Outreach Activities as an Integral Part of Promotion and Tenure

Andrew E. Jackson; Sherion H. Jackson

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Conference: 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Publication Date: June 15, 2014
Start Date: June 15, 2014
End Date: June 18, 2014
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: College Industry Partnerships Division Poster Session
Tagged Division: College Industry Partnerships
Page Count: 9
Page Numbers: 24.965.1 - 24.965.9
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--22898
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/22898
Download Count: 491

Paper Authors

biography

Andrew E. Jackson East Carolina University

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Dr. Jackson serves as a Tenured, Full Professor in the Department of Technology Systems at ECU. He is a senior faculty member in the Industrial Engineering Technology (IET) program where he teaches a variety of IET courses, including: Production Systems Engineering and Production Planning, Engineering Economics, Human Factors Engineering, and Risk Assessment. His career spans 40 years in the fields of aviation, aerospace, defense contract engineering support, systems acquisition, academics, and systems engineering.

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biography

Sherion H. Jackson Grand Canyon Univeristy

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Sherion is a native Texan who currently makes her home in Eastern North Carolina. She earned her doctorate in Educational Leadership and Supervision from Arizona State University, and her BS in Liberal Studies and MA in Elementary Education, both from the University of Central Florida. In the role of educator over the past 30+ years, she has served as associate professor, online facilitator, educational consultant, SACS Reviewer, mentor, school superintendent, school principal, and elementary teacher for various school districts and universities across the United States. Her experience in higher education consists of scholarship, administrative responsibilities, and facilitation of graduate and undergraduate level courses using several, unique online learning platforms and face-to-face delivery methods. Sherion truly enjoys working with adults in the online learning environment. She has facilitated over 100 online graduate level classes and authored or co-authored more than 30 journal articles.

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Abstract

Outreach Activities as an Integral Part of Promotion and TenureAbstractPromotion and Tenure (P&T) at most four year universities in the United States focuses on threecentral themes: Teaching, Research (or Creative Activity), and Service. The ratio of eachcategory is typically established during the annual performance plan discussion which isgenerally held between the faculty member and the department chair (or in some cases with theCollege Dean). The cumulative body of work is reviewed when the faculty member submits theirpromotion and tenure portfolio for evaluation and assessment by the P&T committee and interimaccomplishments may be reviewed on a recurring basis, depending on the structure of the P&Tprocess within the organization. The Teaching category is fairly well understood and is markedby classroom productivity metrics and performance assessments by the chair, by academiccolleagues (peer evaluations), and sometimes by students in the form of student opinion surveys.Research or Creative Activity is also fairly well defined within a given academic disciplinealthough a wide variety of performance metrics may be used to define the expected levels andquality of the research contributions by faculty members across a given campus or universitysystem. The Service category is one that often leaves faculty members – especially junior facultymembers – with a false sense of security as they continue to build their academic portfolio. Manybelieve that if they serve the department, the college, the university, the discipline, and societyat-large, then they will succeed when it comes to their promotion and tenure process. As manyprospective faculty members have found, this is not the case in most instances.Faculty members are expected to serve their department, their college, their university, theirdiscipline, and society at-large – while at the same time – teaching high quality courses, andperforming original, ground-breaking research that will lead to substantial external fundingsources that will flow into the university. While this superman or superwoman may exist (insome limited capacity) on university campuses, it may be more realistic to envision a modelwhere a department or college has a mix of faculty members who – as a group – endeavor toachieve the high standards set by and for the university. In order to meet the demands ofcompeting (and oftentimes conflicting) requirements, an expanded definition of Service,Research or Creative Activity, and Teaching must be considered to include Service-Learning orOutreach opportunities to enhance the value of the faculty member’s contributions to theirchosen discipline. It is critically important to define how Outreach Activities can be used to feedand nurture the traditional P&T criteria in one or more of the primary categories.This paper will provide a working definition of Outreach Activities, in the context ofEngineering and Technology disciplines. The author will address the value-added role thatOutreach Activities could play within a junior faculty member’s P&T portfolio. Furthermore, amodel will be described wherein faculty members could collaborate with industryrepresentatives, government officials, and/or professional societies to define and enhanceoutreach opportunities for students and faculty. The proposed model could provide significantbenefits to industry sponsors who participate in the model, to faculty members and studentswithin the university system, and to the local economy where participating businesses andemployees were located.

Citation
Format

Jackson, A. E., & Jackson, S. H. (2014, June), Outreach Activities as an Integral Part of Promotion and Tenure Paper presented at 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Indianapolis, Indiana. 10.18260/1-2--22898

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -         Outreach Activities as an Integral Part of Promotion and TenureAbstractPromotion and Tenure (P&amp;T) at most four year universities in the United States focuses on threecentral themes: Teaching, Research (or Creative Activity), and Service. The ratio of eachcategory is typically established during the annual performance plan discussion which isgenerally held between the faculty member and the department chair (or in some cases with theCollege Dean). The cumulative body of work is reviewed when the faculty member submits theirpromotion and tenure portfolio for evaluation and assessment by the P&amp;T committee and interimaccomplishments may be reviewed on a recurring basis, depending on the structure of the P&amp;Tprocess within the organization. The Teaching category is fairly well understood and is markedby classroom productivity metrics and performance assessments by the chair, by academiccolleagues (peer evaluations), and sometimes by students in the form of student opinion surveys.Research or Creative Activity is also fairly well defined within a given academic disciplinealthough a wide variety of performance metrics may be used to define the expected levels andquality of the research contributions by faculty members across a given campus or universitysystem. The Service category is one that often leaves faculty members – especially junior facultymembers – with a false sense of security as they continue to build their academic portfolio. Manybelieve that if they serve the department, the college, the university, the discipline, and societyat-large, then they will succeed when it comes to their promotion and tenure process. As manyprospective faculty members have found, this is not the case in most instances.Faculty members are expected to serve their department, their college, their university, theirdiscipline, and society at-large – while at the same time – teaching high quality courses, andperforming original, ground-breaking research that will lead to substantial external fundingsources that will flow into the university. While this superman or superwoman may exist (insome limited capacity) on university campuses, it may be more realistic to envision a modelwhere a department or college has a mix of faculty members who – as a group – endeavor toachieve the high standards set by and for the university. In order to meet the demands ofcompeting (and oftentimes conflicting) requirements, an expanded definition of Service,Research or Creative Activity, and Teaching must be considered to include Service-Learning orOutreach opportunities to enhance the value of the faculty member’s contributions to theirchosen discipline. It is critically important to define how Outreach Activities can be used to feedand nurture the traditional P&amp;T criteria in one or more of the primary categories.This paper will provide a working definition of Outreach Activities, in the context ofEngineering and Technology disciplines. The author will address the value-added role thatOutreach Activities could play within a junior faculty member’s P&amp;T portfolio. Furthermore, amodel will be described wherein faculty members could collaborate with industryrepresentatives, government officials, and/or professional societies to define and enhanceoutreach opportunities for students and faculty. The proposed model could provide significantbenefits to industry sponsors who participate in the model, to faculty members and studentswithin the university system, and to the local economy where participating businesses andemployees were located.
AU  - Andrew E. Jackson
AU  - Sherion H. Jackson
CY  - Indianapolis, Indiana
DA  - 2014/06/15
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Outreach Activities as an Integral Part of Promotion and Tenure
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/22898
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--22898
ER  -