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.
Performance
Counseling with Mary Lou
Higgerson
Department chairs are responsible for the professional development of
faculty and staff. This includes the need to counsel individuals who are
not meeting acceptable performance levels and to manage the conflict
that can develop when faculty do not meet performance expectations. In
this session, participants will have the opportunity to learn and
practice some specific communication strategies for effective
performance counseling. This topic will be offered in 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.
Please direct questions about this page to:
brinda_albert@ace.nche.edu
This page last updated on 01/11/2010
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