Posted by Sima Parisay on November 16, 200 at 16:58:07:
In Reply to: a right to say no? posted by Deirdre Lashgari on October 16, 200 at 17:18:05:
: One of the questions that perpetually nagged me when I was reaching toward tenure:
: "Is it really necessary to say yes to everything?" There is tremendous unspoken pressure to do that, to the detriment of physical and emotional health. In addition, running to conferences, putting on workshops, writing articles, mentoring students, serving on a multitude of time-consuming committees -- rewarding as they can be in moderation -- can when overdone get in the way of developing a balanced, confident, effective mode of teaching.
: For those of you working toward tenure -- what specific sorts of support would be most useful? How can those of us past the tenure hurdle better assist you in achieving a balance that's appropriate and sane -- and will still qualify you for tenure?
: At the same time, how can we collectively resist the catch-22: as
: assistant profs do more and more to get tenure (in part because the expectations are not clearly laid out), the undefined level of
: expectations on the part of admin & others goes up -- threatening in many ways our ability to maintain a genuine learning community on this campus.
I would like to share my experiences from seven years ago, when
I first started at Cal Poly Pomona. I had immigrated to America
five years prior to that and was just graduating with my Ph.D.
from USC. This job was my first full time employment in the US.
I also had to take care of my family while commuting for
three hours a day during the first year. You can imagine the
worries I had and the pressure I was under. But I was somewhat
lucky and I was van pooling for the first year. The vanpool
provided me with a very good opportunity to get necessary
information about Cal Poly and to become acquainted with good
friends. One such person was Dr. Parvin Abyaneh who was in
the vanpool group and my unofficially mentor. I felt that I
had a group of people outside my department to go to for help,
mainly when I needed spiritual or emotional support.
I believe having a mentor at the beginning helps a lot.
That is why I would like to help new members of the Cal Poly
faculty and be a mentor as much as I can. I definitely would
have appreciated a lighter teaching load for the first two
quarters, until I adjust to the new work environment.
Furthermore, it would have given me an opportunity to benefit
from all the workshops and activities put together by the
faculty center.