ACE

Chairing the Academic Department

2009–2010 Course Descriptions

Following each course description, we have listed the month in which the course will be offered. This links you to the full schedule for that workshop. Five sessions are offered at each workshop.

Budgeting for Department Chairs with Natalie (Nikki) Krawitz
As a department chair, you have responsibility for garnering human, financial, and physical resources to support your department's vision and mission. This session will focus on understanding the fiscal context within which you operate and using that knowledge to develop and implement a fiscal strategy. This topic will be offered in February.

Change Management with Susan Engelkemeyer
Providing leadership for change is one of the chair's biggest challenges. Identifying what needs to change, articulating why it needs to change, and determining how the change will happen requires careful consideration of individual, departmental, and institutional needs and norms. Success requires helping colleagues understand the need for change and its potential benefits as well as the application of change management theories. This session will explore change management theory, strategies for their successful application, and the unique role of the chair in bringing multiple perspectives together into a common vision. This topic will be offered in November.

Composite Description for Conflict Management with Walter Gmelch, Mary Lou Higgerson, or James R. Coffman
Even experienced chairs lament the problems and discomfort associated with managing conflict. This session is taught at all the ACE workshops, but from three different perspectives by three different presenters. In November J. Coffman focuses on conflict management within an institutional context. In February W.H. Gmelch concentrates on managing conflict using the art of strategic resolution. In June M.L. Higgerson focuses on the interpersonal aspects of conflict and explores response options. This topic will be offered in February, June and November.

Department Chairs as Transformational Leaders with Brian Gittens
The current challenges in higher education require department chairs to be transformative in their approach to leadership. This workshop session introduces participants to a model of transformational leadership that has been found to be empirically applicable to the leadership role of chairs. The model may provide a lens through which to examine department chair leadership and through structured sharing, the practical implications of the model may emerge, providing opportunities for reflection on personal leadership attributes. This topic will be offered in February.

Evaluating College Teaching with Peter Seldin
Virtually every college and university evaluates teaching performance. Some do it effectively, while others do not. This interactive session focuses on student ratings of instruction and the teaching portfolio. It examines important new lessons about what works and what doesn't, key strategies, tough decisions, and the latest research results. This topic will be offered in February, June, and November.

Is It Legal To . . . . ? Managing Faculty Recruitment, Evaluation, and Discrimination Issues with Ann Franke, Esq.
What could possibly go wrong? A successful leader looks ahead to events that can derail a department's mission. A widespread cheating scandal might rock a program. An earthquake might rock the entire region. A good department chair or dean is alert to, but not alarmist about, risks to academic people, programs, and property. This interactive session covers the most common and most serious campus risks. Using a basic risk management framework, participants will learn to anticipate the "hidden risks" in their own programs. Whether your concern is menacing students or safety in off-campus programs, this session will equip you with practical tools to manage the broad range of campus risk. This topic will be offered in June.

Leadership and Teamwork with Walter H. Gmelch
This session will address the "call to leadership" and assist department chairs to reflect on their motives, roles, and stresses as they journey down the road of academic administration. Specifically, the session will examine the trade-offs and pay-offs in department leadership. A simulation exercise provides participants the opportunity to examine both the phenomenon of leadership and the art of encouraging team work. This topic will be offered in November and June.

Systems Thinking with Janet Wessel Krejci
This session will introduce the participants to the concept of "Systems Thinking" as it can apply to higher education. Academic leaders often find themselves spending an enormous amount of time dealing with crisis or chronic problems that may feel unrelated to academic progress. Paradoxically these problems often interfere with moving departments forward. Systems thinking principles and concepts will be presented to help academic leaders achieve higher leverage in order to be more effective and more efficient. Cases will be presented with applicable strategies that will assist academic leaders to achieve higher success and satisfaction. This topic will be offered in February.

Using Data to Guide Departmental Planning, Decision-Making, and Assessment with Mark L. Putnam
Chairs who can effectively use key data sources are at a tremendous advantage in developing departmental plans, making the case for departmental resource needs, facilitating program reviews, and satisfying accreditation standards. This session is designed to familiarize participants with strategies for obtaining both institutional and comparative data, turning data into information that can guide planning and decision-making, and presenting information in the most effective manner. Course materials will include an annotated list of web-based resources and related publications. This topic will be offered in June.

Working with the Dean with Mary Lou Higgerson
The working relationship between academic chairperson and dean is sometimes described as the "essential partnership" because the success of each depends upon how the two carry out their different, but interdependent role responsibilities. Chairpersons have considerable control in establishing their credibility with the dean and in shaping the way in which the dean works with them. This session will focus on practical leadership communication strategies that enable chairpersons to cultivate a productive working relationship with the dean. Participants will have ample opportunity to practice the leadership communication strategies being presented. This topic will be offered in June.

 

Please direct questions about this page to:
brinda_albert@ace.nche.edu
This page last updated on 09/15/2009