“Spider-Man Principle” and the “Categorical Imperative”: How to Address the Problem of “Managing Through”
"Managing through" is the administrative practice of passing difficult decisions on to a higher level of the organization in order to avoid the consequences of having made an unpopular choice. For instance, a department chair may receive a request from a faculty member that the institutional cap on travel funding...
Why All Evaluations Are Not Alike
Imagine that one day you come into the office and a fellow administrator asks you to review the following language from the draft of an evaluation that he or she is writing about a faculty member.
“But I Hate Asking for Money”: Development Tips for Academic Administrators
Despite the widespread expectation that academic leaders participate in fundraising at their institutions, many administrators feel poorly prepared for development work. After all, they rose to their positions because of their success as teachers and scholars, their record of good management skills, and their ability to mix attention to details...
Failing Gracefully
Make no mistake about it: If you serve long enough as a university administrator, sooner or later you will fail at something—massively, undeniably, and embarrassingly. Either the result that you intended from an initiative never came close to being achieved, or you’ll have a new supervisor who feels you’ve wasted...
Zen and the Art of Higher Education Administration
One of the best books on how to be an academic leader actually has nothing to do with higher education administration. Daniel Levin’s The Zen Book (Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 2005) is a combination of introduction to Buddhist practice and guide to daily life. It is also a wonderful summary...
Reading the Boss’ Mind: When Less Really Is Less
“No, that’s still not what I had in mind. You need to do it over again.” If we ever hear those words (or similar ones) coming out of our own mouths, a bright red flag should go up immediately for one of the following two reasons...
Mercenary U
Undoubtedly, the way in which higher education is funded has changed significantly in recent years. One study done by The Chronicle of Higher Education demonstrated a steady decrease from 1987 to 2014 in how much of a public university’s budget was provided by the state. Although only 25 years ago public funding...
I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change
An amazing metamorphosis sometimes affects academic leaders between the time they interview for the job and the time they begin their position. As candidates for the position, prospective administrators are usually overwhelmed by the quality of the students and faculty. They’re impressed by the curriculum and mission of the institution,...
The Two (Organizational) Cultures of the University
In a now legendary lecture at Cambridge’s Senate House in 1959, C.P. Snow coined the expression “the two cultures” as a way of characterizing what he saw as an increasing rift between science and the humanities in modern academic life. Since Snow’s time, we’ve seen even greater isolation of many...
Locating the (Leadership) Land Mines
Beginning a position as an academic leader can be challenging under any circumstances. But those challenges increase exponentially when you’re hired into an institution from the outside. You enter a world where nearly everyone knows more about most local issues than you do. Alliances have already been formed. Coalitions that...
