Conference Announcements

The Topics

The Presenters

The Schedule

Register

Magna Publications

The Topics

Week 5: Supporting Faculty

Listen to a preview

Successful management and administration of programs in higher education requires considerable knowledge, skills, and abilities. As the decision landscape continues to become increasingly more complex, effective leaders must be exceptionally well-versed in budget management, conflict management, and program assessment and evaluation. Academic leaders are under constant scrutiny to be more effective and efficient in the delivery of academic programs. This pressure, both internal and external to higher education, requires that they work smarter but not necessarily harder. The changing complexity of administrative work is often directed by demands for accountability, declining federal, state, and private resources in support of higher education, the increasing conflict and litigiousness in managing declining resources, particularly people.

The modules contained in this workshop are designed specifically to equip academic leaders in higher education with the knowledge and know-how to be more efficient in the discharge of our professional obligations. Program faculty, with extensive expertise and experience, will share their insights and practices in these important areas.

Learning Objectives

1. To understand and appreciate the role and function of Budget Management
2. To understand and appreciate the role and function of Conflict Management
3. To understand and appreciate the role and function of Program Assessment and Evaluation
4. To understand and appreciate the role and function of Managing Faculty Resources
5. To discuss challenges and issues in discharging these important professional responsibilities
6. To network with colleagues across the United States and abroad.

Presenter: Charles Harrington

Listen to a preview

Budget management is one of the most important aspects of an academic leader’s job, yet many new leaders lack a thorough understanding of the processes, procedures, and responsibilities associated with effective budgeting and financial management. Further complicating the issue of budget management is the prospect of budget reductions that are so common in higher education institutions these days.

In this session, Margaret J. Barr will provide an overview of the context of budgeting and fiscal management, describe the problems and issues new budget managers face, and offer suggestions on how to avoid common budget problems.

Learning Outcomes

At the conclusion of the audio conference, participants will be able to:

1. Identify the critical elements of their institutional fiscal environment.
2. Understand the similarities and differences between public and private (independent) institutions of higher education.
3. Identify the purposes of and the essential elements of budgeting.
4. Identify the steps in the budget cycle at institutions of higher education.
5. Identify the differences between the operating budget, the capital budget and auxiliary budgets.
6. Identify the most common problems and pitfalls encountered by new budget managers.
7. Identify strategies to confront such problems and pitfalls.
8. Identify the unique issues involved in budget reductions on campus
9. Understand some useful strategies to deal with budget reductions.

Presenter: Margaret J. Barr

Listen to a preview

Conflict is seen as a natural and valuable characteristic of organizations, especially academic institutions. However, it can become unproductive when misdirected, and it can be very costly in terms of time, resources, and intellectual energy.

Creating an environment that retains the value of productive conflict (about ideas) and mitigates the development or augmentation of unproductive disputes (between individuals or groups of people) is a central factor in the quality of the work environment and the productivity of the institution.

Informal means of preventing, resolving, and managing disputes that depend on interpersonal skills and relationships are important but insufficient by themselves. However, retaining and strengthening informal dispute resolution is an important part of creating an integrated, systemic approach to conflict management that engages all relevant people, policies and procedures on an institution-wide basis.

In this session, Jim Coffman will explain how to create and maintain such a conflict management system.

Learning objectives:

Participants will learn:

1. How to distinguish between productive and unproductive conflict as a basis for enhancing productivity through managing conflict.
2. How to identify and enhance key elements of interpersonal communication in conflict situations.
3. How to identify common causes of conflict in academe as a basis for preventing unproductive conflict.
4. How to characterize the need for a systemic, institution-wide system of dispute prevention, resolution and management and how it interacts with informal, interpersonal practices.
5. How to identify and characterize the most important elements of an institution-wide support system.
6. Best practices.

Presenter: Jim Coffman

Listen to a preview

Accountability and continuous improvement have become fixtures in higher education, and all accredited colleges and universities must specify intended learning and institutional outcomes, measure them, and articulate changes based on assessment findings. Because assessment has not been a part of traditional higher education, faculty and staff generally view it as an extra task or busy work.

In this audio conference, Daniel Weinstein will outline steps and ideas on how to create a climate on campus that effectively address this charge. The focus of this presentation is on the establishment of initial steps any institution can take to effectively specify outcomes and measure them in a way that is meaningful, manageable, and pragmatic. Learn how to get faculty buy-in for assessment and how to involve students as learning partners with faculty thereby igniting their intrinsic motivation to perform the best they can on assessment activities.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

1. Understand the reality and nature of accountability in higher education today.
2. Understand and be able to implement steps to begin to establish a “culture of evidence” and learning on campus.
3. Be able to specify meaningful learning and institutional outcomes and the steps to take to “close the loop” on them.
4. Understand the difference between classroom evaluation and program outcomes assessment.
5. Be able to qualify the best assessment tools (e.g. quantitative, qualitative, standardized, and locally developed).
6. Develop appropriate and easy-to-use documentation of outcomes assessment.

Presenter: Dr. Dan Weinstein

Week 5: Supporting Faculty

Listen to a preview

Supporting faculty encompasses several categories of activities: supporting faculty in their scholarship, helping faculty to improve their teaching, and assisting faculty across career stages.

In this session, John Braxton will explore all three categories of faculty support activities. In the first portion of his presentation, he will focus on faculty engagement in the professorial role of research and scholarship by describing Boyer's four domains of scholarship with particular attention devoted to the scholarship of teaching. This section will also present some ways academic affairs officers and department chairpersons can help faculty to engage in these various domains.

In the second portion of his presentation, Braxton will concentrate on the administrative goal of helping faculty to improve their teaching. The development of a culture of teaching at the level of both the institution and the academic department will receive particular emphasis.

In the third and final section of his presentation, Braxton will concentrate on the various career stages that faculty transverse. Although associate professors with tenure stands as an important career stage, this section will focus on ways of helping new faculty adjust to the professorial role. A discussion of the vitality of senior faculty members will also be an aspect of this third section.

Differences among types of colleges and universities and academic disciplines will be discussed in each section as appropriate. The audio-conference will conclude with an opportunity for the audience to ask questions.

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

1. Develop a knowledge and understanding of Boyer’s Four Domains of Scholarship with particular emphasis on the scholarship of teaching.
2. Devise strategies for encouraging and assisting faculty in their engagement in the four domains of scholarship.
3. Develop a knowledge and understanding of the various forces that contribute to the development of a teaching culture at the level of the institution and the academic department.
4. Develop a knowledge and understanding of the problems junior and senior faculty members face?
5. Devise strategies for helping junior and senior faculty adjust to the contingencies of their professorial roles for their career stage.

Presenter: John Braxton