Mentoring tenure-track faculty is effective and increasingly utilized but there is demand for concrete mentoring strategies for navigating the ambiguities of the tenure track. The key driver of ambiguity—and therefore of candidate angst—is that some important aspects of the tenure decision cannot be determined until quite late in the tenure track. Two such aspects are the strength and number of external reviews the tenure committee may receive as evaluations of research effectiveness and the determination of teaching effectiveness. This paper proposes some ambiguity management strategies for implementation by candidates and their mentors as soon as the first year.

指导终身制教师是有效的，并且得到越来越多的利用，但是需要具体的指导策略来解决终身制的歧义。模棱两可（进而导致候选人焦虑）的关键驱动因素是，在权属决策中的相当晚之前才能确定权属决策的某些重要方面。这些方面有两个方面，即任期委员会可以接受的外部审查的强度和数量，作为对研究有效性的评估和对教学有效性的确定。本文提出了一些歧义管理策略，供候选人及其导师在第一年实施。