Mid-Career Faculty Consortium

A workshop for mid-career faculty, by mid-career faculty!

Congratulations, you have achieved the rank of associate professor and the opportunity to define your future! Mid-career tenured and/or associate professors comprise over half of the faculty in higher education and are the backbone of their institutions and play a critical role in advancing the mission of their institutions.  Associate professors produce more published articles, teach more students, and participate in more service activities than faculty at any other career stage (DeFilippo and Giles, 2015).

In spite of their continued and important achievements, mid-career faculty have been identified as the least content among all faculty ranks (Chronicle of Higher Education, 2012).  In fact, the first few post-tenure years are often considered the “lost years”, characterized by a blur of service, a lot of busy work, and little productivity (Weimer, 2010).   Feeling pulled in too many directions, mid-career faculty often don’t focus on long-term career goals and instead end up feeling stuck and overwhelmed, or paralyzed by a dizzying array of options.  Mid-career faculty often are evaluating the tradeoffs between delving deeper into research and editorial roles for promotion to full professor or accepting more leadership and administrative roles and responsibilities.

Setting meaningful personal goals, being deliberate in embracing opportunities, and effectively working within existing cultural and political climates, are consistent attributes among vital and happy associate professors (Strange et al., 2008).   In other words, successful and happy mid-career faculty are skilled at defining their future and negotiating the path to get there.

The theme of this workshop is “Defining Your Future and Negotiating a Path to your Goals” as mid-career faculty.  This peer-led workshop is specifically for mid-career faculty.  This workshop is appropriate for any faculty member that has received tenure and/or promotion to Associate Professor.  Individuals at all stages of associate professor may find this workshop useful, from newly tenured faculty members to those that have settled into their role as an associate professor.  Those that have attended other mid-career workshops are welcome to come, participate, share, and learn from other associate professors.

This workshop will take place on August 10, 8:30am – 2:00pm, prior to the start of AMCIS 2017.  The location will be announced in the future.

Breakfast and lunch will be served to participants.  The cost of the workshop is $25.  Participants can register as part of the AMCIS 2017 registration process.

To allow for maximum participation among the participants, there is a limit of 40 participants.  If you would like to attend, simply select this workshop when you register for AMCIS 2017.

8:30 – 9:00          Welcome and Introductions
9:00 – 9:45          Interactive Panel Session
9:45 – 10:00        Networking Break
10:00 – 10:45      Breakout Session 1 – Defining Your Future, Personal Goals
10:45 – 11:30      Breakout Session 2 – Putting Your Plan into Action  Part 1
11:30  – 12:30     Lunch
12:30  – 1:30       Breakout Session 2 – Putting Your Plan into Action  Part 2
1:30 – 2:00        Closing Remarks