May, 2006

Academic Leader - May, 2006 - Full Issue PDF
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RACI Charts: A Tool to Identify and Acknowledge Faculty Members’ Administrative Work
To better manage the administrative activities within her school, Shirley Williams, dean of Gonzaga University’s School of Education, uses a technique called RACI charting, which helps clarify faculty roles and workloads and ensures that all essential administrative tasks are accomplished.

Strengthening the Relationship with Student Affairs
Assumptions based on inadequate knowledge can harm the important relationship between academic affairs and student affairs. When the two divisions work in isolation, negative stereotypes can persist unchallenged: faculty might view student affairs staff as being unduly nurturing to students, and student affairs staff might view faculty as individualistic and uncaring of students’ well-being. Both divisions need to combat these stereotypes and find ways to meet students’ needs. Here are some things that department chairs can do.

Linking Accreditation and the Malcolm Baldrige Framework
By Brent D. Ruben, PhD
When resource and accountability pressures were less intense, the academic mission and programs of colleges and universities provided the primary focus for institutional accreditation. Today, the broad challenges confronting higher education—national, state, and institutional pressures for fiscal constraint, accountability, attention to learning outcomes assessment, productivity measurement, mission clarity and distinctiveness, and institutional structure—all converge in accreditation discussions.

Department-less Interdisciplinary Program Provides Flexibility for Returning Adult Students
The Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies (BAiLS) program, an interdisciplinary program at Northern Arizona University designed to meet the needs of returning adult students, is less structured than programs with similar goals at other institutions. This looser structure encourages collaboration among disciplines and provides for greater flexibility, says Larry Gould, associate dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences.

Learning Communities Link Courses, Bring Academic and Student Affairs Together
Faculty need to be very careful about how they commit their time and energy, so any potential partnership with student affairs needs to be compelling and clearly articulated.

Parting Shot: It’s Merely Academic
By John N. McDaniel, PhD
The College Access and Opportunity Act (HR 609) calls for greater “transparency” in matters pertaining to tuition and, most pointedly, transfer credit, with institutions being virtually required to accept credit from all other institutions recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education. This is offered, we are told, in the name easing the burden of students and parents baffled by the intricacies of attending college in these parlously complicated times.