by Amy D’Andrade 

I became a member of the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity(NCFDD), an on-line community supporting scholarly productivity, as soon as I learned

NCFDD Logo.

about the opportunity from Amy Strage of the SJSU Center for Faculty Development. Through NCFDD, I learned about the Faculty Success Program. This program, also called Faculty Bootcamp, is an intensive on-line training and mentoring program designed to help participants increase their scholarly productivity. I had been feeling frustrated with how little time I’d been spending the last few years on my own research and writing – it’s a part of my academic life that’s important to me, and that I really enjoy. However, in the chaos of the semester my scholarly work often seemed to get pushed aside.  So, although the semester was an extremely busy one for me, I decided to participate in Bootcamp during Spring, 2012.

The Bootcamp involved attending weekly phone/web meetings throughout the 15-week program; participating in weekly small group calls with 3 of the other 50 or so faculty members in the program; and tackling the “homework” assigned by the program leader. Through weekly web-based phone meetings, NCFDD program director KerryAnn Rockquemore educated participants about making a semester plan, developing a weekly planning process, committing to writing on a daily basis, identifying mentors, clarifying professional priorities, and establishing a decent work-life balance.

I already had one part of this “model” in place before the Bootcamp – most weeks I managed to plan out the next week’s work in advance. But I never accomplished all the things I’d outlined for myself to do, and I certainly wasn’t getting as much writing done as I wanted (hardly any, in fact). While I liked the idea of learning different habits that might facilitate my productivity, I really couldn’t see how much could change during such a busy semester. When I spoke to KerryAnn before beginning, I told her I had real concerns about being about to complete the program because of my workload during the term. To which she said, in a delighted voice, “That’s great! It’s the perfect semester for Bootcamp.”

To my amazement, she was right. The commitment to daily writing, the accountability involved in reporting my writing to peers, and the support I felt surrounded by other serious, determined and similarly frustrated scholars made a tremendous difference for me.  Even in a very busy term, I was able to make time to write. And I’ve found I’m much more productive writing daily – even just 15-30 minutes a day – than I was waiting around for a big chunk of time to appear. And most importantly, I feel much more peaceful and happy in my professional life. I’m less stressed and worried because I know I have a system and a structure in place that allows me to make meaningful progress every day on work that’s important to me. And I feel supported by the NCFDD community as I move forward.

KerryAnn is full of positive energy, warmth, and great ideas. In particular though, something that she said struck home with me. She just pointed out that a) most universities place high value on faculty authorship of articles and books when making tenure and promotion decisions; and b) most universities have no institutional structures in place to facilitate this work getting done. Your class schedule ensures your teaching gets done; administrative meetings and required products ensure your service work is done. But no such institutional structure ensures the vital work of writing and scholarship gets done. The NCFDD Bootcamp teaches you how to create structures for yourself that prioritize your own scholarship. I had a hard time with this because I figured 20% of my time (.2) was for each of my four classes, and 20% (.2) for advising and service. If I divided up a 40-hour week, that meant I had 8 hours to spend on each .2. But then there was nothing “leftover” for writing – and so I’d feel guilty taking any time from those 40 hours to write. KerryAnn just pointed out that the university values this work and wants us to do it; I have the right and the responsibility to structure my time so that my scholarship gets done too.

If you’re already productive and don’t feel you need additional support, great! Or, if you feel certain that there’s absolutely no way to get any writing done during the academic year, something like the Bootcamp might not be useful. But if you’re willing to consider the possibility that some changes in how you structure your work and your time can enable you to become more productive — and if you’d enjoy and appreciate the structure, support and camaraderie working with a group of other academics can provide – Faculty Bootcamp might be just what you need.

CASA will pay for one faculty member to participate in Faculty Bootcamp for Spring 2013. If interested, type up a one page application detailing your reasons for wanting to participate, and why you think a program like this might make a difference for you. Tenure track faculty have priority, but all full time T/TT faculty are eligible to apply. Send applications to Sarah Roberts in the CASA Dean’s office (sarah.b.roberts@sjsu.edu), by 12/05/12. Feel free to call or email me if you have any questions – I’d be delighted to tell you more about the Bootcamp experience (Amy D’Andrade, 4-5830; amy.dandrade@sjsu.edu).