This resource is part of Dr. Katherine S. Cho's UNO series— her Utilization, Navigation, and Organization (UNO) through Notion. These templates are meant to help illuminate some of the “hidden” curricula regarding faculty and academic navigation.
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Image and link description: the embedded link directs to Dr. Katherine S. Cho's website (www.katscho.com). On the right side of the site information is an image of three notebooks— a pink one, a brown grid one, and an open-faced lined one— and two pens.
Tenure is one of the most important milestones for tenure-track faculty. While the importance of being productive, publishing, having good teaching evaluations, doing service, etc. cannot be understated, what is also equally central is being organized in the entire process. This is in part because submitting a tenure portfolio generally includes not only your CV; some narratives about research, teaching and service (length dependent on institution); but also the documentation for which, if you don’t have a system, it gets really unwieldy! TL;DR (too long; didn’t read) = have a system.
What matters most is that you have a system, that you update the system regularly (whether that’s by semester/quarter, by month, etc.), and that system aligns with your institution’s guidelines and parameters for tenure!
Below, is a system that I made for myself, where I tracked my files and systems — that helped me keep my documentation for each year, with a couple of different layouts to help me stay organized. The first was the “type” (meaning is this forms, or under research, teaching or service). The second layout view is related to status, which was helpful as I started finalizing and uploading my tenure packet (to keep track of what was in progress versus a final version). And the last is a table outlining all of it.
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VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTE: the tenure packet tracker below and the directions embedded in each one, are SPECIFIC to my institution. You MUST tailor this if you are not at the same institution as me because you have different directions. There will likely be overlap, but you should check with your faculty handbooks, your program and/or department chair, as well as your dean and if applicable, associate dean or support systems related to faculty affairs.
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The way I utilized the tenure packet tracker below is that within each “bucket” (essentially a folder), I had separated it out by year, and then dragged and dropped in the relevant links, PDFs, and documents. For any of the ones that were “lists” (e.g., published list) I didn’t fill any of those out but instead, kept everything most up-to-date on my CV so that I knew that I only needed to update that one document. Then, right as I was finalizing my packet, I copied and pasted the lists over (which is why I had my tenure packet tracker have the options of “Exists on CV” for me as an option).
TENURE PACKET TRACKER TEMPLATE
For faculty and academic navigation, some of the other templates in the UNO series include the following. You can also see them on my website under “The Work” section, check out “Designs” OR go to “Resources” and look at “Templates, Layouts.”
Academic Research Pipeline Template
On a broader note, I also think a lot about not just the academic pipeline and organization, but given how my research strands encompass academic socialization (which includes faculty socialization), I’ve deeply appreciated the work of Mimi Khúc, who critiques how we are even approaching the academe. It probably warrants a longer reflection I’ll write on my blog later, but her critique regarding the pressure to produce in a place and space where “we are all unwell” has been both liberating, thought-provoking, and makes me wonder— much in the ways Hayes and Kaba ask us, “what are we building.” So, even as I’m quite literally building out tools to help us be organizing in our productivity, I also wrestle with the tension of what are we actually socialization ourselves into (and how am I complicit, perhaps, to some of my own academic unwellness). Just some food for thought (ha! I recognize that this is not light food at all) and also cheers, and hoping this resource helps~
Stay tuned for more notion tips as I expand the UNO series If you like the work I do, I'll gladly accept a cup of coffee in gratitude. You can "buy" me one here! ☕
And, if you want more academic tips, feel free to check out my website (www.katscho.com). In particular, people have found these embedded sections to be most helpful:
Katherine S Cho is creating resources for academia & templates for productivity
Website description: the "Me"-sourced section of Dr. Cho's website focuses on tips and advice that she has written or linked in a common theme.
Website description: Dr. Cho created this page within her website to highlight different conference due dates, resources for journal publications, and fellowship apps.
Website description: the "out"-sourced section of Dr. Cho's website consists of links that have helped her in her journey and ones she thinks others will also enjoy.