L. Earle Reybold is an Associate Professor in the College of Education and Human Development at George Mason University. Kristen W. Corda is a Program Manager at The University of Texas at San Antonio, and is currently a Doctoral Candidate at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Copyright © 2011 by The Journal of the Professoriate, an affiliate of the Center for African American Research and Policy. All Rights Reserved (ISSN 1556-7699) Faculty Identity and the ‘Lesser Role’: Service to the Academy L. Earle Reybold George Mason University Kirsten W. Corda Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Abstract: This study describes early career socialization to the service role in a College of Education at a university in the Southwest. This choice highlights perceptions of institutional influence on service experiences and development of a service ethos. Participants include seven early career women faculty in education, most hired during a two-year period. Multiple in-depth interviews were conducted with these participants throughout pre-tenure, resulting in a total of 26 interviews. We identified a common process of service identity development: orienting to the service role, induction into the service culture, and development of service identity. The resulting service identities are characterized as servant, politician, veteran, and castaway. Findings are discussed in terms of faculty rewards, professional identity transformation, and institutional change. Academic service is the least understood of faculty roles and responsibilities. Relative to teaching and research, it is considered ambiguous and insignificant (McCabe & McCabe, 2000; Tierney & Bensimon, 1996). The perceived irrelevance of service is exacerbated by institutional reward systems that often ignore service contributions, particularly for promotion and tenure decisions (Boice, 2000). Theoretically, the ―complete faculty member,‖ Fairweather (2002) said, is expected to ―be productive in all aspects of faculty work‖ (p. 29). In