1. education
2. graduate school
3. college

WORKSHOP FOR
DEPARTMENT HEADS
2014
You who choose to lead must follow,
But if you fall, you fall alone.
If you should stand, then who’s to guide you?
Robert Hunter
Session 1: Administrative Rudiments
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Role of the department head
Budget fundamentals
Faculty positions
Hiring
Supervising academic personnel
Personnel problems
Vision
Academic Affairs website: http://www.uwyo.edu/AcadAffairs/
1. Role of the department head
Nature of the position
“Officers of the university;” serve at will.
Retain tenure and rank as faculty members (“retreat
rights”) if tenured. (Trustees’ Regulation 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
• Associate deans
Provost and VP for Academic Affairs
• Associate provosts
President
Trustees
Usually bad
practice to
circumvent
the college
dean.
Main duties
• Hiring
• Assignment of duties (e.g. teaching loads,
courses)
• Performance evaluations and raises
• Recommendations on reappointment, tenure,
promotion
• Managing the department’s academic programs
• Administering department budgets
• “Promotion of academic excellence”
All in consultation with the department faculty and subject to the college
dean’s approval.
Your own academic career
Typical job description: 50% administration,
remainder in teaching, research & service.
(Not universal.)
“Psychological risks”:
•
•
•
•
•
What are you: A rank-and-file faculty member or an
administrator?
What are your colleagues’ attitudes about
administrators
How your success is measured will change
What will the previous department head think?
Do you remember when you engaged in
conversations about the department head?
More psychological risks:
•
Personal career aspirations: Is this temporary service
to the department or long-range interest in
administration?
•
The REST of your life:
 Family and friends
 Physical well-being
 Other interests
 Sense of satisfaction, accomplishment, happiness
The five words that an administrator
hates to hear:
The five words that an administrator
hates to hear:
“Do you have a minute?”
2. Budget fundamentals
Breakdown of UW’s budget:
Section I: state-funded (includes most tuition revenue)
• Replenishes each FY (1 July – 30 June)
• Authorized each biennium; use it or lose it.
• Special case: summer school revenues “roll over”.
Section II: self-supporting activities (includes grants and
contracts, Outreach School tuition, fees)
• Can “roll over” from one FY to the next.
Where does UW’s money come from?
General fund (legislature)
$213.7 M
Tuition
60.5 M
Other (land-grant funds, royalties, etc.)
17.0 M
Section I total
$291.2 M
3/4 goes to salary and benefits
Non-grant section II funds (incl SFA)
Grants & contracts (est., w/o fin. aid)
Section II total (est.)
$155.6 M
81.9 M
$237.5 M
Estimated total
$528.7 M
(FY 2015, ends 30 June 2015
Funded by legislature*:
73% of section 1
40% of total budget
(High for state universities)
*not including Hathaway scholarships or
Endowment for Excellence in Higher
Education
UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING -- Summary
FY 2015 BUDGET, SECTION I AND II COMBINED EXPENDITURE
DISTRIBUTION
($s in Millions)
Support Services
$142.9
27.3%
Employer Paid Benefits
$81.7
15.6%
Grant & Aid Payments
$53.4
10.2%
Graduate Assistant
$14.2
2.7%
Non-op. Expenditure
$24.1
4.6%
Part-time Personal Services
$26.5
5.1%
Full-time Personal Services
$180.1
34.4%
Total Section I and II Expenditure Distribution: $522,901,737
Note: differences in revenue and expenses planned to support future capital projects.
Note: any new, benefited position requires money for salary and
benefits (~ 42% × salary)
Components of the department’s budget
1. Permanent faculty and staff salaries.
Section I. Not much day-to-day flexibility here,
but you have the pivotal voice in defining
positions, hiring, reappointment, and tenure
decisions.
2. Part-time salaries. Usually negotiated with
the college dean. Barely enough.
3. Section I support budget. Use for
equipment, supplies, travel, speakers. Usually
not enough, despite FY 2011 increases.
4. Summer-school revenues. Section I, but
they “roll over.” Opportunity for departmental
creativity.
5. Indirect cost reversions (ICR). Section II.
Department’s share (15%) of the indirect costs
budgeted for external awards. (IC = 41.5%  DC.)
Lots of flexibility, if your faculty get grants.
6. Released time. Section 1 money freed when
department members are paid from grants and
released from regular section 1 duties, usually
teaching. The duties must be replaced; leftovers can
be used flexibly. The department head , not the
released faculty member, manages these funds.
7. 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.
3. Faculty Positions
• Faculty positions are your most critical resource (and
account for almost all of your budget)
• All Colleges now employ their own Centralized Position
Management (CPM)
• The critical issue is how you formulate compelling
requests for positions
Formulating position requests
• Every new position is an opportunity to shape the future
of your department, college, and university
• Take that opportunity!
• Tie the position into institutional and college priorities and areas
of distinction identified in the University Plan
• Your dean will expect this
• Departments that have done this well are the ones well
positioned for the future
Formulating position requests
• Think outside your department’s immediate
needs
• A joint or interdisciplinary request can enhance the
department’s linkages with others and enrich the scholarly and
teaching opportunities for your faculty
• A request that contributes teaching to first-year USO
curriculum will potentially grease the wheels of progress
toward degree completion for your department’s own students.
(Remember: some departments provide service courses that
benefit the entire university.)
4. Hiring
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.
3 remarks:
• Pre-selection is unethical. Search!
• Don’t hire in desperation; extend the
search another year if necessary.
• Don’t underestimate the value of
candidates who have long-range
leadership potential.
Affirmative action plan
Affirmative-action principles:
• Advertise broadly and fairly.
• Include UW’s 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 dean’s attention ASAP.
Illegal questions
Don’t ask about marital status, family configuration,
ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, veteran status,
disabilities, sexual orientation. Candidates are free
to volunteer the information.
Bad interviews
Give a pep-talk to faculty before the interviews. The
interview is not a test or a hazing ritual. You’re evaluating
the candidate and selling the department.
5. Supervising academic personnel
Setting the tone
You have a powerful influence on the department’s
morale. A positive outlook and a sense of control over
the department’s destiny are the faculty’s most precious
assets. Cultivate them.
If departmental ambitions are high, they will bump up
against resource constraints. Some frustration is
inevitable. Don’t let it dampen the will to excel.
The faculty should want ownership of the program
Tenure, promotion, reappointment, extended
terms: the decision chain
External peer review
A
Department faculty review
Department head’s recommendation
College-level faculty review
B
College dean’s recommendation
University-level faculty review
C
Review by Academic Affairs
Review by President (on appeal)
Trustees’ action
Navigating the RTP minefield
•
Follow the regulation-prescribed process
•
Stick to the academic merits of the case
•
Let the dean know about problems
•
Don’t sugar-coat the truth
•
Be fair and civil
Your department has a fourth-year faculty member who’s toxic
in department meetings and who has a habit of showing up to
class unprepared. She seems perennially at odds with her
students, who tend to do poorly in her courses. Whenever
anyone discusses these issues with her, she mentions her
attorney.
The majority of the department faculty members vote against
her reappointment case. One of their comments dwells on the
fact that she’s a woman in a field where men have traditionally
been more successful. After reading their remarks, she tells
you she’ll sue you for discrimination if you recommend against
reappointment.
What should you do?
Your department has a fourth-year faculty member who’s a
highly charismatic teacher. His scholarly record is thin -barely acceptable by department standards. His CV lists 15
works in progress. While it’s hard to document, you have
serious concerns about his honesty:
1. You think he stretches the truth in reporting his own
research accomplishments;
2. His colleagues report that his teaching, while immensely
popular with students, is filled with basic errors;
3. 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.
4. He routinely recruits graduate students to take sides in his
disputes with senior faculty members.
What’s your recommendation for reappointment?
6. Personnel problems
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 university’s mission –
and interference with it – are grounds for poor
performance appraisals, including reappointment denials.
Faculty grievances, discrimination, harassment,
student complaints
Best defenses:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Get sexual harassment training. (It’s mandatory.)
When a problem arises, consult the dean or EPO.
Treat people honestly, fairly, and respectfully. When you
make decisions they don’t like, explain your reasons.
Know the Department, College, and UW Regulations!
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 what’s right.
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 can’t handle everything
yourself.
7. Vision
UW’s setting and mission:
•
•
•
The only 4-year institution in the state
A public land-grant institution
One of the smallest Carnegie researchdoctoral extensive institutions in the U.S.
• Commitment to access
• Balance between general and professional education
• Judicious mix of theory and application in research
Defining a scholarly culture
• Stress the attributes of successful careers, not
minimal expectations.
• Make external peer review a guiding principle.
• Cultivate the areas of distinction consistent
with UW’s strategic plan. Stick with them.
• Integrate scholarship with teaching and public
service.
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.
One last thought:
Leadership is a commitment to the success of the
group.
Great leadership is the ability to instill that
commitment in others.
That’s all for today.
Questions?