The most popular question I've been asked lately, on campus, by colleagues: "Is this your tenure year?"
Technically and officially, no, it's not---the clock stopped for a year because of Baby Jane + my sabbatical. So I go up next year.
But in my mind, yes, this is my tenure year.
If you think about it, the year before you go up for tenure is really crunch time. Your teaching is scrutinized. You obsess about student evaluations. You work to get those last articles out for review and that grant proposal submitted, in the hopes that at least some of these will be in press/in print/funded before the dreaded dossier is due. You embark on your Conference World Tour, cultivate your professional networks, try to get your name and work out there for those external reviewers. You try to get your ducks all in a row, cover all of your bases, [insert favorite preparedness cliche here]. You debate about whether to go on the market now or later or never. And at the same time, you have to remember to show your face at department/institution events enough to be "collegial" and to get your service in.
Whew. I'm exhausted already.
It seems like most of the heavy lifting, other that actually putting the dossier together*, happens this year. Next year, really, is just a big major freak-out waiting game.
So I think when people ask me if this is my tenure year, I'm going to start saying "Why yes, it is."
* It's my understanding, too, that in some (most? all?) institutions, a lot of the putting-together-of-the-dossier happens during that year before tenure anyway. So you may actually be doing 90% of the work of the tenure year before the tenure year begins!
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You're right- by the time you submit everything next year, it's too late to try to get more pubs out or submit another proposal. I felt pretty relaxed last year (the year I went up), because I knew it was totally out of my hands at that point. I also knew that I didn't have reason to worry, because my annual reports had not raised any red flags at the department, college, or provost level. Good luck with your last year before tenure!
Thanks, Addy! For me, it's actually weirdly comforting to think that this time next year everything will be out of my hands. I'm guessing that I should know by the middle of this year what my chances really are for getting tenure---I'm not sure if that makes me feel better or worse about this year, though. :)
Good luck to you!