OT: any past or present department chairs here?

[timwat]

So I've been offered and accepted the role of department chair. Vote in our small department was unanimous, so I begin in January. We're a small department (12 instructors - 3 FT and 9 adjuncts), very little drama compared to some other places I've taught.

 

Looking for any advice or wisdom anyone might be willing to offer.

 

Thanks!

 

Tim

[El Lobo]

Academia is different from all other worlds. A professor at Berkeley once said to me that at least in business it's about money, whereas in academia there is no coin of the realm so it's all about egos. If truly there is "very little drama" you are lucky. But there will be some. Try not to engage it. Your colleagues may have voted for you because they think of you as even-tempered and rational, as you appear on this forum. There will be some issue that will vex you. Like gallstones, eventually it too will pass. Do your best and you will have no reason to have regrets, although you may have some. If you can enjoy yourself in this role, your colleagues will too. Life is good. Have fun.

[ElmerJFudd]

So I've been offered and accepted the role of department chair. Vote in our small department was unanimous, so I begin in January. We're a small department (12 instructors - 3 FT and 9 adjuncts), very little drama compared to some other places I've taught.

 

Looking for any advice or wisdom anyone might be willing to offer.

 

Thanks!

 

Tim

 

Congratulations, Tim! Unanimous vote is a testament to their faith in you, your experience, professionalism and work ethic. I think it also speaks volumes about your character - above all they find you to be a rational, logical, reasonable human being who has their best interest at heart. You exhibit as much here. Care for the department and staff in the same fashion you do your classroom and students and you"ll be department head for years to come.

[Adan]

Congrats, but please don't tell me you're relying on Keyboard Corner for advice on how to chair a department.

 

If you haven't already, watch "the Chair" on Netflix. A little overdramatized, but not as much as the casual observer might think.

 

Both my father and stepfather chaired departments. The relationship between the academic and administrative side of any higher learning institution is fascinating. Most people who go through college never get a glimpse of the world of intrigue going on behind the scenes. 3 FTs and 9 adjuncts sounds like a good way to get your feet wet.

[Fleer]

Chaired for seven very interesting years. Most importantly: shape your department by hiring and offering tenure to the right people.

[Cliffk]

Congrats Tim! Can"t add any more than that integrity is recognised even by those colleagues who seem to lack emotional intelligence and inevitably who"ll test your boundaries.

 

And another vote for Netflix"s The Chair. Adan called it right - and I"ll add 'funny as hell" for all the in-jokes and affectionate stereotypes for those familiar with academia. Imo the intrigues behind those musty walls are worth many more looks than popular media can usually be bothered to reveal.

[Moonglow]

Congratulations Tim! You certainly have the temperament for the job. I"ve been teaching at a Midwestern university for going on 25 years (behavioral sciences), the last eight of which have been full-time. I"m still not sure if I like it. Upon transitioning from adjunct to full-time (and being required to attend department meetings, sit on committees, etc.) a colleague once advised, 'you will never see people argue so much about so little.' I remember at one of my first department meetings someone inquiring, 'Have we decided about proposal X yet?' To which another another prof responded, 'Have we even decided how we will decide?' Fortunately, I don"t think anyone saw me roll my eyes...

 

I"ve never had any aspirations for an administrative gig, but have worked for four department chairs, and I"ve always appreciated the ones who didn"t micro-manage. Fortunately, our organizational structure is fairly horizontal, which supports participative decision making.

 

How is your relationship with your Dean? How is his/her relationship with the Provost and Chancellor? As you know, it"s all about the various departments fighting for dollars.

 

Congratulations again on this opportunity to develop a new skill set and career trajectory!

[El Lobo]

Chaired for seven very interesting years. Most importantly: shape your department by hiring and offering tenure to the right people.

This is key, IF you have the decision to hire. My father was Director of the School of Social Work at University of Wisconsin. His main contribution to the development of the school was in recruiting/hiring faculty.

[El Lobo]

... a colleague once advised, 'you will never see people argue so much about so little.' I remember at one of my first department meetings someone inquiring, 'Have we decided about proposal X yet?' To which another another prof responded, 'Have we even decided how we will decide?' Fortunately, I don"t think anyone saw me roll my eyes...

I was a young assistant professor. At a faculty meeting, the decision to be made was about whether a certain course was to be required or not. A conference room full of experienced faculty members, maybe 20 or so, all with advanced degrees, argued late into the night. At the end of the deliberations, they all agreed that the curriculum component would be "mandatory but not required." They were all happy with this conclusion. I went back to my office, looked up the words in a dictionary, stared out into the night, and decided I was outta there. I left that job and that university that year.

 

Years later I told this story to a tenured English professor at an Ivy League university and he totally understood it. As I said in a previous post, academia is like no other world. It has its own rules and its own absurdity. If you can function well in a world where something can be "mandatory but not required" you will do well.

[Fleer]

I always considered it as something of an interesting zoo, even when I was a dean.

[Polychrest]

Take this with a grain of salt from the shaker of a long-time faculty union executive. Your academic peers may have confirmed your appointment through a friendly collegial election, but you don't report to them. Power and accountability reside above you in the organization. Your biggest challenge will be to mediate between the real-world academic needs of your faculty and their students and the strategic and budgetary constraints imposed upon you from above. If there is a collective agreement between faculty and your institution--your job might be easier without one--I'd get to know it by heart, particularly if you're overweight in adjunct/part-time profs vs. tenured/full-time ones. That's where you'll be expected to make your bones as an administrator when budgetary bloodletting is required. Hiring and nurturing good people is rewarding work, but firing them sucks.

 

It's stating the obvious, but the job of department chair in an hierarchical academic organization is different from that of professor. The subject expertise, teaching and research skills that made you a superior professor aren't going to make you a good administrator. The classroom buzz that fuels your spirits through the long semesters won't be accessible unless you give yourself a section or two to teach--which may kill somebody else's job. Many of the profs I knew who sought to become chairs did it to escape the classroom, where they weren't comfortable or successful. They weren't called by a sense of mission to make things better for their students and colleagues. The worst of them became petty bureaucratic careerists who played to those in the offices above them rather than the often-struggling folks on the educational front lines. Bad academic organizations too often replicate and reward bad administrative practice.

 

Tim, from what I've seen of you here, I'm sure you're going into this for all the right reasons. Keep that idealistic motivation and work for the people who work for you--not for your dean's destructive budget targets.

 

How is your relationship with your Dean? How is his/her relationship with the Provost and Chancellor? As you know, it"s all about the various departments fighting for dollars.

 

I always considered it as something of an interesting zoo, even when I was a dean.

 

My favorite satiric web window on academic deans: Associate Deans

[Joe Muscara]

Congrats, Tim! Like others said, we all know why you were the unanimous choice.

[Morrissey]

If you can function well in a world where something can be "mandatory but not required" you will do well.

 

 

This is pure gold.

[Mighty Motif Max]

I am not a department chair, but I do serve in Student Senate at my college, working with our music department chair and other chairs as the Senate Chair of Academic Affairs as well as on a committee that controls some departmental funding, including that of music. I do not know the specifics of how the university you are at is run, but if student government has any influence on what administration chooses to do regarding department cuts and layoffs, it would be a great idea to try to get some music/arts students involved in Senate or committees to ensure that due consideration is given to your programs and part of academics. The same holds true if there are committees that handle departmental funding that allow students to serve, or overall university budget planning committees. In the event that funding issues or faculty cuts arise, your department will be in a stronger position. Those have been my roles as a student at my school, which has gone through a lot of turmoil lately. If that's how your university is run, getting students involved may be essential. It certainly is at my college.

 

Best of luck and congratulations!

[retrokeys]

Been there. Done that. There are some who believe that academic administration is like being a fertilizer spreader, i,e. taking the BS from above and distributing it evenly below. Don't believe it. Your job is to keep the "stuff" off of your staff so that they may teach, research, or both effectively. A rule of thumb I sort of developed was to consider what each of my colleagues would charge per hour and then add it up. If I didn't have a concern or problem that involved that much or more we weren't going to have a meeting. I'd just deal with it. Meetings are the curse of academe. Most could be replaced with a mass e mail. Yet.. there are some who actually like them. I guess they have yet to realize that a university is very much a machine for diffusing responsibility but concentrating authority and believe me, that authority is at a much higher level than that of faculty chair. In any case, while you may have been elected unanimously, you will likely not be supported that way. Don't let it get to you. Do your best and when you get to emeritus status you can smile. Good luck...and don't let it cut into your playing.

[timwat]

Thank you, all who contributed. Some thoughtful and insightful comments and suggestions.

 

So much of this resonates with my past experiences as adjunct at a couple of different universities.

 

Life as full-time faculty (and now, chair) at this current college is somewhat different, but certainly not perfect nor idyllic. Because I'm talking about the Business department, there is a modicum of practical common sense that may not always reside in other departments, but I certainly have lived in business and management departments that stumbled mightily when it came to wise management or taking care of business.

 

I hope better for our department, and hope to enter into this with both eyes wide open and a healthy awareness of the glorious panoply of human nature, to put it kindly.

 

Thank you all, sincerely, for your kind words.

 

Tim

[Old No7]

"...a university is very much a machine for diffusing responsibility but concentrating authority and believe me, that authority is at a much higher level..."

Great quote -- my sister-in-law (college professor) would agree 100%.

 

Old No7

[Adan]

Comparing what I know from people close to me chairing departments, my own experience leading teams of lawyers, and having been a member of at least 25 different bands, I'd say leadership in those different contexts have more in common than not. Roll out your favorite leadership aphorisms -- they apply universally. You can get only so far by wielding authority and ordering people around. What is that Miles Davis quote? "Lead by following"? something like that.

[AnalogGuy1]

I was a young assistant professor. At a faculty meeting, the decision to be made was about whether a certain course was to be required or not. A conference room full of experienced faculty members, maybe 20 or so, all with advanced degrees, argued late into the night. At the end of the deliberations, they all agreed that the curriculum component would be "mandatory but not required." They were all happy with this conclusion. I went back to my office, looked up the words in a dictionary, stared out into the night, and decided I was outta there. I left that job and that university that year.

 

OMG - my department (at least in a split vote) decided to create mandatory elective courses too! I'm so glad it isn't just us. Misery loves company.

[Polychrest]

From my own 'Mandatory But Not Required' department of deanspeak:

When marketing had a say in course nomenclature, full-cost non-credit remedial courses in English and math became 'pre-post-secondary' courses.

When a college directed all departments to identify 'College-Authorized Competency-Based Learned Outcomes' in official curriculum documents, the unofficial internal acronym coined for these things was 'CAUCBLOS'.

[retrokeys]

At our U we had the Honors College Policy Council. better known as HoCoPoCo. I guess that's what it was all about or maybe they just got themselves turned around.