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?

1/15/2012 12:00 AM

What Deans Need from Chairs

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

What Deans Depend on Chairs to Provide

Productive relationships between deans and their department chairs are built on trust. Unfortunately, what we see in some cases is chairs who are out to get everything they can and thus resort to strategies that distort reality. This type of behavior makes things much more difficult for the dean to make the appropriate decisions and can come back to haunt the department if its past proclamations are not certified over time. A good working relationship where there is reciprocal credibility allows the dean to propose new ideas with the expectation that the chair will give honest feedback and, in cases where the suggestion would be difficult to implement, will suggest alternatives to meeting the proposal’s objective. Another area where trust is critical is seen most obviously in situations where the dean presides over the arts and sciences. Unlike the uniformity of the subunits in schools of medicine, law, engineering, or education, schools of arts and sciences span very different disciplines. Clearly, the culture, needs, salaries, space requirements, and tools of philosophy and physics are radically different. Should the dean be trained in philosophy he or she will be challenged, at least at the outset of the appointment, in weighing the request of physics for a new nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer. The dean will have to depend on the disciplinary expertise of the chair. Building trust between the chair and the dean will facilitate the work of both, allow departmental input into initiatives, and give greater credibility to requests that support disciplinary advancement.

—N. Douglas Lees is associate dean for planning and finance at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis.