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Tenure standards at state schools?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader writes:

I have a question about the tenure standards at state schools that focus on undergraduate teaching. It seems clear that research schools really emphasize publications and SLACs emphasize teaching (with ok publications). What about those state schools that only have undergraduate programs? The jobs at these schools require people to focus on teaching, and the workload is similar to (or heavier than) the SLACs. However, some of these schools are research universities. Is teaching still the main focus when one is considered for promotion at those schools?

Good questions. My sense is that it may vary quite a bit, as I've seen philosophy departments at some state schools whose faculty regularly publish in top-ranked journals (suggestive of high tenure standards), whereas I've seen departments at other state schools where the faculty seem to publish very little. But this sense is based on little more that visiting department webpages when I was a job-candidate. Any faculty at state schools with undergrad-only philosophy programs willing to chime in with some insight?

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4 responses to “Tenure standards at state schools?”

  1. TexasStateSchool

    I teach at a small state school. We technically classify as R2, but primarily due to doctoral programs not in Arts & Science. We do not have a graduate program in philosophy. Tenure for us is based equally (at least officially) on 4 factors: research, teaching, service, and professional development. For research, we need 2 articles or 1 book (minimum) for tenure. If you’re teaching evals and reputation are terrible though you’ve published just enough, you probably won’t get tenure.

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  2. Phil

    I worked at a teaching focused college for years. We were expected to publish in order to get tenure. It was far from clear how much, but if you published four to six papers before tenure you would have had no trouble meeting the research requirements. We tried to formalize the requirements but it got quite contentious. We did not want to make our standards so much higher than the rest of the college, but we did want to convey to new hires the value placed on research. In the end, we settled on something like 3 good publications as a minimum. The best advice is to look at those around you – and keep up with them. If you ever want to move to a new job (a better job!) then you had better pay more attention to publishing. Universities that care about research tend to regard people at these places with something near contempt. So you really have to shine if you want to move.

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  3. SouthernStateSchool

    I teach at a medium-sized undergrad-only state school in the South. Our tenure requirements consider teaching, scholarship, and service. The requirements for teaching and service are vague. We have to teach well (however that is evaluated) and participate in service (how much? enough to carry one’s weight in the department). By contrast, our tenure standards for research are very clear: three peer-reviewed essays (we do not rank journals) or a book. The clarity of our research requirements compared to the vagueness of our teaching and service requirements always suggested to me that scholarship matters more.

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  4. TT at state school

    I teach at a medium-sized state school with some graduate programs but our philosophy department is undergrad only. Like the others who have posted, tenure here is based on teaching, research, and service. As far as the research requirement, it is vague, but I have always been told that I should publish one or two articles per year for tenure.
    One other thing I will add is that there seems to me to be a bit of a divergence of opinion regarding research between the department and the college we are in (within the university). Other departments in our college have graduate programs, with at least one PhD program. Our department, however, is very teaching focused. So, certain members of the department care much more about teaching than research. But the higher ups in the college emphasize the research aspect of the job. The result is two fold. First, I think the college cares much more about the venue of publication than at least certain members of the department. Second, I could imagine different evaluations on a tenure case from within the department and in the college.
    I guess my point above is that because departments at state schools can vary like they do at my school, there can be different priorities (even if not different actual standards) among people making tenure decisions.

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