Yeah - Tenure

I got my tenure confirmation letter this afternoon!

(For non-academics this is a really big deal because there are horror stories/urban myths around of people getting denied tenure very late in the process. I've had my fingers crossed since I sent out my portfolio around Labor Day.)

I feel pretty vindicated by this (there is a Firesign Theatre routine where an egotist shouts "let me hear it for me" which pretty much sums up my feelings right now). The reason is that I got tenure once before in a Ph.D. granting department in a research university. I got that on the strength of publications, Ph.D. lectures, and dissertation sheparding. I gave that up in 2000 to make a lifestyle move - one that necessitated going to a smaller, less prestigious school. Here I got tenure on the basis of undergraduate teaching, university service, and collegiality. My point being that I will never win a Nobel Prize, but I try very hard to be a well-rounded and professional colleague - the arrogance comes quite naturally - and it's now been confirmed that I'm doing OK.

Comments

[Adam]

COGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!! That is awesome.

[EcoDude]

"For non-academics this is a really big deal because there are horror stories/urban myths around of people getting denied tenure very late in the process."

By very late in the process, do you mean after the department level (i.e. college level), or at some higher administrative level? Should poeple who get positive votes at the department level breathe a sigh of relief?

Congratulations...and remember, tenure means you can celebrate any way YOU want to!

[Dave Tufte]

My feeling about this is that the ultimate granting of tenure is like a geometric process. The probability is (1-P) that you will be shot down at the departmental level, and P that you won't be. That follows at the next level, so that the probablity is P-squared that you make it past two levels.

So, the real problem is the number of levels. It's ungodly, but here there are 9 of them. Some of them are probably automatic, but that isn't an easy thing to assume until the process is over.