Unlike faculty who for the most part work with students and scholars within their subject matter area, chairs are responsible for representing the department in an environment chock-full of…
Academic Leadership
Learning about the True Power of Leadership by Comparing Servant Leadership to Toxic Leadership
October 9, 2020 Stephanie Hinshaw, EdD, MBA
Are you like many leaders, or aspiring leaders, and ask yourself, What kind of leader am I? Or do you wonder about the type of leader you want to…
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Faculty Learning Communities: Five Skills Every Facilitator Should Capture
October 5, 2020 Mounia Mnouer, PhD
Faculty Learning Communities (FLC) are spaces that allow for improving one’s pedagogy, seeking intellectual stimulation, meeting other colleagues who are interested in similar topics, or simply fulfilling service duties…
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Best Practices for Leading Positive Change in Higher Education
June 22, 2020 Valencia Gabay, MEd, and Shannon Voyles, EdD
It is becoming increasingly important for universities to meet the needs of today’s global learners. As a result, online academic institutions are raising the bar on instructional practices and…
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The Five Anchors of Impact: Teaching in Challenging Times
May 4, 2020 Laura Trujillo-Jenks, PhD, and Rebecca Ratliff Fredrickson, EdD
“Be anchor in life, be anchor in love, be anchor in what you believe.” —Unknown Watching a rock being thrown into the water can be exciting as the ripples…
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Why Learning About Toxic Leadership Can Help Your Leadership Practice and Knowledge
February 14, 2020 Stephanie Hinshaw, EdD, MBA
Over my nineteen years in higher education, I have worked for some pretty phenomenal leaders. These leaders have mentored me, supported me, and have created environments where I (and…
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In Academic Leadership, Teaching and Learning
Preparing Your TA for the Job
February 25, 2019 Katherine Senko
The Teaching Assistant (TA) job is typically filled by an upper-level university student or graduate student. It’s a job that requires one to play several different roles. First and…
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The most common approach to cheating involves trying to prevent it—multiple versions of a test, roving observation during tests, software that detects plagiarism, policies that prohibit it. However, if…
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In Academic Leadership, Teaching and Learning
Creating a Culture of Excellence for Graduate Teaching Assistants
September 25, 2017 Jennifer H. Waldeck, PhD
A colleague at another institution, “Bill,” recently contacted me with a problem. Bill’s program is under fire for low exam scores and cognitive learning achievement in one of its…
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In Academic Leadership, Online Education
Tips for New Online Faculty Deans: A Faculty Perspective
September 22, 2017 Noura Badawi, EdD
We know that strong leaders empower and genuinely care for those whom they lead. That empowerment and care is not expressed by the words they speak, but by their…
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In Academic Leadership, Faculty Development
Creating an Effective Faculty Mentoring Program
August 11, 2017 Ken Alford, PhD, and Tyler Griffin, PhD
Recruiting and hiring new faculty is time intensive and expensive. Despite the difficulties, hiring decisions are clearly among the most important that academic administrators ever make. The success of…
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Call for Proposals: 2017 Leadership in Higher Education Conference
January 12, 2017 Magna Publications
If you serve in a leadership role on campus, here’s your chance to get involved in a conference developed just for academic leaders. Brought to you by Magna Publications,…
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In the same way a classroom’s climate is created jointly by teacher and student actions, a department’s teaching climate results from collective contributions. Of course, department chairs and other…
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If you serve in a leadership role on campus, here’s your chance to get involved in a new conference developed just for academic leaders. Brought to you by Magna…
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Weighing the Evidence of New Instructional Policies, Practices, and Behaviors
February 17, 2016 Maryellen Weimer, PhD
During a conversation about evidence-based teaching, a faculty member piped up with some enthusiasm and just a bit of pride, “I’m using an evidence-based strategy.” He described a rather…
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I’m imagining that this department head works at an institution where budgets are tight, everyone works hard at recruitment and retention, and teaching is an important part of the…
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Knowing how to handle student complaints is an essential skill for department chairs. In an interview with Academic Leader, Patricia Markunas, chair of the psychology department at Salem State…
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In Academic Leadership, Faculty Development
Where Does Innovative Teaching Come From?
July 27, 2015 Rob Kelly
There’s a long-standing tradition of informal sharing of pedagogical innovation among K-12 teachers and a whole line of research on this phenomenon, which is known as teacher leadership. The…
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If your faculty meetings have turned into what feels like an excerpt from the Hunger Games, we have something that might help. When faculty meetings turn into a great…
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When faced with a problem or challenge within your unit, your first inclination might be to immediately look for solutions. Makes sense, right? But when the problem or challenge…
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In Academic Leadership, Faculty Development
Climbing the Stairs: Observations on a Teaching Career
November 10, 2014 Patty H. Phelps, EdD
My office is on the first floor of the education building. I have spent 27 years in this building. Unless I have a meeting in another department, I rarely…
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Managing Difficult Conversations: Advice for Academic Leaders
November 6, 2014 Rob Kelly
Difficult conversations are inevitable in any organization. Understanding how they arise and how they play out can help minimize the disruption without avoiding the issue or alienating those involved.
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Strategies for Dealing with a Certified Jerk
September 9, 2014 Robert E. Cipriano Ed.D. and Richard Riccardi Sc.D.
Incivility and lack of collegiality are on the rise in institutions of higher education (Cipriano, 2011). This phenomenon can range from disputes and tension at one end of the…
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Curriculum changes or differences of opinion about what should be taught and how it should be taught can create tension in any department. And the budget situation in many…
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Collegiality: The Cornerstone of a University (and a Profession)
October 10, 2013 Robert E. Cipriano EdD
Accepting and sharing responsibility for creating a productive work setting within the department and institution result, at least to a great extent, from how well each member of the…
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Two concerns are often raised when department chairs attempt to address breaches of collegiality through the faculty evaluation process. The first is whether they’re permitted to do so at…
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15 Recommendations for Designing and Delivering Effective Conference Presentations
September 24, 2013 Catherine Stover
As a college faculty member, you speak to audiences both large and small on a daily basis. You know how to deliver information, create learning opportunities, and build engagement.…
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Advice for Department Chairs: Six Steps for Building a Healthy Department
September 17, 2013 Rob Kelly
Ongoing problems within a department can have profound consequences, including difficulty in recruiting and retaining faculty and students, loss of funding, and even program termination. While the health of…
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What is intuition? It's one of those terms that is hard to get a handle on. And yet teachers rely on their intuition every day. A situation unfolds in…
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If some faculty do not fully embrace their role as academic advisor, don’t assume that they are indifferent to students’ needs or feel that advising is strictly a student…
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As the student body becomes increasingly diverse, it’s important to have faculty incorporate multicultural design into their courses regardless of discipline. Although it may not seem that all disciplines…
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Here are three questions of interest to those of us concerned with institutional support of teaching: 1) Is the strength of an institution’s “culture of teaching” or policy support…
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A Data-Driven Approach to Student Retention and Success
February 5, 2013 Rob Kelly
Higher education institutions generate a wealth of data that can be used to improve student success, but often the volume of data and lack of analysis prevent this data…
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For the past 25 years Bernard Sorofman has worked to build and maintain a collegial team within the department of pharmacy practice and science at the University of Iowa.…
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Academic Freedom Do’s and Don’ts for Faculty and Administrators
October 16, 2012 Mary Bart
Have you have heard of Garcetti v. Ceballos? This 2006 U.S. Supreme Court case involving Gil Garcetti, a district attorney for Los Angeles County, and Richard Ceballos, a deputy…
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When you attend a conference, particularly one geared toward academic leadership issues, you'll find that the most heavily attended sessions are often the ones that focus on collegiality and…
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Implementing High-Impact Learning Across the Institution
August 23, 2012 Rob Kelly
High-impact learning practices—first-year seminars, learning communities, service-learning, undergraduate research, and capstone experiences—can provide intensive learning for students and improve retention, persistence to degree, and postgraduate attainment. However, to be…
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Faculty Collegiality as a Synergistic Agent
August 15, 2012 Robert E. Cipriano EdD
I have had the privilege to be invited to many campuses to speak about strategies for incorporating a collegial-mindset within the university. A campus culture that values collegiality and…
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Does your institution have a policy that addresses bullying? If it does not, there are some pretty compelling reasons to consider creating such a policy. In an interview with…
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In a mixed-methods study, Meghan Pifer, assistant professor in the Academic Development and Counseling Department at Lock Haven University, looked at the dynamics of informal intradepartmental relationships in two…