{"253551":{"#nid":"253551","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Tech Celebrates Newly Tenured","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EOne of the most significant events in the life of a faculty member is earning tenure. That\u2019s why Georgia Tech has opted to take a unique approach to commemorating this milestone.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEvery fall, Tech invites newly tenured faculty to an offsite three-day retreat, started in 2011 and facilitated and funded by the Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship (ILE), the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research, and the Office of the Provost.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAccording to Terry Blum, director of ILE, the retreat is the only event of its kind in academic circles. At most universities, once faculty earn tenure (a permanent status conferred to promote and protect academic freedom), there\u2019s a letter of congratulations and maybe a reception, she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s usually more eventful if you don\u2019t get tenure!\u201d she added. \u201cSo we\u2019re pretty unique at putting resources into celebrating and developing people at this part of their career. My friends at other universities are absolutely amazed that we do it.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBlum and Ravi Bellamkonda, Walter H. Coulter Professor and Chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering, oversee the event, and participation is optional. In spring 2013, there were 49 newly tenured faculty, and about two-thirds attended the retreat, which was held Oct. 11-13.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAaron Levine, a newly tenured associate professor in the School of Public Policy, was among those who attended this year. He noted that tenure announcements come out in spring, but the retreat takes place in fall.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt makes sense to give you a little bit of time to adjust to post-tenure life at Tech before you step into the discussion,\u201d he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor Levine, the most valuable aspects of the retreat were the chance to meet and interact with other newly tenured faculty outside of his college, the facilitated exercises to get participants thinking about goals and priorities, and the \u201cexemplar\u201d speakers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThese [speakers] tended to be senior academic leaders at Tech,\u201d Levine said. \u201cBut they didn\u2019t talk about their research, which is what you usually hear, but more about their journey. That was actually a surprising part of the retreat, but it was probably the most interesting.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnother element of the retreat is mentorship, where several faculty with varying years of tenure are on hand to answer questions and offer advice.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBenjamin Flowers, an associate professor in the School of Architecture, attended the first retreat three years ago and came back this year as a mentor. He said this time he got a greater sense that attendees were clear about the purpose of the retreat.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cNow it\u2019s more of a tradition,\u201d he said. \u201cThe people who are there understand the value of being there. They are interested in having really serious discussions about how to actively leverage the value of tenure, not only in their own research agendas, but around the scholarly community within Georgia Tech and the larger global academic world.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENext for retreat attendees, will be an invitation to join Tech\u2019s Leadership Roundtable, as well as a gathering sometime in the spring semester to \u201creinforce the sense of community,\u201d Blum said. Also, every five years, tenured faculty go through post-tenure review.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThey\u2019re going to try to come up for full professor, get chairs, things like that,\u201d Blum said. \u201cPeople think of tenure as job security, but it\u2019s not job security without performance.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EOne of the most significant events in the life of a faculty member is earning tenure. That\u2019s why Georgia Tech has opted to take a unique approach to commemorating this milestone.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"One of the most significant events in the life of a faculty member is earning tenure. That\u2019s why Georgia Tech has opted to take a unique approach to commemorating this milestone."}],"uid":"27445","created_gmt":"2013-11-11 15:42:11","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:15:18","author":"Amelia Pavlik","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2013-11-11T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2013-11-11T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"253491":{"id":"253491","type":"image","title":"Tenure Retreat","body":null,"created":"1449243828","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:43:48","changed":"1475894934","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:48:54","alt":"Tenure Retreat","file":{"fid":"198152","name":"tenured.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/tenured_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/tenured_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":4292139,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/tenured_0.jpg?itok=jlVe4Wa5"}}},"media_ids":["253491"],"related_files":{"248745":{"fid":null,"name":"BBISS GRA Scholars Group Photo","file_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/BBISS_GRA_Scholars_EcoCommons_Sculpture_cropped.jpg","file_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/BBISS_GRA_Scholars_EcoCommons_Sculpture_cropped.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":661920,"description":null}},"groups":[{"id":"1259","name":"Whistle"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[{"id":"79501","name":"faculty members"},{"id":"12563","name":"Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship"},{"id":"3855","name":"tenure"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:margaret.tate@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EMargaret Tate \u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EInstitute Communications\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}