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Program Starter Kit
Part III: Organizing Information
Professor Tenure Status & Rank
Knowing the differences between various types of professors at your institution is important for a number of reasons. The extent to which faculty you identify as allies will be able to help you, or faculty you identify as opponents will be able to oppose you, depends in large part on thier tenure status and rank in the college/university. In addition, when making requests for institutionalizing Asian American Studies on your campus, you should know exactly what types (rank) of faculty you want the institution to hire and why.
While your institution's central administration (President, Vice-President, Provost, Dean, etc) will likely eventually concede to some form of Asian American Studies being taught on your campus, the exact type of faculty the administration will want to hire to teach such courses may be the main points of disagreement with students. Resolving these specifics may be (as it has at some schools) more difficult than actually getting the administration to agree to Asian American Studies in the first place. This section attempts to explain these differences and their importance.
Like the overall university power structure, the ranking systems of a college/university can differ widely from institution to institution. The following is more geared towards larger research universities. However, these general guidelines for how the system works will be useful for students at smaller liberal arts colleges as well.
TENURE
What Is It?
At most U.S. colleges/universities, almost all of which operate under the European model of universities, obtaining tenure is the major accomplishment for a professor. It means that the professor can stay at the institution as long as s/he wants, and can never, except in the most rare circumstances, be fired.
How do you get it?
Upon receiving her/his PhD, a professor can be hired as a "junior" faculty member. (See part 3) A junior faculty member can be hired on a "non-tenure track" or a "tenure track." A professor on a non-tenure track means s/he is "contracted" to work at the institution for a certain number of years, after which s/he must leave the university. Thus, s/he cannot be considered for tenure. In order for a professor to have a chance for tenure, s/he must be hired on a "tenure-tract." Tenure track faculty means that after a certain number of years the faculty person will be up for "tenure review." Only tenure-track junior faculty can go up for tenure review. Tenure review usually means that the professor gets reviewed by all the tenured professors in the personnel committee in his/her department. These professors look at all of his/her work (published books, peer-reviewed journal articles, service to the university, and to a lesser extent, teaching). They also ask outside anonymous scholars across the country for reviews of his/her work.
If the professor is recommended for tenure by his/her department, the case usually goes to a higher committee in the institution (sometimes called the "ad-hoc committee") for review. At some institutions, this higher committee is an anonymous committee of tenured professors from throughout the university, not just the professor's department. Sometimes, outside reviews by anonymous scholars happen at this level as well. If this committee grants him/her tenure, and the administration (i.e., President, VP, Provost, Trustees) approves, then the professor is tenured and clear. If they deny tenure, the professor usually has no option but to look for a job elsewhere, since a denial of tenure usually doesn't allow for the professor to stay. Also, since most decisions on tenure are anonymous, the professor usually has no way to appeal, or even find out why s/he was not granted tenure. In some cases, the professor's home department may recommend tenure, bu the higher committee or administration will reject.
What it means
Tenured faculty hold the most power at colleges/universities. This is manifested in a number of ways: They decide which tenure-track faculty get tenure and they have much more say over who gets hired in their department. Also, they have much more access to powerful university-wide committees, such as the curriculum committee (which approves new courses and new curricula), or the finance committee (which approves funding for almost everything the university does). Often, non-tenured faculty are not allowed to sit on these committees, or if they are they do not have much say in the committee.
Also, outside of the particular institution, tenured faculty have influence in who gets articles accepted in the most prestigious journals and who gets their book published at prestigious university presses. Getting into these journals and publishers can greatly help at getting tenure.
Most importantly, though, may be the intangible power which tenured faculty have in a college/university. They are the most respected, most listened to, and most responded to by other faculty in the university and by the central administration of the university. While there are usually no written rules that say this, it is generally understood that, compared to non-tenured faculty, tenured faculty have ultimate say over most important decisions. Many non-tenured faculty are careful not to disagree with tenured faculty because they know that the tenured faculty are the ones who hold the non-tenured faculty's future -- in the form of tenure review. They know that one scathing letter or verbal attack from a tenured faculty member could make a candidate for tenure get rejected. And, the candidate often cannot find out who made the attack. Of course, not all tenured faculty command the same authority. Some are perceived and treated as having more clout.
Therefore, when looking for allies, be aware that in most cases, only tenured faculty members will publicly support a campaign. Non-tenured faculty, even if they do support anything, will be hesitant in threatening their chances for tenure. Thus, those faculty members may be useful for certain behind-the-scenes work, but may not be useful for public support. Tenured faculty, on the other hand, who are in appropriate positions (i.e., academic field related to Asian American Studies and/or interdisciplinary field) should have little reason to not publicly support Asian American Studies.
RANK
Assistant (Junior) vs. Associate vs. Full (Senior) Professors
To complicate things even more, another way to describe a professor's position in an institution is by her/his rank. This usually means "assistant," "associate," or "full." These terms do not necessarily translate into tenured and non-tenured. These terms generally refer to the amount of salary, benefits, leave time, and/or access to certain university committees, whereas the tenure/non-tenured refers to whether or not the professor can stay at the university forever. An assistant (also known as a "junior") professor cannot at the same time have tenure, as associate professor can either be tenured or non-tenured (though usually the former), and a full (also known as "senior") professor usually, though not always, has tenure. (see Figure 1 below).
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* Senior Professors can be either tenured or non-tenured
* Associate Professors can be either tenured or non-tenured
* Assistant Professors are always non-tenured
Please also note that the above is based on a survey of a number of institutions, but isn't sure to be the case at your institution. Check to be sure.
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Often, a professor's publishing record determines his/her rank. For example, an assistant professor who has a book published by the time his/her periodic evaluation occurs could be promoted to associate professor. owever, since tenure reviews are technically separate from rank, they may or may not coincide with regular evaluations by departments. So, it is possible, though unusual, that a professor who publishes an outstanding book from her/his department's point of view could be promoted to associate professor before going up for and receiving tenure.
Adjunct Faculty/Visiting Professor
Both adjunct faculty and visiting professors are temporary instructors at an institution. Adjuncts usually only teach one or two classes per semester and do not work at the institution full-time. Visiting professors usually are hired to teach at the institution for a semester or year full-time. Therefore, they can offer more advising and assistance for students. However, neither provide for any stability for Asian American Studies or any other types of courses. By definition they are temporary, cannot advise long-term projects, and do not provide permanent courses because they themselves are not permanent. In other words, faculty are what determine courses, not the other way around. Without full-time faculty, no courses can be defined as permanent but rather temporary, and unstable at best in the institution. In the same way, without tenure-track or tenured faculty, there cannot be an Asian American Studies program (see "Programs" below).
In addition, adjunct faculty and visiting professors are paid much less than tenure-track or tenured professors. In particular, adjuncts are usually paid a ridiculously low amount, in proportion to the amount of work they put into a class. Adjuncts also usually do not receive benefits, such as health coverage. Therefore, adjuncts and visiting professors are often an easy, cheap way out for colleges/universities who want to say they are committed to Asian American Studies but really have not committed the financial resources for full-time tenure-track or tenured professors which any legitimate field of study deserves.
ACADEMIC STRUCTURES: Departments, Programs, Centers, Institutes
In addition to various types of professors, there are also various types of academic structures at academic insitutions. In making requests for institutionalizing Asian American Studies, knowing the different types of structures on a particular campus -- what they can and can't do -- would be an important consideration, as the various structures will play various roles in the establishment of Asian American Studies. Also, this will help when planning to make requests for what type of structure you want Asian American Studies to be placed into.
This section attempts to explain the differences between the different academic structures through which Asian American Studies can be established. Even more so than professorial rankings, the academic structures of institutions vary widely in definition. However, the following are some general guidelines for how the system works.
The Basic Academic Structure: the Department
Most U.S. colleges and universities operate under the European model of higher education in which various branches of the "objective" search for knowledge and "truth" are separated into "disciplines" such as History, English, Anthropology, Sociology, etc. These disciplines are maintained at an institutional level through the basic university structure: the department. Departments are where professors are hired, promoted, and tenured. While departments do not have ultimate power and final decisions in these matters, departments do hold substantial power -- in almost all cases, professors must be hired through a department. Departments can offer undergraduate and graduate courses, as well as a minor, major MA, and/or PhD. Universities/colleges have been described as "feudal societies," where each department is its own kingdom, only concerned with its own academic "discipline," with all the departments fighting each other for resources. Each department often has its powerbrokers who exert control over direction of the department. Often this group is the "executive committee" of the department, which is made up of only tenured professors.
Most of these departments, with their Eurocentric assumptions and practices, have been slow to hire scholars who do "interdisciplinary" work, such as those in Asian American Studies. The contradiction which Asian American Studies and other "interdisciplinary" fields bring is that while Asian American Studies is an "interdisciplinary" field of study, often Asian American Studies scholars must be hired through a department. Yet, these departments do not judge Asian American scholars by their "interdisciplinary" criteria but rather by their own narrowly disciplinary,m invariably Eurocentric criteria which have precluded Asian Americanists from being hired in the first place.
Unless they are hired through an Ethnic Studies Department, Asian Americab Studies scholars are often secured through a multidisciplinary search connittee of professors from different departments, but the professor must still be hired through a specifric department, under its own specific criteria. If the department doesn't approve of the candidate, then s/he cannot be hired.
There are only a few Asian American Studies departments in the country -- notably at San Francisco State University, University of California, Santa Barbara, California State University at Northridge. There are also Asian American Studies programs within departments such as Ethnic Studies (University of California, Berkeley and San Diego, University of Colorado, Boulder) American Culture/Civilization (Brown and Michigan). See "Important Considerations" for details.
Programs
Academic programs, for the most part, are interdisciplinary, "non-traditional" in some way. Programs can exist in Asian American Studies, other Ethnic Studies (African American, Latino/Chicano, Native American) as well as Women's or Gender Studies, Urban Studies, Environmental Science, American Studies, and area studies (East Asian Studies, Middle East Studies, and South Asian Studies).
Programs can offer a minor, major, MA and/or PhD degree. Programs are more substantive than just courses because they provide for a curriculum, as well as (usually) a consistent regular set of courses being offered. They also provide for advising for theses and independent research. However, programs cannot, by themselves, hire professors, tenure professors or promote professors. This is because faculty for programs must be "housed" in a department, since all faculty must be hired through a department (see above: "Departments"). This means that technically, a faculty member must have her/his "line" placed in a department, even though s/he may be hired for a program. This is not to say that physically the professor must have her/his office in the department. It means that a professor can teach courses for the program which are independent of her/his department, be a director for the program, plan curriculum for the program and/or organize events for the program -- so llong as her/his "home" department agrees. However, because of tenure considerations, unless the professor hired for the program receives tenure through a department when s/he is hired, the professor has little latitude to do work for an interdisciplinary program.
Programs can initiate a search for professors, but since they must be housed in a department, any interdisciplinary hires usually must meet (if not greatly exceed) the standards of the department through which s/he is hired. Therefore, programs often find themselves at the mercy of the departments for all their professors.
Besides hiring professors specifically for a program, some colleges/universities create a program by drawing from existing faculty at the institution. However, for fields such as Asian American Studies, this can pose certain problems. First, most departments have never prioritized Asian American Studies in its hiring, so that existing faculty who do any sort of Asian American Studies work often only have marginal background, training, and or interest since that is not what they were hired for. So these existing faculty often have questionable commitment to and training in the field. Second, unless a director for the program is hired who is an expert in the field and can devote her/his full energies to the program, the program's curriculum will not develop. In the same way, unless additional faculty are hired specifically to teach and work for the program, the curriculum and program will not develop.
Institutes/Centers
At most institutions, an institute or center is a non-academic or non-curricular structure. Institutes and centers often organize and promote activities, events, symposia, conferences, and research in a particular area. They can also be centers for student activities and organizations. The institute or center can be associated with a curricular structure such as a department of program. For example, a Biology Department may have an Institute for Biochemical Research which draws on faculty in the Biology department to run its events and research. Sometimes, Asian American Studies programs have an institute or center closely associated with it. However, the institute or center should not be confused with an academic program. For example, an Institute or Center for Asian American Affairs, by itself, would not be able to offer any courses or curriculum for a college/university. Often, establishing this type of center is a cheap and logistically easy way for a university administration to make itself look good and appease students who want Asian American Studies, without challenging the academic assumptions and structures of the university. But this is problematic, since it is often assumed that Asian American Studies is not a legitimate scholarly field of study, but rather just a "multicultural" diversity activity on campus. This is not meant to deny the critical importance of Asian American student centers or institutes which organize Asian American activities, but rather meant to emphasize the importance of making a "multicultural" sensitive university commit to academic resources, such as tenure-track faculty lines and/or academic structures such as programs or departments.
Important Considerations
When making plans to advocate for Asian American Studies, there are a variety of possibilities. There are some considerations when comparing the nature of Asian American Studies as: 1) individual courses, 2) programs, or 3) departments. As noted above, individual courses are the easiest to do. Adjunct faculty can easily be hired. However, adjuncts are not full-time, so they cannot advise major projects, and they are temporary so they cannot offer assurance that the course will cintinue being offered. In addition, as long as adjunct-taught courses are offered (usually taught by graduate students who may or may not be trained in Asian American Studies), the legitimacy of Asian American Studies on your campus will be contested. Legitimate courses in a legitimate field of study neccesitate full-time faculty. In other words, if Asian American Studies is a necessary crucial part of the liberal arts, why shouln't it receive full-time faculty?
Hiring ful-time (tenuretrack) individual professors within individual departments (history, literature, sociology, etc) is another way for Asian American studies to occur on a campus. Full-time faculty provide much more long-term stability for their courses than adjuncts. When the establishment of a program or department is not feasible, having individal professors in departments is an alternative. Such faculty can provide groundwork for the establishment of a program or department. The drawback of only having faculty in individual departments without a program or department to house Asian American Studies is that there will be no comprehensive curriculum provided. In other words, curricular development in Asian American Studies as a legitimate field of study would happen on an ad hoc basis at best.
East of California, the Asian American Studies program is the most common structure which is established at large research universities. A program provides a structure with which to develop a curriculum (minor, major, MA, PhD, etc.) In developing a general curriculum in Asian American Studies, a program can also gauge which areas need more resources, faculty, etc., whereas individual courses provide no structure to do this. Finally, a program gives Asian American Studies, as it would any interdisciplinary field, the legitimacy that it needs as a field of study. In other words, without a program, Asian American studies exists as an "add on" to existing departments' Eurocentric curricula.
A department provides the benefits of a program but also provides for the ability to recommend hiring, promotion, and tenure, which a program does not. Some feel that a department "ghettoizes" Asian American or Ethnic Studies, since faculty in a department would not communicate or work with the traditional departments. Some others feel that only a department provides for the necessary autonomy which a legitimate field of study needs and deserves. However, much of this debate is precluded by the particular situation at each particular campus. Often a department is the most difficult academic structure to establish. Keep in mind that a critical mass of existing faculty in Asian American Studies is necessary to consider establishing a department. Otherwise, the department would not have enough faculty to hire other faculty with its department.
In order to guage where Asian American Studies should fit on your particular campus, look at the history and precedent of Women's Studies and/or African American Studies at your campus.
Most of these departments, with their Eurocentric assumptions and practices, have been slow to hire scholars who do "interdisciplinary" work, such as those in Asian American Studies. The contradiction which Asian American Studies and other "interdisciplinary" fields bring is that while Asian American Studies is an "interdisciplinary" field of study, often Asian American Studies scholars must be hired through a department. Yet, these departments do not judge Asian American scholars by their "interdisciplinary" criteria but rather by their own narrowly disciplinary,m invariably Eurocentric criteria which have precluded Asian Americanists from being hired in the first place.
Unless they are hired through an Ethnic Studies Department, Asian Americab Studies scholars are often secured through a multidisciplinary search connittee of professors from different departments, but the professor must still be hired through a specifric department, under its own specific criteria. If the department doesn't approve of the candidate, then s/he cannot be hired.
There are only a few Asian American Studies departments in the country -- notably at San Francisco State University, University of California, Santa Barbara, California State University at Northridge. There are also Asian American Studies programs within departments such as Ethnic Studies (University of California, Berkeley and San Diego, University of Colorado, Boulder) American Culture/Civilization (Brown and Michigan). See "Important Considerations" for details.
Examples of College/University Power Structure
1. Large Research University
2. Small Liberal Arts College
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