Variance in Academia

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 58th Annual Meeting - 2014

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Variance in Academia: It is not all R1’s out there and even those are not what you think CHAIR Nicholas Kelling, University of Houston – Clear Lake PANELISTS Gregory M. Corso, Morehead State University Haydee M. Cuevas, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Joseph R. Keebler, Wichita State University S. Camille Peres, Texas A & M University Bruce N. Walker, Georgia Institute of Technology There is a growing concern regarding our academic community that academia has become a less than optimal option for new graduates. As our discipline is strongest when there is an appropriate balance between academia and industry, maintaining a strong academic workforce remains critical. However, apprehension exists on the mind of students regarding the viability of academic careers. Of specific concern is a very high expectation for tenure. Although such expectations may be accurate for some high performing institutions, a more accurate depiction is needed regarding the variance of academic positions. This panel will allow for an open discussion between those interested in academic careers and a multitude of differing academic experiences. Although tenure will be a major component discussed, interactions will also include best practices and tips for academic success.

Copyright 2014 Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. DOI 10.1177/1541931214581099

INTRODUCTION An intriguing myth has permeated to many individuals entertaining the possibility of academia as a career. Based on previous HFES discussions, it is evident that may considering academia have grown concerned over the expectations of tenure. Many believe that in the current environment industrial opportunities are a safer career opportunity. Additionally, these previous discussions have highlighted a blind acceptance that basic measures of success in all academia have been reduced to requirements of large grants and extremely high publication activity. Sadly, this myth is affecting the integrity and the balance of our academic profession. While many of our students are exiting from high production universities where such requirements may be accurate, such extraordinary requirements are not universal within academia. What has not been clearly represented to students is the variety of academic posts. High production research universities (R1) with very high tenure expectations seem to be the accepted analogue for all posts. However, greater exposure to university diversity may allow for a more accurate representation of academic careers. A diverse panel comprised of all ranks and more importantly from experience with different university types including R1s, transitional universities, and non-R1s will provide an

accurate scope of tenure and career expectations. The design of this panel is to aid in the alleviation of concerns individuals may have in considering careers in academia. By allowing an interaction between potential and current academics, this open discussion panel hopes to renew interest in maintaining a strong academic workforce. PANEL FORMAT The format of this panel will differ slightly from a traditional discussion panel. Other than brief introductions, no formal presentations will be given. Rather, the panelists will be reserved to answer direct questions. Initially, this discussion will begin with moderated questions designed to detail requirements and pressures at different represented institutions. However, for the majority of the session, questions will be recruited from the audience through direct request or written question. To allow for maximum efficiency, any panel member responding to questions will be limited to two minutes. This cycle will repeat under the direction of the moderator until the session’s time has been exhausted.

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PANELIST BIOS AND ABSTRACTS Gregory M. Corso Morehead State University Morehead, KY Dr. Gregory M. Corso is Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at Morehead State University. Prior to his appointment at Morehead State, he was a faculty member at the Georgia Institute of Technology. At Georgia Tech, Dr. Corso taught courses in the Engineering Psychology graduate program and he was instrumental in creating the first year engineering psychology sequence, a required set of courses for Ph.D. students, and the Graphics, Usability, and Graphics (GVU) Center. He has supervised 15 Ph.D. dissertations, 23 MS theses, and 4 senior theses. He has published or presented more than 50 papers and has been the PI or Co-PI on 20 research grants and contracts. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from New Mexico State University and his B.S. degree from the State University of New York, College at Cortland. Currently, what are the requirements and expectations for tenure at your institution? Tenure is assessed through teaching, research, and service. The first step in the review process is an evaluation of teaching effectiveness. Unless a determination is made that the faculty member is an effective teacher, tenure will not be granted. At a minimum, effective teaching requires a thorough knowledge of the subject, the ability to present material in a clear fashion, and the ability to work with, motivate, and serve as a role model for students. In addition, evidence of effective advising, mentoring, involvement of students in the faculty member’s research program, and supervision of students, as well as general availability to students, are considered important components of teaching. The Committee and the Chair review multiple indices of teaching effectiveness. Although favorable student evaluations of teaching are expected, student evaluations alone shall not be considered as sufficient evidence of effective teaching. Given the qualitative nature of this assessment, faculty members are provided with clear and constructive feedback regarding his or her performance and progress toward meeting departmental expectations in teaching. The faculty member is expected to take this feedback into consideration in the annual revision of his or her courses.

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Faculty members are expected to establish a program of independent or collaborative research in their area of training and expertise. Faculty members are also expected to seek support for their research program through the submission of grant proposals. The research program should lead to presentations at state, regional, or national professional meetings and conferences, and to refereed publications. In addition, faculty members are expected to attend and participate in discipline-based professional meetings, workshops, and where appropriate, continuing education activities. Faculty members are expected to contribute their time and energy to a variety of service activities. Important service activities within the university include membership and active participation on departmental, college, and university committees, and sponsorship of co-curricular activities. External service may include work for professional organizations and for community, state, and federal agencies. Service on editorial boards, grant review committees, as an ad hoc journal reviewer, and leadership positions in professional organizations at the state, regional, or national level are encouraged. It is anticipated that a faculty member's service activities will gradually increase over time. Haydee M. Cuevas Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Daytona Beach, FL Haydee M. Cuevas is an Assistant Professor in the College of Aviation Department of Doctoral Studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU). Prior to joining ERAU, she worked for over 7 years as a research scientist at SA Technologies, Inc. Dr. Cuevas has a Ph.D. in Applied Experimental and Human Factors Psychology and a B.A. in Psychology, both from the University of Central Florida. She has over 15 years of experience as a human factors researcher investigating a broad range of human performance issues in complex operational environments. Dr. Cuevas has held over 30 volunteer and elected appointments in professional organizations, including the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, American Psychological Association – Division 21 Applied Experimental and Engineering Psychology, and the Society for Human Performance in Extreme Environments. Currently, what are the requirements and expectations for tenure at your institution? ERAU’s three core requirements for tenure are: Teaching (e.g., course load, student evaluations), Service (to students, the department, college, campus, university,



and community), and Scholarly and Professional Activity (e.g., research grants, journal publications, conference presentations). ERAU has traditionally been a teaching university, however, in January 2010, it launched its first Ph.D. program and currently has three Ph.D. programs, with two more starting soon. ERAU’s nascent evolution into a doctorate-granting research institution has brought about a concomitant change in the requirements and expectations for tenure. A greater emphasis is now being placed on Scholarly and Professional Activity as this is crucial to achieving ERAU’s strategic goals. Notably, as a private institution, tuition at ERAU is very expensive. Thus, funded research is vital to attracting and retaining the best doctoral students (e.g., via tuition waivers and research assistantships). Challenges and Best Practices: Of the three core requirements, the greatest challenge I have faced as a new faculty has been Scholarly and Professional Activity. New faculty, especially, are expected to invest considerable effort (50% or more of their time) on submitting grant applications and manuscripts for publication. Yet, scholarly activities must not interfere with the faculty’s teaching and service duties since these are also important for securing tenure. So what is a new faculty to do? Next, I offer some best practices I have gleaned from my lessons learned, both at ERAU and in my prior industry position. First, collaboration is absolutely critical to success. Collaborate on a research proposal rather than pursue funding alone. Be open to participating in a supporting role rather than only submitting proposals as the Principal Investigator (PI). Get to know your fellow faculty and maintain contact with colleagues outside of the university. Network at faculty events (e.g., department meetings, Faculty Senate meetings) and professional conferences to establish fruitful partnerships with colleagues who share or have complementary research interests. Many funding agencies are encouraging multidisciplinary research; thus, include colleagues outside your immediate department or college in your professional network. Second, volunteer to assist colleagues on their projects while you continue to pursue your own funded research. Similarly, volunteer to advise students on conducting their own research (e.g., senior thesis). Likewise, ask your colleagues about available data sources that you can analyze and report. Although this work is unfunded, these activities can still help you meet tenure requirements by creating opportunities for coauthoring journal publications and conference

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presentations on research findings, thereby addressing the problem of what to publish when you currently do not have your own research projects. Advising students also satisfies the Service requirement. Finally, solicit support from the various resources at your university. Get to know the folks in the Office of Sponsored Research, as they can both assist you in identifying potential funding opportunities as well as provide guidance in preparing and submitting proposals. Similarly, ask for guidance from your department chair and fellow faculty who have already secured tenure. Many of them will happily share useful tips and lessons learned to help you achieve this lofty goal. Joseph R. Keebler Wichita State University Wichita, KS Joe Keebler, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Psychology in Wichita State University's Human Factors program. Joe’s commentary will demonstrate that a career in academia doesn't begin the day you get your Ph.D., but instead on the day you enter a graduate program. He will speak about his goal to become an academic, and the route he traveled to get there. Specifically, Joe will focus on what he thinks are some of the core competencies to becoming an excellent academic: being a good team member; learning how to lead and follow; writing; teaching; and being a volunteer both professionally and in one's community. Currently, what are the requirements and expectations for tenure at your institution? Tenure requirements for associate professor of psychology at WSU are broken into 3 criteria – teaching excellence, research excellence, and service. Besides this, we also need letters of support for associate professorship from 3 tenured HF faculty that are individuals who we have not closely worked with at other institutions. The breakout for tenure is 40% teaching (2 courses per semester – with at least an average of good ratings and demonstration of higher ratings across time), 40% research (2-3 publications per year in relevant journals) and 20% service (which include departmental, college, University committees AND work for our national society – HFES in this case). We have 5 years to reach these goals – at the end of this term we submit a tenure-packet for review, and then wait about 8 months for it to go through acceptance or rejection. During this time it has to pass through a departmental vote, a dean’s vote, and the President’s



vote. S. Camille Peres Texas A & M University College Station, TX Camille Peres is an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M Health Science Center in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health. Her research is focused on the design implications for Auditory Displays, the ergonomic implications of input methods (gestures, touch, etc.), and incorporating simulations into the teaching of statistics. Dr. Peres received a Masters from the University of Houston-Clear Lake in 1996 and a Masters and Ph.D. in Psychology from Rice University in 2005. She is the incoming President for the Houston Chapter of HFES and is the Division Chair for the Professionalism Division of HFES. Although Dr. Peres now has a new position with the Texas A&M system, she has significant experience working with students regarding their decision to work in industry or academia. Approximately six years ago, Dr. Peres started the Applied Cognitive Psychology (ACP) program at the University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL). This program is a sub-plan of the Psychology program at UHCL and was developed to accommodate two types of students: those interested in going directly into industry and those who want to continue their studies and go on to a Ph.D. program. Currently, what are the requirements and expectations for tenure at your institution? Given that contractually we are expected to cover 30% of our salary in grants every year, grant activity is clearly evaluated very highly. The department does see industry projects as valuable and is primarily because half of the department has a focus on research with a direct impact on occupational issues. If the grants are primarily National Institute of Health (NIH) type grants-which are much more difficult to get--sometimes people can get tenure if they have scored highly on their NIH grants even if the grants were not ultimately awarded. The logic here being that the researcher clearly is doing good work and will likely be awarded grants in the future. To get tenure, faculty must publish between 2 - 5 publications per year (conference proceedings do not count at all). This is essentially a numbers game here but really does reflect the priority the department and the school places on research. Clearly dissemination of the research is the ultimately goal of conducting research

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and if the research is not disseminated, it really does not matter that it was not. Regarding teaching, faculty teach 2 classes a year at the school and are expected to get good rating and be quality instructors but there are not really any clear expectations or guidelines regarding this domain of the academic profile. Bruce N. Walker Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA Bruce Walker is an Associate Professor at Georgia Tech, with a joint appointment in the School of Psychology and the School of Interactive Computing. He has been at Georgia Tech since 2001, after completing his Ph.D. and a one-year NSF-funded postdoc at Rice University. Dr. Walker’s interdisciplinary Sonification Lab studies the human-computer interaction (HCI) issues in non-traditional computing environments, ranging from mobile devices, to cockpits and vehicle displays, to multimodal interfaces in complex task environments. Particular research interests include sonification and auditory displays. Dr. Walker has been President of the International Community for Auditory Display (ICAD). His work includes psychological and psychophysical studies, as well as the development of complete software and hardware systems to assist people with vision impairments. His Sonification Sandbox software is widely used to create multimodal auditory graphs for blind students and scientists. His System for Wearable Audio Navigation (SWAN) has seen international press coverage, including CNN and the Associated Press, as an exciting new way for people with vision impairments to learn about their surroundings. Walker also leads the GT Accessible Aquarium Project, seeking to make dynamic museum, zoo, and aquarium exhibits accessible to visitors with vision loss. Professor Walker teaches courses on Sensation and Perception, Engineering Psychology, Human-Computer Interaction, Auditory Interfaces, and Assistive Technology. He holds a BSc in Physics from McGill University, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Psychology (Human Factors) from Rice University. In addition to academic research leading to over 100 journal articles and conference papers, Dr. Walker has worked and consulted on projects for NASA, state and federal governments, private companies, and the military. Currently, what are the requirements and expectations for tenure at your institution?



There is no specific or explicit requirement for tenure, except that the candidate should be a good teacher, providing service to the university and the profession, and his or her research should be having an impact at the national level. Research impact is often demonstrated through peer reviewed journal articles published in top-tier journals, but there are many ways to show impact. Peer-reviewed proceedings in leading conferences (such as HFES) are also important if those conferences are considered to drive the field forward, and especially if the proceedings are archival. Research results depend on securing external funding, so funded grant proposals are also important. Typically 1-2 publications per year, on average, and some funded proposals from national funding agencies like NSF or NIH, are common levels of productivity. A successful program of research will also include undergraduate and graduate students, and will often produce PhD graduates by the time tenure comes around. SUMMARY To maximize the impact of this panel, highlights of the discussion will be submitted to the HFES Bulletin for greater distribution. The hope is to foster continuing conversations about academia for those interested in such a path. Including guidance for differing academic posts, increasing early career success, and pre-career preparation. As previous concern has been raised regarding the reduction of potential academics, meaningful discussions between those interested in careers in academia and professionals currently at different stages in their academic careers are essential to promote the future generation of human factors educators.


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