Friday, January 25, 2008--"If you build it"

My blog post is late—and will be short!—and although I am dating it “Friday, January 25th,” it celebrates something that was not, in fact, formalized until Sunday. But nothing in the past week was more important!

The Stonehill College Board of Trustees took extra time to meet this January, and they did so “on retreat” in Marco Island, Florida. Many strategic future directions for the College were discussed and established, but I will leave it to the President to share that important information. I want to reflect on the incredible group of faculty members whose tenure and/or promotion cases were so unanimously affirmed by the Trustees. So why does this remind me of the phrase that echoes through Ray Kinsella’s mind in W.P. Kinsella’s novel Shoeless Joe (popularized as the feature film Field of Dreams)?

“If you build it, they will come.”

At least three aspects of building a culture struck me as I considered this year’s candidates for tenure and promotion. First—the sheer size of the group. We have been building the faculty over the last eight years, and this year saw eight faculty members move from Assistant to Associate Professor and four from Associate to Full. I know what pride the departments who nurtured these faculty members must feel about their accomplishments and about the kinds of institutional citizenship they represent. Ultimately, the Trustees sent the message that twelve faculty members received a further commitment from the college—and we all know that such a commitment energizes us to continue working toward an even more robust culture of teaching, learning, and scholarly excellence.

This particular group also reminded me of some interesting ways in which the support systems have changed at Stonehill—especially as they pertain to scholarly attainment. Whereas many colleges are setting higher bars for tenure and promotion only to see faculty members fall short, Stonehill is encouraging both junior and mid-level faculty toward the next stages in their careers. One faculty member promoted to Professor in this year’s group wrote me a note saying, “My research could not have been accomplished fifteen years ago when faculty were encouraged to conduct research with little support (financially or through time allotment).” And I think it’s not just the financial resources that have made a difference. You have made a difference to each other: building collaborative research projects, inviting each other to participate on research teams, co-authoring articles, applying for grants with multiple investigators, respecting the expertise that your colleagues can bring to the table.

Finally, I think we have worked together to build a process that treats people fairly, allows for some flexibility in the tenure timeline, offers a previously unimaginable level of transparency, and makes the work of everyone—but especially the Rank and Tenure Committee—much easier. (And let’s tip our hats to the Rank and Tenure Committee, whose hard work resulted in beautifully crafted letters of support for their colleagues.) This process truly works for the faculty.

You have built it, and people will continue to come. As we dream new dreams for the future, the faculty we supported this year will become the foundation for the next expansion in Stonehill’s remarkable saga.

Best regards,

Katie