Making the Transition from Vice President for Student Affairs to Full-time Faculty

Being a vice president for student affairs is an amazing job with awesome responsibilities.  It occupies one’s life twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year.  The one time I left my cell phone downstairs instead of upstairs with me in my bedroom, the emergency call came.   I didn’t hear it.  It all worked out but that was the last day that phone was more than 8 feet away from me…until I decided to step away from the vice presidency and toward full-time teaching at my university.

I woke up one morning several months ago and a voice whispered “Your work is done.”  I felt a sense of relief, surprise and wonder as I had loved the job for over 12 years; loved the students (still do); loved interactions with colleagues and the community.  For a few months, the job was a struggle as I came to realize it was time for me to leave.  My departure would allow a relatively new president to select a new person with a different perspective to join his team.  So I decided to step down.  I considered retirement, but did not feel quite ready to do that.  Luckily, I am a tenured full professor.  So I decided I would return to my beginnings.  My first post-Ph.D. position was as an assistant professor.

But whether you begin on the faulty or not, it always seemed important to understand the faculty and even to resemble the faculty.  I believe that understanding and resembling the faculty is an important part of cultivating strong partnerships between Academic Affairs and Student Affairs because it helps faculty to view the student affairs professional as more alike them than different from them.  It facilitates conversations with faculty members so that we can help them understand what student affairs is and why it is important.  Furthermore, if a VPSA wants to consider moving to the faculty, it is important to lay a foundation and build a pathway to the faculty.  That foundation and pathway might include such things as being of service to your chosen college or department by becoming an adjunct professor.  At my university, ranks above director are not paid to teach, therefore, teaching a needed course is a service to the department.  Service can also include departmental committees and graduate students’ thesis and dissertation committees. 

Another part of building the pathway to the faculty is to do scholarly work.  That work includes conference presentations, research, and journal publications.   Over the course of my career I set goals to include one or two publications per year and one regional, one state, and one national conference presentation per year.  Those kinds of goals encourage scholarship and contribute to the profession and to colleagueship with the faculty so that if and when you want to transition to full-time faculty, you may be a bit more welcome.  Of course some VPSAs make the transition without these things.  It just becomes their job to figure out how to be of service and build the foundation as soon as they know they will move to the faculty.

Any transition means giving up some things and gaining others.  According to Firmin (2008), when one moves from being an administrator to the faculty, one gives up perks, power, income, discretionary spending and control.  Specific things in these categories may include a big office, support staff, travel funds, a team to implement programs, access to other people with power and so on.  I even had to give up my athletic tickets.  Among the more important things I am giving up are regular contacts with a great group of staff and regular meetings with large and small groups of students.  I am saddened by the end of my monthly lunch meetings with random groups of students; leading cheers at convocations and orientations; meetings with the Student Government Association and the Black Student Association, sororities, fraternities, and numerous other groups.  I don’t think I will miss the big office…in part because I won’t miss the calls in the middle of the night that went with the office.

Firmin (2008) indicated that in addition to the five things one gives up in the transition, there are eight developmental tasks that one must accomplish: enjoying the benefits; charting a new future; developing new challenges; overcoming potential hard feelings; maintaining emotional equilibrium; having a circle of friends; regrounding in content and professional expertise; and resisting the temptation to meddle.  I especially like the last caution.  Although I believe that if a VPSA has been doing the job a long time there probably is very little interest in getting involved in the matters of the division.  Most likely the VPSA will be done.  More challenging might be two other things.  Number one for me has been recognizing that I am tired and that it is okay to do nothing for a while.  People will ask “What did you do today?”  I declare here and now that “Nothing” is a great answer.  Be okay with that answer and take care of yourself. 

The second challenge is to become grounded in content and content delivery.  It is important to teach something that is of service to the department and something that is in your area of expertise.  Expertise can come from having taught the subject matter, studied it or lived it.  Either of those three can be a great start. It is essential to find and understand the resources, including textbooks and journal articles, that will be used in the class.  Then it is necessary to prepare for the delivery of those resources.  The preparation will require time and the help of others.  Ask for help and gratefully receive it.  That is what I am doing.

I am anxious and excited about this new journey as a full-time faculty member.  I want to give it at least as much as I gave to the VPSA journey.  I would be happy to let you know how it goes.  Wish me luck.

Reference

Firmin, M. E. (2008). Transitioning from administration to faculty: Developmental tasks and addictions to break.  Journal of Practical Leadership, 3, 144 -148.