Collaboration Leads To Benefits For Tenure Track Faculty

Abstract

In order to be successful, tenure-track faculty members strive to develop distinct research programs that lead to funded work and publications. To be sure, faculty must also be successful in other areas such as teaching effectiveness and service to their university and profession. It is in the pursuit of a distinct research area that tenure-track faculty often overlook, or even purposefully avoid, opportunities to collaborate with other faculty members in their department. Their appears to be a blind notion that such interactions can lead to a reduced level of recognition for one's unique contributions. In contrast, tenured faculty members are less aggressive in avoiding research interactions and, in many instances, often seek out such opportunities. This team-friendly environment allows synergistic activities to evolve and be capitalized on, leading to stronger research programs. From an external perspective, funding agencies are placing a growing emphasis on interdisciplinary research projects. This trend has led to increased pressure on faculty to collaborate. In the case of industry-funded research, where projects tend to follow a multidisciplinary model, it is almost always the case that multiple investigators are involved. This paper addresses the issue of collaboration among tenure-track faculty members and describes several benefits that have resulted from a collaborative atmosphere created by tenure-track faculty members within the Electronics Engineering Technology Program at Texas A&M University.