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?

12/15/2011 12:00 AM

What Deans Appreciate

From The Department Chair Insider, October 2010 – Vol. 2

Q. What do deans appreciate from their chairs?

A. What the dean appreciates is the department chair who comes to him bearing gifts in the form of recommendations and first drafts. Rather than raw dilemmas, it’s a treat for the dean to receive someone who has already invested his or her own energy and best thinking on what might be done.

This is not to suggest that a chair should delay sharing a problem or predicament that the dean ought to know about. It’s embarrassing for a dean to appear uninformed of what is going on in the college; “No surprises” is the mantra. But, much better than “Here’s what just happened” is “Thought you ought to know about this; will send my best thinking by tomorrow morning.”

A problem that originates outside the dean’s office will usually be best solved at its source; the dean should provide counsel on, and approval of, work done by others. Presented with a prototype it’s easy for the dean to spot features that need to be tweaked so that they’ll better match the college mission; or maybe the model will need to be rejected outright because of something that only the dean knows about.

Unless it’s a crisis, if something important to the dean originates in your shop, be considerate and diligent enough to think of some options (maybe gather a few wise colleagues to help you) and then go to the dean with the gift of a proposal or some alternatives to which he or she can react.

—R. Kent Crookston is professor and associate director over academic administrative support at the Faculty Center at Brigham Young University.