February 2006

Academic Leader - February 2006 - Full Issue
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Jokes and Quotes:Tips on Public Speaking for Hardworking Deans
By Carl Strikwerda, Ph.D.
Deans are often the public face of an institution. What we say in public shapes what people believe about academia, intellectual life, students, science, and the arts. There are basically two kinds of public speeches: those you can plan in advance and those you must give impromptu. Just the thought of having to make an impromptu speech can terrify us. The key to giving good impromptu speeches is to work hard on the speeches you know about in advance. You then learn how to draw on them in order to do impromptu, unplanned speaking.

Becoming a More Mindful Leader
How do you come across to the people you work with? Do what you say and how you say it send mixed messages? Are your actions consistent with your words? Do you listen intently? Do you acknowledge others’ ideas? All these questions are important for any leader, and answering them honestly can help you become a more mindful leader, says Florence Richman, special assistant to the president for academic growth at Northern Virginia Community College.

Quick Quotes
Florence Richman, special assistant to the president for academic growth at Northern Virginia Community College

How to Avoid Having Dysfunctional Departments
By Charles Powers, Ph.D., and Ray Maghroori, Ph.D. , Riverside Community College District
We have visited many campuses as external evaluators or consultants and have often noted that one or more of the academic units on campus are dysfunctional. Of course “dysfunctional” can mean many things. The dysfunctional units that seem to give administrators the most trouble are departments in which one or more faculty members are perceived by others as working at cross-purposes with collective agreements or programmatic activities. Frequently one or two people are very easily provoked, or one or two people are very provocative in their modes of interaction. (Those easily provoked and the provocative may be different individuals or one and the same person.) In any case, attention is periodically averted away from mission-critical activities to a roller-coaster crisis of the month.

Creating a Culture of Leadership
Department chairs are too conservative in their exercise of leadership, often viewing themselves as the “keepers of the keys” and not recognizing the powerful influence they can have on their departments and the institutions, says Ken Hammer, professor in the department of recreation and tourism management at Malaspina University-College in Nanaimo, British Columbia and a leadership consultant.

Capstone Courses Prepare Students for Transition to Working World
Much attention continues to be directed at those first-year experiences in college. As important as that time is during a student’s tenure in college, it’s not the only portion of a student’s career to which attention should be directed. True, seniors are no longer likely to drop out of college, but they face a transition just as compelling as the one that brings them from high school to college. They are about to depart from college to professional lives. It is a time for reflection, integration, and closure.