High Risk, High Reward: The Life of the Entrepreneurial Administrator
Most definitions of “entrepreneur” include the notion of risking something to earn something of greater value. In the business world, both risk and reward are often capital (investment that generates greater profit). In academic settings, this could also be true of some initiatives, but, more likely, there are other valuables...
Evaluating Your Academic Administration Career Path Strategy
At some point during your teaching and research career, you may decide to seek your first administrative post. As tenure-track positions diminish and because salaries for administrators in general are higher than those for academics, you may find the choice attractive. It offers greater long-term financial benefits. It affords more...
Leadership That Leads to Learning
Students look to teachers for leadership. The teacher is the person in charge—the course’s designated leader. That’s hardly revelatory, but how does leadership inform our practice? Do we think reflectively and critically about our roles as leaders? With a new academic year about to begin, perhaps it’s a good time...
Can Innovation Be Taught?
As budgets tighten at colleges and universities, academic leaders are repeatedly urged to be more entrepreneurial in their approaches. “It’s time to think outside the box,” we’re told. “Be creative. Be daring. Be innovative.” But what do you do if you’re not a naturally innovative person? Or how can you...
Exodus or Migration? Faculty Are Leaving
Higher ed is losing faculty. Some believe nontenured faculty are leaving, while others insist that tenured faculty are leaving too. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? It depends on whom you ask. According to an October 2020 Chronicle of Higher Education survey of 1,122 US college and university faculty, more than two-thirds of...
Throw the BUMs out: Higher Education Acronyms Impede Communication
Like a light bulb drawn atop a cartoon character’s head, the bright light that came from the dean of students’ office radiated the brilliance of his idea. Survey data had indicated an issue with first-year students connecting with their advisors, and he firmly believed that it was contributing to the...
Tellin’ Ain’t Leadin’
Every now and then, some young person or other—usually a friend’s child—will ask me what I do for a living. I try to make my answer appropriate to the child’s age, often describing a dean’s similarities to and differences from the principal of a school. Frequently, the response I’ll get...
Returning to Campus: How Leaders Can Address Trauma
In the past 18 months, students, faculty, and staff experienced what can only be described as trauma. Many have returned to campus after enduring the loss of family members; others are exhausted from nursing sick loved ones back to health or shouldering extra caretaking responsibilities with children. Some have family...
Triangulating for a New Approach to Student Success
The signs of a fundamental shift in the attitudes, motivations, and learning expectations of students deciding where to attend college or university are well established. Due to rising costs (e.g., tuition, textbooks, and room and board) and the heavy, long-term debt burden that often comes with an education, many students...
Reflections of a Retired Dean
To serve a college or university as a dean or provost is a special honor and responsibility. I had the pleasure to be in such offices—from department chair, to division head, to dean, to vice president for academic affairs, to provost, to interim president, and (finally!) to senior vice president...
