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Types
of Questions to Consider Discussing
A
Guide for New Faculty & Their Mentors
1. After Arrival
General:
- How is my
department organized? (divisions, committees?)
- How are decisions
made?
- Is there any
support staff?
- What should
be expected from support staff?
- What supplies
and expenses are covered by the department?
- How can I
obtain computer equipment for my office?
Teaching:
- Does my department/team
store syllabi so I can see how others have taught a course or similar
courses?
- Is it good
to teach service courses, or bad, or indifferent? Is it good to
teach the same course, or stay within a single area, or teach around?
- Is it a good
thing to develop a new course? An undergraduate course? A specialized
course in my research area?
- How can I
use a special topics course to get a new research project off the
ground?
- How much time
should I spend on course preparation?
- Are there
guidelines for grading? What is the usual frequency of midterms
and exams? How am I evaluated on teaching?
- How much do
student opinion surveys count? How can I read and evaluate student
opinion surveys in a constructive way? What resources are available
for improving teaching skills?
- What documentation
should I retain for my personnel file? Course summaries? Course
exams?
- How can I
make certain that my teaching is evaluated beyond student evaluations?
Will a faculty member be selected to observe my teaching? How will
that faculty member be selected? When will the faculty member observe
the class?
- How do I order
texts from the bookstore for my classes?
- What services
are provided by the Testing Center?
Administrative:
- How much committee
work should I expect in my department? campus-wide?
- Which committee
should I turn down if asked to serve? How much time should I expect
to spend on committee work?
- How important
is service work outside of the university? How much paper and proposal
reviewing is reasonable? Review boards? Journal assistant editorships?
- Can I get
a mentor outside my department/team or college?
- How visible
must one be in the department/team? Is it acceptable or detrimental
if work is done at home?
- What are the
appropriate and accepted ways to raise different kinds of concerns,
issues, and problems?
2. Later
Student Issues:
- How much advising
should I expect to do?
- How do I identify
good students? What qualities should I look for? How aggressive
should I be in recruiting? How do I identify a problem student?
- How do I promote
students/programs to the rest of the community?
- What should
I keep in files on my students? (Remember that you have to write
reviews and recommendations for them.)
Review Procedures:
- How long is
my appointment? When will I come up for review? What sort of review?
What is the process (who, what is looked for, how will I hear about
it, etc.)? How will this repeat during the pre-tenure years?
- What are the
department's formal and informal criteria for promotion and tenure?
Who can clarify these criteria? How does one build a tenure file?
Who sits on relevant committees? Who can support a nomination effectively?
- How should
I go about finding people to write references for me? How many will
I need? From where? International/domestic?
- What information
is important in my vitae? Should I send copies of congratulatory
letters to my department chair?
- What types
of raises are typical? How are raises determined? When will I find
out about my raise? How?
- How can I
get feedback on my performance?
Resources and research:
- What research
resources are available to me as a faculty member?
- How important
are grants?
- How do I get
hooked into the grant-writing process?
- Who can help
find people to assist me in writing the best possible proposal;
to draw up the budget?
- What conferences
should I go to?
- Do I need
to have papers accepted? How much travel is allowed/expected/demanded?
- Is it better
to go to large conferences or smaller workshops?
What about conference/travel funds?
- How else can
I gain the type of exposure necessary for good tenure letters?
- Authorship
etiquette: Should I put graduate students' names on my papers? Should
I put them ahead of my own?
- How important
is first authorship?
- How is alphabetical
listing of authors viewed?
- Where should
I publish? What should I publish? How much/often? What are the approximate
guidelines for promotion?
- What is the
best way of getting feedback on a paper-to circulate pre-publication
drafts widely or to show drafts to a few colleagues?
- How do journal/chapters
in edited collections/(refereed or unrefereed) conferences compare?
- Should I write/edit
a book?
- May material
published in one place (workshop, conference) be submitted to another
journal?
- How much new
work is necessary to make it a "new publication"?
- Is it worthwhile
to send published reports to colleagues elsewhere?
- Should I give
talks within my department? How often?
- How should
I publicize my work within my department?
- Should I give
talks at other universities/institutions/industrial sites? How often?
Where? How important is this? How do I get invited to give such
talks?
- Is collaborative
work encouraged or discouraged in my department/field? With other
members of my department? With international colleagues? Long-standing
collaborations or single efforts?
- How important
is it to have some singly authored papers?
- Should I form
a research group? What sorts of activities should the group do,
as opposed to me and/or an individual student?
- What library
resources are there? How do I get the library to purchase materials?
- How do I find
out about, get nominated for and win fellowships, grants, awards,
and prizes?
Personal issues:
- What policies
does UW Oshkosh have for family and personal leave? Are these policies
administered at the departmental level? If so, how are such things
handled in my department?
- What programs/assistance
does the University provide for childcare?
- What are the
expectations if I get sick (or my child/parent gets sick)? Do I
need to find someone to cover my classes?
- What listserves
should I belong to?
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