Professor and former Dean Olivia Frost

I. Builds community
a. At SI, we have a keen sense of community. We recruit the kind of individual who feels that service is important.
b. External reviews comment on the strong sense of community here.

II. Builds a career narrative.
a. When you come up for promotion and tenure, you will have to present a coherent narrative about your accomplishments. how your research and teaching fit into a meaningful whole.
b. Research, teaching, and service all must be a part of the narrative. At the job interview stage, the narrative is presented informally. By the third year review, and then P&T, you are expected to present this statement formally.
c. Think strategically about how the role of service fits into the larger picture of the portfolio that you intend to present at key milestones in your career.

III. Builds your knowledge base
a. Expands your knowledge of the academic culture, structure, and network.
b. You want service opportunities where you can lean about what the important criteria are that advance you in the various aspects of your environment (service on reviewing committees, research awards, curriculum constriction, grant committees, etc.)
c. Makes you aware of the dynamics and tensions at play when YOU are submitting articles, grants, etc
d. Look for opportunities that provide insight into the milieu in which you immediately find yourself. It can tell you what your department, school, and university find valuable. This can be subtle.
e. Opportunities to build a network and meet new contacts. Potential advocates, letter writers, mentors, friends and colleagues. Think “how can I get to know this person, and how can they get to know my work?”

IV. Being a good citizen in a community
a. Service is at the bottom of the reward system in the academy, but it is important not to forget the importance in being considered a member in good standing in that community.
b. Not being considered a good member can detract from your ability to advance within that community. Probably won’t get you turned down for tenure, but it’s subtle and intangible, and people notice.
c. Contributing to service can help mark you as someone important within the community.

V. Strategies you can employ when thinking bout making service contributions
a. At the job interview, when considering a faculty position, look at what the expectations about service are in advance. let the interviewer know about your service aspirations and how you would like to see service fitting into your academic career. see if there are opportunities to contribute in beneficial ways. Make it a part of your negotiation.
b. Find out how much assistance you will get when you’re offered a service assignment or are considering an elective opportunity. What kind of time commitment? What kind of payoff? (For example, being on a search committee can be very time consuming, but you also get to meet leaders in the field.) Make sure that the time you invest is proportional to the payoff.
c. Calibrate what you hear from the administration with what you hear from other faculty. Find out what their sense of service expectations are. Typically, a junior faculty member only serves on one committee. Service expectations grow as your career advances. seek advice about service commitments and assignments. Talk to your faculty mentor. Talk to your dean.

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Notes by Brett and Eytan:

1) Prof. Olivia Frost, former SI Dean:
- From http://www.si.umich.edu/~cfrost/: C. Olivia Frost is Associate Dean for Professional Programs and Professor at the University of Michigan School of Information.
- 3rd year review for tenure: will have to tell the story of how your research, teaching, and service (in that order of priority) fit into an overarching vision. Will be expected to have a formal statement of how goals fit into the goals of dept/ school/ university. Thus, view service as strategically as research and teaching.
- Service can build knowledge of criteria for grants and publications (e.g. committees for grant review, research rewards)
- Want to be considered a valued member of a community.
- Prof. Frost couldn't think of a case where someone was turned down for lack of service, but lack of service may give a tenure review committee member a reason to be less inclined to view other accomplishments positively.
- Balance payoff with time commitment, calibrated with what is heard from faculty
- Typically, junior faculty expected to serve on only one committee

2) Eric C.:
- Do service to understand how academic world works and can be treated as a peer.

3) Sean M.:
- Service is not about what you get out of it, but about what kind of community do you want to be a part of, and what kind of culture you want. You can be an agent, not just a bystander. Examples of student-initiated success stories: 2nd floor tech students area, FIRST (Featured Information Research Students Talks).
- Instead of complaining, speak up and serve to make change happen.