See also my CV Flipsen-CV-PacU-tenure
REFLECTION ON MY SERVICE
Please note that in commenting on this here, I will perhaps be at my most philosophical. This is an unusual position for me, because I’ve always been somewhat of a pragmatist and have never been able to relate much to what some have called the discipline that begins and ends in words. My working class roots likely also play a part here. My parents grew up in WWII Europe and never even made it to high school. Neither of my brothers completed high school and my two sisters just barely did. So speaking in philosophical terms feels odd to me at best. But in this case it is probably appropriate.
Most university administrators say that being a faculty member requires a balance between teaching, research, and service. It is now clear to me that most don’t want us to put equal weight on all three. Some make no bones about either teaching or research needing to be more prominent. At Mankato I arrived with 5 publications in hand and 2 in press and was told that I should concentrate on teaching and service. At Tennessee I was told clearly that research should be central to what I do; indeed I heard my Dean there once say that without a strong publication record and bringing in extensive external funding I should not expect to make Full Professor. ISU started out as a place that seemed to want about equal weight to all three, but it was clear after a while that the emphasis was shifting to more research. One of the reasons I chose to apply to Pacific was that it appears to me to be a place that strives for a balance between teaching, research, and service. So far I see no evidence to the contrary.
I’ve concluded that I prefer to weight teaching and research somewhat equally as they each inform and stimulate the other. But service has always been a puzzle, and I suspect it is true for most of us in academia; it is the one piece of the job that we are least prepared for in graduate school. As such it’s the piece that is often short-changed. After 15 years I now feel I’m just beginning to understand what it’s about, why we do it, and why it is such an important part of the job. I like the idea of giving it almost equal weight to teaching and research. A big part of our service derives from notions of ‘shared governance’. As masters of the content we are trying to convey, it behooves us to play a role in determining how students interact with us and the institution as we are imparting it.
I apologize in advance if my religious references here offend – no offense is intended. I happen to have deep religious convictions and they color almost everything I do. On the other hand, I also believe in the essential harmony of science and religion. Thus, I see no contradiction in using one to discuss the other.
I have no problem saying that I have tried to fulfill the service aspect of the job to the best of my abilities, even though I’ve had to operate blindly much of the time because of my limited preparation. I have tried to keep in mind that almost everything I do as part of my job is a form of service. As a member of the Baha’i Faith for the past 35 years, I ascribe to the philosophy that ‘everything done in the spirit of service to your fellow man is an act of worship’. Put more simply: “work is worship”. Clearly this is a lofty ideal. I don’t for a single moment suggest that I have managed to actually live up to such a lofty ideal.
As an organizational heuristic I will discuss my service relative to (1) service to students, (2) service to the university, and (3) service to your particular profession or discipline.
Service to Students
See my CV pp. 14-17. I fully appreciate that I am not always the most approachable person especially for students. I am by nature a bit of an introvert, and I do tend to prefer a bit of professional distance between myself and students – but when students approach me for assistance, I try to help as much as I can. For example, I rarely say no when students ask for letters of recommendation. And as can be seen on my CV I have served on many student committees. Graduate students usually have to do some type of summative experience. These often take the form of oral exams as is the case in the CSD program at Pacific. I always enjoyed these not because I am a sadist who enjoys punishing students but rather because I enjoy seeing the transformation that usually takes place in most students from beginning to end of their graduate programs.
My service to students has overlapped a great deal with my scholarship and allowed me to double-dip here somewhat. My publications #17, #20, #21, and #24 all arose via student research projects. The same is true for my conference presentations #15, #16, #17, #20, #21, #26, #29, #35, #39, #41, #43, #46, and #47.
Examples to document some of my service to students:
Nagoda – Thesis – Final AndersonThesis-final-text Wagner – Finalversion
Service to the University
See my CV pp. 13-14. The bulk of my service so far has been at the department level. During my last year at ISU for example, I chaired the department’s Promotion and Tenure committee and led a subcommittee that updated and revised all the P & T documents. Most recently I have become more comfortable with service at the College or University level. Indeed when I was applying for promotion for Full Professor at ISU, it occurred to me that the biblical quote “to whom much is given, much will be required” (Luke 12:48) suddenly made sense. Reaching this level means you’ve very likely had lots of support along the way, and it’s time to give back. As well, service at higher levels seems most appropriate for more senior faculty as they have the perspective of experience. They also should have their research programs established and their teaching well under control. As such I see part of the job of senior faculty is to ensure that junior faculty don’t take on too much service too quickly.
More recently my service has extended beyond the department. During my last year at ISU I represented the School of Communication and Rehabilitation Sciences on the ISU Faculty Senate (see ISU-SenateAppointment). Then shortly after arriving at Pacific I had a strange experience. Our school (SCSD) was asked for the first time to provide someone to serve as College of Education faculty chair who would chair college faculty meetings and represent the college on the University Council. As the faculty in the School of Learning and Teaching were looking at us I glanced around at my very inexperienced colleagues; it became apparent that none of them should do so and have their teaching or research potentially suffer. Having been hired at the rank of full professor was an acknowledgement that I had the necessary experience. But having been employed at Pacific less than two weeks, I was clearly not very familiar with how our college operated; as a compromise I volunteered to take on the job as co-chair together with a more junior faculty member. Just recently (once my one year in that position expired) I was more than happy to volunteer to serve on the Pacific faculty senate with a 2014-2017 term.
So far I have found that most of my university service (both at ISU and Pacific) has been very positive. I have tried to take each assignment seriously and come prepared for each meeting; I am however regularly surprised both by how much I’ve learned and by how much I usually enjoy participating.
Service to My Profession
See my CV pp. 12-13. In this case a big part of it has been my involvement with professional publications. As can be seen on my CV I have served as a reviewer for many journals. I spent three years as an Associate Editor for Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools (2006-2009), and then another three years as an Associate Editor for the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology (2010-2013). It has been very much a learning experience. As a reviewer I have really enjoyed seeing the works of others prior to publication. As an Associate Editor, I have that benefit but was also tasked with the more difficult problem of identifying reviewers and collating their feedback into a single, coherent recommendation to the Editor. Having managed the reviews of multiple different submissions to date, it has been interesting to watch the process unfold. I had heard horror stories about having great difficulty finding people willing to serve as reviewers, but to date that has not been overly difficult. As for making recommendations, I have been fortunate that I have not had to act as referee between reviewers. In each case so far, the reviewers I have chosen largely agreed with one another and with my own assessment of the manuscript. I also count myself as fortunate, because so far at least I have only had to deal with one “sticky situation” – a reviewer identified a failure to obtain copyright permission and the manuscript had to be withdrawn. The system worked the way it was designed to. Does this mean I’m good at the job or that I’ve just been lucky? I’d like to think it’s at least a little of both.
I have also been an active participant in an online listserv called “Phonological Therapy” which is run by Dr. Caroline Bowen of Australia. Until recently it was very active with students, fellow academics, and clinicians from around the world discussing both clinical and theoretical issues related to speech sound disorders in children. It is not clear however how long this particular venue will continue as traffic on the listserv has lessened considerably in the last year or two. It appears to be the result of the rise of various forms of social media (which I don’t yet participate in) where I’m told various other discussion venues have arisen. Regardless of how it plays out I have quite enjoyed the interactions on this listserv. I learn much more from the other participants than I ever contribute.
Documentation for some of my recent service to the profession:
2001-2014phonologicaltherapyPFlipsenJr KoreanJournalBoard-evidence
2008-OpenAppliedLinguisticsAppointment
2007-LSHSS-AEAssignment 2010-AJSLP-AEAssignment
Link to SLPinfo.org website
2013-ASHACommittee 2012-ASHACommittee 2011-ASHACommittee
In summary, my perspective on service has broadened considerably over the last few years. To come back to the earlier sense of “work as worship” such an approach has allowed me to make what I believe has been a meaningful contribution. It has also allowed me to learn much and quite serendipitously to enjoy the process.