Winter/Spring 2003 - The Council of Independent Colleges

CONFERENCESDepartment Chair Workshops Focus onLeadership, Campus Culture, and ChangeCIC is offering its second annualseries of spring workshops fordepartment/division chairs that focuson the distinctive challenges of departmentleadership in small and mid-sized,private colleges and universities. The2003 Workshops for Department andDivision Chairs will focus on the themeof “Leadership, Campus Culture, andChange,” and will explore leadershipstyles, the cultures of institutions, andleadership effectiveness.The workshops, to be held in the SanDiego area, CA (April 4-5); Atlanta,GA (May 28-30); Philadelphia, PA(June 3-5); Hartford, CT (June 10-12);and Chicago, IL (June 10-12), aredesigned to serve both experienced andnew chairs of departments or divisionsat independent institutions.Topics will include:Leadership Approaches and CampusCulture: Chairs will explore the varietiesof leadership styles—charismaticor “servant leader,” “top-down” or delegational,collegial or hierarchical decision-making—andapproaches that areappropriate in a variety of contexts.The Chair’s Vision for theDepartment/Division: Participants willexamine the variety of reasons chairsassume this leadership role and therewarding aspects of being a departmentchair. They will consider their vision fortheir departments and how they mightkeep the vision in mind as they movethe department forward.Leading Departmental Change:Facilitating lasting change will beanother focus of the workshop. Chairswill wrestle with issues such as managingchange under difficult conditions andattaining “buy in” by faculty members.Dealing with Difficult PersonnelIssues: Participants will address questionssuch as: How do you have a frankconversation with a colleague whohas done something potentiallyharmful to the institution? How doyou encourage civility and collegialityin the department?Legal Issues: Lawyers familiar withlegal issues at private institutions willexplain the principles with whichdepartment chairs should be familiar, aswell as procedures for dealing with personnelissues and situations in which itis necessary to document actions.Campuses are encouragedto send several departmentchairs to one of the regionalworkshops so they maysupport one another inmanaging change uponreturn to their institution.Working with the Chief AcademicOfficer: What do chief academic officersexpect of department chairs? What arethe do’s and don’ts for department chairsin creating an effective working relationshipwith the CAO?Among the speakers at theworkshops are Kelly Ward, assistantprofessor, educational leadership,Washington State University, andco-author, The Department Chair’s Role inDeveloping New Faculty into Teachers andScholars; Philip Moots, president ofMoots, Cope and Stanton, a privatepractice of law with concentration onlegal problems of colleges and universitiesand employment law; Jon F.Wergin, professor of educational studies,Virginia Commonwealth University,and author of Departments That Work:Building and Sustaining Cultures ofExcellence in Academic Programs; KentWeeks, attorney with the law firm ofWeeks, Turner, Anderson & Russell,professor of practice at the GeorgePeabody College, Vanderbilt University(TN), and author of ManagingDepartments: Chairpersons and the Law;Daniel W. Wheeler, professor of agricultureleadership, education and communication,University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and co-author of The DepartmentChair: New Roles, Responsibilitiesand Challenges; and Claire GuthrieGastañaga, principal of CG 2 Consulting,and an expert on faculty hiring,ethics, and sexual harassment policies.Other speakers include MicheleAtkins, director of graduate studies ineducation, Union University (TN);Sister Sally Furay, provost emerita ofthe University of San Diego (CA), anda member of the Legal Services ReviewPanel of the National Association ofIndependent Colleges and Universities;and Ann Singleton, education departmentchair, Union University.Four chief academic officers—HelenRay, Brenau University (GA); CarolHinds, Mount St. Mary’s College (MD);Michael Bell, Elmhurst College (IL);and Clark Hendley, Saint JosephCollege (CT)—will discuss the workof department chairs with CAOs.Campuses are encouraged to sendseveral department chairs to a workshopso they may support one another inmanaging change upon return to theirinstitution. Participants may continuetheir discussions following the workshopsby joining the department chairlistserv (www.cic.edu/projects_services/listservs.asp).To register for the workshops,visit the CIC website at www.cic.edu/conferences_events/workshop/teaching/index.asp. For more information, contactMary Ann Rehnke, CIC vice presidentfor programs, at (202) 466-7230 ormrehnke@cic.nche.edu. Independent 5 www.cic.eduWinter/Spring 2003