Some faculty members are like race horses out of the gate. They’re focused Assistant Professors, they’re publishing immediately in ‘top tier’ journals, they’re presenting at conferences, they’re connecting strategically with grant funders and research colleagues, and they slide right into the tenure track slipstream and travel quickly through the Assistant Professor / Associate Professor With Tenure / Full Professor pathway.
Other faculty members start ABD (all but dissertation) in 1999, get off to a really slow start at University 1 because they need to complete their dissertation and are overwhelmed by department-level service commitments, switch universities in 2001 because of a gracious offer to start over, get ‘distracted’ at University 2 with exciting new opportunities that aren’t valued that much by the institution, extend their slow start even further because their focus is in non-rewarded areas, switch universities in 2007 because of a miraculous tenure offer, finally start to find their way a little bit at University 3, switch universities in 2011 because of a miraculous offer to do some really interesting work elsewhere with some amazing colleagues, find out that University 4 is an extremely poor fit and leave in 2012 after one year, drop out of higher education completely for four years, switch universities in 2016 because of a miraculous offer to return to higher education, successfully receive tenure again at University 5 despite the long absence from academe, and finally find a place that feels like the right balance between research, teaching, and service to the field. These faculty members also may struggle to juggle the demands of the professorship with family commitments, raising children, service to practitioners, a growing social media presence, and innovation in realms that most postsecondary institutions fail to value.
This second path would be me, of course. Which is why it was so gratifying to receive notice yesterday from the University of Colorado system that I was promoted to Full Professor (aka ‘Professor’). The (large p) Professor rank is ostensibly the highest level that a faculty member can achieve short of an endowed professorship or going into university administration. The label is intended to recognize a career’s worth of good work and to validate excellence across all areas of the professorship. I don’t know about all of that, but I am deeply grateful for the recognition.
In addition to my P-12 experiences, I now have been a (small p) professor at five major research universities. They’ve all taught me something, good or bad, and I’ve honed my institutional survival instincts over the years. So much of the tenure and promotion process is a hoop-jumping game (How many peer-reviewed articles do I need? We won’t tell you… In which journals should I publish? The very best, most selective ones, of course…) and/or a political arena (Keep your head down… Don’t make any waves… Watch out for that person if they’re on your review committee…). My journey is not the only long, twisty, bumpy one in higher education (and, unfortunately, we lose too many faculty along the way). And, as longtime readers know, I’ve struggled mightily with the lack of engagement, interaction, and visibility of writing for academic audiences versus what I can accomplish in practitioner outlets, on my blog, with multimedia, on other social media platforms, etc. Every time I publish in a walled-garden, paywalled, inaccessible-but-peer-reviewed academic journal, it feels like I’m burying my thinking and writing in a deep hole. I’d much rather be working with educators, creating new resources, or sharing and interacting with others.
But somehow I made it through and checked all of the boxes necessary for the final hoop jump. I’m incredibly grateful for my colleagues at CU Denver and for the opportunity to do good work here. The School of Education and Human Development is a very special place and I’ve experienced nothing but good will and deep, caring support. I’m also grateful for all of you. I started to blog back in 2006 because I was desperate to find ‘my people’: folks who cared about the same things that I did and who were trying to dramatically change things for P-12 students and educators. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being my people. I learn more from you monthly than I’ve learned from an entire academic career’s worth of journal articles and research conferences. Most of all, I’m thankful for my family and some key supportive colleagues (you know who you are) who have had my back the entire way. Everyone should be lucky enough to have the support networks that I’ve had. I’m beyond blessed.
As the gentleman says in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, “I’m not dead yet!” This latest professional milestone is achieved and I’m looking forward to whatever lies ahead. I know you’ll be plotting and scheming right alongside me. I can’t wait.
Congratulations, Scott. What an incredible achievement. I hope you believe your non-traditional path only enriched your journey. I hope you find lots of different ways to celebrate the Capital P!!
Cheers!
Kerry
It did indeed, in so many unexpected ways. 🙂 Thanks, Kerry!
What an incredible journey bringing forth a well served Full Professor title!
Congratulations! So glad to be working with and learning from you.
Congratulations! That’s a major achievement and well deserved.
So what’s next? Admin? Given what I’ve read here, you really should be running a university (or at least a faculty) to bring it into the 21st century.
Ha ha! Thanks! I’ve got all kinds of things I want to do (most of which lean away from ‘research’ and toward helping schools and school leaders).
I appreciate the kind words, but I’m not sure I want any part of higher ed administration. At least not right now. P-12 is a big enough windmill to tilt at without also adding postsecondary. Might have to leave that one to others!
Woohoo! Amazing perseverance to finally get your capital P title!
Congratulations! I hope your family spoils you to celebrate this great honor!
Thanks for the kind words, friend. And for writing a book with me! 🙂
Blog on Garth, blog on!
Congratulations, Scott. Remember us little people while basking at the top. Hope you and family are well and keep blogging!
The little people, huh? Thanks for always making me laugh, Doug!
Congratulations, Scott! It’s been a few years since I was active in these comments, but I’m glad we’ve maintained our friendship over all these years!
Same, Russ, same. Have a great summer!
Congratulations, Scott. I had an equally long but less twisty path to get promoted to big P Professor this year. I have been at the same institution for 24 years, but it was never clear that I was ready to apply for promotion. In the last few years, we instituted mid-career workshops to talk to Associate Professors about going up for full. Those were very helpful, but the big push came when my Dean announced he was stepping down. Three of us decided that we wanted to get our applications endorsed by the Dean before he left, so we all went up and were successful. We are constantly fighting the mentality (in the institution and in ourselves) that you have to be a superstar to be promoted; you just have to meet the requirements.
David, congratulations on your own promotion! Woo hoo!
Nice job thinking about timing. My own Dean was instrumental in helping me think about when to apply as well.
Kudos to you for being recognized for your hard work and excellence. We could have a talk sometime about ‘the requirements.’ 😉
We follow the n+1 rule here. If you ask someone if you are ready to go up for promotion, the answer will always be: what you have is great; now you just need one more … Usually, the blank is filled in with an article, but it could be a committee chair position or a top-tier journal article or something else. And once you get that and ask the question again, the answer will be the same. During my stint as Department Chair (was that my one more), I tried to push back against the rule and encourage people to go up for promotion without telling them they needed one more thing.
Twenty-one years, three MACs, and a great career experience later. We were so lucky to have your instructional leadership and support. I think about that year frequently and know how much it formed me. Thanks and congratulations on the Big “P.” Keep us hardworking practitioners always in your plans, we need you, still.
You’re always so kind, Floy Ann. Thank you for the continued support back my direction. Hope all is well with you, friend. I promise to stay focused on P-12 schools and educators!