Faculty Resources: Tips for New Faculty
Disclaimer: The UF Faculty Handbook is provided as a general reference rather than the official source of university policies and guidelines. For your convenience, links to official UF documents are provided.
Review and Evaluation
- Keep an up-to-date Vita and list of the year's activities.
- Use the UF Promotion and Tenure template for your annual review, you may enter information on your publications, awards, patents, and public presentations in the OPT system. The template is available in MYUFL (Go to Main Menu >My Self Service >Faculty Promotion and Tenure >UF Faculty Promotion and Tenure >Promotion and Tenure Packet > Packet Template with Activity.) See the Online Tenure and Promotion Toolkit for more information.
- Look at University, College, and Department Promotion and Tenure documents early.
- Understand your responsibilities and design your goals in scholarship, research, teaching, and service with those responsibilities in mind.
- Identify what kinds of publications are most valued in your department and discipline.
- Emphasize innovation as you document your work.
- Save documentation of your work, including acceptance letters, conference programs, and contract and grant information.
- Set a timeline for submitting materials outside of the institution. Any external review is important feedback on your work.
Mentoring
Teaching and Students
- Try to contain your teaching to the proper percentage of your work time.
- Be aware that the nature of graduate education makes it much more time-consuming than other forms of teaching. Don't take on weak grad students without a clear plan for addressing the weaknesses. Be sure to ask graduate students "why" they want you on their committees and make sure it is a good expenditure of your time and a good fit with your research expertise. Try to balance your commitment to graduate students with your other commitments to teaching, research and service.
- Intercollegiate Athletics Committee (IAC) - Resources for faculty members working with student athletes
Research
- Do some of your writing with others as a way to hold yourself accountable.
- Working with established researchers can help you obtain your first grants.
- Become familiar with the services provided by UF's Office of Research.
- Be accountable to someone for writing deadlines (use mentor or collaborators).
- Limit the number of your projects. It is easier to work on a series of related issues. Be strategic in your planning.
Service
- Choose service commitments to match with your other intellectual interests where possible.
- Do department service so that your colleagues will get to know you and see that you are contributing to the common effort.
- Talk to your colleagues about general expectations for service.
- Develop a mix of departmental, university and national or international service over time.
Resources
Faculty Handbook