Some thoughts about tenure

It might be due to the sunny morning, I start feeling better today.

I talked with professor N, whose tenure clock is up this semester. But N never let tenure be a life/death thing and never let tenure be the purpose for research. Working together for over 1 year, our conversation seldom relate to tenure and publications. We spent hours debating contributions of our research, designing studies, analyzing data. We both think research is a fun thing to do. And the process is enjoyable despite that our project is not going anywhere so far.

I admire N very much. N encourages me to seize every learning opportunity now. It is because the time and opportunity to learn is very limited once I become an assistant professor. Assistant professors are expected to publish a number of good papers within (usually) 6 years. The number is no less than 4 for Marketing. I am not sure about Psychology but feel that it should be somehow doubled. "Time constraint + teaching + adjusting to new job/environment" makes learning difficult.

Two years ago, Felix reminded me of protecting my interests for research. He told me not to exhaust it by overworking because it will wilt. Felix's words became a word of wisdom to me. After knowing more about the tenure system, I even think that genuine passion for research needs to be defended. The genuine passion is based on the intrinsic satisfaction derived from learning and growth.

I am not sure if N would get tenure here, but I am sure N will remain happy, and passionate for research.

"Life is bigger than a tenure," N said.


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Thanks Edwin for pointing out that I wrote *cease* every opportunity in an earlier version. What a mistake!