The Future Professoriate
FE 607
Introduction
Jeff McDonnell
Dept. Forest Engineering, Resources and Mgmt.
Oregon State University
Acknowledgements
• Don Siegel, Syracuse
University
• Guru and
brightest/funniest
guy I know….
• Check out his
cookbook
Why this class
• Know this reality now and start on a path
that will ensure success
• To demystify academia and show what
motivates people in different positions in
the university
• Like making sausage…..
It works like this
Everyone involved has their own evil master
plan…..knowing this a priori helps
enormously
Why this class?
• The university is a highly political place
– Old joke
• Why is competition so severe: because the stakes are so low!
• The brightest people often aren’t the ones who
get farthest ahead
• It’s a game and there are some rules
– There’s also networking, schmoozing and other sordid
details (that we’ll discuss)
• This class will explore the written (and largely
unwritten) rules of the game
This course
• Four meetings
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How to get an academic job
How to get tenure
How to publish
How to get grants
• Readings
– Chronicle of Higher Education reprints
– Books on the subject
• Discussions
– Informal, Open and candid, Honest (brutally), Personal
– Think of it as group therapy!
Why these topics?
• When I give talks at universities—these are
always the topic of discussion over beer!
• My experiences and the experiences of my PhD
students and post docs have shown these to be NB
• When I do editing work for journals—seems that
same issues appear over and over
• My recent Committee of Visitor review of NSF—
seems that some inside knowledge could help
• My P & T committee work has shown that there
are some simple things people should know (that
no one in administration will ever tell you)
How to get an academic job
October 16
• PhD as a launching pad
– Things that can be done while still a student to separate you from
the 100 other applicants
• Why Post Docs are so helpful
– A time to crank and become a idea generator
– An apprenticeship in academia (without distractions)
• The letter, CV (and teaching statement)
– How search committees operate
• The academic interview
– A personality contest
– The seminar: not an AGU talk!
– What are the people who interview you looking for?
• Negotiating the job
– Salary, start-up, teaching, lab space, student support, summer
salary
– Who has the money and power to make decisions?
How to get tenure
October 30
• The plight of an untenured Assistant Professor
• You are now running a small business
– What your Dean and VP for Research want
– What your Dept. Head wants
– What’s best for YOU
• You as an hydrological Olympic athlete
– How much time to spend working out, er writing grants?
• Managing the madness
– How to say no gracefully
– Approaches to MS vs PhD students vs Post Docs
– Committees: Something that can suck the life (and time) out of
you
• What extracurricular work should you do (and not do)
– Tenure is essentially about your national reputation after 6 years
• The P&T dossier and making a case that is undeniable
How to publish
November 13
• Writing a paper
– The top-down approach
– Story boards, idea brand identity and structural formula focused
on status quo, what’s wrong with status quo and how you go
beyond it
– What journals?
• Reviewing
– Why it is SO useful, how many should you review, …?
– As a pathway to becoming an Associate editor
• How journals work
– What motivates editors, what aggravates reviewers
• It’s a numbers game
– ISI, H-Index, and all the other indices
How to win grants
November 20
• An inside look at NSF
– Hallmarks of a winning NSF proposal (completely different
writing to a journal article)
– How the review process works
– The Panel
– Interacting with the Program Director
• Why visiting NSF in person early on is SO important
• Other Federal agencies
– USDA, NASA, USGS, DOE
• State and local agencies
– The good, the bad and the ugly
• What is good money and what is bad money
– For your time, your reputation, your program
– Grants as stock portfolios: diversity key
• How to leverage your grant success at the university
– Know how this pays bills
Short articles in the Chronicle of
Higher Education (2008)
Also Read
• Kennedy, D. (1997). Academic Duty. Harvard University
Press, 310p.
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To teach
To mentor
To serve
To discover
To publish
To tell the truth
To reach beyond the walls
To change
• Other good books:
– Moo, Jane Smiley
– An untenured professor, John Kenneth Galbraith
– Countless others……..
What you’ll begin to appreciate
• Time management is everything
• Demonstrated enthusiasm helps
overcome other shortcomings
• People skills help enormously
– Being comfortable speaking
extemporaneously
• Being a professor is being:
– An idea generator and writer
– A small business owner and company
manager
• Success is easier if you go narrow
Introductions
• You
• Your field of study (department)
• Your career stage (new/old PhD student,
post doc, Assistant Prof….)
• What you would like me to cover beyond
that already discussed?