Research suggests that 80 percent of decisions made in institutions of higher education in the United States are made at the department level. Of the approximately 80,000 department chairs, a full 20 percent leave their positions each year. The number one reason chairs list for leaving their chairpersonship is because of noncollegial, uncivil faculty members. In an ongoing 11-year study of more than 2,100 chairs that I and my colleague Richard Riccardi have conducted, managing conflict has consistently been the second or third most important skill/competency that chairs have said they needed to be an effective chair.
Investigative Overreach on Campus: Faculty Perspectives and Strategies for Improvement
Review of Professors Speak Out: The Truth about Campus Investigations, edited by Nicholas H. Wolfinger (Academica Press, 2025)
Martha McCaughey
August 18, 2025
