Higher Education

This is an exciting time to be an academic advisor'a time in which global recognition of the importance of advising is growing, research affirms the critical role advising plays in student success, and institutions of higher education increasingly view advising as integral to their missions and essential for improving the quality of students' educational experiences.

Communicate more effectively with students, parents, and faculty. Navigate difficult conversations with tenured faculty more successfully. Lead change more effectively Mentor and manage problem performance more effectively. Keep faculty performing well and focused on the right priorities. A lively, readable, and practical guide that will prove useful in the most difficult and common departmental situations.

Addresses the role of the department chair in diversity, providing a research-based, systematic approach to diversity leadership in the academic department based upon survey findings and in-person interviews. Examines the multidimensional contributions that chairs make in advancing diversity within their departments and institutions in the representation of diverse faculty and staff; in tenure and promotion; curricular change; student learning outcomes; and departmental climate. Each chapter provides concrete strategies that chairs can use to strengthen diversity in the academic department.

Provides the practical information that chairs need to do their jobs well. Many of the book's ideas come from practicing chairs and are proven strategies for dealing with a variety of issues. Each chapter details a particular problem, includes a brief introduction to the topic, provides tips on how to deal with the situation, and concludes with targeted questions for further consideration. Its concise format is ideal for busy chairs which need a brief but informative resource.

This book is about the "how" of academic administration: for instance, how do you cultivate a potential donor for much-needed departmental resources? How do you persuade your department members to work together more harmoniously? How do you keep the people who report to you motivated and capable of seeing the big picture? Information on topics such as essentials of creating a strategic plan, developing and overseeing a budget, key elements of fundraising, preparing for the role of chair, meeting the challenges of mentoring to increase productivity, and creating a more collegial atmosphere.

This booklet is full of practical advice that can be put to use immediately, and each article is concisely written so you won't have to spend valuable time searching for a solution or technique. Whether you're looking for information on how to work more effectively with your dean, how to better manage your time, how to conduct successful department meetings, or how to best facilitate change, this booklet will help. Structured to provide guidance in four critical areas: chair as leader, getting started, managing conflict, and helping faculty and students thrive.

Collegiality is a key element that department chairs value when recommending faculty members for tenure. This practical book offers a reference of what to do proactively to help departments function effectively. Filled with the most current ideas of what has worked to enhance the climate, culture, and collegiality in the department, as well as the institution. Includes case law relative to collegiality or lack of collegiality in higher education so that readers will get a helpful guide to nurturing a more collegial department and preventing toxic situations from arising or worsening.

This book analyzes the behavior of chairs and deans through the political, structural, human resources, and symbolic frames. Lessons learned from the negative as well as the positive scenarios are highlighted, enabling deans and chairs to easily adapt them to their own situations.

Despite their best intentions, most department chairs soon find their days filled with handling complaints, solving problems and putting out fires (one hopes only in a metaphorical sense). Yet so much more is possible in academic leadership today. Borrowing from approaches like positive psychology and organizational behavior, Positive Academic Leadership creates a framework for changing the entire dynamic of an academic department.

Designed to provide a wealth of strategies in five crucial areas - faculty recruitment and evaluation, faculty mentoring and development, enhancing teaching and building community, departmental initiatives, and chair development and next steps - the expert advice and field-tested techniques presented here offer essential insights into this important chair work.

Time management advice: "Department chairs who have asked themselves the question 'Who knows where the time goes' should ask Christian Hansen for the answer. His book, Time Management for Department Chairs, will help chairs maximize the investment of their most important resources--their time, focus, and energy."

Approaching issues encountered by department chairs: "When asked to name their number one concern and problem, department leaders overwhelmingly said that it was dealing with difficult people. Now R. Kent Crookston draws on the wisdom of seasoned department chairs, the academic literature, and his own experience as a department head and dean to shed new light on this perennial problem."

Chapters explore typical aspects of the faculty career and life cycle - appointment, tenure, promotion, incivility, plagiarism, teaching, online delivery, interactions with chairs and deans, and performance appraisal - but focus on the prickly issues as well as the routine. Offering concrete suggestions and best-practices, this book provides insights that will help prospective, new and current faculty maneuver more effectively through academe and their collegial culture.

Academic Motherhood tells the story of over one hundred women who are both professors and mothers and examines how they navigated their professional lives at different career stages. Kelly Ward and Lisa Wolf-Wendel base their findings on a longitudinal study that asks how women faculty on the tenure track manage work and family in their early careers (pre-tenure) when their children are young (under the age of five), and then again in mid-career (post-tenure) when their children are older.

Weighs the concerns of university administrators, professors, adjuncts, and students in order to critically assess emerging faculty models and offer informed policy recommendations. The authors suggest how colleges and universities might rethink their procedures for faculty development, hiring, scheduling and evaluation in order to maintain a campus environment that still fosters faculty service and student-centered learning. Even as it asks urgent questions about how to retain the best elements of American higher education, Envisioning the Faculty for the Twenty-First Century also examines the opportunities that systemic changes might create.

The road to an academic career for many aspiring scholars will often be a rocky and frustrating one. Where can they turn for good, frank answers to their questions? Here, three distinguished scholars talk openly about what's good and what's not so good about academia, as a place to work and a way of life. The authors' distinctive opinions and strategies offer the reader multiple perspectives on typical problems. With rare candor and insight, they talk about such tough issues as departmental politics, dual-career marriages, and sexual harassment.

Academia may be able to benefit from the digital revolution by adopting the project management techniques used by software developers. Agile work strategies are a staple of the software development world, developed out of the need to be flexible and responsive to fast-paced change at times when "business as usual" could not work. These techniques call for breaking projects into phases and short-term goals, managing assignments collectively, and tracking progress openly. Agile Faculty is a comprehensive roadmap for scholars who want to incorporate Agile practices into all aspects of their academic careers, be it research, service, or teaching.

"Finally, a comprehensive volume replete with practical ideas and seasoned advice about how to effectively handle faculty performance evaluations. This author really understands the lack of preparation and confidence that most academic administrators feel when asked to function as both judge and coach. If you need concrete strategies for dealing with all aspects of the evaluation process, this book won't disappoint you. The content and case studies are right on the money."--Christine Licata, author, Post-Tenure Faculty Review and Renewal; senior associate provost, Rochester Institute of Technology

In this concise, practical guide, Penelepe Hunt (professional fundraiser, teacher, management consultant, and executive coach) shows the vital role that academic leaders play in raising funds. She explains how leaders can learn the skills to become effective at networking, entrepreneurial, and productive fundraisers. Hunt also breaks down fundraising in a way that clarifies roles, responsibilities, programs, activities, politics, sources, and process'everything an academic leader needs to know in order to succeed in development activities.

Models for institutions to move intentionally toward intersections - of study abroad and multiculturalism, of race and gender and religion, and of other essential aspects of our educational programs and our students' identities - to open doors to new possibilities that better prepare our students for life in a diverse world, and that allow our institutions to become more efficient and effective as we strive to not simply do things better in our own separate spheres, but to do better things by working together across difference.

The go-to reference for academic leaders seeking practical answers to everyday challenges. Explains the "how" of academic leadership, providing a practical, comprehensive, reality-based reference for almost any problem, challenge, or opportunity. This updated 2nd edition includes new chapters on the difference between leadership and management in higher education, leadership in politically charged environments, effective strategies for making decisions, and working with associate deans or provosts.

Addresses current issues for deans: "For those who have devoted their lives to teaching, learning, and innovation in the arts and sciences; anthology of original essays by arts and sciences deans and former deans addressing the increasing demands for vocational education at the expense of the liberal arts and sciences."

Management techniques: "Are you considering a dean's position? Are you a new dean? Are you a sitting dean that would like some ideas on managing your organization? This book offers advice and important information for anyone working at the dean's level in academic administration. "

This book analyzes the behavior of chairs and deans through the political, structural, human resources, and symbolic frames. Lessons learned from the negative as well as the positive scenarios are highlighted, enabling deans and chairs to easily adapt them to their own situations.

Each chapter explores a particular challenge or issue that has been identified by the American Conference of Academic Deans (ACAD) members as most relevant in their role as academic leaders, then provides practical step-by-step guidance that can help deans navigate even the toughest of situations.

In seventeen essays written by some of the most successful chief academic officers in the United States, The Provost's Handbook outlines key topics related to the changing environment of higher education while explaining what constitutes effective leadership at the college and university level. How, for example, does the provost lead in a time of disruption and shifting needs? What skills should he or she nurture in new faculty? What role should data and institutional research play in decision making? How can a provost navigate the often stormy situations of shared governance? These questions--and many more challenges presented by this role--are addressed in this essential volume.

An autobiographical account: "There is scant literature devoted to the Provost-ship until this informal and autobiographical account,. Larry Nielsen offers a highly personal account of his tenure as Provost of North Carolina State University,"

"This is a dynamite text for all leaders in higher education who want to implement change. It starts with a deceptively simple idea--that change needs to be 'learner-centered,' not just in the classroom, but in every aspect of a campus. Achieving that end is far from simple, but the authors make clear that it's well within reach if readers pay close attention to the wisdom in this book." --Thomas Ehrlich, senior scholar, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and former president, Indiana University