The TL/DR version of this blog post: The Board of Trustees voted today to approve the tenure of myself and my peers at other colleges who were presented to them. I owe a lot of thanks to the many people who supported me through the last 6.5 years.
The long version….
CONFETTI BOMB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My Dean just emailed the Library Faculty listserv to notify us that by verbal vote, my tenure has been confirmed. Along with quite a number of other colleagues from different colleges here at UIC, I am now (as of August 15, 2017 –our new contract year) an Associate Professor with Tenure.
For the record: you can publish your research in open access journals and get tenure at a “Highest Research/Doctoral Granting” (R1) institution.
This has been a tremendously long six and a half years and this, like every other major accomplishment comes from the support that I’ve received from a very long list of colleagues, peers, collaborators, family, and friends.
The Philosopher tops the list of people who need to be thanked. He has spent six years seeing me through all of the paperwork, the research, the crying, and the banging of head against desk. He’s listened to my research ideas, converted a wall into a whiteboard, edited many things, and been my biggest support and cheerleader throughout. Second only to him is the Incredibly-Patient-Mother, who has undertaken the tremendous task of regularly showing up, confirming my continued sanity, making sure I have houseplants that are still alive, and ensuring that I don’t just wallow in our home office.
There are many people at my institution who have been supportive. I didn’t go into this facing a hostile P&T committee, though I was told that no extra credit would be given for my open access goals. My Dean knew what I was doing and was encouraging. Day to day my department colleagues and peers across the library and campus made sure to let me know they had my back. I could not have done all of this without Rebecca, Val, Cleo, Felicia, Tina, Francis, Stephen, or Carol–who took that first risk by hiring me.
My research and writing colleagues agreed to pursue this with me: Lisa, Kristin, Dorothea, Rebecca, Amy, Alison, and Megan. I have had the pleasure to write with absolutely top notch co-authors. My research would not have happened without them.
My community has had my back. Many peers reached out to encourage me over the years and to give me advice, support, and cheers from around the globe. They shared with me whether procedures were weird because it’s my library, it’s my university, or it’s just tenure weirdness (sometimes all three). I’m grateful to SPARC and PLOS — who explicitly made sure that I knew that they were watching and supporting my efforts.
My profession made this relatively straightforward. Library and Information Science has a wealth of excellent gold open access journals to publish in. There never was some arbitrary trade off for me to make between the mystical perception of “journal quality” and open access. Nor was I ever facing page fees, hybrid fees, or APCs.
My friends have lived through stories, understanding that yes, I really am sitting at home writing this weekend rather than coming out; that I’m stressed because I’m on yet another evaluation deadline; that I need to describe the details of the ridiculous minutia for a fifth time. They’ve celebrated at each step, offered to edit, bought me drinks, helped me find opportunities, and were present. AudioGirl, M, Andromeda, Deb, Evviva, and the best writing-in-bars-buddy-ever Jess have been there through it all.
I could keep writing names–and I’m sure I’m going to hit Publish and immediately recall and be mortified of someone I didn’t include. Please, please know I remember all of your support and I appreciate it.
Several people have asked what is next. Some have said “take a year off, relax!” and that of course isn’t me. I have so many things I still want to do, to try, and to fix. Things I couldn’t do as junior faculty or just things that I haven’t yet had time for. How all that plays out I don’t yet know. But we’ll find out…
If you would like to see my dossier, it’s open and available for your download and reading here. I see absolutely no point in keeping it secret.
I continue to have my set goal that library research goes in open access journals. My collaborative research with other disciplines (where I’m not first author)–that goes automatically into our institutional repository. And no, that’s never been a problem either, not with journals, not with co-authors.
I did it. I believe others can too. Please let me know how I can support you in pursuing OA Tenure. And thank you for reading along.