Opportunities for Mid-Career Faculty
Mid-career faculty have achieved tenure and are typically within seven years of having been at that rank. These faculty are indispensable to the institution. They represent the largest number of long-term faculty in the American professoriate and form a connection between faculty generations. Mid-career faculty often fill essential instructional, administrative, and citizenship roles. They can undertake additional service and administrative responsibilities, which can create changes about limited potential for growth in their scholarship and a lack of preparation for administrative roles.
Montana State University has a subscription to NCFDD resources*. The following webinars
hosted on the NCFDD site focus on mid-career topics.
Navigating Faculty Career Transitions: Getting to Mid-Career and Beyond
“The focus of this session is on helping faculty develop a plan to navigate their faculty career, with a focus on the needs of mid-career faculty. The presentation will discuss some typical barriers that faculty face at mid-career and share recommendations for navigating career transitions…”
Moving from Associate to Full Professor
“In this webinar, I’ll share some of the common mistakes that mid-career faculty make, as well as some of the strategies I used to get myself ready to go up for promotion from associate to full professor. Ultimately, this webinar will help demystify the road to full professor for mid career faculty who find themselves stuck and unsure how to move forward towards advancing their careers.”
What I Wished I Would Have Known After Earning Tenure
“Earning tenure represents a major milestone and accomplishment! For many, it also represents an important transition to a different career stage with new opportunities, challenges, and responsibilities. In this session, a panel of associate and full professors from different disciplines and institutions will share their experience, insight, and advice to help support the success of soon-to-be and newly tenured faculty members.”
Making the Case: Preparing Your Dossier for Promotion to Full Professor Series
Coming Soon!
This is not meant to be an exhausted list of reading on this topic. We will update
this page as new materials are identified.
Articles
Gayles, J.G. (2023). Moving from Associate to Full Professor: Advice and Lessons Learned Retrieved fromhttps://www.ncfdd.org/junenews19
Mills, N. (2000). Now that I’m tenured, where do I go from here? The vitality of mid-career faculty. Council on Undergraduate Research Quarterly, 20 (4),181–183.
Baldwin, R. G., DeZure, D., Shaw, A., & Moretto, K. (2008). Mapping the terrain of mid-career faculty at a research university: Implications for faculty and academic leaders. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 40(5), 46–55.
Baldwin, R. G., Lunceford, C. J., & Vanderlinden, K. E. (2005). Faculty in the middle years: Illuminating an overlooked phase of academic life. The Review of Higher Education, 29, 97-118.
Buch, K., Huet, Y., Rorrer, A., & Roberson, L. (2011). Removing the barriers to full professor: A mentoring program for associate professors. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 43(6), 38–45.
Chambers, C. & Freeman, Jr. S. (2020). To Be Young, Gifted, and Black: The relationship between age and race in earning full professorships. Review of Higher Education, 43(3), 811–836. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/751558
Crawford, C., Burns, R., & McNamara, R. H. (2012). Promotion to full professor: Moving beyond tenure and associate professorship. Journal of Criminal Justice Education, 23(1), 41-64.
Crow, N. (2014). Terminal associate professors, past and present. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.chronicle.com/article/Terminal-AssociateProfessors/145537
Flaherty, C. (2017). Mid-career professors need love, too. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/01/26/research-mid-career-professorsmakes-case-support-after-tenure
Gardner, S. K., & Blackstone, A. (2013). “Putting in your time”: Faculty experiences in the process of promotion to professor. Innovative Higher Education, 38(5), 411–425.
Geisler, C., Kaminski, D., & Berkley, R. (2007). The 13+ club: An index for understanding, documenting, and resisting patterns of non-promotion to full professor. Feminist Formations, (19)3, 145–162.
Jaschik, S. (2012). Unhappy associate professors. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/06/04/associate-professors-less-satisfiedthose-other-ranks-survey-finds
Jaschik, S. (2010). Different paths to full professor. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/03/05/osu
McFarLand, L. A. (2004). The path to becoming a full professor. The Industrial Organizational Psychologist, 41(1), 83-87.
O'Meara, K., Terosky, A. L., & Neumann, A. (2008). Faculty careers and work lives: A professional growth perspective. ASHE higher education report, 34(3), 1-221.
Williams, A. J. (2016). The uncertain path to full professor: Vague criteria may signal to some faculty members that promotion to the top is out of their reach. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Uncertain-Pathto-Full/235304
Wilson, R. (2012). Why are associate professors so unhappy? The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-Are-AssociateProfessors/132071/
Gayles, J.G. (2023). Moving from Associate to Full Professor: Advice and Lessons Learned Retrieved fromhttps://www.ncfdd.org/junenews19
Books and Book Chapters
Manigault-Bryant, L.S. et al., (2018). Getting Over the Hump: Continued Professional Development for Mid-Career Faculty, In Success After Tenure: Supporting Mid-Career Faculty, edited by Baker et al., (2018), 202-220.
Baker, V. (2019). Charting our path to full: A guide for women associate professors. Rutgers University Press.
Would you be willing to share your advice and connect with early career faculty? We are always looking for mentors for ourFaculty Mentoring Program. If you are interested, email cfe@montana.edu or submit a mentor survey to let us know what areas you are interested in mentoring.
Fill out the Mentor questionnaire
Join a Writing Group
The Center for Faculty Excellence created writing groups using a research-based model beginning Spring 2013 and they have been extremely successful! We will conduct an information session at the beginning of each semester on the model we have used and put people into groups.
Email cfe@montana.edu if you are interested in joining a group.
Each year the Center hosts a workshop for candidates to connect with the University RTP Committee member from your college and talk about how to create your dossier for promotion. Keep an eye out for these sessions in late March or early April.
Best Practices in Assembling a Retention, Tenure & Promotion Dossier
Strong mentorship has been linked to enhanced mentee productivity, self-efficacy, career satisfaction, and is an important predictor of the academic success of scientists in training.