Think you want to be a dean?

1
Think you want to be a dean?

• Janie Fouke
• Michigan State University
• NSF Women in Engineering Leadership Conference
  (10/12/00)

2
Outline

• Why in the world?
• Creating opportunity
• Evaluating opportunity
• Making the jump
• The first year

3
Why in the world?

• Personal motivation?
• Serendipity?
• Life of service?
• Builder?
• Deserve it (Its my turn)?
• The trick is this whatever your motivation, it
  will be very difficulty to assess the match!

4
Serendipity

• The big driver
• The match of resource and opportunity
• So rare . . .

5
Creating opportunity

• Build your skill set
• Interpersonal relations
• Budget and finance
• Strategic/long-range planning
• Matching tactics to strategy
• Problem solving

6
Creating opportunity

• Revise your resume (S)
• Let it be known
• Enlarge your network
• Find advocates
• Be visible
• Professional societies
• Multi-campus task forces

7
Evaluating opportunity

• Its not a competition!
• Read everything (Web-site, faculty governance,
  budget, strategic planning, CVs of faculty,
  college catalog, presidents speeches, local
  newspapers, Chronicle, various ranking services,
  etc)

8
Evaluating Opportunity

• Their interview schedule is a draft
• Read about the people that you will meet
• Listen during your visit! Take notes
• Analyze find the dissonance
• Write it down

9
Mission statement

• Is there one?
• Does anyone know?
• How does the reality match?
• How does it influence budget/personnel?

10
Making the jump

• Negotiations with the Provost
• Thats why you wrote it down!
• Short term (2-3 years) and long term plan
• Do your homework!
• Get on the phone!
• Priorities
• The salary is not the key to your success!

11
The First Year

• Relationships
• Your team
• The budget
• Internal vs external affairs

12
Relationships

• Who reports to you?
• Chairs, directors, associate deans
• Who should report to you?
• Reorganize the office/reporting structure?
• Based on who you have or who you need?

13
You need them they dont report to you!

• Custodial staff
• Secretarial staff
• Land management
• Curriculum office
• Physical plant
• Athletic department (if you are Big Ten!)
• Students
• Alumni

14
Communications with faculty

• Dont count on the chairs!
• E-mail letter? Flyer in mailbox?
• Under 200, then visit each of them within a
  couple of years
• Celebrate with them be the cheerleader

15
Your Teams

• Associate deans/front office
• Dont leave out personnel and budget people
• Your chairs/heads
• Development/alumni relations people
• Alumni kitchen cabinet
• Student groups
• Other services (computing, library, etc)

16
Budget and Finances

• How is the university budget determined?
• Report to legislature/regents/trustees?
• Annual/biennial/rolling five year?
• Who are the other players on campus?
• How are internal (dean to dean) decisions made?
  Top down?
• What is the value on partnerships?
• It can be too great!

17
Budget and Finance

• Compare budget (the past . . . ) and expenditures
  (the reality)
• Ask the pros
• Get quarterly reports
• Manage indirect cost returns/grant commitments
  (this is REAL money!)

18
Budget and Finances

• Look at several years of expenditures
• What is the budgeting style? Incremental/zero-base
  d?
• How much of the budget is in salaries?
• What tools do you have for long-range
  expenditures?
• How much is the endowment? How is it used and
  who determines that?

19
Alumni and Development

• Critical in this climate
• Opportunity of a generation with the recent
  economy
• Friend-raising and fund-raising
• Method/plan
• Control the pathways to potential donors

20
Friend-raising

• Who are your partners?
• Focus on 25 years in addition to now!
• Faculty can be valuable resources
• Dont lose the alumni
• Communicate with them!
• Increase the value of their degree!

21
Fund-raising

• Plan for what you need
• Endowed funds for students/faculty/programs
• Write it down
• Identify 3-4 prospects for each need
• Make your case with each of them

22
How do I spend my time?

• Meeting with the teams (communication)
• Receptions (recognition)
• Development (resources)
• Week-ends commitments? Absolutely
• Survival tactic? Have a great team!

23
Final points

• Take on the difficult jobs
• Keep physically fit
• Never write a nasty memo
• Spend an hour thinking each day
• Recognize the people that you need
• Keep a people file

24
Final points

• Dont hide the elephant
• Dont let a good Boss make a mistake
• Make your Boss look good and your Bosss Boos
  look even better
• MBWA (Management by Walking Around)
• WACADAD (Words are cheap and deeds are dear)