Education Commons^™

Focus: The Development Of A Community Of Academic Leaders, Lina Prada Angarita, Nayibe Rosado Mendinueta, Katina Katinac@Uninorte.Edu.Co

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

This presentation reports the development of a community of practice for academic leaders in Colombia, South America. Document analysis from 2016 to 2020 helped to characterize the nature of the activities, the purposes, the products and gains. There is evidence of a change of purpose, agency and awareness.

The Department Chair And Creative Leadership, Julia Hovanec

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Leading a department in the ever-changing and, at times, tumultuous landscape of higher education calls for creative problem-solving and divergent thinking. Participants will engage in specific creative leadership strategies using creativity as a reflective practice and as a means to lead boldly. The goals are to spur change while cultivating an inclusive department.

College Reconfiguration: Building Faculty Support, Maureen E. Wilson, Dawn M. Shinew, Tracy L. Huziak-Clark, Deborah Wooldridge

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Following a year-long discussion, deliberation, and feedback process, faculty and staff in the College of Education and Human Development at Bowling Green State University voted overwhelmingly in support of reconfiguring from five schools and one department to three schools. We discuss our journey and outline the initial benefits, challenges, and lessons of this new configuration.

How To Retain Your Best Faculty Members, Jeff Buller

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

As department chairs, we devote a great deal of time and energy to recruiting excellent faculty members, but we spend far less time and energy trying to retain them. Superb college professors are vital to a department’s success, but they are also highly competitive in the marketplace. They have options and, if they begin to think that they can do better (financially or otherwise) elsewhere or even outside of academia, they’ll start looking elsewhere. In this best practices workshop, we’ll explore how to apply certain strategies to our work at the departmental level so as to increase the likelihood that …

The First 100 Days As An Academic Department Chair, Dr. Sara Rutledge

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

This session will highlight lessons learned from the presenter’s first 100 days as an academic department chairperson. Topics covered will include: daily operations, faculty, students, alumni, enrollment, retention, academic planning, assessment, accreditation, compliance, governmental relations, articulations, technology, communications, marketing, community engagement, data management, budgeting, reporting, event planning, and initiatives.

The Chairperson : Faculty, Administrator And Academic And Crisis Leader, Domenick J. Pinto

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

For 36 years, I have witnessed the evolution of the role of chair as economic, social and student climates emerge. My workshop will summarize the challenges that chairs must now face in 2023. The session will help relatively new and new chairs observe various scenarios and discuss how to problem solve them.

How Covid-19 Clarified My Role As Chair, Mark Urtel

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Presenter and participants will reflect on and share their academic chair experiences and subsequent yet significant leadership alterations due directly to COVID-19. These transformations may be long- or short-term but are exclusive to being a department chair.

A Chairpersons Guide To Managing Time And Stress, Christian K. Hansen

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

In this interactive workshop we discuss time and stress management specifically from the perspective of a department chairperson responsible for leading an academic department through numerous internal and external challenges. The focus will be on practical strategies for effective use of time, not only at a personal level, but also at a department wide level.

Navigating Your Department Post Pandemic With Creative Wellness, Krista Bridgmon, Elizabeth List

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Presenters will discuss and participants will practice creative counseling skills including mindfulness, empathy, effective questioning, reflecting emotion and goal setting which will assist the evolving work-life concerns of faculty, staff, and students following the pandemic.

Teaming Up To Reduce "Sludge": Practical Guidance For Process Improvement, Kevin Van Winkle Dr., Timothy Mottet Dr.

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Presenters will share and discuss best practices for faculty and administrative collaboration to reduce “sludge” (i.e. inefficiencies in university processes) as a way to increase faculty and staff morale.

Fighting For Resources: Using Data To Effectively Advocate For Your Department, Craig D. Hlavac

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

The Department chairperson is the primary spokesperson and advocate for the academic department. As many institutions continue to see enrollment declines and shrinking revenues, the ability for chairpersons to advocate effectively for limited resources has become even more important. Operating budgets, reassigned time, course offerings, and tenure-track faculty lines are all scrutinized with a focus on finding efficiencies. Today’s department chairperson must be adept at advocating for their department using data-based arguments. This session will review the most common data metrics used by deans to assess academic departments, and provide participants with clear, concise methods for using this data to …

“I’M Elected Chair? Now What?” Helpful Strategies For Newer Chairs, Gian S. Pagnucci, Alex Romagnoli, Ethan Krase

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

This session shares concrete strategies for helping department chairs navigate common problems more effectively and efficiently. With attention to managing email, handling complaints, constructing schedules, building relationships, and working with upper administration, the presenters offer practical tips to help newer chairs succeed.

New Way To Be A Chair Via Distributed Shared Model, Dennis Anderson

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Being a chair in today's higher education is more stressful due to various issues related to enrollment, administration demands, and limited and shrinking resources. Chairs have to manage and juggle demands from all stakeholders including students, faculty, staff, and administration. This presentation is about how to meet these challenges by creating a shared management system that enables and empowers faculty in the department by giving them portfolios. This model moves away from chair centric model that one person holds all decision making power by controlling resources. Since my department moved to shared distributed chair model, the department productivity is higher …

Needle In A Haystack – Searching For Your New Faculty Colleague, Jeff Bright

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

The presenter and participants will explore best practices for conducting a search for a new faculty member. Topics covered in the session will include selecting search committee members, recruiting a candidate pool, virtual interviews, scheduling the campus visit, do’s, don’ts, and bias in the screening process.

Transparency And Communication For Chairing A Healthy Department, Robert Williams

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Explore how to ensure all faculty in the department are engaged as full and participatory individuals whose voices are heard. Topics include: committee composition, scheduling, resolving conflicts, handling difficult faculty, budget works, effective relations across offices, communicating expectations of evaluation and tenuring, supporting faculty initiative, and delegating responsibilitie

Assessment Basics: How To Implement An Effective Student Learning Assessment Process, Frederick Burrack

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Assessment Basics is a workshop focused on understanding the purpose behind student learning assessment, strategies to guide curricular integration, and techniques to use data for program improvement. Participants will be involved in leadership techniques to transfer into their own context.

Using Canvas Lms Learning Outcomes Assessment And Program Improvement, Frederick Burrack

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

This session will provide a step-by-step process of creating program outcomes in Canvas. These outcomes are aligned with assessment tasks through the scoring devices used in courses, internships, or other course-based means through which students demonstrate outcomes proficiencies.

Program Assessment – Implementing A Cycle Of Continuous Improvement, Terri Gaeddert

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Presenter and participants will discuss challenges of assessment processes and best practices available to assessment coordinators, department chairs, and administrators to support a culture of assessment for continuous improvement. The presenter will share how adjusting the timeline of assessment reporting provided for increased data collection and more meaningful discussion and reflection on data trends.

Supporting Faculty, Staff, And Student-Parents Though Cognitive, Emotional, And Behavioral Engagement, Beth Kania-Gosche, Kathryn Northcut

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Presenters will describe intentionally developed supports for faculty, staff, and students with children, an aspect of diversity and inclusion often overlooked. Participants will see specific examples of ongoing initiatives, along with a theory of engagement that articulates cognitive, behavioral, and emotional/personal aspects.

Equity, Inclusion, And Faculty Hiring Committees, Jill Channing

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Issues of explicit and implicit bias pervade hiring processes for faculty members. This session focuses on creating equitable and inclusive faculty hiring processes and practices. Practices include defining and recognizing bias, adhering to university policies, and addressing equity during committee deliberations and decision-making processes.

Embracing The Change: Personal Experience In Academic Unit Transformation, Hazem Said

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

This presentation will cover personal experience and case study on how academic unit heads can embrace change, build an identity for their unit, and lead their faculty and staff in transforming their unit from obscurity to prominence while under budget constraints and limited authority.

The session will draw from personal experience establishing an academic unit and transforming it from a small unknown teaching unit to one of the largest teaching and research units on the campus of a research one university. Over ten years, the grassroots transformation included the hiring of 24 new faculty and 20 new staff and sustaining …

Life And Debt: The Experiences Of Black Women Use Of Student Loan Programs For Graduate Education Advancement, Natasha Webster

Adult Education Research Conference

This qualitative study examined the experiences of adult Black women doctoral graduates and the use of student loans to advance and gain financial prosperity.

History And Development Of University Doctoral Academical Dress In Aotearoa (New Zealand), Scott Pilkington

Transactions of the Burgon Society

In 2018 it was announced that Auckland University of Technology (AUT) would join the other seven universities in Aotearoa (New Zealand) in offering a higher doctorate qualification. As part of this process it became apparent that new academical dress would need to be designed and created. Working in the university’s Graduate Research School gave me an opportunity to provide input, and as a result, I designed a new set of academic dress for these qualifications in conjunction with the university’s official robemaker, Paul Fielder (FBS).

This provided a prompt to examine what academical dress exists for existing AUT doctorates – …

Campus Incivility And Free Speech: A Contemporary Dilemma, Robert E. Cipriano Dr., Jeffrey L. Buller Dr.

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

The issue of free speech on college campuses is as old as education itself and as current as today's news. Institutions of higher education often find themselves torn between their desire to create environments where students and professors remain physically safe and their mission to protect academic freedom and the right of free speech. This interactive presentation will provide academic leaders with the skill set to increase the likelihood that constructive conflicts between ideas don't escalate into destructive, violent acts.

Building Partnerships Between Academic Departments And International Affairs, Butler Cain

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Department chairs and other campus leaders who have an interest in promoting global awareness in their academic programs should partner with their university’s Office of International Affairs. The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic is causing significant upheaval in international education, so now is an opportune time to begin building strong relationships.

What Is Knowledge Management And How It Benefits Your Department, Kris Helge

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Presenter and participants will define knowledge management (KM). They will also discuss emerging strategies and best practices regarding KM that benefit an academic department, and examine how effective KM systems help traverse unpredictable challenges such as COVID-19. Additionally, they scrutinize how to preserve, pass along, and securely store vital data, information, and knowledge; and how KM prevents information silos, and information loss.

Making The Abnormal Normal: Maximizing Diversity In A Virtual Environment, Mary T. Dzindolet, Stephanie Boss, Krystal Brue, Shaun Calix, Jennifer Dennis

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

With the polarization of opinions around COVID 19, chairs and deans must become experts at navigating conflict and creating synergy from diversity, oftentimes while communicating virtually. Four chairs (of Business, Education and Sports & Exercise Science, Social Sciences, and Psychology Departments), and their dean, will share strategies for encouraging the expression of diverse opinions in virtual faculty meetings.

The Impact Covid-19 Is Having On Freedom Of Speech And Expression On Campuses: From Issues To Solutions, Renee Marine

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

At a time of complete uncertainty, one thing remains consistent, the right the American people to freedom of speech and expression. What comes into question, is the cost of expressing that freedom. As stated in the First Amendment (1789):

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for the redress of grievances. (p. 1)

Right now, while millions of people are fighting for their lives, hundreds of thousands …

Leadership Lessons From Navigating Covid-19, Christopher Hirschler Phd

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Chairs played a key role in navigating important university decisions and communication during COVID-19, a hypersensitive time when mortality salience was elevated. We will explore leadership styles, view brief excerpts of videos that were created to celebrate degree completion and improve retention. Participants will distill “lessons learned” from a challenging year.

Best Practices For Faculty Searches, Jeff Buller

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Hiring the right faculty members is one of the most important decisions a department chair can make. But most chairs merely conduct searches the way people at their institutions always have. There are, however, best practices in faculty searches that can save time and other resources as well as increase the likelihood that the right candidate will be selected.