career advice: tenure salary/sabbatical

[Johanna Rubba]

Hi, Shannon,

The first thing I would do is be certain that you meet the requirements for tenure and promotion. These can be very nebulous, and, if not written down, difficult  to discover. If you have close friends or a mentor who is tenured, they may be able to help. At Cal Poly, our college has specific requirements for publication,  and they are written down. Other colleges in the U are not so specific, and tenure candidates stay on tenterhooks through the review process.

The second thing I would do -- and I don't want to be overly discouraging about the process -- is not rely totally on former reviews to assure tenure and/or promotion. In spite of a fine post-tenure review, I was denied promotion to Full Professor, and had to file a grievance to get it rectified. Once again, close friends, mentors, and other faculty with a lot of experience at your college would be good guides. If your faculty has a union, immediately make an appointment with your chapter president or your faculty rights specialist; these people will have institutional memory of any possible difficulties with tenure and promotion.

As to salary, you need to find what the official policy is, if there is one written down. In the Cal State system, the fixed salary raise for tenure and promotion is 7.5%, but it is possible, and has happened, for a professor to negotiate a higher raise if they have special accomplishments or (most effectively) an offer of a better salary or position at another institution. Once again, the union might help, though this is less out of their bailiwick, but there's always a grapevine. If you teach at a public institution in a state with transparency laws (like CA), you can study the salary history of any public employee; the admin can throw obstacles your way, but they cannot outright refuse you; yet again, if you have a union, they generally have this information and should not hesitate to give you access to it.

I really don't want to make you unduly frightened of this process; if you have good student evaluations and a good publication record, there should be no problem.

Best of luck, and feel fee to send further questions!

Johanna

Dr. Johanna Rubba, Professor, Linguistics       
Linguistics Minor Advisor
English Department
Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo
Tel. 805.756.2184
Dept. Tel 805.756.2596
E-mail:  jrubba at calpoly.edu
URL: http://cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
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"Justice is what love looks like in public."
- Cornel West



On Jul 31, 2013, at 12:21 PM, s.t. bischoff <bischoff.st at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello all,
> 
> Please ignore the previous post...I sent it before I had a chance to proof
> it by mistake.
> 
> I'm a junior faculty member in the US who is currently up for tenure. I
> anticipate no problems with the process and to receive tenure next year
> (based on previous evaluations and our departments policies). Though I
> think I have a healthy bit of nervousness regarding the process. I wanted
> to ask if anyone might have advice regarding salary negotiation upon
> receiving tenure and promotion, e.g. is it appropriate and how best to go
> about it if so. I know this will vary from institution to institution and
> linguist to linguist, but I'm hoping to get some idea if it is something I
> should consider.
> 
> Provided I do get tenure, I will be eligible for sabbatical in two years. I
> will have the option to take a full or half-year.  Like with my query
> regarding salary negotiation, I wonder if anyone might have advice
> regarding preparing for sabbatical and possibly securing a research or
> teaching opportunity outside the US. I am familiar with the Fulbright
> program and would appreciate hearing about experience with it or any other
> programs.
> 
> Thank your time,
> Shannon Bischoff