I don’t buy into the concept of gracious retirement. Although past normative retirement age myself, when someone dares to inquire when I plan to retire, I retort, “I prefer that you not use such vulgar ...
It’s difficult enough to tell your supervisor something that he or she doesn’t want to hear when the two of you have a good relationship. But what do you do when there are personality conflicts ...
Casual observation is an inadequate method to determine the degree of inclusivity within an academic unit because it does not take into account implicit bias, the perspectives of others, or the wealth of data that ...
The very first house I bought was a condominium, and the purchase price included 10 hours of service by an electrician. The idea was that each owner would want to customize the unit with special ...
According to John Tropman, professor of social work at the University of Michigan and author of Making Meetings Work: Achieving High Quality Group Decisions, well-run meetings consist of three elements: announcements, decisions, and brainstorming. This ...
It has been said that “old deans never die; they just lose their faculties.” A clever saying, that—and it reminds those of us who have been stomping around in the academic vineyards for many years ...
A friend of mine posed a question that I’ve been grappling with: “Why are so many college and university presidents so … bad?” The question caught me off guard since many of the college presidents ...
Faculty are essential to addressing the large issues facing higher education institutions, such as increasing student diversity, budgetary challenges, and changes in course delivery methods. The challenge for academic leaders is engaging faculty on these ...
As administrators we’ve heard it often enough and probably said it a few times ourselves: “In order to be an academic leader, you have to be able to make the tough decisions. What deans and ...
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.