Thankfulness Friday - Done!

I finished putting together my dossier for tenure and promotion!  I finished!  I submitted everything electronically about 30 minutes ago!

This being the seventh year of teaching, I have must apply for tenure and promotion to keep my job.  I should have applied last year, but delayed it for a year because Bun Bun was born.  Tenure means that I will be able to keep my job for as long as I want.  Promotion means I become an Associate Professor (from Assistant Professor).  I have to show my colleagues on the Board of Rank and Tenure that I have done enough to keep my job in teaching, research/scholarship, and service.  For most of the summer, I have been working on describing how I have met the criteria for tenure and promotion and assembled a ton of documents to support each of that.

So what happens next?

My colleagues in the department will review my dossier first and decide if they like to keep me around.  Their recommendations will go to the Dean.  The Dean has already asked external reviewers to look over my research projects and evaluate whether my work is significant and worthwhile.  All of this, colleague recommendations and the Dean's evaluations, will then go to the Board of Rank and Tenure.  They will meet over Christmas break and make yet another recommendation to the President and the Board of Trustees.

Come March 15, 2013, I will find out if I get to keep my job.

At least for now, I am done!

Hooray!