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Show , Spring/Summer 2003 page 15 "While publication is necessary to achieve tenure, research and writing have deeper sources/' he said. "It is the love of learning, the desire to advance knowledge, and the desire to share what you have discovered with students that presses you to research and write." As for how her writing relates to tenure, McCance said she hasn't had much trouble. "I've had no problems there. I had research articles and research grants earlier in my career, and also doing the beginning writing on these textbooks," she said. "And now, over time, it's because of the two of them requiring so much time that I believe I'm getting credit for that kind of writing. I'm tenured. I've been tenured for quite a long time and I don't feel the pressure that I used to feel to always have to write grants." Denton said that when he was hired, others told him that the requirements for tenure were tougher than when they had started. "Generally at every institution there's kind of like a steadily upward slope in the difficulty in getting tenured and promoted," he said. Jorde notes an important change in tenure decisions taking place in his department. "One of the things that we've kind of tried to do in the School of Medicine is to assign more importance to teaching in making the tenure decision," he said. "I think a while ago, teaching was virtually irrelevant to whether you got tenure or not. It was basically how much have you published, how much grant money are you bringing in." He added that determining the quality of teaching is difficult, and that's probably why it wasn't a factor in the tenure decision in the past. "The requirements for tenure in my department have changed little in the nearly 25 years I have been at the U," Goldberg said. But, like Jorde, he notes that the role of teaching has been increasingly emphasized in tenure decisions. ______________ "I am pleased to see that a candidate's teaching profile has gained in importance in the last several years," Goldberg said. "Our desire in the history department is not only to tenure and promote those who are good researchers, but those who can communicate their knowledge effectively in the classroom." McCance adds that teaching is an integral part of tenure decisions in her department as well. "It is the love of learning, the desire to advance knowledge, and the desire to share what you have discovered with students that presses you to research and write." Bob Goldberg time, but that attitudes are becoming a little more relaxed. "I think really pretty much the University is becoming more accepting of large projects like this," she said. "I ______________ would say 10 years ago that if you were not publishing in research journals, your publishing really didn't matter that much, and I didn't feel at the time that other people really understood what it takes to write material that you're using for teaching." For professors, teaching classes is usually not enough. They are expected to conduct a good deal of research and compile it meaningfully in writing, and then get that writing published. In spite of these "In this college, tenure review is really important, so we do tenure review every five years and the expectation is that you're still publishing and doing research, that your teaching is of excellent quality, and you're providing service," she said. McCance went on to say that there hasn't been much change in tenure requirements for a long challenges, University students will continue to reap the rewards of the blood, sweat and tears put forth by their instructors, and the school itself will be able continue to uphold the standards of excellence that many have come to expect from the U. |