Hi Professors!
For those of you who are junior faculty currently on the tenure track, have you given some thought to the personal statement that is required as part of your tenure portfolio?
If you have had clear guidance on this from your chair or a senior colleague in your department, I’m very glad to hear this. You may be in the minority, however.
If you are not so fortunate, and you are wondering how to even go about writing a strong personal statement for your tenure dossier, then this episode may be for you. In today’s episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast I will be discussing ways to strategize and craft your self-statement in a meaningful way.
What is a Tenure Self-Statement?
Whether you’re in the sciences, social sciences, arts, or the humanities, you will be expected to submit a personal statement as part of your tenure promotion file. This can also be called the self-statement, personal narrative, or tenure statement.
The self-statement is an important document that will be read by several key individuals who will weigh in on your tenure promotion case. It’s a small readership, but it’s an influential group of readers.
Yet, why do we know so little about this as a genre of writing?
When I first started to gather the materials for my tenure portfolio, I was given a checklist by our academic personnel director. One of the items on the list was the tenure self-statement. The only information that accompanied this was a parenthetical note that said it should not exceed 5 pages. That was it.
So, I set about asking numerous individuals at my institution about the personal statement and heard various forms of advice and commentary:
• Just think of it as the narrative version of your CV. It’s easy! Just write it up.
• Paste together different parts of your grant proposals.
• It should have three sections: Research, Teaching, and Service.
• It should be a really strong piece of writing.
• Well, the only thing that really matters are your publications, actually.
• I don’t really remember what I wrote. It was so long ago.
It has always seemed strange to me that universities do not provide more criteria on how to structure and craft the personal statement. At my former institution, there were professional development workshops on the different stages of the tenure review process and what needed to go into a tenure portfolio, but little was actually discussed in terms of the self-statement.
This lack of guidance at the institutional level combined with a very open-ended format may lead to self-statements that are not really effective.
Dr. Karen Kelsky, of The Professor Is In, wrote a blog post called, “Why Your Tenure Statement Sucks.” As Kelsky states, “I’ve read statements invoking childhood dreams, grandmother’s admonitions, family histories, and philosophical musing … statements that are stream of consciousness word-salad of current pedagogical jargon.” I should mention here that Karen Kelsky’s business, The Professor Is In, offers tenure self-statement editing as part of their suite of many services.
10 Ideas for Strategizing and Crafting Your Self-Statement in a Meaningful Way
I have not read as many tenure statements as Kelsky has to come to the same conclusion. But I would like to share with you 10 thoughts and strategies that may help you as women of color faculty when preparing your tenure self-statement.
1. Each institution is unique and has their own culture and process for handling tenure cases.
Well before you start compiling the documents for your tenure file, have conversations with your chair and other senior colleagues about the timeline and what is expected of you. If you can, ask specific questions about the form of the self-statement.
2. Learn about the different committees and individuals, beyond your own department, who will be reviewing your self-statement.
After the Dean’s office, does your file advance to an ad-hoc committee or to a committee for academic promotion and tenure? Does the final review go through the President’s office? Depending on the kind of institution that you are at … R1, SLAC, Ivy league R1, these processes can vary widely. Learn what is specific to your own campus.
3. While it helps to read the tenure statements of successful cases, it will not be as useful if the individual received tenure over 20 years ago.
If you are the only junior faculty member in a top-heavy department, it would be better to seek out colleagues in different departments on your campus who were awarded tenure within the past 2-3 years. Ask if they wouldn’t mind sharing their statement with you. The worst thing that could happen is that they decline or ignore you.
4. This tip is geared towards the actual tenure file. Learn about the platform you will be using to submit your materials and get a sense of whether or not there are any limitations.
In my mid-career review at my first institution, I actually submitted a physical binder along with uploading documents to an online portal. Although the online portal was designed to be easily accessible, it was pretty finicky and did not easily allow for media-rich materials to be uploaded.
This can pose a problem for you if you are in an arts-related field. If this is the case, inquire whether you can submit additional materials through Google Drive or include a link to another platform or website that more easily houses your materials and creative content.
5. Consulting your CV will be a helpful exercise to jog your memory.
Go through your CV and highlight items that you want to incorporate into your tenure statement. But just simply stitching together your bullet points into narrative form will not cut it. There’s an art to this. You’ll need to spend time on strategizing and writing your narrative.
6. Give yourself plenty of time to draft, revise, and polish the self-statement.
It may help to break it down into 3-4 basic sections. If you are at a teaching institution in the United States, then the teaching section will likely go first, followed by research and service.
If you are at an R1 institution, then the 3 sections would likely be research, teaching, and then service in that order. You probably also want to run your draft by senior colleagues or individuals who have gone through the tenure process at your institution.
7. Highlight specific things that you have accomplished during your time on the tenure track.
If you’ve developed innovative courses and received good feedback and evaluations, make sure to include the name of the course, your innovation, and how it contributed to enrollment in your department.
When describing your research output, don’t just mention the titles of your publications. Provide some context for its impact in your field. This could be in the form of awards, reviews, citations, or the use of your publications in graduate seminars.
Also, do make sure to account for the variety of service commitments you have taken on during your time on the tenure track.
8. If there are any red flags that appear in your file, you may want to address these sparingly in the self-statement.
This is a tricky one. Perhaps you had a publication dry spell due to the delays during COVID-19 and you feel the need to explain this. Don’t go overboard with your explanation. Be brief and succinct in this case.
9. One of the hardest things about the self-statement is capturing the right tone.
There’s a balance between being overly confident to the point of sounding pompous and writing from a position of defensiveness. If you throw in imposter syndrome into the mix or you happen to be raised in a culture where blowing one’s horn is considered distasteful, then tapping into the right tone can be elusive.
This may not work for everyone, but one idea I have may be to try and write as if you are amplifying a peer scholar who you really admire. Sometimes it’s easier to amplify others over yourself.
Be conscious of the language you are using and intentionally use the same language to uplift yourself when you read passive language that ends up downplaying your achievements.
10. Try to view the self-statement as a meaningful opportunity to narrate your achievements and contributions to your field and department in your own words.
The tenure review process relies on external evaluation and validation.
Although the self-statement serves a distinct function within the tenure review process, I’d like to suggest that this document can be reframed by you for internal validation at different points in your career.
When re-reading your draft out loud, say this phrase to yourself beforehand: “As a WOC faculty and in spite of various obstacles …” Then go about reading your accomplishments in detail.
This act of re-reading might also give you new insights into what aspects of the job you really thrive in and what you value.
These 10 suggestions are just a starting point. I would love to hear what you think and learn about other tips that you may have, especially if you are a WOC faculty who has gone through the tenure process.
Send me an e-mail at Katherine at RisewithClarity.com. I look forward to hearing from you!
