The Need to Lead
The higher one's position in academic administration, the more one's effectiveness depends on the leadership performed by others. After nearly a year in the Dean's Office I have new appreciation for the importance of decisions and planning that happen at all levels across the college, and I want to say thank you to the many individuals who have taken on responsibilities of leadership. Those include people with formal roles, such as department heads and committee chairs, but also many more whose wisdom and participation contribute immeasurably to the quality of decisions and implementations.
Collaborative leadership from the ground up is essential if the college itself is to lead. We also rely on specific individuals with expertise and commitment to devote themselves to particular leadership and administrative responsibilities in service to our collective efforts. The college now is experiencing some significant changes in leadership roles, and more than ever we are dependent on the contributions of individuals at every level as well as the willingness of talented people to step forward into positions of formal leadership. Earlier this week we announced searches for an associate dean to succeed Carol Anne Costabile-Heming and for a Dean's Fellow for Research and Graduate Studies. Communication has a new department head, and in the coming weeks I will be meeting with the Art & Design and Theatre & Dance departments to discuss plans for head searches in their units. And, of course, I am still very new in my position and have much to learn about doing it well. I hope you see this as a period of opportunity, even as I ask for your patience with the disruptions that accompany such transitions.
The associate dean and dean's fellow positions are critically important, and I hope that we will have several applicants for each position. And I hope that you will encourage colleagues in whom you have confidence to apply. Quite simply, the college cannot function without an effective individual in the associate dean's role. We have been fortunate to have had excellent associate deans with relatively little turnover -- just three in the past 13 or so years. I cannot say enough about the contributions Carol Anne has made during her three years. It is a very student-centered role, with responsibilities for undergraduate student recruitment, retention, and advising. The associate dean also works very closely with department heads in areas of staffing and budgeting. With the recent of addition of our new budget officer, Darin Wallace, the associate dean will be able to spend less time juggling spreadsheets and more time planning to make the most effective use of college resources in service to departments and students.
The dean's fellow position will be an experiment. We need someone in the college to work with departments and individual faculty to explore and develop opportunities for external support and other ways of increasing capacity for scholarship. I also want this individual to work with the departments and the Dean's Office in developing strategies for enhancing the visibility and effectiveness of graduate studies in the college. The Dean's Office has not devoted significant resources to these areas in years past, but it is time that we do so. This assignment will carry three hours of reassigned time per semester in addition to a modest stipend.
As critical as these positions are, they are no more important to our success than the assistant department heads, program directors, personnel committee chairs, college committee chairs, or university governance leaders that work among us and for us in the college. Thank you to everyone who accepts the responsibilities of these and other important roles. Thanks also to all of you who support them with your participation, hard work, and encouragement.
I want to say a special word of appreciation to everyone who worked with the merit evaluation and compensation processes this year. Departmental faculty committees and department heads worked extremely hard, both to improve guidelines and procedures from last year and to make sound, equitable judgments in this year's cycle. Members of a newly-formed Staff Compensation Advisory Committee worked with me to develop the compensation matrix for staff. And what a benefit it was to have a budget officer to crunch the numbers.
Don't forget to come out Friday, April 11, from noon-2:00 p.m. to the Craig Hall patio for the mini-carnival to support Relay For Life. Rumor has it at least a couple of department heads have agreed to walk the plank in the dunk tank with me!
Quick Hits & Short Bits -- college news and updates