September 1, 2010
Establishing, Maximizing, and Refining Your Advisory Board
Defining the purpose and raison d’être of your advisory board is a critical first step in creating your board. A common function of an advisory board is to provide strategic guidance and expertise where you need it most—with an emphasis on the word “advise.” Explore these questions to bring clarity to your thinking: Where do you need assistance as a leader? What kind of expertise do you need to tap, and who has it? Once you have a clear mission and set of goals for your board, you are on your way to writing out a “charge” to your board that articulates members’ roles vis-à-vis your mission statement and goals.
Leadership under Pressure
A great deal of information is available about how academic leaders can cope with the stress and pressure of their positions. Most of these resources offer excellent advice on how to relieve or escape stress and to reduce its negative effects on an administrator’s life. But much less information is available about how to lead under stress, how to (in the words of Kipling’s “If”) “keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you,” and how to focus on the good of your programs and their stakeholders despite serious challenges to your career or integrity. When it’s your campus that is in the midst of a natural disaster or terrorist attack, it’s not enough to cope with the pressure and make sure that your own interests are protected. These are the times when the purest form of leadership is necessary, and these situations can be among the severest tests of any administrator. Here are a few suggestions to keep in mind when facing your next crisis.
Redesigning an Academic Early Alert System: Creating Faculty Buy-in
Amid decreased state funding (McCluskey & Edwards 2009) and calls for increased accountability (Basken, 2008) there is a renewed sense of urgency in retaining students. Undoubtedly, one method to assist in retaining students is to implement an early warning system that effectively helps faculty identify and assist students with academic issues. Establishing such an alert system was the goal of the task force at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith. The task force consisted of the dean of enrollment management; the dean of student success; the dean of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; the executive director of institutional effectiveness; the associate provost; the director of student advisement and career planning; a retention/completion specialist; and a faculty member.
Seven Steps for Dealing with Problem Faculty (The top concern of America’s academic chairs)
In a 2009 survey of America’s academic chairs almost 3,000 participants identified “dealing with problem faculty” as their greatest concern (Crookston, p. 13). The title of this article is not “seven easy steps for dealing with problem faculty.” The task was number one for a reason; rehabilitation is difficult and in rare cases may not be possible. Whether your problem person is a low achiever, a passive aggressive, a prima donna, a bully, or an exasperating jerk—you’ll probably spend far more time dealing with him or her than you want. One challenge is that problem faculty members are seldom self-made deviants; usually they are the product of ongoing department-wide neglect. From my experience as a department head and dean plus my research into the literature on leadership and chairing, I have identified seven steps that can help.
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