WORKSHOP FOR DEPARTMENT HEADS 2005

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WORKSHOP FOR DEPARTMENT HEADS2005
You who choose to lead must follow, But if you
fall, you fall alone. If you should stand, then
whos to guide you? Robert Hunter
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Session 1 Administrative Rudiments

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

Academic Affairs website http//www.uwyo.edu/Acad
Affairs/
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Role of the department head
Nature of the position Officers of the
university serve at will. Retain tenure 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.
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Reporting line
Department head
Usually bad practice to circumvent the college
dean.
College dean and associates

• VPAA and associates
• Abernethy curriculum teaching
• Ballenger personnel budgets
• Murdock Outreach School

President
Trustees
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Main duties

• Hiring
• Assignment of duties
• Performance evaluations and raises
• Recommendations on reappointment, tenure,
  promotion
• Managing the departments academic program
• Administering department budgets
• Promotion of academic excellence
• All in consultation with the department faculty
  and subject to the college deans approval.

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Your own academic career
Typical job description 50 administration, 25
teaching, 25 research. Rank-and-file faculty
member or administrator? Your colleagues
attitudes about administrators Personal career
aspirations temporary service to the department
or long-range interest in administration?
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Budget fundamentals

• Breakdown of UWs budget
• Section I state-funded (includes most tuition
  revenue)
• Replenishes each FY (1 July 30 June)
• Authorized each biennium use it or lose it.
• Section II revenues (includes grants)
• Can roll over from one FY to the next.
• Requires 33 additionally to cover fringe on
  salaries.

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Where does UWs money come from? General fund
(legislature) 137.4 M/yr Tuition 35.1
M/yr Other (land-grant funds, royalties, etc.)
22.5 M/yr Section I total 195.0 M/yr (75
goes to salary and benefits) Non-grant section
II funds 58.4 M/yr Grants contracts (est.,
w/o fin. aid) 60.0 M/yr Section II total
(est.) 118.4 M/yr Estimated total 313.4
M/yr
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(No Transcript)
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Components of the departments 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.
• 3. Summer-school revenues. Section I, but they
  roll over. Opportunity for departmental
  creativity.

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• Indirect cost reversions (ICR). Section II.
  Departments share (15) of the indirect costs
  budgeted for external awards. (IC 40.5 ? DC.)
  Lots of flexibility, if your faculty get grants.
• Released time. Section II. Money transferred
  from grants to department account, used to buy
  faculty 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.

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Central position management

• Basic mechanics
• Vacancies in permanent faculty and AP lines are
  captured in Academic Affairs as they occur.
• Colleges keep the salary dollars on vacant lines
  for the rest of the FY.
• Academic Affairs reallocates salary dollars each
  June, based on deans ranked requests and
  institutional priorities.
• Overall, amount allocated amount captured, but
  reallocation across department and college
  boundaries can occur.

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Exceptions Off-cycle (exigency) allocations
are possible when theres 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.
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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.
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AY and FY appointments

• AY appts (most faculty)
• Earn salary during 9-month academic year.
• Receive ¾ of it in paychecks during the AY,
  remaining ¼ (balance of contract) the next
  summer.
• Dont accrue vacation.
• Have the capacity to earn up to 1/3 of AY salary
  in summer or through Outreach instruction.

Exercise What are the BOC payments for an AY
appointee who starts in January?
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• FY appts (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) (FY salary). No exceptions.
• Employee 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.

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5-minute break
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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.
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• 3 remarks
• Pre-selection is unethical. Search!
• Dont hire in desperation extend the search
  another year if necessary.
• Dont underestimate the value of candidates who
  have long-range leadership potential.

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Temporary hiring

• Done in virtually every unit, for teaching and
  research.
• Only type of employment possible if salary is
  soft-money.
• Requires ½-time appointment or more to receive
  benefits.
• Make the terms of employment clear, in writing.
  Include job expectations and ending date.

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Affirmative action plan

• Affirmative-action principles
• Contact the EPO at the outset of a search.
• Advertise broadly and fairly.
• Include UWs EEO-AA statement.
• Appoint a diverse search committee.
• Guard against adverse stereotyping.
• Hire the most qualified person.
• Tap Academic Affairs Diversity Pool if
  appropriate.

AT UW, DIVERSITY IS EVERYBODYS RESPONSIBILITY!
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• 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).
• Spousal accommodation (not allowable in
  tenure-track positions).
• Require recommendation from dean and VPAA and
  approval from EPO. There is no special funding
  for this type of hiring.

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Common problems
Spousal hiring No universal solution, but UW has
a pretty good record of solving these problems.
Bring the issue to the deans attention ASAP.
Illegal questions Dont 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. Youre evaluating the
candidate and selling the department.
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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!
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4. Supervising academic personnel
Setting the tone
You have a powerful influence on the departments
morale. A positive outlook and a sense of
control over the departments destiny are the
facultys most precious assets. Cultivate
them. If departmental ambitions are high, they
will bump up against resource constraints. Some
frustration is inevitable. Dont let it dampen
the will to excel.
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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. doesnt
  include chairing committees.)
• Cooperative extension (limited to certain jobs in
  Ag.)
• Professional development (applies to lecturers
  and extension educators, in lieu of research
  expectations.)

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• 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.
• Be forthright. If theres 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
  TP evaluation and in every raise allocation.

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Tenure, promotion, reappointment, extended terms
the decision chain

• Department faculty review packet.
• Department faculty cast written recommendations.
• Department head writes letter of recommendation.
• College TP committee reviews and comments.
• College dean writes recommendation.
• UTP committee reviews and comments.
• Academic Affairs makes recommendation.
• President carries to Trustees for final
  approval.
• Only if case is conflicted or upon VPAA
  request
• Only positive recommendations

Pattern faculty?administrator
?faculty?administrator
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Tenure, promotion, reappointment, extend terms
timeline
Summer Determine the slate of tenure,
promotion, and extended-term cases. Talk with
candidates. September Select and contact
external reviewers, in consultation with
candidate. (See UniReg 803.) October
Candidates prepare packets. (Offer
mentors.) Early December Finish first-year
cases (and others, in AS). Review all other
packets with candidates. Receive all external
letters. January Finish all remaining cases
and forward to dean.
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Tenure, promotion, reappointment, extended terms
the packet.

• Its the primary documentation for the case.
• Candidate has responsibility to assemble it.
• AA web site lists required contents.
• Dont pad it.
• Be clear about courses taught and publications.
• Provide a mentor.

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• Avoid these disasters
• Getting started too late.
• Unforeseen cases for professor. (Establish a
  deadline such as 1 August and stick to it.)
• Too few external letters.
• External letters that lack heft.
• Uninformative or flip comments from the faculty.
• Citing issues of law, procedure, or fairness.
  Stick to judgments about academic performance,
  supported by facts.
• Risky early cases. (Discuss any early case with
  the dean.)

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Other aspects of TP
Establish a rigorous departmental culture.
Thorough, honest reappointment reviews can help
avoid nasty battles in the tenure or
extended-term year. UW does not grant tenure or
faculty promotion for administrative
performance. Dont try to tinker with the
process. Play it straight. Say what you mean.
Dont try to exert extra-procedural
influence. Remember the CPM implications. Your
department cant lose resources by making a tough
call. You can lose them if someone else has to
make it.
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5-minute break
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Personnel problems
Academic freedom versus collegiality
Academic freedom The right to conduct and
disseminate scholarship and to teach in accord
with ones expertise, free of constraints arising
from unrelated considerations such as politics or
religion. It does not include the rights to
neglect ones job duties, to have an
idiosyncratic work schedule, or to force ones
inexpert opinions on students.
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Collegiality The willingness to work with
colleagues in a civil, productive fashion that
advances the mission of the department and
university. Collegiality per se is not a firm
basis for performance evaluations. Big egos and
difficult personalities are part of the academic
landscape. However, failure to contribute to
the universitys mission and interference with
it are grounds for poor performance appraisals.
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Dismissal

• Its distinct from reappointment denial and PTR.
• Grounds must constitute cause
• 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.

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Faculty grievances, discrimination, harassment,
student complaints

• Best defenses
• Get training (e.g. sexual harassment seminars)
  before problems arise.
• When a problem arises, read appropriate UniRegs.
• Seek advice from the dean, Academic Affairs, 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 whats right.

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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 cant handle everything
yourself.
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6. Vision
When compared to leading a department, the
management is a breeze. There is nothing in
management that cant be learned on the job. A
good head enunciates a vision and sets the
direction a department should pursue. John B.
Conway, former Math Department Head, U. Tennesee
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• UWs 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.

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

?
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Defining a scholarly culture

• Develop written expectations what constitutes
  scholarly excellence? What are the signs and
  stages of a productive scholars 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.

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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.

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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, its the most demanding form of
scholarship. When you expand your own
understanding with what others know, its still a
form of scholarship and part of your job. The
raison dêtre of the research university is to
inform teaching with scholarship and hence to
allow our curriculum and modes of teaching to
evolve.
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Thats all for today.
Questions?
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Extra slides
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15 to dept.
Breakdown of ICR
5 to college
Typical grant budget
5 to VPR
Direct costs (salaries, GAs, equipment,
travel,etc)
75 to UW general fund
Indirect costs (0.405 direct costs)
specified on greensheet
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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 performance below
expectations. Outcomes (a) change in job
description or (b) performance improvement
plan. Stage III Failure of stage II to resolve
the problem. Outcome possible dismissal.
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Caveats Its a good idea to warn a faculty
member in writing of an impending below
expectations rating, in time for the person to
make changes. Document the measures youve taken
to avoid entangling issues of academic
freedom. Copy the college dean on all
documentation.
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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.