Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence

Conference for Associate Professors

Research indicates that women associate professors often hit the ‘glass ceiling’ in their career progression. National-level data and recent faculty satisfaction surveys at Purdue call for an urgent need to support women associates and enable their promotion to full professor. The Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence, in partnership with ADVANCE Purdue-Center for Faculty Success and the Office of the Provost hosts an annual conference for associate professors each year in the spring. The inaugural conference for associate professors was in spring 2019.
 
This conference and the Center are listed as a resource in the article, From Associate to Full Professor, in Inside Higher Ed, 5/22/20. In this article, Keisha N. Blain shares some tips, strategies and resources to help midcareer scholars overcome barriers to promotion.
 
Female students have earned half or more of all doctoral degrees for almost a decade, yet few hold tenured or leadership positions in academia. [1] According to 2015 data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), women in the U.S. continue to be underrepresented among full-time faculty in degree-granting postsecondary institutions in the U.S.  This disparity was most prevalent in statistics for full professors where, among White, Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islanders, the percentage of male professors was double or more than double their female counterparts.  In contrast, women made up higher percentages of part-time instructors and lecturers than their male counterparts, with the numbers becoming more even at the assistant professor level and being surpassed at the associate professor level. [2] Women held nearly half of all tenure-track positions in the U.S. in 2015, but held only 38.4 percent of the tenured positions.1 According to Purdue’s Data Digest, in 2017, about 20% of full professors are women.
 
Universities need to invest in women faculty to ensure that they succeed and maintain momentum to advance to leadership positions. The conference will allow participants to network with peers and leaders on campus and beyond.
 
[1] Johnson, Heather L. 2017. Pipelines, Pathways, and Institutional Leadership: An Update on the Status of Women in Higher Education. Washington, DC: American Council on Education.
[2] U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2017). The Condition of Education 2017 (NCES 2017-144), Characteristics of Postsecondary Faculty.

What are the benefits of attending the Conference? See past conference attendees comments below or download pdf here.

Charting Your Path to Promotion4th Annual Conference for Associate Professors
February 2022 (Live and Virtual)
Registrants = 85 
 
Beneficial aspects of the conference (all comments): 
The keynote talk was very good. Provides a perspective on how conservative Purdue is with promotion.; Hearing peoples' diverse experiences; Meeting others and discussing how things are done at different universities; Time to focus and think about my career development. Great information from panel presenters.; hearing that the other associate professors experience the same challenges.; Virtual option.
 
Expand Your Sphere of Influence by Becoming a Full Professor
3rd Annual Conference for Associate Professors
March 2021 (Live and Virtual)
Registrants = 156
 
Beneficial aspects of the conference (all comments): 
I found the Building a Publishing Pipeline to be extremely beneficial. It was kind of a paradigm shift, that helped me to think/approach my writing differently. Very grateful for this hands on workshop and surprised how well it worked even in virtual format.; Networking and being able to appreciate similar challenges faced by others in similar or advanced phases of careers - strength in not feeling alone.; Building a Publishing Pipeline; I think the conference provided some answers to essential questions about going up for full.  I found it particularly helpful when panelists dispelled commonly held or limiting beliefs about barriers to promotion. I was particularly encouraged by feedback that addressed balancing administrative commitments with research.  The panelist feedback that addressed professional strategies following a gap in research productivity due to external challenges was very helpful.  Finally, the workshop regarding creating and establishing a pipeline for publications was most helpful.; NCFDD's publication pipeline workshop. Amazing.; breakout rooms to meet with others, workshop; The workshop on the publishing pipeline.; Resources / Exemplars; the workshop by a huge margin; The workshop. It was great to learn tools to make writing more effective, gain inspiration and remind myself that many struggle with similar issues.; I liked the hands-on tips during the workshop. It was a good reminder of things that I already knew, but also introduced me to new strategies; The keynote speaker was excellent! I was not able to attend the workshop on Day 2.; I gained connections to other faculty and insights from senior faculty who gave great advice about promotion.; Hearing from other faculty who have been on promotion committees and been through the full process; Hearing about how people altered their mindsets and research agendas after promotion.  I've been feeling like that (I've been Associate for 2 years) but wasn't sure if it was acceptable in academia.  No one tells you these things!; The keynote speaker was excellent, but also very genuine. I would've liked more Q&A time with her, as some of the questions in the chat were quite good and went unaddressed. The panel discussion was also very enlightening, and I took copious notes because it was so valuable to get a read on faculty perspectives from across the university.; I started to think about soliciting letters for promotion.; Being virtual was the greatest thing. I hope we keep this format in the future.; Hearing the experiences of the recently promoted Professors; Get to know how other efficient writers multitasking their writing works.; The workshop was excellent.; Keep focused and plan ahead for promotion.