May 2005

Academic Leader May 2005 full issue PDF
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Overcoming Obstacles to Interdisciplinary Research
Although scholarship often crosses academic disciplines, higher education institutions often are not adequately equipped to properly fund and recognize interdisciplinary scholarship. As a result, faculty often “steal time” from their traditional departmental duties to create new forms of scholarship that do not fit neatly into a single discipline, says Susan Frost, consultant and former vice provost of institutional planning and research strategic development at Emory University.

Continuous Program Review Helps College Make Important Decisions
Until recently, academic departments at Rivier College, a small Catholic liberal arts college in New Hampshire, operated largely in isolation and did not subject themselves to rigorous academic review. Departments wrote annual reports, but they tended to be perfunctory and impressionistic rather than data driven. Without rigorous review, the core curriculum expanded, and new programs proliferated without adequate student demand. “We were spiraling out of control. We were facing important decisions about where we wanted to put our emphasis in the future,” says Albert DeCiccio, academic dean at Rivier College.

Motivating and Energizing Your Team: 10 Tips for Success
By William A. Marzano, Ed.D.
At every level and in every functional area of our institutions, people want to be respected, recognized, and appreciated. The following 10 opportunities, presented in the relative frequency in which they occur, demonstrate how we, as academic leaders, can apply this principle.

Encouraging Faculty to Play Key Role in Assessment
Effective assessment of student learning outcomes in academic programs and at the institutional level requires faculty participation in designing and implementing assessment measures. While faculty know what it means to assess students in their courses, this broader, more formalized approach to assessment requires them to think beyond their individual courses.

A Broad-Based Approach to Internationalization
Due to the way international education has evolved and the way higher education institutions are structured, internationalization efforts have been quite fragmented at many institutions, says Christa Olson, assistant director of International Initiatives at the American Council on Education. It’s not that there has been a lack of effort — in fact, Olson says, people on many campuses would be surprised to learn of the progress made in pockets within the institution in recruiting international students, developing international courses and programs, offering education abroad, and conducting international research. The problem is that relatively few institutions have taken a comprehensive approach to internationalization, and the efforts of individuals, academic programs, or departments often have little impact across campus.