Positive academic leadership recognizes that in a system of shared governance, organizational charts and chains of command are only approximations of the truth. We are all leaders in an environment
Changes within higher education are creating a need for new ways to develop leaders, says Julie Wechsler, executive assistant to the president at South Mountain Community College. Among these changes
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
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
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 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
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:
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
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
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
