You start listing service and realize the activities don't fit neatly together. A department committee, a journal review, and a school partnership all belong somewhere, but they tell different stories about your contribution.
The handbook describes several kinds of faculty service. Use those distinctions to organize the record, then follow the reporting categories that apply at your institution.
Service within the institution
This may include governance, committees, program responsibilities, or other work supporting the university. Explain the level, role, dates, and actual tasks. A university committee title doesn't automatically convey more useful work than a substantial contribution within a program.
Clarify whether a responsibility belongs under administration, teaching, service, or another local category.
Service to a discipline or profession
Examples can include reviewing, editing, organizing scholarly events, or contributing to a professional association. Describe the work you performed. Membership in an organization and completing a task for it aren't the same record.
Respect confidentiality when describing reviews or other entrusted work.
Community engagement and outreach
Explain the relationship with the partner, the purpose, and the contribution. If disciplinary expertise was involved, describe how it was used. Ask what the partner needed rather than assuming a university activity necessarily met that need.
Labels such as engagement and outreach may have specific meanings locally. Use the applicable guidance and explain the activity plainly enough that the reader doesn't have to infer its nature from the label.
Handle overlapping work clearly
A partnership can involve teaching, research, and service. Identify the distinct contributions and follow the relevant rules for reporting overlap. Don't imply that one output represents several independent accomplishments.
When the classification is uncertain, ask before building the whole narrative around an assumption.
Add the context that a list leaves out
Record the duration, responsibilities, deliverables, and your part in the outcome. Explain a title or organization readers may not recognize. Use the evidence appropriate to the claim and reporting requirements.
A brief, clear account can do more than an impressive-looking category heading.
Take five activities from your current record and sort them using the required local categories. For each, add a sentence describing what you did. Any activity that remains hard to place is a useful question to clarify before review time.
Adapted from The New Faculty Handbook by Zafer Unal, pp. 150-153.
