Tenure, now what?
April 9, 2008
As an academic librarian we are told from day one that we need to be working towards a very specific goal. This goal seems very far away and often times unattainable. Its mythical nature is both mysterious and entrancing. The goal? Tenure or your library’s version of same. We often realize in talking to faculty how much thoughts of this goal dominate their lives. They publish when, where, and how often they are told to and this process provides much impetus to their publication and research agendas. Academic librarians are often evaluated on different criteria than faculty. Service rather than publication, professional development rather than research.
Having recently applied for this mythical status myself I turned in my portfolio and then thought “now what?” So much of my career to this point has focused on achieving this goal, what is there after the fact? Tenure for librarians is a measure of accomplishment but it can also be a paralytic. I was reading an interesting article in Inside HigherEd about faculty salary compression and there was a comment that tenure can also be handcuffs holding you someplace. If I choose to leave MPOW my tenure may not be recognized by the new institution. If I had been thinking strategically I should have left my current position after two or three years and continued this tenure process elsewhere. However, strategic thinking is not my forte and I am happy that I may achieve this goal at my first workplace. I wouldn’t have been able to achieve this goal without their support and guidance.
As I think about leaving librarianship and eventually joining the ranks of faculty, tenure is something I need to ponder yet again. Am I better prepared having achieved this as a librarian? Will I have unrealistic expectations of support structures that will be available to me? Am I doomed to scale this same wall in different contexts in perpetuity? All questions that will not be easily answered or resolved but as my family will attest I never take the easy road. Once my tenure is “official” perhaps I will post a video like this KU faculty member celebrating his achievement of attaining tenure.
