Faculty Notes: It Won't Be Easy..It Will Be Worth It |
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Earning tenure at 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 is not easy鈥攊t鈥檚 a six-year, comprehensive audition for a teaching position 鈥攂ut we certainly hope the process is worth it.
Tenure-track professors go through a fairly rigorous review during their second year at the College鈥攁 time when pedagogical questions are asked and answered and when teaching styles are beginning to take shape.
During the fourth year, they undergo a thorough review by department and division chairs, students, and the academic dean. Their personal scholarship is scrutinized, as well.
In the sixth year, candidates submit an portfolio encompassing course syllabi and assessments, personal scholarship, letters of recommendation, committee work, and just about anything else that may reflect a professor鈥檚 time at 新澳门六合彩开奖直播. Interviews with colleagues and students are conducted, and in early December the president and academic dean make the determination.
If granted tenure, a professor is promoted from assistant to associate professor, which is usually followed by a sabbatical leave that allows for more aggressive work on scholarship or the development of courses.
This year, all four professors up for tenure at 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 were granted promotions to associate professor: Jennifer Abbott in rhetoric, Michelle Rhoades in history, William Turner in mathematics and computer science, and Rick Warner in history.
All four are excellent scholars. Better still, all are wildly popular with the students at 新澳门六合彩开奖直播. And at a place that values good teaching above all else, the student connection is the most important relationship that develops.
Jennifer Abbott came to 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 after earning her Ph.D. at Penn State University and her undergraduate degree from Cal Poly. Abbott is remarkably skilled at developing a very focused, seminar-style conversation among the students.
Michelle Rhoades earned her bachelor鈥檚 degree in French from the University of Arizona and earned her Ph.D. in history from the University of Iowa. She鈥檚 currently doing original research in gender and cultural history, specifically related to French prostitutes during World War I.
In the classroom, she is known as a no-nonsense history professor who constantly challenges students to hone their critical thinking skills. She seems less interested in having her students memorize dates and places and more interested in their critical analysis of history and the historians who chronicled it. Professor Rhoades asks her students to deconstruct history鈥攖o go to primary source documents鈥攖o learn at a much deeper level.
Rick Warner took a non-traditional path to the 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 classroom. He came to 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 in 1999 to teach Latin American history, but he鈥檇 spent time in a number of non-teaching jobs, including as a professional chef, later earning his Ph.D. from the University of California-Santa Cruz.
Professor Warner may be the poster professor for student-faculty engagement. It鈥檚 a safe bet that if there鈥檚 a football game, play, or concert involving students, Professor Warner will be there. And when he鈥檚 not working with 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 students, he鈥檚 on the road with the Admissions Office recruiting future 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 men.
Will Turner received his bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degrees from Iowa State University and his Ph.D. from North Carolina State. What makes Turner special is his keen interest in his students and the way he pushes them to max out their potential. He was also a driving force behind 新澳门六合彩开奖直播鈥檚 Summer Institute in Algebra, which brings to campus some of the nation鈥檚 top undergraduate mathematics students for an eight-week program.
Warner calls tenure an affirmation.
"When tenure is awarded at 新澳门六合彩开奖直播 College, the commu-nity is expressing trust鈥攖rust that the professor will continue to bring all of her or his skills into the classroom each day, trust that we will continue to stay active in the scholarly community, but most importantly, trust that the professor will continue to be a good fit for the community. As we know from the Gentleman鈥檚 Rule, trust is precious. Tenure is precious."
Turner appreciates the accep-tance tenure represents.
"I feel as if I have finally found a home," he says. "I especially appreciate the liberal arts environment and the way students, faculty, and staff interact to discuss almost any topic at any time. I would have never considered attending a place like this as an undergraduate, and now I think that attitude was a mistake."
"It feels like a big vote of confidence," Abbott says. "I鈥檓 looking forward to many more years of teaching and researching at the College."
Sounds as though that slogan got it about right: "It won鈥檛 be easy鈥t will be worth it."*
鈥擩im Amidon 鈥�87
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