Author: ksuchor

Maricela Guzman: Case #3

Characterization of Institution

Research I

Characterization of Department

Ph.D. granted in English
Ph.D. granted in Composition/Rhetoric
M.A .granted in English
M.A. granted in Composition/Rhetoric
B.A. granted in English

How would this case turn out in your department?  At your university/college?

I don’t think Dr. Guzman would have received tenure here. As a Research I University; the expectations are higher than 6 published articles and conference presentations and a CD-Rom that isn’t clearly connected to her institutional position. Much would depend on the reputation of the journals in which she published, the length and substance of the articles, and the other aspects of her profile—particularly how well the writing center and the program in technology and culture are doing..

What are the Department Chair’s responsibilities toward Guzman?  Which did she/he fulfill?  Fail?

If Guzman is in her fifth year, her Head’s responsibilities towards her are clear: to do what she has indicated she would do—support her tenure case. But the unknown here is what happened after the third-year review. Was Guzman told that she needed to publish in areas that are more clearly recognized as English Studies (whatever that might mean—since the scenario doesn’t indicate the kinds of places she published, it’s not clear if the problem is with where she’s publishing or how people interpret where she’s publishing)? Was her teaching load protected? It should have been, since running a writing center is significant work. 

Which did the Chair fulfill? Hard to say, given the lack of information about the Head’s response to the third year review in years four and five.  Fail? Again, hard to say. If Guzman were publishing in Computers and Composition, The Writing Lab Newsletter, and other comp/rhetoric journals, then the Head should have dismissed the criticisms of the Tenure and Promotion Committee and in fact worked to educate them.

What are the Personnel Committee’s responsibilities toward Guzman?  Which did they fulfill?  Fail?

This is a pretty institutionally specific question, depending on the role of the committee, the frequency of reviews, etc. Do untenured faculty get annual reviews? (They do here.) If so, Guzman should have been advised about what she needed to do to improve her chances for tenure, and her next two reviews should have told her how well she was doing. If there are not annual reviews, the chair of the Tenure and Promotion Committee should have certainly advised Guzman about the concerns raised by the Head.  If the committee conversation was only praise, we have to assume the Head’s information about faculty’s dissatisfaction with Guzman’s scholarship must have come from elsewhere than the T&P committee,  so then it would be the Head’s responsibility to advise Guzman. 

Which did they fulfill?  Fail?  There’s inadequate information in the scenario to answer these questions. We don’t know what the chair of the committee did or didn’t do. .

What are the responsibilities of the Dean?  Which did she/he fulfill?  Fail?

The Dean isn’t mentioned in this scenario, so I won’t offer a reply to these questions.

What are Guzman’s responsibilities?  Which did she fulfill?  Fail?

Her responsibilities were to do the job for which she was hired, which it seems she has done. In addition, she has some responsibility for finding out what the tenure expectations are and how the work she’s doing in her first few years fits, though I think most of that responsibility lies with the Head and Tenure and Promotion Committee, which should be particularly attentive to the work of untenured faculty working in relatively new and interdisciplinary areas like technology and writing. 

Which did she fulfill? She’s certainly publishing and she’s presenting at appropriate conferences.  I would assume that at an institution like hers, her profile looks pretty strong, so I’m not surprised she’s likely to get tenure.   Fail?  Well, it depends on what kind of advice she’s been given. From the brief description given in the scenario, the CD-Rom project sounds like a mistake. Not because it’s a CD-Rom, but because it’s about Mars, not writing and technology or writing centers.

What went wrong?  What went right?

What appears to have gone wrong is that Guzman wasn’t given enough information and guidance about what would be valued and what wouldn’t at tenure time. It’s very hard to persuade tenure committees that someone whose profile looks unusual is doing what he or she should be. Unfortunately, untenured faculty have to do work that fits expectations, at least to some extent.

Again, if Guzman’s publications were in composition or composition and technology journals, then the problem isn’t hers; it’s the department’s, and the Head and T&P chair should be doing what they can to educate people. And Guzman’s being dispirited is something that went wrong. The work she wants to do in racism and gender and technology is consistent both with her connection to the technology and culture program and to work being done in composition studies. If she feels it’s not going to be valued, then something is definitely wrong with the place she’s working. 

What went right? Guzman’s likely to get tenure, and her Head is going to support her.

Jared Johns: Case #1

Characterization of Institution

Research I

Characterization of Department

Ph.D. granted in English
Ph.D. granted in Composition/Rhetoric
M.A. granted in English
M.A.  granted in Composition/Rhetoric
B.A. granted in English

How would Jared Johns’ case turn out in your department?  At your university/college?

Probably very much like it did here—the Promotion and Tenure committee would be very concerned about John’s low number of refereed publications and would want the chair to send him a strong message about the need to focus his efforts on such publications. If he were to come up for promotion and tenure with this profile, he’d likely not receive it at the college or university level.

What are the Department Chair’s responsibilities toward Johns?  Which did she/he fulfill?  Fail?

The chair’s obligations to Johns include making the criteria for promotion and tenure clear to him and to be sure he understands, early in his career, which of his work will be helpful and which will not. His conference with Johns in his first year was a step in the right direction, since he offered him specific advice about his research and teaching, but it appears that there was not as much follow-up as there could be. It also appears that Johns was given quite a bit of very time-consuming service work, and that might not have have been fair to him, despite the released time he received for it.

What are the Personnel  Committee’s responsibilities toward Johns?  Which did they fulfill?  Fail?

It appears that the Personnel Committee at this institution does not do annual reviews of untenured faculty. If that’s the case, then perhaps the committee did what it was required to do. However, I think it’s critical for untenured faculty to be reviewed much more frequently by those who will vote on their promotion and tenure. By the fourth year, there’s little that can be done to turn around a situation like Johns’. In this case, the thorough review Johns received came two years too late to help him. It also seems to me that the committee may have placed too much emphasis on traditional teaching and not enough on Johns’ work with students, both formally on graduate students’ committees and informally in the computer facility.

What are the responsibilities of the Dean?  Which did she/he fulfill?  Fail?

Sorry, I don’t see any references to the Dean in this scenario. And I don’t think that during the probationary period, Deans typically have much involvement with untenured faculty. That’s mostly a departmental responsibility.

What are Johns’ responsibilities?  Which did she/he fulfill?  Fail?

Johns’ responsibilities include understanding the criteria on which he will be evaluated for promotion and tenure and focusing his work so that it dovetailed with those criteria. He probably should have understood that he needed to publish his work in the kinds of forums that are accepted and recognized at his institution, since it’s very difficult to be a “break-through” case. He also had the responsibility to work hard to improve his teaching, since it was made clear to him that there were concerns about its quality. Johns did seem to fulfill his responsibilities in terms of administering the computer facility and working with graduate students. He certainly seemed to be a good colleague—one who shared his expertise willingly with his peers and students. He was clearly establishing a national reputation among people in his area of expertise. 

What went wrong?  What went right?

Two things went wrong. First, the department did not seem to give Johns the kind of detailed “warning” about his status until too late. Second, Johns, like a number of new faculty I’ve seen, didn’t seem to understand that ultimately his service contributions and his non-tradtional publications would not help him earn tenure and promotion. He seemed not to understand how conservative most universities are—looking for traditional peer-reviewed publications and teaching evaluations that are at least average for the institution and the courses. Though Johns’ chair did seem to talk to him about these issues early in his career, there did not appear to be enough regular subsequent evaluation and/or mentoring.

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Jared Johns: Case #1

Characterization of Institution

Research II, State University

Characterization of Department

Ph.D. granted in English Studies
M.A. granted in English
M.A. granted in Writing
B.A. granted in English

How would Jared Johns’ case turn out in your department?  At your university/college?

It would be a very close decision, but I think Johns would not be tenured in my department.  If the department did recommend tenure, I’m fairly certain that the college committee would deny tenure and the provost would support that committee.

What are the Department Chair’s responsibilities toward Johns?  Which did she/he fulfill?  Fail?

The chair’s main responsibilities are to provide a very clear sense of standards for tenure, promotion, and merit evaluation and to give Johns input on how well he was proceeding.  The chair also has responsibilities for the overall quality of the department’s programs, making sure that courses are being taught and faculty are performing professionally in accordance with the department’s mission and curriculum, policies, and procedures.

The chair seemed appropriately to intervene with the earlier warning signs about undergraduate teaching, though he could have set up a more formal mentorship during the second or third year; it’s unclear if the department has a WPA, but that would be an obvious colleague to serve as mentor.

The chair did not seem to give very clear guidance regarding Johns’s publishing record.  The end of four years is too late to be telling someone they’re publishing in the wrong places.  If Johns even reported annually where he was sending things for consideration, the chair could provide some guidance.

The chair and DGS appropriately conveyed to Johns that he was doing too much thesis and dissertation work.  Given this amount of teaching (and such work is a form of teaching) and given the pressing demands of the department computer facility, the chair might have explored a further reduction of course load.  This would be further warranted if Johns is spending a great deal of time consulting with his colleagues.  Coordinating 30 volunteers in the computer facility with what appears to be a very limited budget is a demanding position.  The chair has responsibilities to pursue additional funding for that facility.

Finally, and minorly, the chair handled the parent complain to the President inappropriately, I believe.  The chair should have written to the president to explain pedagogies in the course, and he should have invited Johns to write as well.  The president could choose or not choose to share that correspondence with the parent.  I note that—since Johns’ teaching has been described as outside the local conventions for the course (even if the course does not include “teaching grammar”)—he is in a weaker position than he might be.

One other responsibility of the chair.  Upon hiring or during the first year, the chair should determine whether the nature of Johns’ duties qualify him for the same criteria as other faculty members or whether the MLA Guidelines in “Making Faculty Work Visible” or the WPA guidelines on “The Intellectual Work of Writing Administration” ought to be invoked to modify the general guidelines.

What are the Personnel  Committee’s responsibilities toward Johns?  Which did they fulfill?  Fail?

The PC’s responsibilities are much the same as the chair’s, though the chair has more agency to act.  The committee did not seem especially qualified to judge Johns’ work, though I would tend to agree with their assessment.  To their credit, they got outside reviewers.  Their advice to Johns’ seemed appropriate even if arrived at sort of bumblingly.

As with the chair, I’d say that the end of four years is fairly late in the game for this kind of feedback.  Three years would be better.

Given the questions about teaching, the PC might recommend a teaching portfolio so that Johns’ can make the best possible case for his teaching and the committee can make a more informed judgment. From the sketchy things provided, I think the committee is right to be concerned about teaching.

What are the responsibilities of the Dean?  Which did she/he fulfill?  Fail?

The Dean is not very obvious in this scenario nor necessarily does she need to be.  She ought to help departments and faculty acquire the resources needed for their work (and the computer facility seems to be lacking), and she ought to make certain that department and university guidelines for P and T are being followed.  She ought, finally, to advise the chair whether any special profiles for a tenure and promotion case are available for someone like Johns.

What are Johns’ responsibilities?  Which did she/he fulfill?  Fail?

Johns needs to understand the department’s mission and curriculum and its policies and procedures for tenure and promotion.  He needs to be able to represent his work in teaching, research, and service to his colleagues in ways that they can understand and value.  He also has responsibilities to his own students and to the profession at large.

Clearly Johns has worked hard and in ways that suggest someone vitally involved with the profession and committed to advancing technology and writing issues.  He has not always been astute in how he deploys his time, and he needs to listen to those who advise him to back away from certain projects at least until he has built the kind of scholarly profile that stands him in good stead.

What went wrong?  What went right?

There have been review processes that provided Johns feedback on his performance, and these have come before the tenure decision.  Good.  Perhaps they could have come even earlier.

Also, the chair needs carefully to analyze Johns’ service load; if circumstances just do not allow additional modifications of load or evaluative criteria, the chair needs to convey forcefully the consequences, for example, of “I just can’t say no to graduate students” for Johns’ future.

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A conversation with Jim Webber, author of “Toward an Artful Critique of Reform: Responding to Standards, Assessment, and Machine Scoring” (12:34).

Jim Webber is assistant professor of English at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he teaches academic, professional, and public writing. He is the author of An Alternate Pragmatism for Going Public (forthcoming from Utah State UP).

 

 

 

 

A conversation with Hannah J. Rule, author of “Writing’s Rooms” (17:21).

Hannah J. Rule is an assistant professor of English in rhetoric and composition at the University of South Carolina. Her research and teaching focus on writing pedagogies, writing process theories and history, and embodiment. Her scholarship, focused on pedagogical questions related to freewriting, multimodality, voice, writing environments, and rhetorical grammar, also appears in venues including Composition Forum, CEA Critic, and Composition Studies.