Hey Professors!
Seeing that it’s almost the end of August, I know that some of you have already started the new school year. And if you haven’t started yet, you’re probably counting down the days.
Besides setting up for the coming semester and drawing up your course syllabi, have you personally set an intention for the new school year? What would you like to come away with or prioritize by the end of the fall semester?
It could be helpful to take a little bit of time to reflect on your intentions before getting swept up with all of the beginning-of-the-year activities and the flurry of e-mails.
Now before moving on to today’s episode, I did want to share a small personal milestone with you. I recently learned that Rise with Clarity Podcast has now surpassed 2,500 downloads in its first year!
I really had no idea what to expect when I first started podcasting. I just focused on creating short episodes that might be helpful to women of color faculty in the academy, in addition to some other general episodes that can be useful for allies.
So thank you so much for listening, and thank you for all of your support! I look forward to sharing more content with you in the coming year. And if you ever have a suggestion for a future podcast topic, feel free to reach out to me anytime.
For this 26th episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I’m re-broadcasting one of the most downloaded episodes from last year. This is for women of color faculty who are beginning their careers in the academy and who may be teaching their very first courses this year on the tenure track.
This episode was first broadcast in September 2023. It’s really interesting to listen back to this one year later. For instance, I mention an anecdote of a woman of color faculty member being called a diversity hire. One year later, this still tracks. That’s not surprising.
But in one year, this anecdote has gained different meanings in light of recent book bans, state legislatures enacting anti-DEI legislation, and the dissolution of offices of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the United States.
I wonder, what will this new academic year bring for faculty of color, in particular women of color? Will things become better or worse? Will the retention of women of color faculty be prioritized by institutions—especially in those states that have approved bans on DEI efforts in higher education? I suppose time will only tell.
In the meantime, here’s the episode from last year:
How to Manage Your First Semester as a WOC Faculty
Hi Professors! I hope that your academic year is off to a great start.
For many of you, you’ve likely made it through your first week or two of classes and you’re slowly starting to get back into the rhythm of teaching, research, and writing. But if this is your very first time on the tenure track, all of these new experiences can feel quite overwhelming and sometimes disconcerting. And because you have 6 years to achieve tenure at your institution, the stakes feel high to you.
In this episode of the podcast, I’m going to offer some guidance on how to better manage your first semester as a WOC faculty on the tenure track.
Now allow me first paint a picture for you … a composite one with examples that are drawn from my own experiences as a professor in higher ed as well as those from other WOC faculty.
Snapshots of a WOC Faculty During Her First Week of Teaching
So, you just started your new faculty position at your institution. It’s week one. You’re full of excitement, nervous energy, and hope for your new life at your institution in a brand new city.
At a welcome reception on day one, a post-doc comes up to you and asks if you’re a new graduate student in the department. You kindly explain that you are actually a newly hired faculty member. He glances at your name tag, mispronounces your name, and then says very quietly to you: “You know you were only hired because you’re the diversity hire.”
You are stunned and do not know what to say. So you quickly head for the dessert table because at least the assortment of cookies provides a sense of familiarity and comfort. Plus, you’re hungry because you forgot to eat your lunch.
Later that day, your chair writes a warm note of welcome and extends an invitation to you to serve on a new campus-wide committee that has been created by the DEI office. Since you are new to the university and you are an Assistant Professor, you figure that you can’t say no to this request from your chair. You quickly respond and say yes, enthusiastically.
Later on, your first lecture of the week seems to go well, even despite the mini crisis before the start of class when the projector needed triage. You somehow managed to keep your cool and some of the students even laughed at your jokes. You consider that a small win. But you took a mental note when the person from the tech department thought you were a TA and treated you somewhat rudely.
Later in the week, you are surprised that students actually show up to your office hours during the first week of classes and are sitting outside your door. One of the students who is a senior mentions that you are the first professor in her four years of college who looks like her and she begins to tear up. You start to get choked up yourself, and you feel a sense of duty to serve students like her.
And that’s just the first week of instruction!
The “Lonely Only” WOC Faculty in Your Department
Does any of this resonate with you? If so, how did you handle that first week of your first year of teaching?
If you are the only WOC faculty in your department, you may feel like you can’t share any of these experiences with your colleagues. And if you are on the tenure track, you are also acutely aware that revealing any vulnerabilities or voicing any complaints to your colleagues may negatively impact you when you go up for tenure.
Additionally, when you do manage to have your own block of time carved out especially for your own research and writing—which is so critical in order to achieve tenure—you are easily derailed by constantly having to process microaggressions or racialized aggressions. It becomes easy to lose focus.
I certainly was not prepared for any of these experiences when I first started on the tenure track. I mostly carried all of this silently, and thought that my situation was entirely unique.
But after speaking with many WOC faculty over the years, and more recently, working with own my clients, I have come to understand that these experiences are shared by many minoritized women faculty in higher ed. And even though there are very different circumstances and specifics, why is it that some of the stories that I described earlier feel so uncannily familiar to so many of us?
While you may not currently be in a position to effect systemic change, you can gain a sense of understanding in that you are not alone in having these experiences. And there are now, fortunately, a growing number of resources to help you navigate the higher ed environment.
So, how can you manage your first semester on the tenure track as a WOC faculty? Here are just a few strategies that I’ve learned over the past decade.
Strategies for How to Manage Your First Semester on the Tenure Track
1. Know that you are not alone. Turn to some of the stories written by other WOC faculty that have been covered in excellent books such as Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia, The Black Academic’s Guide to Winning Tenure—Without Losing Your Soul, and Community as Rebellion: A Syllabus for Surviving Academia as a Woman of Color.
2. Consider finding a small group of other WOC faculty that you can completely trust and confide in. They may not be at your campus or even in your discipline, but they will be the rock of support that you can turn to when you need to process and vent. And in turn, you will be supporting them when they need you.
3. Make sure to schedule time for yourself during the week. In my first years of teaching, I was not adept at managing my own time. I allowed my time to be dictated for me versus actively creating and protecting my own schedule. Over the years, I’ve learned to be more intentional about building in time for my own research and scheduling time for rest. Listen to my second podcast episode for some tips on how to better reclaim your time when you are feeling behind in your work.
4. Try to learn from your chair or recently tenured faculty members in your department what your institution’s tenure requirements are. Sometimes, these guidelines are clearly stated by your institution. But more often than not, you will still need to speak to several people to determine what these metrics are. It is better to begin these conversations sooner rather than later. And if possible, try to get this down in writing.
5. Celebrate your accomplishments even when your institution does not amplify them. Since this is a special one, I’m going to be devoting a future podcast episode to this topic.
6. And for those times when you are told that the only reason you have your job is because you are the diversity hire, have a listen to this episode of Brown Table Talk, an amazing podcast where hosts Dee C. Marshall and Mita Mallick candidly discuss the challenges that women of color face in the workplace.
On my website, I offer a free guide called “4 Ways for WOC Faculty in Higher Ed to Manage the Tenure Track, Navigate Politics, and Design a Sustainable Path Forward.” In it, you’ll find tips on things like navigating aggressions in the workplace and designing your sustainable career. If you’re interested in learning more strategies like the ones I’ve discussed in this episode, download the copy of the guide at my website, Rise with Clarity.
