Essays

If You Must Appoint an Associate Professor as Chair
by Lawrence G. Abele | PDF

This essay proposes broad guidelines to assist the dean when the decision is made to appoint an associate professor to the position of department chair.

Evaluation of the Faculty
by Allan Tucker | .doc

Effective faculty evaluation is key to the morale and strength of a department and this article explores the procedures and criteria for evaluation.

Dealing with Deans and University Administrative Offices
by Allan Tucker | .docx

The importance of the chair cultivating a trusted relationship with the dean and other university administrators is examined in this article.

Performance Counseling and Dealing with Unsatisfactory Performance
by Allan Tucker | .doc

Performance counseling is an important communications tool between the chair and faculty member and can prepare the way for decisions about promotion, tenure, and salary increases.

Delegating and Using Committees
by Allan Tucker | .doc

This article addresses how chairs can balance their leadership and administrative duties with their teaching, research, and service activities by delegating tasks to committees.

Evaluating the Chair
by Allan Tucker | .docx

This article explores how faculty members and deans evaluate the department chair and details the different expectations—managerial, academic, and political—each group has toward the chair.

Departmental Missions, Goals and Assessment
by Allan Tucker | .doc

This article covers the characteristics of a good mission statement and goals and objectives, and how to report a department’s activities and accomplishments.

Dealing with Conflict and Maintaining Faculty Morale
by Allan Tucker | .doc

The chair’s role is critical in resolving conflict within a department, and this article describes how to diagnose conflict and offers guidelines to help the chair address the conflict.

Departmental Accomplishments
by Allan Tucker | .doc

How best to describe a department’s accomplishments and its aspirations—via mission and goals statements—is highlighted in this article.

Department Decision Making and Bringing about Change
by Allan Tucker | .doc

This article describes how a chair can involve faculty in decision making and also presents intervention techniques to successfully achieve change.

The Chair’s Roles, Powers, and Responsibilities
by Allan Tucker | .doc

This article describes the unique and paradoxical roles of the department chair, including advocate, department governor, and budget administrator.