Top 10 Things New Professors Need to Hear

作者简介：
Robert W. Heath Jr. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
at The University of Texas at Austin. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

看看下面的文章就知道，好教授不好当，很累。同样，学生也很累。我怎么看这篇文章，都觉得里面就是在教如何尽最大力压榨学生呢？呵呵。。。
不过，对我这种懒人而言，压榨其实就是推着我走，其实是好事。否则。。。就是退步。


Recently I had the privilege to address a group of new Professors at UT Austin and deliver my list of the top 10 things that new professors need to hear. Six years earlier I had received the same orientation. I attended similar seminars and listened to the advice of recently tenured faculty and seasoned Assistant Professors on the tenure process. Looking back, I now realize that few of the suggestions influenced me in my own tenure process.

This article is intended to give my personal view on how to create a foundation for tenure success. I hope that I provide some insight for those of you currently involved in tenure track positions or contemplating academic careers. If you are unaware of what Assistant Professors actually do, I hope it gives some appreciation that teaching at a University means a lot more than just teaching.

1. Tenure is a dash for the cash.
The amount of research dollars acquired and spent is very important to the university. Not only does it play a role in many university rankings, but it also provides funding for basic infrastructure through grant overhead. Consequently, I suggest writing as many good proposals as possible. Try different avenues for funding like NSF, government, industry,internal funding opportunities,and foundations. Essentially I recommend pursuing any relevant funding opportunity. While possibly controversial (I find most faculty either strongly for or strongly against), I recommend requesting your graduate students’ help with proposals. Graduate students will do the majority of the work if the proposal is funded. Why not have them help fund their own education? It provides valuable experience for students, which most of us didn’t receive, and can be helpful especially when writing
tricky sections like the literature review.

2. Write many papers.
Publications and students are the main outputs of research. Of course quality measured in terms of impact (or citations) is extremely important. It is hard to write an exceptional, well cited paper at your academic job in the few years before tenure. Consequently, I suggest erring on the side of writing more papers with very good quality instead of taking big risks and writing only a select few papers. Graduate students learn by writing papers, so let them learn. You might be surprised how good the results can be.

3. Spend time recruiting graduate students.
Graduate students are the main vehicles for conducting research. As a faculty member, it is surprising how little time is actually available to conduct research, given the time required for raising money, teaching, and service. Good graduate students have a positive return on the amount of time spent to train and supervise them. Recruiting promising students is one of the most important objectives as a faculty member. Answer all emails you receive from potential students. Encourage students who look exceptional. Don’t be afraid to discourage students with little chance of admission; it is in their best interest as well. Look for promising students in the classroom.

4. Create a good working relationship with your students.
It is often an awkward transition from graduate student to Assistant Professor. This can be magnified when advising students who may be older and have more real world work experience. It helps a great deal to build a more formal working relationship. Don’t be afraid to set deadlines and milestones for each student. Explain your expectations upfront and what the student needs to do to achieve them. Don’t be afraid to part ways
with low performing students who have been given proper notice of low performance. Provide prompt feedback to your graduate students on their research. Give them feedback on paper drafts as quickly as possible (this also contributes to point 2). Perform fun activities with your students (social events, happy hour, etc) to
keep morale high.

5. Reduce time spent on teaching preparation.
Now don’t freak out here; I’m not suggesting do a poor job at teaching. Among many activities, lecture preparation has a way of absorbing all amount of time available no matter if it is a few hours or a few days.
Unfortunately, this leaves less time available for other important activities like raising money, generating research, supervising students, and service. Get creative about minimizing class preparation time. Use old lecture notes as a starting point, especially if you took a good class on the subject. After class, get copies of student notes to help you prepare for future lectures. The lecture notes give you access to covered material as well as in-class created material like examples. If you have a TA for your class, have them type notes or create PowerPoint slides if you don’t already have notes in a digital format. Be creative about having students do the work. In-class group projects (students break up into teams and make a presentation) and other projects are a great alternative to lecturing and a great way to reduce lecture preparation.

6. Create an online resume and archive everything you do when you do it.
As an academic, your CV (curriculum vitae) is expected to document every facet of your academic life. Once you create a draft for your online CV, add details when events occur. This includes being a reviewer for a conference or journal, becoming a technical program committee member, organizing a session at a conference, chairing a session at a conference, giving a presentation, submitting papers, revising papers, and serving on student committees. This information will be required for annual reports and will also fit in your tenure
package.

7. Remember your teaching portfolio.
An important part of the tenure package is the teaching portfolio, which consists of all course-related material including notes, handouts, and assignments. Be aware that many schools require several examples of student work for all assignments. Be sure to make copies and mark the students name off (to protect privacy) or better yet create digital copies. You should have poor, average, and exceptional examples for every course that you teach. While it seems obvious, remember where it is filed. I had the unpleasant experience of locating material for two courses (sending emails to former students begging for copies of material). When I cleaned out my office to upgrade my furniture, they were neatly placed in an unused cabinet.

8. Make the most of every travel opportunity.
Academics have a lot of travel opportunities. Given the time and financial cost of travel, make the most of every visit. When traveling to a given destination, feel free to invite yourself to visit local universities, companies, or funding agencies. This is a great way to perform face-to-face networking. At other universities you can get insight into cutting edge research activities. Visiting companies will provide guidance on what kinds of practical research problems are hot and will give you a potential technical contact for funding, while visiting a potential program manager at a funding agency will provide some insight into the proposal process. Note that universities and companies will invite you for a talk if given notice that you will be “in town.” This is important because having invited talks on your CV is important for your tenure application. Finally, don’t forget to have some fun while traveling: eat at good restaurants; go scuba diving
(get certified early); or ski the slopes.

9. Understand what the department expects for tenure in terms of research, teaching, and service.
This is obvious but the variance in the answers you receive can be frightening. Great resources are recently tenured faculty, who can often provide an honest answer about what is really important. This will certainly vary by university, college, and department so get specific recommendations if possible. Talk to senior faculty to get a behind the-scenes perspective. It is especially valuable if you can find faculty who are on the college or university level committees and who can give guidance on what is viewed as important from the next administrative level. For example, the department may value teaching but the dean may prioritize research dollars.

10. Maximize productivity in whatever way you can.
At this point you probably realize there is a lot to do and little time to do it! As a graduate student, you generally have only a few tasks and lots of freedom on when and how to complete those tasks. As a faculty member you will need to get creative about maximizing your productivity. Most importantly, find a solution that works. Are you productive late at night? If so then stay up late and come in late. Office too distracting? Go to a coffee shop for a few moments of serenity. For a long term solution, set up a home office. Get disconnected for a while. Don’t answer the phone, turn off the email, and concentrate on the task at hand. Think about having a closed-door policy.