Academe has many rites of passage. Among the most prestigious — and treacherous — is applying for promotion to full professor. If you apply early and succeed, you are a “star” scholar, but if you fail, you may be tagged as arrogant or, worse, as headed for the deadwood pool.
Ascending to the full-professor rank usually entails a decent pay increase and may involve some sort of public celebration. Some institutions sponsor lectures that showcase the achievements of the newly senior scholars. Generally speaking, most full professors reach this rank when they are in their mid- to late 40s.
In a faculty career, the stakes are clearly highest for the tenure decision, given that a no vote usually means, at a minimum, that you will have to vacate your position. The stakes are more complicated, yet still significant, for promotion to the top rank, and we’ll be exploring them in a series of columns. These two significant milestones in a faculty career differ in many ways:
- Whereas a favorable tenure vote signifies that the institution views you as a “keeper,” promotion to full professor signifies that you have amassed a record of exemplary teaching, influential scholarship, and effective service. Ultimately, granting full-professor status boils down to whether the profile of the applicant demonstrates a level of distinction that reflects positively on the institution — not just a keeper, but a luminary among equals.
- When you accept an assistant professorship, it comes with a specific decision point — a set date (usually six to seven years after hiring) by which you must seek tenure. By contrast, the decision about when to “go up” for full professor tends to be more loose. Many candidates elect to pursue the full rank as soon as they have achieved the minimum time required to make the case. Typically, it’s five years after earning tenure. Of course, it isn’t just about spending a certain number of years at the associate level. Rather, it’s: Have you used your time wisely to create a distinguished track record? You can choose a more leisurely pace and delay your application until your portfolio clearly establishes that you have met the criteria.
- The tenure process requires an up-or-down decision along with an exit strategy if the decision is unfavorable. By contrast, if your bid for full professors fails, you aren’t shown the door. You often may reapply for promotion when you can make a stronger case.
Early-career scholars often complain about the vagaries and secrecy of the tenure process. Unfortunately, on some campuses the promotion to full professor is just as opaque. Sure, at some institutions, the process and qualifications for promotion to full professor are clear: Reviewers may examine the candidate’s annual performance ratings, and guidelines may specify publication targets and evidence necessary to establish scholarly influence. Procedures may even articulate who should and should not write letters of support. However, at other places, the promotion process is shrouded in mystery.
In such cases, the decision of when to go up may require strategy. For example, we know of colleagues who watch and wait for the right mix of colleagues to be elected or appointed to the campus’s tenure-and-promotion committee before they decide to wade into what may be murky waters.
How should you determine if you are ready to take the plunge?
Understand both the written and the unwritten rules. Your institution’s faculty handbook should outline what sort of professional portfolio you need to apply for promotion. But unwritten rules often govern what you should have accomplished on the campus before you assemble your official portfolio. Some institutions want their senior professors to have headed key committees or served on high-profile searches for deans, provosts, or even presidents. Others want to be sure you are collegial — and recognized as such by your peers. Arguably the most important indicator tends to be a corpus of research that demonstrates valuable scholarly contributions.
Look at recent models. Who on your campus was promoted to the top faculty rank within, say, the past five years? How do you and your credentials stack up, compared with recent cases? Find peers who successfully navigated the process, and ask them to share their portfolios. Try (quietly) to find out whose bid for promotion fell short and why — those colleagues can serve as both guides and cautionary tales.
Seek advice in your department. Ask your chair and other senior colleagues privately if they think you are ready to make the move, which is a good way to discern if the department will support your goal. If their reaction is lukewarm, you’re unlikely to find stronger support from other reviewers at the college or university level. In sizing up your chances, be sure to gather feedback from not just close colleagues but those whom you suspect may oppose your promotion.
Take a critical look at your scholarly output. Has your production of worthwhile scholarship been consistent or sporadic? Have you carved out a clear research program in your field? Who uses and cites your work? Use impact statistics (we’re both in psychology, and the h-index and i10-index are popular in our field) to bolster your case. In some disciplines, success may depend on evidence of external research grants or publication of a book, monograph, or minimum number of articles, or both.
Make the best case for the quality of your teaching. Incorporate institutional values in your self-evaluation: If assessment, high-impact practices, inclusive teaching, or critical thinking rate highly with your administration or have a central role in campus mission statements, reflect those priorities in your application. If your student evaluations are consistently high, punctuated by teaching awards and nominations, you can easily make a persuasive case. However, consider other indicators of quality: Can students’ narrative comments affirm your profound effect on their learning? Do enrollments show robust interest in your courses? What evidence can you offer that you continuously try to improve your teaching? What efforts have you made to be inclusive and to support student success?
Pursue a thoughtful service agenda. The importance of service in promotion decisions will vary from campus to campus. In research-intensive settings, service may take a back seat to scholarship and grant production. At small, teaching-oriented colleges with an all-hands-on-deck philosophy, service takes on far greater significance. For promotion to full professor, you typically need to demonstrate effective leadership, whether the service transpires on or off the campus. The most effective strategy: Select service duties that inspire your passion, and make a long-term, high-energy investment in them. Scattershot service will not make the case that your leadership is worthy of promotion. Choose campus projects that will allow you to establish a good reputation among those who may be in a position to review your application. Be careful not to accept so many service requests that you compromise how much time you can devote to research and teaching, which, after all, will be deemed more important in this decision. Consider submitting letters of recommendation from colleagues who can attest to your abilities in this area, whether your service was on campus, in professional organizations, or in town. Such letters may serve as persuasive evidence of your commitment and leadership skills.
Avoid the collegiality off-ramp. Many institutions incorporate a trump card in this process, denying promotion if your personality or behavior is somehow problematic. A reputation for bullying, disrespectful behavior, questionable ethics, and wild disorganization or unreliability that generates additional work for others are among the characteristics that can derail your application.
Developing a persuasive portfolio is hard work. Can you set aside the time needed to generate the evidence that supports your claim for distinction? If you don’t have the time right now, it’s better to wait than to submit a sloppy application. If you are ready to pull together your case, scrupulously follow whatever official guidance is available. Some reviewers are sticklers for detail and look for any opportunity to render a negative vote. Avoid getting rejected because you didn’t follow instructions.
If you apply (or reapply) and receive the desired promotion to full professor, pop open the champagne and celebrate. Just remember that returning Roman conquerors were reminded during their parades that “all glory is fleeting.” And so it is: Your research, teaching, and service commitments will all be there waiting for you on Monday morning. However, if you are unsuccessful, future installments of this series will provide some insight into negative promotion decisions and advice about how to recover.
