Promotion Package Prep Retreat | 2020 Academic Year End Newsletter

AdvanceRIT recently hosted two, two-day retreats away from the office for 20 women faculty preparing promotion dossiers.

These promotion dossiers are to be reviewed next academic year. The first retreat was held on RIT campus in two spacious conference rooms and the second was held in the Empire Suite of Balcony Point: a room with a wonderful view. Several hours were built into the agenda for women faculty to work on their promotional materials in enriching, focused spaces. Additionally, advice sessions from Provost Dr. Ellen Granberg, former Dean of Saunders Dr. dt ogilvie, and Assistant Dean for Research Mentorship Dr. Peter Hauser provided valuable information on developing promotional materials. To break up the scholarly work, Denise Wellin from Better Me at RIT joined the group for targeted stretching sessions, Jaime Weisberg, a positive psychology practitioner from NorthBound, presented on priming faculty for success during our “Lunch & Learn,” a Group Discussion regarding External Reviewers was held, and twenty-minute strolls outside to enjoy the new summer weather were taken. Ultimately, 100% of participants felt attending one or both of the retreats was a valuable use of their time, provided an opportunity to develop their network, and provided skills or information that will support their career success. Here is what a participant had to say about attending the promotion retreats about the most valuable aspect of the retreat: “Time and space to dedicate towards creating the dossier with the camaraderie of others attempting the same. This is invaluable-- as both faculty and women, it can be incredibly isolating to be weathering through this process. Knowing others who are attempting it, commiserating, learning things from their own trial and error (by having a mixed group at different levels of mid tenure, tenure, and full professor tenure) helped to make me feel like my mountain was possible to climb.”