Blazing New Trails - Connexions

326 CRITICAL ISSUES IN EDUCATION LEADERSHIP PREPARATION
one respondent implied “[I am simply] providing avenues and or ideas for potential service
opportunities.”
Modeling. The concept of modeling was also presented as a way existing faculty
member could assist newly placed assistant professors in understanding the importance of
service in the acquisition of tenure. Modeling behaviors, work ethics, and professionalism for
junior faculty members allows tenured faculty not only an opportunity to exemplify the
essence of the professorship but also embody the importance of serving the higher education
community.
The responding professors also referred to modeling as a means to help junior faculty
become acquainted with the how to become involved in service projects. Boreen et al. (2000)
suggested that the concept of modeling by a mentor helps to provide practical experiences that
exemplify the concepts of service. They continue to support this frame of thought by adding,
“[as mentors] we offer invaluable service to our profession” (p. 2). Modeling also included
being cognizant of junior faculty and their need for service opportunities by vacating
committee positions so that new faculty could obtain required tenure service and bringing
them along to meetings that may be of interest to them were ways in which many professors
felt they were able to “give back to the institution.”
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
For newly hired assistant professors, understanding the structure of the tenure process
should be developed early in their careers with the help and guidance from existing faculty.
The traditional areas for tenure (scholarship, teaching, and service) in which a professor must
contribute time, effort, energy, and productivity are constant from university to university.
However, differences do arise when attempting to qualify and quantify each of the areas
associated with tenure and promotion. For many new junior faculty members, these
differences could become problematic as they attempt to define and seek ways to fulfill the
necessary obligations for each area.
The support and assistance they receive from existing faculty could be the keys to
helping novice faculty meet the tenure requirements especially in the area of service.
Therefore, the foci of this study were to define service at the university level, help clarify the
importance of service as it relates to the acquisition of tenure, and examine ways in which
senior faculty could assist and mentor junior faculty with service opportunities
The quantitative data revealed that, for the majority of the respondents, service was
only somewhat significant at their universities. Understandably, scholarship (83.9%) and
teaching (65.6%) were found to be of significant importance. While 63.5% of the professors
said that service was somewhat significant, 40.6% also stated that they only devoted 25% of
their time toward service endeavors. A disconnect then exists between the significance of
tenure in relation to service and the time allocated for service endeavors. If in fact professors
are aware of the significance of service, the time devoted to this area is still minimal as
compared to scholarship and teaching. This leads to the supposition, as supported by Whicker
et al. (1993), that any activity centered on the service requirement for tenure should be more
subjective in nature, measureable, and ample enough to warrant the acquisition of tenure. It
seems that this disconnect would suggest that it is important for junior faculty to become very
aware of the tenure and promotion guidelines in order to help them create a plan of how and
what to focus on as they work toward gaining tenure.