In This Issue Current Issue Archives

March 2004

Academic Leader March 2004 in PDF format

Case Studies in the Art of Academic Administration: Tenure Considerations
By A.C. “Buddy” Himes, Ph.D
A relatively small percentage of tenure applications may be so strong that they clearly warrant tenure, or, conversely, so weak that they clearly warrant dismissal. But what about a more common scenario? A tenure-track faculty member has issues of concern during the pre-tenure evaluation period. Then, after several pre-tenure evaluations in which these concerns are presented, the individual appears to undergo a behavioral change, thereby ameliorating the concerns immediately before the formal tenure review. Should tenure be recommended?

University Rewards Students for Participating in Co-curricular Events
You can offer students a rich variety of co-curricular, out-of-class learning experiences, but how can you convince them to show up? More than 60 percent of first-year students and nearly half of seniors report never working with faculty on activities other than classwork, according to the latest results of the National Survey of Student Engagement.

The Delaware Study: A Tool for Comparing Faculty Productivity
The Delaware Study on Instructional Costs and Productivity, a data-sharing consortium of four-year colleges and universities that shares data on faculty teaching loads, instructional costs, and externally funded scholarship, provides data on the primary drivers of instructional cost nationwide and serves as a tool to help academic leaders compare their academic units to comparable units at other institutions.

Bridging the Cultural Differences Between Faculty and Administrators
Although their ultimate goals are the same — educating students and advancing knowledge through research — faculty and administrators approach institutional priorities and decision making from different perspectives. Faculty thrive on autonomy and are rewarded for individual achievement, while administrators are driven by institutional needs. These differences make shared governance complex and challenging, and in a time of growing public scrutiny, overcoming these differences becomes more urgent.

Bulletin Board
Diversity in Science and Engineering; Doctoral/Research Intensive Institution Conference; Institutional Research Forum; Higher Education Law; The Learning Alliance for Higher Education

Best Practices: Department Operations in a Constricted Budget Climate
By Don Chu, Ph.D.
This edition of Best Practices looks first at the orientation of chairs facing major resource problems, followed by ideas that have already worked for some chairs. While specific department situations vary widely, judicious use of these and similar approaches may soften the blow and even strengthen the department for the long run.

Faculty Play a Crucial Academic Integrity Role
A national survey by the Center for Academic Integrity that Duke University participated in in 2000 showed that 45 percent of Duke’s students said that they engaged in unauthorized collaboration and 37 percent said they falsified lab or research data at least once since coming to Duke.