Zooze the Horse roams around the pasture near Lamar State College. Zooze thinks about problems in academia. Zhe wants proffies to submit posts (blog posts, not fence posts).
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
BIG HUNGRY!!!!!!
Is your department chair/head elected or appointed (or other)?
We blindfold someone once every three years and throw them in a river. If they get out they don't have to be the chair. If they die, then they serve a full term.
We vote (or, rather, the tenure-track faculty vote; others get to weigh in more informally), but I think the Dean actually appoints. Seems to have worked for the time I've been at the institution, but if the department's recommendation and the Dean's decision ceased to align, that would be worrying. Very worrying.
Ours is appointed, and recently hired from outside our school. He's very good and gungho about research and the department. Still, it's a sub-optimal arrangement. We have little support staff so the dept head ends up doing a lot of administrative work while trying to run his own research group. Meanwhile, there are faculty who are late in their careers, not inclined to start another big research project. They are very talented at administrative work, having served on every damn committee that has every existed here. The department head's research suffers, the most experienced faculty don't get to put their skills to use, and the whole department suffers for it.
They get appointed based on their time serving in the department. Our current chair is finishing her second 3-year term and was a great chair. The incoming will be very good I think. We have a tiny department (half dozen profs in 2 disciplines) and when it'll be my turn, OOPS, time to retire, I'm over 65. sorry!
Some combination. Sometimes appointed directly on an "interim" basis (often permanent), sometimes the product of a search and recommendation by a committee, with appointment by the VP. It's worked well for us, but the chair is expected to be a permanent position. I think we should rotate it--the only way I would sign on for the job.
Elected - but I'm a weird teaching/non-faculty administrative position, so I don't get to vote. She's like me if you switched just enough of the personality switches to make me JUST able to function as a chair. So I like her - because I agree with everything she does because it's what I would do, except she's able to not say "that's a stupid idea and there's no way I'm approving of it", whereas I would fail. Which is probably why I climbed as high as teaching/non-faculty...
We are a small department, just 8 proffies. So we have this rule according to seniority, every two years it's the next guy's job down the line. When it was time for my second stint as department head, I was dean and got passed over. As with MA&M, if I play it right I'll retire before the next time around. It helps to keep hiring new young things (because we lose folks going on to greener pastures).
Elected, fortunately.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Batshit U. president Gol Dintalead is trying to change that, enabling him to parachute his favourites in.
Abducted.
ReplyDeletesham election
ReplyDeleteWe blindfold someone once every three years and throw them in a river. If they get out they don't have to be the chair. If they die, then they serve a full term.
ReplyDeleteWe vote (or, rather, the tenure-track faculty vote; others get to weigh in more informally), but I think the Dean actually appoints. Seems to have worked for the time I've been at the institution, but if the department's recommendation and the Dean's decision ceased to align, that would be worrying. Very worrying.
ReplyDeleteOurs is appointed, and recently hired from outside our school. He's very good and gungho about research and the department. Still, it's a sub-optimal arrangement. We have little support staff so the dept head ends up doing a lot of administrative work while trying to run his own research group. Meanwhile, there are faculty who are late in their careers, not inclined to start another big research project. They are very talented at administrative work, having served on every damn committee that has every existed here. The department head's research suffers, the most experienced faculty don't get to put their skills to use, and the whole department suffers for it.
ReplyDeleteThey get appointed based on their time serving in the department. Our current chair is finishing her second 3-year term and was a great chair. The incoming will be very good I think. We have a tiny department (half dozen profs in 2 disciplines) and when it'll be my turn, OOPS, time to retire, I'm over 65. sorry!
ReplyDeleteSome combination. Sometimes appointed directly on an "interim" basis (often permanent), sometimes the product of a search and recommendation by a committee, with appointment by the VP. It's worked well for us, but the chair is expected to be a permanent position. I think we should rotate it--the only way I would sign on for the job.
ReplyDeleteElected - but I'm a weird teaching/non-faculty administrative position, so I don't get to vote. She's like me if you switched just enough of the personality switches to make me JUST able to function as a chair. So I like her - because I agree with everything she does because it's what I would do, except she's able to not say "that's a stupid idea and there's no way I'm approving of it", whereas I would fail. Which is probably why I climbed as high as teaching/non-faculty...
ReplyDeleteWe are a small department, just 8 proffies. So we have this rule according to seniority, every two years it's the next guy's job down the line. When it was time for my second stint as department head, I was dean and got passed over. As with MA&M, if I play it right I'll retire before the next time around. It helps to keep hiring new young things (because we lose folks going on to greener pastures).
ReplyDelete