Online Training

New Programming!

Gain in-depth knowledge and prepare for the fall semester with hands-on, intensive workshops for department chairs:

Program Assessment and Curriculum Review
June 14, 2012
12:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. EDT

The Highly Effective Department Chair
June 21, 2012
12:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. EDT

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BOOKS

FERPA Clear and Simple: The College Professional’s Guide to Compliance

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) compliance has always been challenging due to complex regulatory language and exposure to risk. However, institutions that do not comply are in jeopardy of losing federal funding. Accessible and user-friendly, FERPA Clear and Simple clarifies the regulations and provides a ready reference for compliance and problem solving. This need-to-have guide offers critical and relevant material (including the 2008 Amendments) from a new perspective to help staff in student affairs, academic departments, and administrative support positions understand and comply with FERPA guidelines.

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JOURNAL

This quarterly periodical for department chairs and deans features practical advice, useful information, and up-to-date resources. Its applications, techniques, case studies, strategies, and guidance are directly relevant to today's academic leaders.

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E-NEWSLETTER

WHAT'S THE DEAN THINKING?

10/15/2011 12:00 AM

Tough Conversations with the Dean

From The Department Chair Insider, March 2011 – Vol. 2

Strategies for Tough Conversations with the Dean

There are occasions when chairs must have very serious conversations with the dean. Such meetings might revolve around personnel matters, resource emergencies, or new mandates that could disrupt departmental morale or compromise critical operations. It is important that chairs maintain civility, even when the exchange becomes emotionally charged. Keeping focused on the subject without raising the volume of the rhetoric will help keep the conversation on track and will be remembered when the next difficult conversation takes place. A chair does not want the dean to avoid future necessary conversations or to subconsciously harden his or her opinion beforehand. Chairs should also come prepared to recite or produce the necessary details of the issue at hand. Having to come back a second time results in lost momentum and can reduce the impact of the major points the chair is trying to make. On matters where resources are involved, especially personnel, it is wise to extrapolate the benefits of the resource beyond the now to include its importance down the road. Included might be the fiscal impact over time, the effect the initiative might have on department demographics of the future, and the increased institutional visibility that is likely to emerge. Finally, chairs should approach all meetings that involve resources with a global perspective. Recognizing that the dean has limited resources and almost unlimited requests is a starting point. Beyond that, department advocacy must sometimes give way to others with greater need or superior ideas. Knowing when to step aside gracefully, at least for the time being when the greater good is to be achieved, will raise the stature of the chair in the eyes of the dean.

—N. Douglas Lees is special advisor to the dean and former chair of the Department of Biology at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis.