January, 2007

Academic Leader - January, 2007 - Full Issue PDF
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Performance Appraisal Interviews as a Tool to Improve Faculty Work
By Michael Miller, EdD, and Richard Newman, PhD
The primary cost associated with an academic department is personnel. Personnel can include secretarial and support staff, but is typically dominated by faculty. In fact, as much as 95 percent of a department’s budget can be tied directly to faculty costs. This means that department heads and chairs have little room to negotiate around faculty and must instead face challenges directly. Compounding the chair’s ability to create change is the reality of academic freedom and tenure, both of which can immobilize progress and growth.

Succession Planning: Developing Future Leaders from Within
Succession planning, or targeted leadership development, is not very common in higher education institutions, perhaps because of the corporate cronyism it often calls to mind. Certainly, the values and hiring practices in higher education are inconsistent with the “good ol’ boy” network found in the corporate sector, but perhaps higher education institutions could apply some of the more benign aspects of succession planning to minimize disruptions associated with leadership change, preserve institutional memory, and make full use of the talents within the institution.

Different Perspectives on Distance Education: Faculty vs. Administrator
There’s no question that faculty and administrators have different perspectives on distance education, but there has been little research on the ways in which these differences play out. To better understand the interactions between these groups, Claudine Keenan, a doctoral student in the University of Massachusetts higher education leadership program and executive assistant to the provost at Richard Stockton State College in New Jersey, compared the language used by faculty and administrators at three institutions that had recently launched or planned to launch complete (degree or certificate) online programs.

How Departments Can Promote Teaching Excellence
A recent study based at Oxford University looked at departments judged noteworthy for their teaching at 11 research-intensive universities in Europe, Australia, and North America to determine what these departments do to bring about and sustain teaching excellence.

Managing International Programs: An Academic and Administrative Perspective
By Michael Jay Jedel, PhD, and Michael - Murray, JD, PhD
Awareness and integration of differing administrative and academic criteria are keys to the successful delivery of an international program. If faculty members and deans are not communicating about their varying demands, needs, and expectations, the results may be disastrous. Following are a few steps and considerations that should be observed or considered when developing academic programs to be offered in an international setting.

Parting Shot: Where the Girls Are
By Thomas R. McDaniel, PhD
Last month, John McDaniel (my twin brother) addressed the “new event” in higher education: declining male enrolment and disappearing men’s colleges. Where are the boys? he asked. He noted that there are now only three four-year all-male colleges in the United States. He and I graduated from one, Hampden-Sydney, whose bumper sticker reads: “Where Men are Men and Women are Guests.” We also taught in an all-male public high school and in rival all-male prep schools in Baltimore.