It’s great to be back at Prawfs. One of the last email communications I had with Danny involved an invitation to guest blog; knowing that makes this visit particularly poignant. This month, I hope to talk about some of my research on election law, which I usually write about through the lens of federalism. My scholarship involves the more obscure election-related clauses in the Constitution including the Voter Qualifications Clause of Article I, Section 2; section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment; and the Elections Clause (which was obscure until recently). I have quite a few projects in progress, so I look forward to reading your comments on any of these topics.
For my first post, I want to talk about something that is non-election law related. This is my first year as a tenured law professor (insert fist pump), and I am curious as to what changed for other people once they gained tenure. Did tenure make you more driven? Did it make you think about taking a bigger role in your school’s administration? Did tenure free you to write projects that you otherwise would not have written pre-tenure? Did tenure give you the confidence to evolve in the classroom? Or alternatively, did tenure make you say yes to every invitation, some of which you probably should have declined?
Honestly, I don’t “feel” any different post-tenure. Don’t get me wrong – I wouldn’t trade my tenure for the world. But I thought the earth would shift or something once I joined the ranks of the tenured. Instead, here are the two universal truths I discovered once I gained tenure: 1) Post-tenure, people still care about their teaching – if you cared about teaching before tenure, you will still care after tenure; and 2) Post-tenure, people will still care about their writing – if you loved writing before tenure, you will need to do it after tenure. That doesn’t change. So what changed for folks? For me, tenure triggered a compulsive urge to direct my energies towards a book project, even though now is not the best time for that (did I mention I have a few projects in progress already?). Since I had thought about this book project pre-tenure, I don’t really consider that a significant change.
For others, did tenure signify a significant change in your scholarly/teaching/administrative approach to being a law professor?
Posted by Franita Tolson on December 1, 2014 at 09:45 AM
Comments
Terrific news. Two observations on the “confession” that nothing has happened: 1. It being your first year tenured (and with projects ongoing from before), it seems premature to reach a conclusion. 2. Not sure of the basis for the universal truths you describe. I think it’s that everyone’s tastes and character is revealed before tenure and will produce the same behavior afterwards. A fair null hypothesis, but a skeptic would say that a person’s revealed character includes his or her response to incentives. For me, the more complete but complex answer is that we are required to continue performing — and should be, more than ever — and that we are willing to hold ourselves and others accountable.
Posted by: Confessor | Dec 2, 2014 12:35:46 PM
Nice post, Franita. I agree with pretty much everything you said. As you know, I too am newly tenured, and I agree that not much has changed. One thing, however, is that now I feel slightly more emboldened to challenge the administration on various policies with which I might disagree. I was able to do so before tenure, but the reins are off a little bit because I’ve now gone through the process. I was probably a little more cautious before — not because my school expected that, but out of my own self-awareness that I shouldn’t rock the boat too much. I have another round of promotion in a few years, however, so I wonder if there will be a meaningful difference once that happens.
Posted by: Josh Douglas | Dec 1, 2014 11:25:12 AM
Congratulations!
I think if you are ready for tenure, you are already doing the things that are consistent with being a good tenured faculty member. So if you are a hard worker and earned tenure, you likely have the personality that going to continue to do so.
For me, tenure didn’t change scholarship, except perhaps being comfortable taking on more shorter written works (compared to the longer law-review pieces). Also, I felt more comfortable experimenting with different teaching techniques, like requiring short papers in courses where I had formerly assessed solely on exams. And mostly because the in-class visits stopped, I presented the materials in different ways.
Posted by: Amy | Dec 1, 2014 10:41:13 AM