| Surviving and Thriving in Academia |
People in and out of your department will be an essential part of your success. Colleagues,
students, and staff are all part of the culture in which you do your daily work. Good working
relations with all of them are essential for collegiality, networking, and mentoring purposes. Solid
relationships are necessary for personal support and good health. Should problems of stereotypes
or harassment occur, you must be ready to address them while preserving as much of your
support group's integrity as possible. It is important to include good health care as part of your
support system. Develop a good relationship with a physician and keep appointments for regular
checkups. Work with your physician on formulating a good fitness plan that fits your lifestyle.
1. Working relations in your department
Establishing good working relationships with other members of your department is easier in departments that are very collegial and more difficult in those that are less so. Often, one of the informal requirements for tenure is being "liked" by one's colleagues (Gibbons, 1986). Although it would be ideal if established department members made newcomers feel at home, the reality is that most departments place that burden on newcomers who must prove themselves and secure an integrated position within the department.
What this entails depends on the particular institution, but forming strategic alliances (i.e., knowing where the power lies) and maintaining cordial relationships with the tenured faculty are often important.
Collaboration in research can be a successful way to achieve informal and formal recognition and acceptance. Collaboration has its pitfalls, however. For example, those you collaborate with may not fulfill their responsibilities. In addition, there is the possibility that the research, especially if done with a senior colleague, will be viewed as more his or hers than yours. In collaborating, secure some publications in which you are the first author.
Another approach is to cultivate relationships with powerful university figures outside your department. At the time of your tenure or promotion, these individuals may be an important source of support and may be instrumental in creating the expectation among your colleagues that you deserve tenure.
Bear in mind, however, that there are some environments in which it is difficult, if not impossible, to establish collegiality no matter how hard you try. If you find yourself in such a situation, do not blame yourself. Although you may be able to inform the department chair or some supportive faculty of sexism or racism that is disrupting relationships, you should be realistic about the chances of initiating change in such an environment. There are times when a woman or a member of an ethnic minority group faces a dilemma between the need to speak out and the fear of alienating the established powers in the department. One of the illogical and unwritten rules of the current system is that women and ethnic minorities are expected to cultivate collegiality at the same time that they are excluded from gaining such acceptance (Sandler& Hall, 1986).
You should attempt to become part of or build a network among investigators working in your research area. This is a good way to get your work recognized by others, to keep abreast of new developments, and to receive early feedback about the quality of your work. This will also help you build your professional reputation. Although there are many ways to build a network, one approach is to present your research and attend presentations in your area at national and regional conferences (Rose, 1986).
The network will often be composed of individuals outside your department and will usually be an excellent source of advice, expertise, praise, and collaboration that may be lacking among departmental colleagues. Such support is especially helpful to women in male-dominated departments and ethnic minorities in White-dominated departments, given that they are at times excluded from the informal activities that give people a sense of professional belonging. Members of your network may be able to support your application for tenure and promotion with letters documenting the importance of your research.
Some universities have established an official "mentors committee" for each junior faculty member. These committees fulfill the functions that mentors usually serve of providing information encouragement and advocacy.
Ragins (1995) argues that diversified mentoring can counteract reduced opportunities for women and ethnic minority faculty. A variety of mentors from the senior faculty ranks can lessen the cultural, structural, and behavioral factors that reduce promotion and tenure opportunities and decrease exclusionary power commonly found in organizations.
Universities should recognize that cross- and same-ethnicity and/or gender mentoring offers advantages and challenges for retaining ethnic minority and female faculty (Brinson& Kottler, 1993). You need to be aware that not being of the same ethnicity and/or gender should not be used as an excuse to refrain from offering or receiving mentoring. There can be mutual benefits for the mentor and protg in such relationships (Atkinson, Neville,& Casas, 1991). Seeking allies and mentors from among tenured faculty who are diverse strengthens retention and promotion of junior faculty. Be aware of the research that shows that while women have mentoring relationships that focus upon intimacy and informality to foster friendships (Kalbfleisch & Keyton, 1995), men use mentoring relationships to advance their careers. These differences may have implications for career advancement.
Productive, constructive, and healthy relationships with staff and graduate students can be a source of mutual support and satisfaction. Different people have different roles and different types of information that can be useful to you. In large departments, staff control many resources and may have long institutional memories that can give a different perspective of issues of concern to you.
However, you should be cautious of developing these relationships at the expense of developing relationships with other faculty. Although in a "chilly" academic environment, staff and graduate students may be the only ones to make themselves available, having primary relationships of this type can lead colleagues to perceive you as less of a professional.
This does not mean that you should not have cordial relationships with staff members or form academic relationships with, pursue joint research interests with, or serve as a mentor to graduate students. You should not, however, substitute these relationships for good collegial relationships with other faculty members, and, thereby, risk being seen as less professional.
As in every part of society, many people in academia, faculty members and students alike, hold stereotypical role expectations based on gender, ethnicity, race, national origin, and all the other socially constructed identities of our culture. If you are a woman, you may be expected to take minutes at meetings, serve coffee, be a warm and affiliative person, and be less interested in research than your male colleagues (for a more extensive listing of subtle and not-so-subtle harmful expectations, see Sandler& Hall, 1986). If you are an ethnic minority, you may be expected to like certain kinds of music, prepare certain kinds of food, and to match any other beliefs about your particular ethnic group prevalent in your region. You can also expect a great amount of ignorance about your ethnic group.
If you find such expectations placed on you by members of your department, discuss the situation with senior faculty members, your department chairperson, and/or dean. Before talking to the ombudsman or the Affirmative Action officer of your institution, check to see if doing so will commit you to lodging a formal complaint. In some localities, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) branch or your institution's AAUW representative can be helpful. Advice about handling such stereotypes can also be obtained from the university's women's caucus, committee on women, or diversity committee if your institution has such groups.
As mentioned earlier in the section on teaching, there is also evidence of how a faculty member's gender and ethnicity can negatively affect the results of student evaluations. There is not much recourse against this type of bias, except to educate members of the faculty who vote on tenure about these issues.
Some women faculty experience harassment from students, other faculty, or administrators. Sexual harassment is illegal; it is a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Education Amendment.
You should obtain a copy of your university's policy on sexual harassment, if it has one. It will delineate the procedures for filing a sexual harassment grievance and identify who in the university is responsible for implementing the policy. You should also obtain your state or county's information pamphlet on sexual harassment. It will list your rights and the liabilities of those who harass you and those who know about such harassment.
If you feel that you are being sexually harassed, begin to document in writing everything that has happened and seek out the advice of the affirmative action officer or another appropriate university official. Seek legal advice immediately. Do not assume the problem will just go away, that the institution will handle it for you, or that you caused the harassment to occur. (For more extensive information, refer to Sexual Harassment: Research and Resources, Siegel, 1991; Sexual Harassment on College Campuses: Abusing the Ivory Power, 1990, and the two special issues of Initiatives, 1996, Vols. 3, 57.)
More likely than not, your university does not have a specific policy regarding racial harassment, as racial harassment does not have the same legal standing as sexual harassment. Nevertheless, should you feel that you are a victim of racial/cultural harassment (behaviors that a reasonable person of color would find offensive), you are probably well advised to follow the previously stated advice for sexual harassment: document and seek advice from university officials and a lawyer.