Tenure Track Networking Club

The Tenure Track Networking Club (TTNC) at the University of Texas at San Antonio is a faculty retention program that utilizes mentorship to retain excellent faculty. It fits within a larger culture of faculty mentoring at UTSA that utilizes early career departmental faculty mentoring, peer mentoring, and other mentoring resources. The TTNC introduces tenure track faculty to tenured faculty who serve as mentors to provide insights into the tenure process.

Goals of the TTNC

This program is voluntary, and open to all junior faculty, who are between 1-6 years in their tenure track journey. This program is designed with the overarching goal of providing early-career faculty with the intellectual and structural tools to increase their capacity to earn tenure. This key element of the mentorship program is beneficial to those who may be in their 3rd - 5th years.  Other goals of the TTNC are to:

  • Increase the concentration of faculty support networks
  • Increase the number of faculty mentorship relationships across the institution and promote interdisciplinary dialogue
  • Understand the tenure process at the University of Texas, San Antonio
  • Develop self-imposed goals to increase chances for tenure and promotion
  • Increase the number of faculty earning tenure
  • Generate additional opportunities at UTSA

The TTNC is not a one or two-year mentorship program but a program that typically will last six years, ending when the mentee has successfully earned tenure. The mentee's earning of tenure will be the only measure of success for the mentor and mentee relationship and the mentorship program. Many attendees will return and assume positions as mentors to current tenure track colleagues. The transformative nature of the mentorship program creates an opportunity for systemic change at the institution.