Since 2003, Dr.

Sharma has taught in and directed the Post Graduate in Dentistry program at the same SAL dental school from which she received both her dental degree and Post Graduation in general dentistry certificate. After her husband took an engineering position in Mumbai, she sought an appointment at Shri Hari Prasad Dental College (SHPDC), a small private school in the suburbs of mumbai with a longstanding tradition of educating highly qualified clinical dentists. At the time of her application, Dr. Rustam Pavri, the chair of the Department of Restorative Dentistry, informed her that she could choose either a tenure-track or clinical track position. Dr. Sharma considered her love of clinical dentistry as well as the fact that she and her husband were ready to start a family and opted for the clinical track, reasoning that she would be better able to balance her responsibilities without the pressure to obtain tenure. The concept of a clinical track appointment was a relatively new one for SHPDC at the time of Dr. Sharmas appointment. At SHPDC, Dean Dr. J C Asthana was very concerned about the low level of research activity at the school and the fact that faculty, especially junior faculty, were very heavily assigned to the clinic and courses. She had reduced the teaching assignments of junior tenuretrack faculty and facilitated the hiring of clinical track faculty, whose primary responsibility was teaching in the clinic. Faculty at the school had mixed feelings about these changes. Those in the tenure track were relieved that they now had more time for scholarly activity; however, many were uneasy that the role of clinical track faculty was not well defined. During the next five years, Dr. Sharma demonstrated excellence in teaching and was named a clinical group leader. At the same time, she was very busy in her personal life, giving birth to two children two years apart. Each year she received positive feedback during her performance evaluation, which included student and peer evaluations. She was very busy teaching, but she also continually sought new challenges and opportunities for growth. At the same time, Dean Dr. J C Asthana and Dr. Rustam Pavri were busily increasing research activity at the school. The restorative department now had an active program with many small grants. The department members collaborated well with one another, and Dr. Sharma took the opportunity to participate in several small projects that lead to IADR abstracts and a couple of

manuscripts. She worked hard to fit in her research activities with her heavy teaching and Chairing the academic department leadership among peers, This, in addition to meeting her young familys needs, took up much of her time and, as a result, she was not involved much with committees or professional associates for organized dentistry. Dr. Rustam Pavri felt that Dr. Sharmas research activity was important, and he was impressed by her motivation to pursue an area that was not part of her job description. He wasnt concerned that service was not a major area of emphasis for Dr. Sharma, and he told her this on several occasions. Dr. Sharma appreciated that Dr. Rustam Pavri gave her the freedom and support to develop in an area that was important to her. In the meantime, the Faculty Governance at the SHPDC made changes to its bylaws and promotion and tenure documents to include this new group of faculty. Because this was done after many of the clinical track appointments were made, the changes were somewhat vague and open-ended. However, Faculty Governance did pass strict limitations on the number of clinical track appointments and made it clear that faculty could not switch from tenure to clinical track or vice versa. Interestingly, it wasnt until after most of the revisions were made that clinical track faculty were given the right to vote on Faculty Governance issues. Last year Dr. Sharma was transferred to the newly formed Department of General Dentistry. At the time she was concerned her new chairperson, Dr. Sarkheshwar, might not be as supportive as Dr. Rustam Pavri. Indeed, Dr. Sarkheshwar was busy with clinic administration and was unavailable to mentor her as had Dr. Rustam Pavri. Dr. Sharma was more than a little anxious as she prepared for her annual performance review. Both of her appointments with Dr. Sarkheshwar for performance review were interrupted by phone calls, and they never actually addressed her concerns. She tried a few other times to schedule appointments with Dr. Sarkheshwar, but they were all cancelled at the last minute due to pressing clinic issues. Still, Dr. Sharma hoped to apply for promotion to Clinical Associate Professor in the next year. She knew that her evaluations by students and peers were excellent, and she was commended regularly on her effective management of her clinical group. But she had no idea how supportive Dr. Sarkheshwar would be. She got her answer the morning of her performance

review. After anxiously waiting twenty minutes for Dr. Sarkheshwar to arrive late, she entered his office. He cleared a pile of clinic activity sheets from the chair and invited her to sit. He told her that she had achieved all possible performance points for teaching and for her administrative work. Then he asked her why she sat on only one school committee and belonged only to the IADR. He stated that she was weak in the service area of her development and that she would lose several performance points because of that. Dr. Sharma felt her face flush as she asked him how many points she earned for her research activity. He told her that there were no points awarded for research since she was on the clinical track. He then suggested that she join the Admissions Committee. Dr. Sharma knew that the weekly meetings and interviews of the administrative committee would take what little time she had set aside for research. She cautiously asked Dr. Sarkheshwar if there was any chance she could be released from clinic one half day a week to meet these additional responsibilities. She could see Dr. Sarkheshwars jaw clench as he told her that she was no longer working for Dr. Rustam Pavri and that she was now in a department with a heavy clinical focus. She would need to rearrange her priorities to meet the mission of the department. Dr. Sarkheshwar further suggested she work on her research in the evenings or on weekends; after all, he said, thats how he had completed much of his research. The sudden ringing of the phone caused Dr. Sharma to jump. After hanging up, Dr. Sarkheshwar quickly excused himself and was out of the room before she could even respond. Dr. Sharma sat in her seat unable to move. She thought of her two little girls and husband. She had a happy life and liked it at SHPDC. She had never had a negative performance review. Now it appeared that she would not be supported in her development, let alone for promotion. She knew she was locked into the clinical track and that there was no precedent for what she was trying to do. For the first time in six years, the option of leaving SHPDC entered her mind.