakes years ago. And this feels just as, if not more high(er?) stakes, so it's important to give yourself the grace and space to reflect, emote, nap, take breaks, get some sun on you, etc. 

And if you want a not-so-polish explanation of what tenure is and the process (full of metaphors and not-quite-grammatically-sound sentences), please enjoy this post.