August, 2007

Academic Leader - August, 2007 - Full Issue PDF
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‘But I Hate Asking for Money…’: Development Tips for Academic Administrators
By Jeffrey L. Buller, PhD
Despite the widespread expectation that academic leaders participate in fundraising at their institutions, many administrators feel poorly prepared for development work. After all, they rose to their positions because of their success as teachers and scholars, their record of good management skills, and their ability to mix attention to details with an appreciation for the “big picture” of an institution’s needs.

Managing Program and Curricular Change toward Faculty Consensus
By Kathleen M. Quinlan, PhD, Mary Handley, PhD, Jesse Pappas, MA, and Ronald Kander, PhD
Curricula have been hotly contested throughout the history of American higher education and are no less debated today. Many situations can prompt a group of faculty to take a fresh look at their curricula. Accrediting bodies can adjust their criteria, student demographics can change, broader social or professional contexts can prompt reexamination, and educational trends such as integrated learning, K-12 partnerships, service learning, or problem-based learning can lead to revisions in the way a curriculum is conceptualized and organized, as well as in the way it is taught.

Hope-Centered Leadership in Practice
By Kaye A. Herth, PhD, RN, FAAN
There are many books about leadership; however, only recently have there been studies supporting the connection between leadership and hope, and the inclusion of hope in emerging models of leadership (Adams et al., 2002; Helland and Winston, 2005; Snyder et al., 2000). Prior to the last 15 years, hope had been viewed as fluffy and abstract, but recent pioneering work has substantiated its complexity and value. Hope is now identified as a complex, multidimensional, and dynamic cognitive process that is observable across numerous contexts and has applicability to leadership (Eliott, 2005).

Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Contracts
In 2005, Appalachian State University established three-quarter- and full-time non-tenure-track contracts with benefits for non-tenure-track faculty members who had been teaching at least three-quarter time for three years. The move was intended to provide fair compensation and promote loyalty that might pay off in improved quality of instruction.

‘Teachnology’: a Technology Incentive Program at Kutztown University
By William Jefferson and Vera Brancato, PhD
Technology moves forward at a relentless pace. Most of today’s college students are savvy bloggers and social networking fanatics. Professors strive to engage these students with technology-enhanced lessons and online supplemental materials that extend learning opportunities beyond the traditional classroom space. Utilizing technology in a manner that engages tech-savvy students is a laudable goal, but how and, more important, when can a professor learn these newer technologies that students find so appealing?