In article <329A1FD0.7F4 at itsa.ucsf.edu>, Valerie Cardenas Nicolson
<valerie at itsa.ucsf.edu> wrote:
> As far as I can tell (I do not have
> a faculty position, so I can't speak from experience) the academic
> success of your advisees has an enormous impact on tenure and promotion
> decisions.
>> Valerie
I have served on the College of Arts & Sciences Tenure and Promotion
Committee for 2 years at the University of Tennessee, during which time I
have read more files than I care to remember (50 to 70 I think). I
cannot recall a single discussion which involved consideration of the
success of advisees, beyond the fact of getting them successfully through
the degree process. There are so many other indicators of academic
success that the fate of one's former students can play a minor role in
major decisions. Furthermore, an advisee is not even as controllable as
an adult child, and we all know that for every case in which a child's
success reflects a parent's wishes, there are at least as many opposite
examples -- I don't think that a sane T&P committee would hold an advisor
responsible for the actions of an advisee once the advisee had left
(although a glowing letter from a former advisee never hurts!).
I know of quite a few highly respected and widely published faculty who
have produced few if any PhD's. The explanations usually get back to
their being so busy with their own careers that they neglect or alienate
or terrorize their students. This lack of success in training does not
correlate with their success in publication, funding, or progress up the
academic ladder.
I do agree with Valerie and several other posters that some faculty
cannot accept that their students will not all have academic careers.
This head-in-the-sand attitude is one that needs to change. I've been
very interested in the variety of career tracks described in this
newsgroup, because it gives me ideas for advising students here.
cheers,
Chris
