April 2005

Academic Leader April 2005 full issue PDF
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How’s the Climate on Your Campus?
By Christine Hult, Ph.D.
Howard B. Altman in a recent Change article stated that, “Even the best faculty development programs tend to ignore job satisfaction and focus exclusively on job effectiveness. Both are important.” At Utah State University, we agree that it is crucial to find out the sources of faculty satisfaction with their jobs and with the environment in which they are working. In 1999, MIT undertook a comprehensive survey of faculty women in the School of Science to gain insights into their job satisfaction. With the help of an NSF–ADVANCE grant, we were able to follow suit in 2003 on our campus.

Supporting and Empowering Department Chairs
In 2003, a task force at Buffalo State College investigated the roles of department chairs at that institution and recommended actions that would support and empower chairs. Although the investigation was specific to that institution, some of the findings and recommendations are universal.

Blended Design Improves Core Course, Introduces Students, Faculty to Online Learning
In any given semester, up to 1,500 Pace University students enroll in CIS 101, an introduction to computing course that is part of the institution’s core curriculum. One of the challenges of offering the course to so many students is maintaining consistency across sections (in this case, 50 sections per semester).

Faculty Motivation: A View from the Ivory Tower
By Grace A. Hopkins, Ph.D.
An important question on the minds of higher education administrators is how to motivate their colleagues and subordinates to expend their best efforts on the job. Several years ago, a professor of mine at the University of Illinois-Champaign in a course in educational administration brought the message home for me very poignantly. He said, “We all have the same 24 hours in a day. The role of an administrator, then, is to meet the workers’ needs on the job in order to capture the largest portion of their days, or else they’ll join the bowling league, and spend more and more of their time there.”

Rethinking Teaching Assignments: Should Senior Faculty Teach More Introductory Courses?
After years of service and moving up through the faculty ranks, senior faculty members often feel they have earned the privilege of concentrating their teaching efforts on upper-division courses, leaving the introductory courses to younger faculty members. It seems fair enough: If you stick around long enough, you will be able to teach the courses you enjoy most. But is it the best arrangement for students?

A Cross-Departmental Learning Community
By Susan Skripac Camp and Suzanne L. Gilmour
An RFP distributed by the dean of the School of Education shifted the focus of the Academic Advisory Committee from the ordinary things that chairs and deans do together to one of collaboration that would bring together six departments on a project that would provide opportunities for innovative undergraduate and graduate learning experiences.