Thanks to Kim Cook, Molly Dragiewicz, Jody Miller, and Hannah Scott for their contributions.

Please send questions to be considered in future “Ask a Tenured Professor” columns to: ssharp@ou.eduThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

 

QUESTION 1:
I am a recent PhD graduate in Criminal Justice. I am also entering my third year in a tenure track position (Dept of Sociology). I am looking at career growth in the criminology/criminal justice discipline and would like to take on leadership positions within ASC. What is a good place to start? I want to be mindful that I am not acting too big for my shoes. Plus, what would be a good blend in terms of commitment and ability at this stage in my career. I enjoy this kind of work and am regular at ASC as well. This advice is especially important for me because my PhD mentor was not a criminologist.

ANSWER 1:
When starting out on a career path, getting involved in organizations is always something an assistant professor should consider.  There are definitely upsides and downsides to involvement. First, involvement can count at many universities as service to your discipline. Many universities recognize the importance of this work. It is also a great way to meet people, especially if you were trained outside the discipline. However, jumping in with both feet can be tricky at times. I would suggest easing into the role, if you are truly serious about professional involvement.  Remember, that those who have sought high level service appointments for the ASC have fostered these relationships over years, often decades.  They are well rounded, with proven research and teaching skills. It is fantastic that as an assistant professor you are thinking so far ahead.

My advice for anyone looking to increase their participation to the Society is to take it slow. Start by becoming a member of one or more of the Divisions of the Society. At the meetings, volunteer at the tables and get to know the Division and the role it plays in the Society. Attend the general meetings, and learn about how that Division operates.  Also volunteer to organize panel sessions for the Society, and seek Division sponsorship if it is possible.  The bonus with session organizing is that you get to learn more about the field you are interested in, and meeting colleagues working in new and emerging areas in your field.  Eventually, when the time is right, think about more intensive service to the Division. Start with a lower ranking position, and move up as your experience grows. Some of these Divisions are quite complex in that they manage a journal, encourage international membership, and deal with ongoing Division issues that can get quite time consuming.  At each level of involvement, you will gain new experience but also an understanding about yourself and whether this is service work is right for you.  Although your intentions are good, you may find as you increase your participation that the experience is not what you thought it would be.

Most importantly remember to honour your commitments to your university, in that you are also evaluated on your research abilities and your teaching.  Make sure that service to the association does not interfere with your service to your institution. Research and teaching are also evaluated with considerably more weight than service. As you are just starting out, research and teaching efforts take precedence over service activities. Many mentors suggest to incoming professors that they try and reduce their service commitments when they are starting out, to ensure that they have the time to meet the requirements of tenure.  At this stage of your career, service and the networks it can provide is important, but the brass ring is tenure.  
Good luck.  I wish you all the best.


ANSWER 2:

There are a number of ways to become involved in the ASC.  Active participation in Division(s) relevant to your research commitments, including volunteering to serve on committees, is probably the most straightforward way to start.  This would provide you with important networking opportunities as well as the chance to contribute to Division goals.  Opportunities to serve the larger Society are a bit less straightforward.  Service on ASC committees is at the request of the ASC President, who makes committee selections which are then approved by the Executive Counsel.  Thus these are invited positions.  That said I’ll give my best advice, based on my experience as 2008 Program Co-Chair and my insights into the decision-making of ASC Presidents I’ve spoken to about the process.  

Each ASC President has their own set of commitments when they make decisions about who to appoint to the ASC’s various committees.  Bob Bursik, for example, was specifically committed to bringing younger scholars into the fold of ASC committee work (and thus leadership), and was also concerned with making sure that the diversity of the ASC membership was reflected—not just in terms of gender and race, for instance, but also including members from a more diverse array of educational institutions than research universities.  As Program Co-Chairs serving during Bob’s presidency, David Curry and I also made program committee decisions that reflected this vision.  But this of course is not always the case.

Regardless of a president’s (or program chair’s) commitments, and even with guidelines such as Bob’s in mind, there are a number of factors that further aid in the selection process.  First is a scholar’s visibility.  Publishing in leading journals within criminology is perhaps the best way to gain visibility in the field.  So, for instance, when looking for scholars to serve as area and section chairs for the program—particularly in research areas that are outside the program chair’s specialization—perusing recent volumes of Criminology, Criminology & Public Policy, and highly regarded specialty journals (including Division journals) is a common strategy for identifying appropriate committee members.  Second is active participation in ASC Divisions.  This is a great way to gauge an individual’s level of commitment to ASC and thus is assumed to be a predictor of one’s engagement and likelihood of fulfilling the responsibilities associated with a given committee appointment.  

There is a third way to go, but its success would really be predicated on the approach or stance of a given ASC president, so it’s a riskier strategy.  If there’s a committee you are especially interested in serving on, and feel you’re especially qualified for, you might write to the President-Elect to request consideration for a place on the committee.  This would involve providing a succinct rationale for your interest in and qualifications for the position, and would be a professional and polite request for consideration, rather than demand (I know you’re thinking this goes without saying…but you’d be surprised!).  It might work; it might not.  We made several program committee selections after having received such requests, and so did Bob (though it was never the sole criteria on which we made the selection).  If you think of trying this approach, it’s also important to keep in mind that the President-Elect and Program Chairs move very quickly in making committee appointments because the tasks at hand require it.  For instance, we began our committee selection process in January 2007 for the November 2008 program.  

As to your final question about blending commitment and ability with career stage, my advice is not to over-extend yourself with service.  There’s plenty of time for that down the road, don’t worry!  I think a reasonable goal is to work on one ASC or Division committee at any given time.  Do one thing and do it well.  This strategy will serve you well over time, as you’ll gain a reputation as a conscientious ASC member, but it won’t interfere or distract from the other obligations you are juggling as a young scholar.

QUESTION 2:
I know that service is an important part of my job, but I also worry about getting overloaded.  What kind of advice do you have for someone who is relatively knew about getting involved in service positions?

ANSWER 1:
I encourage you to participate in the collegial life of the department to the point that you are considered an “active” member, but not to the extent that you neglect your research and teaching duties. To make that more concrete, during the tenure-track period, I encourage faculty to volunteer for one or two committee assignments within the department in order to maintain “good citizenship”. The customs may vary from one department to the next, so try to get a handle on the culture within the department as best you can. It might be wise to ask an established member of the department for some guidance.  Your department chair ought to be in a position to monitor your service commitments and caution you against being over-extended; it’s one of the basic duties of a good department chair as I see it.  No one gets tenure and promotion on service alone, so while the duties are immediate and visible, so too is the need to build a good portfolio of research and teaching accomplishments for tenure.
 
As a customary practice, put research time in your schedule (not when you can get to it in the evenings and on the weekends). Block hours of time in your schedule every week for your research commitments.  I will block out whole days if I have a pressing deadline for a research commitment. I will work at home (where, for me, it is quieter with fewer risks of interruptions).  Limit yourself, if you can, to two class preps per semester and try to dovetail your teaching and research interests so that you’re reading/thinking/talking/writing about similar interests.  Do not neglect professional service in disciplinary associations, but keep it balanced to one or two per academic year.  It’s important that the quality of your work (teaching, research and service) is solid, not just the quantity and in order to have both quality and adequate quantity the trick is finding the right balance for yourself.
 
I hope this helps.


ANSWER 2:

Junior faculty members should assess the situation in their department and university. Seek the advice of multiple senior colleagues who serve on tenure committees. Service culture varies significantly from institution to institution. Untenured faculty should bear in mind that regardless of departmental norms for service, peer-reviewed publication is the bottom line for tenure, followed by teaching and then service. Allocate your time accordingly. A solid record of peer reviewed publication means more than a mountain of service. Service cannot substitute for publication. When choosing service commitments, untenured faculty may want to focus on activities that allow them to network in their research area and professional organizations. Connections beyond the department are important when it comes time to find reviewers for book manuscripts, tenure files, and referees for jobs. Volunteer for activities which interest you, and which can be completed with a finite investment of time. Remember to keep track of everything you do in service, just as you do for research and teaching.