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WORKSHOP FOR DEPARTMENT HEADS 
2007 

You who choose to lead must follow,

But if you fall, you fall alone.

If you should stand, then who00 to guide you?

                  Robert Hunter

Role of the department head Budget fundamentals and CPM Hiring Supervising academic personnel Personnel problems Vision  

Session 1:  Administrative Rudiments 

Academic Affairs website: http://www.uwyo.edu/AcadAffairs/ 

We know the job has headaches.  How can it be empowering?

Role of the department head  

Nature of the position 

00fficers of the university;00 serve at will.   

Retain tenure as faculty members (00etreat rights00 if tenured.  (Trustees00Regulation I). 

Variety of titles:  department head, department chair, division head, dean (Schools of Pharmacy, Nursing). 

Report directly to the dean of the college. 

 

Reporting line 

Department head 

College dean and associates 

VPAA and associates

Abernethy:  curriculum & teaching Ballenger:  personnel & budgets Murdock:  Outreach School  

President 

Trustees 

Usually bad practice to circumvent the college dean.

Hiring Assignment of duties Performance evaluations and raises Recommendations on reappointment, tenure, promotion Managing the department00 academic program Administering department budgets Promotion of academic excellence  

All in consultation with the department faculty and subject to the college dean00 approval. 

Main duties

 

Your own academic career 

Typical job description:  50% administration, remainder in teaching & research. (Not universal.) 

 

Psychic risks: 

Rank-and-file faculty member or administrator? Your colleagues00 attitudes about administrators Personal career aspirations:  temporary service to the department or long-range interest in administration?  

In any case, the job will change you.

Budget fundamentals  

Breakdown of UW00 budget: 

Section I: state-funded (includes most tuition revenue)

Replenishes each FY (1 July 0030 June) Authorized each biennium; use it or lose it. Special case:  summer school revenues 00oll over00  

Section II: revenues (includes grants)

Can 00oll over00from one FY to the next. Requires ~40% additionally to cover fringe on salaries.  

Where does UW00 money come from? 

General fund (legislature)   $175.5 M/yr

Tuition          37.8 M/yr

Other (land-grant funds, royalties, etc.)     19.8 M/yr

Section I total    $233.1 M/yr

(75% goes to salary and benefits) 

Non-grant section II funds   $  82.2 M/yr

Grants & contracts (est., w/o fin. aid)     64.7 M/yr

Section II total (est.)   $146.9 M/yr  

Estimated total    $380.0 M/yr 

(FY 2008, ended 30 June 2008)

 

FY 2007 - FY 2008 Biennium Funding Sources 

Total Biennium Funding:   $733.5M 

State00 General Fund:    $342.5M (47%)

Tuition Income & Other Revenue:  $116.0M (16%)

Self-Generated Funding   $275.0M (37%) 

Funded by legislature:

  75% of section 1

  47% of total budget

  (High for state universities)

 

Components of the department00 budget 

Permanent faculty and staff salaries.  Section I.  Not much flexibility here.  
Part-time salaries.  Usually negotiated with the college dean.  Barely enough.  
Section I support budget.  Use for equipment, supplies, travel, speakers.  Usually not enough.  
Summer-school revenues.  Section I, but they 00oll over.00nbsp; Opportunity for departmental creativity. Indirect cost reversions (ICR).  Section II. Department00 share (15%) of the indirect costs budgeted for external awards.  (IC = 43% 00/font> DC.) Lots of flexibility, if your faculty get grants.  
Released time.  Section II.  Money transferred from grants to department account, used to 00uy00faculty members out of teaching commitments.  Can be used for any salary purposes.  Good to have a written departmental policy on its use.  
Endowment income.  Expendable income generated by investment of gifts.  Can be the most flexible type of money available, except for constraints on scholarships.  Requires long-term fiscal planning.  

Central position management  

Basic mechanics: 

Vacancies in permanent faculty and AP lines* are captured in Academic Affairs as they occur. Colleges keep the dollars for the rest of the FY. Academic Affairs reallocates the dollars each June, based on deans00ranked requests and institutional priorities. Overall, amount allocated = amount captured. Reallocation across department and college boundaries can occur.  (Actual intercollege transfers tend to be small.)  

*41 positions, $2.98 million in 2007.

 

Exceptions: 

Off-cycle (00xigency00 allocations are possible when there00 a strong supporting case by the college dean. 

Automatic returns: 

Department automatically retains all resources associated with denials of reappointment, tenure, or extended term initiated by the department faculty or department head.

 

How to craft a good CPM request 

Align with institutional areas of distinction or other AP emphases. Manage the resources you have effectively.  

Make sure your dean is well informed about instructional need.

 

AY and FY appointments 

AY app00s (most faculty) 

Earn salary during 9-month academic year. Receive 戮 of it in paychecks during the AY, remaining 录 (00alance of contract00 the next summer. Don00 accrue vacation. Have the capacity to earn up to 1/3 of AY salary in summer or through Outreach instruction.  

FY appt00 (some administrators, some Ag faculty) 

Earn salary year-round, receive it as they earn it. Accrue 22 days/year of vacation. Have no capacity for supplemental salary.  
 

FY-to-AY conversions 

AY salary = (5/6) 0 (FY salary).  No exceptions. Must use all accrued vacation before converting. Conversions at times other than the start of Fall Semester cause unexpected BOC payouts (and angst) in the following summer.  

Food for thought:  You00e finally had it with your dean, and you storm out of her office, sending her a note saying that you00e stepping down as department head and returning to the faculty immediately.  It00 February, and you00e on a fiscal year appointment for the duration of your administrative term. 

What problems do you foresee? 

Discuss, take a break, get back together in 15 minutes

 

Hiring standards for faculty, APs, and staff 

Faculty: Open, national or international search; terminal degree in the field; best qualified candidate; promise of excellence in teaching and national or internationally recognized scholarship. 

APs:  Open regional search, at least; best qualified candidate; promise of excellence in job duties. 

Staff:  Local (or broader) search; done through Human Resources with detailed procedures and guidelines. 

Hiring  

3 remarks: 

Pre-selection is unethical.  Search!  
Don00 hire in desperation; extend the search another year if necessary.  
Don00 underestimate the value of candidates who have long-range leadership  potential.  

Temporary hiring 

Done in virtually every unit, for teaching and research.  
Only type of employment possible if salary is 00oft-money.00/font>  
Requires 陆-time appointment or more to receive benefits.  
Make the terms of employment clear, in writing.  Include job expectations and ending date.  

Affirmative action plan 

Affirmative-action principles: 

Advertise broadly and fairly. Include UW00 EEO-AA statement. Appoint a diverse search committee. Guard against adverse stereotyping. Hire the most qualified person.  

Exceptions to advertising policy 

Can hire into a position not advertised only under the following circumstances: 

Target of opportunity (highly qualified person from underrepresented group).

Business necessity (rarely applicable to academic positions).

Domestic partner accommodation. 

Require recommendation from dean and VPAA and approval from EPO.  There is no special funding for this type of hiring.

 

Common problems 

Domestic partner hiring

No universal solution, but UW has a pretty good record of solving these problems.  Bring the issue to the dean00 attention ASAP. 

Illegal questions

Don00 ask about marital status, family configuration, ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, veteran status, disabilities, sexual orientation.  Candidates are free to volunteer the information. 

Chilly interviews

Give a pep-talk to faculty before the interviews.  The interview is not a test or a hazing ritual.  You00e evaluating the candidate and selling the department.

 

The written offer 

Essential ingredients: 

Starting date Rank Salary (specify AY or FY) Brief description of job duties Tenure or extended-term deadline* Startup package and moving expenses, if any Explanation of instructor status, if needed Deadline for reply.  (Two weeks is reasonable.)  

*Be very cautious about credit toward tenure!

 

4. Supervising academic personnel 

You have a powerful influence on the department00 morale.  A positive outlook and a sense of control over the department00 destiny are the faculty00 most precious assets.  Cultivate them. 

If departmental ambitions are high, they will bump up against resource constraints.  Some frustration is inevitable.  Don00 let it dampen the will to excel. 

Setting the tone

 

Guidelines for performance reviews:

Do them annually, both in writing and in person.  (Some deans expect them every other year.) Take all elements of the job description into account.  Don00 take a reductionist view of teaching or research. Be forthright.  If there00 room for improvement, say so, and give constructive suggestions. Identify performance below expectations in writing and in these terms, and notify the college dean. Make them count:  use them explicitly in every T&P evaluation and in every raise allocation.  

External peer review 

Department faculty review 

Department head00 recommendation 

College-level faculty review 

College dean00 recommendation 

University-level faculty review 

Review by Academic Affairs 

Trustees00action 

Review by President (on appeal) 

A 

B 

C 

Tenure, promotion, reappointment, extended terms:  the decision chain

 

Avoid these disasters: 

Getting started too late. Too few external letters. External letters that lack heft. Uninformative or flip comments from the faculty. Citing issues of law, procedure, or 00airness.00Stick to judgments about academic performance, supported by facts. Risky early cases.  (Discuss any early case with the dean.)  

Other aspects of T&P 

Establish a rigorous departmental culture.  Thorough, honest reappointment reviews can help avoid nasty battles in the tenure or extended-term year. 

Play it straight.  Say what you mean.  Your recommendation should be the most influential document in the packet. 

Remember the CPM implications.  Your department can00 lose resources by making a tough call.  You can lose them if someone else has to make it.

 

Food for thought:  Your department has a fourth-year faculty member who00 a highly charismatic teacher.  His scholarly record is thin -- barely acceptable by department standards.  His CV lists 15 works in progress.  While it00 hard to document, you have serious concerns about his honesty:

You think he stretches the truth in reporting his own research accomplishments; His colleagues report that his teaching, while immensely popular with students, is filled with basic errors; In his 3.5 years at UW, he has launched three grievances against you and your associate department head.  Hearing committees have dismissed all of them. He routinely recruits graduate students to take sides in his disputes with senior faculty members.  

What00 your recommendation for reappointment?

Personnel problems  

Academic freedom versus collegiality 

Academic freedom:  The right to conduct and disseminate scholarship and to teach in accord with one00 expertise, free of constraints arising from unrelated considerations such as politics or religion.  Also, the right for the institution to determine what it shall teach and who shall teach it. 

It does not include the 00ights00to neglect one00 job duties, to have an idiosyncratic work schedule, or to force one00 inexpert or off-topic opinions on students.

 

Collegiality:  The willingness to work with colleagues in a civil, productive fashion that advances the mission of the department and university. 

Collegiality is tricky:  big egos and rebellious spirits are part of the academic landscape.   

However, failure to contribute to the university00 mission 00and interference with it 00are grounds for poor performance appraisals, including reappointment denials.

 

Faculty grievances, discrimination, harassment,

student complaints 

Best defenses: 

Get training (e.g. sexual harassment seminars) before problems arise.  Sexual harassment training is mandatory for faculty members! When a problem arises, read appropriate UniRegs and consult with the dean or EPO. Treat people honestly, fairly, and respectfully. Base decisions on your academic judgment, not on legalistic grounds.  UW has an indemnity clause that protects your good-faith academic judgments. When in doubt, do what00 right.  

Job descriptions and performance reviews 

Elements of job descriptions 

Teaching (responsibility for credit-bearing courses.) Research and creative activity (definition is discipline-specific; external peer review is the coin of the realm.) Service (includes service on committees.) Advising Administration (limited to department heads, directors of major institutes, etc.; doesn00 include chairing committees.) Cooperative extension (limited to certain jobs in Ag.) Professional development (applies to lecturers and extension educators, in lieu of research expectations.)  

Personal problems 

People (including department heads) are fragile and fallible.  Family difficulties, messy relationships, substance abuse, medical problems, and ethical lapses are as common in academia as elsewhere. 

Be sensitive; maintain confidentiality; protect the legitimate interests of others (including the institution); try to approach problem constructively instead of punitively.  Remind us to do the same. 

Get advice and help.  You can00 handle everything yourself.

Commitment to access Balance between general and professional education Judicious mix of theory and application in research Need to focus expertise and work synergistically.  

00/font> 

UW00 setting and mission: 

The only 4-year institution in the state A public land-grant institution One of the smallest Carnegie research-doctoral extensive institutions in the U.S.  

6. Vision

 

Defining a scholarly culture 

Develop written expectations:  what constitutes scholarly excellence?  What are the signs and stages of a productive scholar00 career?  
Make external peer review a guiding principle.  
Cultivate a small number of areas of distinction consistent with the AP.  Stick with them.  
Integrate scholarship with teaching.  

Interdisciplinarity 

  A vehicle for expanding research communities at UW   A strong current motif in many disciplines   A key competitive advantage for a small university   A natural mode of inquiry at land-grant institutions   A way to influence hiring outside the department.  

The research-teaching cascade. 

A university is a center for learning. 

When you learn something nobody knew before, we call it research and creative activity.  When peer-reviewed, it00 the most demanding form of scholarship. 

When you expand your own understanding with what others know, it00 still a form of scholarship 00and part of your job. 

The raison d000re of the research university is to inform teaching with scholarship and hence to allow our curriculum and modes of teaching to evolve.

 

That00 all for today. 

Questions? 

00omebody has to do something, and it00 just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us.00nbsp;         Jerry Garcia

 

Extra slides

 

Breakdown of ICR 

Direct costs

(salaries, GAs, equipment, travel,etc) 

Indirect costs

(0.405 0 direct costs) 

Typical grant budget: 

15% to dept.* 

5% to college 

5% to VPR 

75% to UW

general fund 

*specified on greensheet

 

Dismissal 

It00 distinct from reappointment denial and PTR. 

Grounds must constitute 00ause00 

Incompetence. Conviction of a felony or other crime that interferes substantively with the ability to perform duties. Moral unfitness. Neglect of duty. Failure to improve performance (post-tenure review).  

Cases are rare and difficult.  Documentation is crucial.

 

00hen compared to leading a department, the management is a breeze. 

There is nothing in management that can00 be learned on the job. 

A good head enunciates a vision and sets the direction a department should pursue.00/font> 

John B. Conway, former Math Department Head, U. Tennesee

 

Post-tenure review 

UniReg 808

Stage I:  Periodic performance reviews.  Normal for all employees, tenured or not.

Stage II: Comprehensive review.  Triggered by an assessment of 00erformance below expectations.00nbsp; Outcomes:  (a) change in job description or (b) performance improvement plan.

Stage III:  Failure of stage II to resolve the problem.  Outcome:  possible dismissal.

 

Caveats: 

It00 a good idea to warn a faculty member in writing of an impending 00elow expectations00 rating, in time for the person to make changes. 

Document the measures you00e taken to avoid entangling issues of academic freedom. 

Copy the college dean on all documentation.

 

Guidelines for job descriptions: 

One 3-credit course/semester = 25%. 

Assignments less than 50% teaching are rare, justifiable by realistic expectations of significant external funding. 

Ph.D. supervision can justify some reduction in teaching assignments. 

Communication with the college dean is essential. 

Job descriptions can change, subject to performance reviews and individual faculty goals.

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