Service encompasses pretty much everything that an academic does outside of teaching and research. This includes advising, serving on university and departmental committees, reviewing papers, writing letters of recommendation, organizing seminars and conferences, serving on professional boards, etc. The impossibility of doing it all allows academics to decide what types of service they are going specialize based on their interests and abilities.
I have spent the last three years heavily engaged in university level service. I currently serve as the president of United Academics of the University of Oregon, and I am the immediate-past president of the University Senate. Before that I was the Vice President of the Senate and the chair of the Committee on Committees. All of these roles are difficult and require a large investment of thought and energy.
The reward for this hard work is a good understanding of how the university works, who to go to when issues need resolution, and who can be safely ignored.
I know what academic initiatives are underway, being involved in several of them. I am spearheading, with the new Core Education Council, the reform of general education at UO. I am working on the New Faculty Success Program—an onboarding program for new faculty—with the Office of the Provost and United Academics. I am currently on the Faculty Salary Equity Committee and its Executive Committee. I have been a bit player in many other projects and initiatives including student evaluation reform, the re-envisioning of the undergraduate multicultural requirement, and the creation of an expedited tenure process to allow the institution alacrity when recruiting imminent scholars. This list is incomplete.
Next year, with high probability, I will be the chair of the bargaining committee for the next collective bargaining agreement between United Academics and the University of Oregon (this assumes I am elected UA president). I will also be working with the Core Ed Council to potentially redefine the BA/BS distinction, with a personal focus on ensuring quantitative/data/information literacy is distributed throughout our undergraduate curriculum. I will also be working to help pilot (and hopefully scale) the Core Ed “Runways” (themed, cohorted clusters of gen ed courses) with the aspirational goal of having 100% of traditional undergraduates in a high-support, high-engagement, uniquely-Oregon first-year experience within the next 3-5 years.
As important as the service I am doing, is the service I am not doing. I do little to no departmental service (though part of this derives from the CAS dean’s interpretation of the CBA) and I avoid non-required departmental functions (for reasons). I do routinely serve on academic committees for graduate/honors students, etc. I decline most requests to referee papers/grants applications, and serve on no editorial boards. The national organizations for which I am an officer are not mathematical organizations, but rather organizations dedicated to shared governance.