Academic Leader as Communicator-in-Chief
Those of us who have served our institutions as deans or provosts know that leadership requires many skills—some of which we bring to the job and some of which we develop in office. I think that the ability to communicate effectively is one that is always a work in progress—partly...
Clock Time Versus Piece Work in Higher Education
Albert Einstein is credited with the observation that “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” Perhaps nowhere is this principle truer than when trying to evaluate the work of faculty members and administrators in higher education. Yet the difficulty of the task...
5 Qualities of Successful Change Efforts
Because circumstances vary among disciplines, departments, and institutions, there is no formula for bringing about change, says Jill Perry, program director of the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate at Duquesne University School of Education. However, she has observed that successful change efforts share the following characteristics: Collaborative decision making. Decide...
Maintaining a State of Readiness for Sudden Transition to Deanship
Many deans enjoy long, productive careers that terminate with retirement. In some cases, deans may make a voluntary strategic career move to a larger institution as a step in a grand plan to move to the highest levels of administration. In cases of impending retirement or an announced move, time...
“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...
Responding to the Market
Market forces such as student and parent concerns about employability, students’ need for flexibility, and decreasing traditional-age enrollments in New England are causing Colby-Sawyer College to rethink its approach to liberal arts education.
Should You Expand Your Online Initiative? Key Considerations for Institutions
A number of institutions of higher education, recognizing the potential for reaching new student markets and the opportunities to meet a number of institutional goals, invested significant resources to build strategic online learning initiatives.
What Encourages Faculty to Include Diversity Materials in Their Courses?
Incorporating material that addresses diversity issues in classes has positive effects on a number of learning outcomes. The success of efforts to make curricula more diverse depends to a large degree on faculty willingness to incorporate these materials because control of the curriculum remains in faculty hands—both collectively, in terms...
Nibbled to Death by Ducks
“Nibbled to death by ducks.” The phrase, though nearly three centuries old, is still remarkably apt for the role of the department chair today. Our jobs are filled with little nibbles taken out of our time and attention; no individual nibble may be all that significant, but the accumulation of...
When Colleagues Are Brats
Have you ever left a meeting in which you were trying to work with some colleagues on aligning the curriculum for a course that several of you teach, and decided that the best (printable) word to describe a colleague was "brat?" Does it seem like there is someone in your...
