September, 2006

Academic Leader - September, 2006 - Full Issue PDF
…

5 Recommendations for Completing the Flexible Sabbatical: Notes from the Field
By Sara E. Quay, PhD
Last summer, in an article published in Academic Leader (“The Flexible Sabbatical: An Alternative for Academic Administrators,” July 2005), I summarized a policy newly adopted by my college to support academic administrators’ pursuit of sabbatical time. I had initiated the policy at my institution because, although I was due for a sabbatical leave and held a newly signed book contract, I was faced with the reality that the limited infrastructure at my small private college could not support my extended absence. I began my flexible sabbatical just after graduation and completed it a year later. During that time, I was able to accomplish my scholarship goals and experience the rejuvenation for which sabbaticals are known. In this article, I recommend steps for those interested in pursuing this type of leave.

Aggressive Recruitment Improves Change of Hiring Women in STEM Disciplines
Recruiting women to faculty positions in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines is notoriously difficult. Part of the problem is that faculty recruiters rely on inadequate recruiting techniques that result in small applicant pools and few qualified candidates to choose from.

Continuous Program Review Maintains Momentum for Change, Prepares for Accreditation Review
Ozarks Technical Community College adopted an academic program review process approximately five years ago with the intention of getting faculty involved in identifying each program’s strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations for improvement. The problem was that these reviews were episodic and lacked the momentum necessary to bring about continuous improvement. This article describes how the college has improved its continuous review process.

‘Junior Colleague’ Graduate Training Model Prepares Students for Professorship
It’s not enough for graduate programs to prepare content experts. The complexity of the many faculty roles demands a broader preparation for careers in academe. Recognizing this need, the Psychology Department at West Virginia University (WVU) provides extensive career preparation for its graduate students using an approach that treats graduate students as “junior colleagues”—giving them valuable experience in the department’s research, teaching, and service activities.

Web-Based Faculty Activity Reporting System Provides Easy-to-Update, Accessible Information
Faculty activity reports have the potential to guide faculty development, resource allocation, and even fund-raising efforts. But too often faculty perceive these reports as a burden that yields few, if any, benefits. This perception can change with a user-friendly electronic faculty activity reporting system like the one Maryville University uses.

Student Evaluations of Instructors: A Bad Thing?
By John N. McDaniel, PhD
In a recent “Parting Shot,” it was argued that perhaps student evaluations were not, in Martha Stewart’s famous phrase, “a good thing,” given doubts about the qualifications of students to judge instructors, questionable validity of the evaluation instrument, threats to academic freedom, and misuse by administrators. Every college instructor subjected to student evaluation, myself included, has probably mused about these possibilities at one time or the other—especially those times when the evaluations are not quite as laudatory as one might have expected or hoped. But before we throw out the evaluation with the bathwater, let’s take a look at the other side of this double-edged question of the value of student evaluations.