While the emphasis is not on getting tenure, there is a preliminary discussion about starting to put a dossier together. And the dossier proves to be the most formidable of beasts. Jim Cline, a physics professor who is applying for tenure this year, agrees. You have to document everything you've done in the way of research, teaching, service or administrative contributions since you've arrived here. Assembling all the documents you need is time consuming, along with updating your CV and making sure you have all the student evaluations from classes from all those years.
Some professors even hire administrative assistants to deal with the workload.
Before that, though, new applicants are given a clear sense of what they need to prepare for tenure. And the most useful thing was going to the last professor in this department who got tenure and using his dossier as a model. Originally instituted to ensure that professors enjoyed intellectual freedom, tenure has come under criticism as nothing more than a life-time sinecure for a sleepy professoriate. Such notions are misguided, Miller stresses. I cannot think of many other jobs where a person is assessed by the department, then that judgement is sent out to external reviewers, and those two judgements are examined rigorously by a university-wide committee to ensure it meets university standards.