WORKSHOP FOR DEPARTMENT HEADS

2014

You who choose to lead must follow,

But if you fall, you fall alone.

If you should stand, then who’s to guide you?

Robert Hunter

1. Role of the department head2. Budget fundamentals 3. Faculty positions4. Hiring5. Supervising academic personnel6. Personnel problems7. Vision

Session 1: Administrative Rudiments

Academic Affairs website: http://www.uwyo.edu/AcadAffairs/

1. Role of the department head

Nature of the position

“Officers of the university;” serve at will.

Retain tenure and rank as faculty members (“retreat rights”) if tenured. (Trustees’ Regulation I).

Variety of titles: department head, department chair, division head, dean (Schools of Pharmacy, Nursing).

Report directly to the dean of the college.

Reporting line

Department head

College dean • Associate deans

Provost and VP for Academic Affairs• Associate provosts

President

Trustees

Usually bad practice to circumvent the college dean.

• Hiring

• Assignment of duties (e.g. teaching loads, courses)

• Performance evaluations and raises

• Recommendations on reappointment, tenure, promotion

• Managing the department’s academic programs

• Administering department budgets

• “Promotion of academic excellence”

All in consultation with the department faculty and subject to the college dean’s approval.

Main duties

Your own academic career

Typical job description: 50% administration, remainder in teaching, research & service. (Not universal.)

“Psychological risks”:

• What are you: A rank-and-file faculty member or an administrator?

• What are your colleagues’ attitudes about administrators

• How your success is measured will change• What will the previous department head think?• Do you remember when you engaged in

conversations about the department head?

More psychological risks:

• Personal career aspirations: Is this temporary service to the department or long-range interest in administration?

• The REST of your life: Family and friends Physical well-being Other interests Sense of satisfaction, accomplishment, happiness

The five words that an administrator hates to hear:

The five words that an administrator hates to hear:

“Do you have a minute?”

2. Budget fundamentals

Breakdown of UW’s budget:

Section I: state-funded (includes most tuition revenue)• Replenishes each FY (1 July – 30 June)• Authorized each biennium; use it or lose it.• Special case: summer school revenues “roll over”.

Section II: self-supporting activities (includes grants and contracts, Outreach School tuition, fees)• Can “roll over” from one FY to the next.

Where does UW’s money come from?

General fund (legislature) $213.7 MTuition 60.5 MOther (land-grant funds, royalties, etc.) 17.0 MSection I total $291.2 M 3/4 goes to salary and benefits

Non-grant section II funds (incl SFA) $155.6 MGrants & contracts (est., w/o fin. aid) 81.9 M Section II total (est.) $237.5 M

Estimated total $528.7 M

(FY 2015, ends 30 June 2015

Funded by legislature*: 73% of section 1 40% of total budget (High for state universities)

*not including Hathaway scholarships or Endowment for Excellence in Higher Education

Note: any new, benefited position requires money for salary and

benefits (~ 42% × salary)

Full-time Personal Services 180.134.4%

Part-time Personal Services 26.55.1%

Graduate Assistant 14.22.7%

Employer Paid Benefits81.7

15.6%

Support Services 142.927.3%

Grant & Aid Payments53.4

10.2%

Non-op. Expenditure 24.14.6%

UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING -- SummaryFY 2015 BUDGET, SECTION I AND II COMBINED EXPENDITURE

DISTRIBUTION($s in Millions)

Total Section I and II Expenditure Distribution: $522,901,737Note: differences in revenue and expenses planned to support future capital projects.

Components of the department’s budget1. Permanent faculty and staff salaries.

Section I. Not much day-to-day flexibility here, but you have the pivotal voice in defining positions, hiring, reappointment, and tenure decisions.

2. Part-time salaries. Usually negotiated with the college dean. Barely enough.

3. Section I support budget. Use for equipment, supplies, travel, speakers. Usually not enough, despite FY 2011 increases.

4. Summer-school revenues. Section I, but they “roll over.” Opportunity for departmental creativity.

5. Indirect cost reversions (ICR). Section II. Department’s share (15%) of the indirect costs budgeted for external awards. (IC = 41.5% DC.) Lots of flexibility, if your faculty get grants.

6. Released time. Section 1 money freed when department members are paid from grants and released from regular section 1 duties, usually teaching. The duties must be replaced; leftovers can be used flexibly. The department head , not the released faculty member, manages these funds.

7. Endowment income. Expendable income generated by investment of gifts. Can be the most flexible type of money available, except for constraints on scholarships. Requires long-term fiscal planning.

3. Faculty Positions

• Faculty positions are your most critical resource (and account for almost all of your budget)

• All Colleges now employ their own Centralized Position Management (CPM)

• The critical issue is how you formulate compelling requests for positions

Formulating position requests

• Every new position is an opportunity to shape the future of your department, college, and university

• Take that opportunity!• Tie the position into institutional and college priorities and areas

of distinction identified in the University Plan• Your dean will expect this

• Departments that have done this well are the ones well positioned for the future

Formulating position requests

•Think outside your department’s immediate needs

• A joint or interdisciplinary request can enhance the department’s linkages with others and enrich the scholarly and teaching opportunities for your faculty

• A request that contributes teaching to first-year USO curriculum will potentially grease the wheels of progress toward degree completion for your department’s own students. (Remember: some departments provide service courses that benefit the entire university.)

Hiring standards for faculty, APs, and staff

Faculty: Open, national or international search; terminal degree in the field; best qualified candidate; promise of excellence in teaching and national or internationally recognized scholarship.

APs: Open regional search, at least; best qualified candidate; promise of excellence in job duties.

Staff: Local (or broader) search; done through Human Resources with detailed procedures and guidelines.

4. Hiring

3 remarks:

• Pre-selection is unethical. Search!

• Don’t hire in desperation; extend the search another year if necessary.

• Don’t underestimate the value of candidates who have long-range leadership potential.

Affirmative action plan

Affirmative-action principles:

• Advertise broadly and fairly.

• Include UW’s EEO-AA statement.

• Appoint a diverse search committee.

• Guard against adverse stereotyping.

• Hire the most qualified person.

Exceptions to advertising policy

Can hire into a position not advertised only under the following circumstances:

Target of opportunity (highly qualified person from underrepresented group).

Business necessity (rarely applicable to academic positions).

Domestic partner accommodation

Require recommendation from dean and VPAA and approval from EPO. There is no special funding for this type of hiring.

Common problems

Domestic partner hiringNo universal solution, but UW has a pretty good record of solving these problems. Bring the issue to the dean’s attention ASAP.

Illegal questionsDon’t ask about marital status, family configuration, ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, veteran status, disabilities, sexual orientation. Candidates are free to volunteer the information.

Bad interviewsGive a pep-talk to faculty before the interviews. The interview is not a test or a hazing ritual. You’re evaluating the candidate and selling the department.

5. Supervising academic personnel

You have a powerful influence on the department’s morale. A positive outlook and a sense of control over the department’s destiny are the faculty’s most precious assets. Cultivate them.

If departmental ambitions are high, they will bump up against resource constraints. Some frustration is inevitable. Don’t let it dampen the will to excel.

The faculty should want ownership of the program

Setting the tone

External peer review

Department faculty review

Department head’s recommendation

College-level faculty review

College dean’s recommendation

University-level faculty review

Review by Academic Affairs

Trustees’ action

Review by President (on appeal)

A

B

C

Tenure, promotion, reappointment, extended terms: the decision chain

Navigating the RTP minefield

• Follow the regulation-prescribed process

• Stick to the academic merits of the case

• Let the dean know about problems

• Don’t sugar-coat the truth

• Be fair and civil

Your department has a fourth-year faculty member who’s toxic in department meetings and who has a habit of showing up to class unprepared. She seems perennially at odds with her students, who tend to do poorly in her courses. Whenever anyone discusses these issues with her, she mentions her attorney. The majority of the department faculty members vote against her reappointment case. One of their comments dwells on the fact that she’s a woman in a field where men have traditionally been more successful. After reading their remarks, she tells you she’ll sue you for discrimination if you recommend against reappointment.

What should you do?

Your department has a fourth-year faculty member who’s a highly charismatic teacher. His scholarly record is thin -- barely acceptable by department standards. His CV lists 15 works in progress. While it’s hard to document, you have serious concerns about his honesty: 1. You think he stretches the truth in reporting his own

research accomplishments; 2. His colleagues report that his teaching, while immensely

popular with students, is filled with basic errors;3. In his 3.5 years at UW, he has launched three grievances

against you and your associate department head. Hearing committees have dismissed all of them.

4. He routinely recruits graduate students to take sides in his disputes with senior faculty members.

What’s your recommendation for reappointment?

Collegiality: The willingness to work with colleagues in a civil, productive fashion that advances the mission of the department and university.

Collegiality is tricky: big egos and rebellious spirits are part of the academic landscape.

However, failure to contribute to the university’s mission – and interference with it – are grounds for poor performance appraisals, including reappointment denials.

6. Personnel problems

Faculty grievances, discrimination, harassment, student complaints

Best defenses:

• Get sexual harassment training. (It’s mandatory.)• When a problem arises, consult the dean or EPO.• Treat people honestly, fairly, and respectfully. When you

make decisions they don’t like, explain your reasons.• Know the Department, College, and UW Regulations!• Base decisions on your academic judgment, not on

legalistic grounds. UW has an indemnity clause that protects your good-faith academic judgments.

• When in doubt, do what’s right.

Personal problems

People (including department heads) are fragile and fallible. Family difficulties, messy relationships, substance abuse, medical problems, and ethical lapses are as common in academia as elsewhere.

Be sensitive; maintain confidentiality; protect the legitimate interests of others (including the institution); try to approach problem constructively instead of punitively. Remind us to do the same.

Get advice and help. You can’t handle everything yourself.

• Commitment to access• Balance between general and professional

education• Judicious mix of theory and application in research

UW’s setting and mission:

• The only 4-year institution in the state• A public land-grant institution• One of the smallest Carnegie research-

doctoral extensive institutions in the U.S.

7. Vision

Defining a scholarly culture

• Stress the attributes of successful careers, not minimal expectations.

• Make external peer review a guiding principle.

• Cultivate the areas of distinction consistent with UW’s strategic plan. Stick with them.

• Integrate scholarship with teaching and public service.

Interdisciplinarity

• A vehicle for expanding research communities at UW

• A strong current motif in many disciplines

• A key competitive advantage for a small university

• A natural mode of inquiry at land-grant institutions

• A way to influence hiring outside the department.

One last thought:

Leadership is a commitment to the success of the group.

Great leadership is the ability to instill that commitment in others.

That’s all for today.

Questions?