October 2007

Academic Leader - October, 2007 - Full Issue PDF
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Overcoming Tension between Faculty and Staff
By Jeffrey L. Buller, PhD
At many colleges and universities, tension between members of the faculty and the staff appears to be almost endemic. In these environments, faculty members get annoyed because they feel that they receive disrespect and poor service from the staff. Staff members are frustrated because they feel that when faculty members are not ignoring them altogether, they are treating them rudely and as “second-class citizens.”

From Department Chair to Dean
By A.C. “Buddy” Himes, PhD
After applying for deans’ positions over the past few years, I recently accepted my first such appointment and wanted to share some of the secrets I learned. Here are seven frequently asked interview questions, as well as responses from a search committee’s perspective.

Learn to Unlearn: Five Key Belief Patterns That Sabotage Leadership Effectiveness
By Tracey T. Manning, PhD
In 25 years of leadership development in academic settings and with academics, I’ve seen five key sets of beliefs/assumptions that, when identified and unlearned, increase leadership effectiveness and self-efficacy. However, because these belief patterns operate like computer software, usually unrecognized and activated only when the situations, people, or tasks faced trigger them, leaders are unlikely on their own to take the steps necessary to stop their habitual responses and learn new ones. This article will first help you expose these belief patterns and then suggest cognitive strategies to unlearn them.

Facilitating Teaching Excellence in Discipline-Specific Contexts - What does a faculty want from an educational developer?
By Ranga Venkatachary, PhD
With regard to formal training events offered by teaching-learning centers at large universities, faculty members are often heard to say that training in pedagogy is useful only when situated within their discipline-specific issues. How critical are those discipline-specific concerns in facilitating excellence in teaching? If an expert in pedagogy is placed within a faculty to work as a coach and trainer, will it make a difference in the way training programs are designed and utilized to achieve excellence in teaching?