How Much Does Instruction in Your Program Cost?
To manage resources effectively, it’s important to know how much it costs to teach students in your programs. Instructional costs vary from program to program based on class size, faculty salaries, equipment, and technology. And not all programs will generate enough revenue to cover costs. That’s OK as long as...
Six Ways to Ensure a Smooth Chair Transition
Faculty members often become chairs under less-than-ideal circumstances or for the wrong reasons. An underprepared faculty member or one with an axe to grind can wreak havoc and lead to frequent department chair turnover. Recognizing this all-too-common cycle, Gian Pagnucci, chair of the English Department at Indiana University of Pennsylvania,...
Best Practices for Conducting a Faculty Search
“The success, stability, and morale of an academic department largely depend on its faculty.” This is according to Thomas Weidner, chairperson of the School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science, and Samuel Cotton, chairperson of the Department of Technology, of Ball State University. At the 32nd Annual Academic Chairpersons...
Locating the Academic 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. You enter a world where nearly everyone knows more about most local issues than you do. Alliances have already been formed. Coalitions that stand in opposition...
An Intellectual Property Policy for Online Education
Does your institution have an intellectual property policy specific to online courses and course materials? If so, do you know and understand it? Do faculty know it? If faculty receives a financial payment or release time to develop online course materials, does that change who owns the rights to course...
After Promotion and Tenure: Maintaining Faculty’s Upward Trajectory
While a necessary and worthy milestone, earning promotion and tenure is not an end goal of an academic career. During the pretenure years, a faculty member is gearing up for growth in the areas (e.g., teaching, research and teaching) defined by the institution to meet the mark for tenure. Ideally,...
Creating a Strategic Plan for Global Engagement: Ideas for Academic Leaders
“Our goal was to make sure students on campus understood that they would be working in a global environment,” says Karen Kashmanian Oates, Peterson Family Dean of Arts and Sciences at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. As scientists and engineers, WPI students are poised to enter a truly global marketplace, with companies...
10 Student Recruitment Tips for Department Chairs
Student recruitment is not the exclusive domain of admissions staff. There are many things that department chairs and faculty can do to promote their programs to potential major and minors. In an interview with Academic Leader, Victor Vallo, Jr., chair of the music department at Newberry College, offered the following...
What Students Are Looking For In An Institution
One of the most difficult decisions for upper leadership in a university is how to apportion funds for capital improvements and new and ongoing academic programs. Often, the decision comes down to perceptions of what students are looking for in the admission process. However, data about what factors students seek...
Rebranding a University: Lessons Learned
“To rebrand, or not to rebrand”—that is the question that many higher-education institutions are asking these days to increase student applications, donors, engaged alumni, governmental funding, and community supporters. Whether it’s a college or the university as a whole, or a specialized program, telling the story through brand promise is...
