Roles and Responsibilities of Deans and Chairs: Commonsense, Epiphany and Execution

1
Roles and Responsibilities of Deans and
ChairsCommonsense, Epiphany and Execution

• Dean/Chair Orientation and Development Initiative

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Academic Leadership Defined

• Academic leadership is the act of developing a
  community of complete scholars to set direction
  and achieve common purposes through the
  empowerment of faculty and staff.

3
The Department Chairperson Tasks and Duties

• Leadership Department Governance
• Management Scheduling and Curriculum
• Management Faculty Citizenship and Initiatives
• Management Student Relationships and Initiatives
• Leadership External Communication
• Management Budget and Resources
• Management Office Management
• Leadership Continuous Quality Improvement
• Leadership Innovation and Work Habits
• Management Professional Development
• Adapted from Chairing the Academic Department,
  2nd edition,
• by Allan Tucker, ACE/MacMillan, 1984.

4
Leadership Department Governance

• Conduct department meetings
• Establish department committees
• Use committees effectively
• Develop long-range department programs, strategic
  plans, and goals/facilitate the development of
  action planning process
• Determine what services the department should
  provide to the university, community and state
• Implement long-range department programs, plans,
  goals, and policies
• Prepare the department for accreditation and
  evaluation
• Serve as an advocate for the department
• Monitor library acquisitions
• Delegate some department administrative
  responsibilities to individuals and committee
• Prepare annual report
• Assign advisees to faculty
• Provide information that links faculty to
  institutional mission, vision, brand and values
• Promote college and institutional initiatives
• Take time to understand the Faculty Handbook,
  Meet and Confer MOU, Academic Advising Handbook,
  General Education Handbook and develop strategies
  to discuss this information with faculty

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Management Scheduling and Curriculum

• Schedule classes
• Supervise off-campus programs
• Monitor dissertations, prospectuses, and programs
  of study for graduate students
• Supervise, schedule, monitor, and grade
  department examinations
• Update department curriculum, courses, and
  programs
• Share original syllabi and RFPs with new faculty
  scheduled to teach department General Education
  courses/discuss the quality of departmental
  teaching of general education courses
• Help the support staff with your department work
  and services, e.g. changes to faculty teaching
  assignments, book changes, Virtual College course
  scheduling, adds/drops, prospective student
  inquiries, etc. THINK about who needs information!

6
Management Faculty Citizenship and Initiatives

• Recruit and select faculty members
• Assign faculty responsibilities, such as
  teaching, research, committee work, and so forth
• Monitor faculty service contributions
• Evaluate faculty performance/keep Comprehensive
  Faculty Evaluation and Development Handbooks up
  to date
• Initiate promotion and tenure recommendations/guid
  ance on case statements
• Participate in grievance hearings
• Make merit recommendations with evidence and
  improvement in mind
• Deal with unsatisfactory faculty and staff
  performance/conflict smoothing
• Initiate termination of a faculty member
• Keep faculty members informed of department,
  college, and institutional plans, activities, and
  expectations
• Maintain morale
• Reduce, resolve, and prevent conflict among
  faculty members
• Encourage faculty participation
• Mentoring/coaching
• Modeling ethical behavior
• Understand and help faculty with special
  arrangements such Phased Retirement or
  sabbaticals

7
Management Student Relationships and Initiatives

• Recruit and select students
• Advise and counsel students
• Work with student government
• Respond to prospective student inquiries or
  requests for information
• Work with admissions, registrar and help each
  other to help FHSU students

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Leadership External Communication

• Communicate department needs to the dean and
  interact with upper-level administrators
• Improve and maintain the departments image and
  reputation
• Coordinate activities with outside groups
• Process department correspondence and requests
  for information
• Complete forms and surveys
• Initiate and maintain liaison with external
  agencies and institutions

9
Management Budget and Resources

• Encourage faculty members to submit proposals for
  contracts and grants to government agencies and
  private foundations
• Prepare and propose department budgets
• Seek outside funding
• Administer the department budget
• Set priorities for use of travel funds
• Prepare annual reports

10
Management Office Management

• Manage department facilities and equipment,
  including maintenance and control of inventory
• Monitor building security and maintenance
• Supervise and evaluate the clerical and technical
  staff in the department
• Maintain essential department records, including
  student records

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Leadership Continuous Quality Improvement

• Share understanding of universitys accreditation
  track known as the Academic Quality Improvement
  Program (AQIP) with department faculty and staff
• Identify and work with department quality
  improvement processes such as rethinking the
  curriculum, assessment of student learning,
  advising students, program review, etc.
• Share information about quality improvement
  opportunities with faculty and staff
• Seek information for making decisions about
  continuous quality improvement
• Respond to requests for participation in college
  and institutional quality improvement processes
  and systems
• Monitor on- and off-campus course work and
  programs for conformance to goals and curriculum
  needs
• Establish key performance indicators for
  measurement of department quality
• Submit a Kansas Award of Excellence application
  and find similar ways of certifying quality

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Leadership Innovation and Work Habits

• Take the initiative
• Pay attention to detail
• Follow-through
• Engage the future/Learn about trends, issues and
  developments in higher education and beyond your
  discipline
• Think differently/see differently (avoid
  insanity, i.e. doing the same thing over and over
  the same way and expecting a different outcome)
• Create change with a possibilities mindset
• Manage your own energy generation, conservation
  and channeling
• Be a pioneer/take a risk
• Stay optimistic/model positive behavior
• Create and add value when possible/see leadership
  as love
• Use your emotional intelligence/get some if you
  dont have any
• Practice followership as well as leadership
• Balance start less, finish more
• Be compassionate, but dont delay bad news
• Communication strategies for example, devise a
  system for helping faculty learn about university
  structure, changes, people and new things /
  especially after college meetings with dean

13
Management Professional Development

• Foster the development of each faculty members
  special talents and interests
• Foster good teaching in the department
• Stimulate faculty research and publications
• Promote affirmative action
• Encourage faculty members to participate in
  regional and national professional meetings
• Represent the department at meetings of learned
  and professional societies
• Conduct own research and service activities
• Encourage use of CTELT services