Department Chair Manual - 2019

Department Chair Manual Purdue Fort Wayne Office of Academic Affairs

As of March 5, 2019

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chairing the Academic Department ...............................................................................................3 Where to Find or Get Help ............................................................................................................3 1. PFW Chair Mentors ............................................................................................................3 2. Important PFW Offices and Associated Websites .............................................................3 3. National Resources .............................................................................................................7 Chair Timeline ………………………………………………………………………………… 9 Responsibilities of the Department Chair .................................................................................. 13 1. Leadership ...................................................................................................................... 14 2. Administration ............................................................................................................... 14 3. Personnel ........................................................................................................................ 17 4. Promotion and Tenure .................................................................................................... 22 5. Curriculum and Instruction............................................................................................. 25 6. Students .......................................................................................................................... 27 7. Community Outreach/Engagement ................................................................................ 30 Personnel Policies that Affect the Chairs …………………………………………………. 30

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Chairing the Academic Department As an academic department chair you have many roles. You will not usually lose the typical faculty roles of teaching, scholarship or creative endeavor, and service, although you will typically receive some release from teaching. In addition to your faculty responsibilities, you will assume the administration and leadership of your department. These roles bring new challenges and rewards, although you may find some parts of the job more rewarding than others. Many chairs report the ability to mentor junior faculty to successful promotion and tenure, and to shape the department’s future are the most rewarding aspects of this important position.

The first two sections of this manual consist of resources that may help in your position as chair and a time line of activities you are likely to be asked to complete throughout the academic year. The remainder of the manual is organized around the duties and responsibilities of the department chair, and includes information and campus contacts associated with each of those responsibilities.

Where to Find or Get Help 1. PFW Chair Mentors Chair mentors can provide assistance on many topics, including many related to the administrative and personnel duties of being a chair, as well as advice on dealing with difficult faculty, and keeping one’s own scholarship going when being a chair. Your Dean (or Associate Dean if you have one) or the Associate Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning can help you find an experienced chair who can serve as a mentor in your first few years of being chair. Do not hesitate to ask for this valuable help.

2. Important PFW Offices and Associated Websites a. Office of Academic Affairs (OAA) The Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs is Dr. Carl Drummond. His staff (Assistant and Associate Vice Chancellors and other members of the OAA staff) are listed on the OAA web page below https://www.pfw.edu/offices/oaa/ This website provides many useful documents. Among the most important are guidelines related to reappointment, promotion and tenure, assessment and program review, and a series of OAA memoranda that outline many OAA policies relevant to the department chair. b. Fort Wayne Senate (also known as “the Faculty Senate”)

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http://www.pfw.edu/senate/ This website contains the entire set of senate membership, committee structure, policies, and relevant documents.

The promotion and tenure documents at the campus and college levels are also on the senate web pages, and can be found at: https://www.pfw.edu/committees/senate/ptdocuments/ Individual department promotion and tenure documents usually must be requested from the department. c. Office of the Dean of Students https://www.pfw.edu/dean The Dean of Students is Dr. Eric Norman. The Associate Dean of students is Robin Newman.

The Office of the Dean of Students oversees all issues related to student complaints (e.g., grade appeals, complaints of discrimination or harassment), or complaints about students (e.g., academic dishonesty, disruptive classroom behavior). d. Registrar https://www.pfw.edu/offices/registrar/contact/ The registrar’s office oversees academic regulations, academic records, schedules of classes, the student information system, registration, course and room scheduling, transcripts and similar matters. The office produces the schedule of classes and academic bulletins. The current registrar is Dr. Cheryl Hine.

The student information system in use at PFW is Banner (SunGard Higher Education software). Chairs sometimes use Banner, but more commonly, Banner is used by academic advisors and clerical staff who oversee student records.

The web interface for student registration (which interacts with Banner), which students use to register and view transcripts, and which advisors (including chairs), often use to look at student records is goPFW. You can login to goPFW through your regular PFW login, but you need to be identified as an advisor to have student records accessible to you. e. The Office of Sponsored Programs https://www.pfw.edu/offices/sponsored-programs/index.html

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This office is directed by Heidi Sandquist. She is assisted by assistant director, Mystee Eagleson.

This office assists faculty, staff and students with funding opportunities, grant proposal development, and post award management. The office provides many links to and forms of financial assistance in support of research, and oversees the external grant process before the grants go through the main Purdue Office of Sponsored Programs. If you need information about the external grant process contact that office for assistance.

Chairs are often asked to write letters of support for internal grants. There are also a number of opportunities in support of student research from this office.

If you have questions contact the IRB directly (email address is irb@purdue.edu). At PFW, you may contact Dr. Jeannie DiClementi of the Psychology Department at diclemej@pfw.edu. https://www.irb.purdue.edu/ There is a comparable committee for the protection of animals used in research (The Purdue Animal Care and Use Committee, PACUC). For more information, go to: https://www.purdue.edu/research/regulatory-affairs/animal-research/ f. Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT) https://www.pfw.edu/celt/ CELT coordinates resources to support excellence in teaching and learning, and has three major service components: Faculty development for teaching; support for teaching with technology; and media production. They offer many workshops and services to enhance teaching and the use of technology in teaching. The director of CELT is Adam Dircksen. g. Division of Continuing Studies https://www.pfw.edu/dcs/ The Division of Continuing Studies (DCS) oversees online learning, provides employee training, manages collegiate connection, and provides certificate programs in professional specialty areas. h. Accounting Services https://www.pfw.edu/accounting-services/ Accounting services provides support to PFW departments for financial accounting,

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property accounting, post-award grant management, accounts payable, and travel management. i. Human Resources and Offices of Institutional Equity https://www.pfw.edu/hr-oie/ There are many links on this page to issues related to hiring and supervising clerical and service staff. All the relevant links to information on benefits (medical, dental, insurance, etc.) for faculty and staff are linked from this page. You can also recognize a RIPPLES Recipient. The Office of Institutional Equity can help with issues related to Title IX, equity, fair hiring practices as well as situations involving harassment and/or discrimination for faculty, staff and students.

Information Technology Services https://www.pfw.edu/its/ There are links from this page to information regarding Information Technology Services (ITS), as well as online forms for various IT account requests you may need (e.g., for new faculty and staff, access to various accounts, etc.).

ITS also supervises the purchase and installation of new computers, the oversight of computer-related equipment in fixed stations in classrooms, and technical support for all computer users. The ITS helpdesk’s number is 481-6030 (from on campus you can use 16030 or 13030; the latter number bypasses the menu options), or you can email to helpdesk@pfw.edu.

ITS maintains networked software for the entire campus which is available on every networked desktop. In addition to their oversight of this software, they will often maintain departmental networked software (accessible only to members of certain departments).

ITS also offers several short training courses to assist users in learning campus IT systems and related software. j. Printing Services, Marketing Communications, and the Mail Room (Shipping & Receiving) https://www.pfw.edu/printserv/ https://www.pfw.edu/offices/marketing-communications/ Printing Services is capable of printing a wide variety of booklets, brochures, forms, envelopes, cards, note cards, postcards, flyers, posters, letterheads, newsletters, business cards, and even custom manuals and course packets. Printing Services works with the Marketing Communications to determine external publications conform to PFW publication standards.

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Marketing Communications sets editorial and graphic standards for the campus and maintains a register of authorized university publications. Their services include writing, editing, design, and layout for campus publications intended for external audiences. For most academic departments this will be brochures and newsletters. k. Physical Plant https://www.pfw.edu/physical-plant/ Contact Facilities Management to arrange for repair and maintenance, adjust temperature, have shelves installed, rooms painted, and heavy furniture moved from one office to another. Work orders for such services are submitted online. l. Health and Safety Radiological and Environmental Management (REM) has oversight of a variety of areas of human safety that go well behind what might be suggested by their title. These include oversight with respect to OSHA programs and regulations, an Integrated Safety Plan, hazardous materials management, and an assortment of other hygiene, health and safety programs. https://www.pfw.edu/offices/rem/index.html Issues relating to campus access such as keys are handled by Campus Credentials and Transportation (formerly Campus Safety). http://www.pfw.edu/offices/safety/ m. Admissions Most obviously, Admissions handles undergraduate admissions, but online they have interplay with Financial Aid, Housing and campus visitation. https://www.pfw.edu/admissions/ 3. National Resources There are national resources for department chairs including workshops bringing together resources for chairs at all levels of academia. a. Workshops/conferences There are a variety of workshops for academic leaders and chairs in particular, some hosted by national organizations, and others more regionally focused. For example, one group offers department chair and academic administrator conferences focused on the

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California Community College System (http://www.4csd.org/).

The most widely known national, general resource for department chairs is the one provided by the American Council on Education (ACE). http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=chairs_workshop The program offers three national workshops each year: in November in Texas; in February in California; in June in Washington, D.C. If you make a request, the Office of Academic Affairs will pay the registration fee (>$800; see the website) for chairs in their first year or two of service, and may support “older” chairs if funds are available.

You will need to pay for the rest of your travel and other expenses or ask your dean and/or department for additional support.

Your discipline may also have national or regional conferences for chairs. If you find one, it’s reasonable to ask your dean or department for support to attend such a meeting, although such funding isn’t always available. b. Department Chair Online Resources ACE (see above) also has an online resource center for department chairs with many resources for all aspects of the department chair’s typical duties and responsibilities. https://www.acenet.edu/Search/Pages/results.aspx?k=department%20chairs c. Publications There are periodicals and books available to provide assistance to department chairs.

Some include: i. Books Chu, D. (2006). The department chair primer: Leading and managing academic departments. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing.

Gmelch, W. H., & Miskin, V. D. (2004). Chairing an academic department. Madison WI: Atwood Publishing.

Hecht, I. W. D., Higgerson, M. L., Gmelch, W. H., & Tucker, A. (1999). The department chair as academic leader. Phoenix AZ: American Council on Education Oryx Press Series on Higher Education.

Leaming, D. R. (2007). Academic leadership: A practical guide to chairing the department (2nd ed.). Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing.

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Lees, N. D. (2006). Chairing academic departments: Traditional and emerging expectations. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing.

Lucas, A. F. (2000). Leading academic change: Essential roles for department chairs.

San Francisco: Jossey Bass. ii. Periodicals The Chronicle of Higher Education (a weekly periodical focused on higher education.

A&S chairs may request to be on the circulation list from the College office). http://www.chronicle.com The Department Chair (a newsletter for department chairs) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/19364393 Some of the resources on this site are free, but not all of them. Several of the deans have agreed to subscribe to this resource and make it available to their chairs.

Chair Timeline This is a set of deadlines and expected responsibilities which are likely to take place at these times. Some may not apply to all chairs, and/or deadlines may be shifted slightly in some schools and colleges.

July •

Chairs are usually appointed with a term beginning July 1.

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New Chair Orientation is held in July or August

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Contracts for limited term lecturers (LTLs) with fall semester appointments are generated and signed at this time. You will also be responsible for contracts for faculty who teach through Continuing Studies for courses that are under your department’s offerings.

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If you are in need of any LTLs for fall classes, you should take steps to recruit them now.

Your school or college’s business manager and Human Resources can provide assistance for placing advertisements in local media outlets.

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If they have not been assigned previously, this would be a desirable time to finalize the Fall semester teaching assistants.

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Candidates for promotion and tenure should be preparing their cases no later than July.

It is the chair’s responsibility to guide your faculty in promotion and tenure.

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Freshmen orientation, advising, and registration typically requires departmental

participation when incoming students have identified one of your programs as their planned major.

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You may wish to plan and circulate your department meeting or other relevant schedule (e.g., P&T meetings) for the year at this time; some chairs do this somewhat later in the summer, nearer to the beginning of the academic year.

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If you will be searching for a new faculty member this year, now would be the time to get the request to recruit paperwork completed, and place the ads in the appropriate publications for your discipline.

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Your departmental assessment report for the previous academic year will be due at the school or college sometime in the Fall semester. It would be an excellent idea to get it done (or to ensure that someone else does it) over the summer. Further information about assessment can be found on the assessment website: https://www.pfw.edu/assessment/.

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With your assistance, the department secretary will be producing compilations of student evaluations of summer classes. This will occur after Summer I, Summer II, Fall, and Spring. Departments have a variety of different procedures regarding these compilations.

August •

Freshmen orientation, advising, and registration continues through early August.

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New Faculty Orientation at the campus level happens during “on-duty” week (the week before classes begin). You will be asked to encourage your new faculty to attend and potentially be invited to join them for some part of the day.

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Promotion and tenure cases are due at the department level in August.

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It would be reasonable to have your first department faculty meeting during the week before classes begin, or during the first week of classes. You may be asked by the relevant nomination committee to have nominees for the school or college promotion and tenure committee at this time, so be prepared to hold an election for the candidate.

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Assignments or elections to department committees may take place at this time.

Alternatively, some departments run their committees on a calendar year, thus this activity would take place in December rather than August.

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Fall semester classes begin.

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The fall schedule production process will begin next month so you may want to prepare a draft of the schedule now for faculty feedback depending on the procedures your

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department uses to create course schedules.

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Many departments have a social gathering to start the year off. Consider including limited term lecturers as well as clerical and service staff.

September •

Promotion and tenure cases are typically due to be sent from your office to the next level (school or college usually).

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The following year’s fall scheduling production process begins. This is an iterative process running through February(see https://www.pfw.edu/offices/registrar/faculty/schedule_production.html

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Reappointment recommendations for faculty who are in their second year for their third year are done by chairs in September Department chairs may assign Spring semester teaching assistants and LTLs in September or October.

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October •

Sabbatical applications are usually due in the school or college office, which sends them to the Professional Development Subcommittee. These require a letter from the chair.

You should check sabbatical eligibility with the Office of Academic Affairs in advance of this process. Guidelines can be found here: https://www.pfw.edu/offices/oaa/2016faculty-support-resources/faculty/sabbatical/sabbatical.html

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Internal Summer grant applications, including Purdue Research Foundation applications, are typically due to the Professional Developmental Subcommittee sometime in October.

These require the chair’s signature.

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Academic Program Assessment report due to the college.

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Confirm faculty workload in Banner for the Fall semester (what classes they are teaching, what release they have) to your dean.

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Dual-credit and LTL credentials reports due.

November •

Reappointment recommendations for faculty who are in their first year for their second year are completed by chairs in November.

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Contracts for limited term lecturers with spring appointments are usually generated and signed at this time. If you are missing any LTLs for spring sections, find them now!

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December •

Faculty usually turn in their annual productivity reports (these have a variety of names – “productivity reports,” “annual faculty reviews,” etc.) to you (and the department secretary) in December or January. You need to set an internal departmental deadline for these reports.

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Department holiday party? Take clerical staff to lunch?

January •

Spring semester classes begin

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Annual productivity reports may be due to you from the faculty in January (see December).

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Equipment, space, and position requests often accompany the annual reports, although you may be asked to prepare such requests at other times.

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Your personal productivity report is typically due to your dean in January.

February •

Reappointment recommendations for faculty who are in their second and subsequent years are completed by chairs in February, for the academic year beginning in August 18 months ahead.

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Annual performance evaluations are usually due to the faculty in February. In some cases, clerical and service staff annual evaluations are done at this time, but in other cases they are done in the Fall semester.

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Departmental report based on annual productivity reports is typically due to the school or college office in late January or early February.

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Given spring/summer scheduling begins in March, you should draft these schedules for feedback soon.

March • •

The dean should provide you with an annual evaluation of your performance in March.

Spring/Summer schedule production process begins and runs through September.

• March or April is a reasonable time to solicit external letters for next year’s promotion and

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tenure cases. First solicit their agreement, and then send the packets. Ask for the letters to be returned by June. You can find a “best practices” document for promotion and tenure timetables at: https://bit.ly/2OwDFsF (see the document labeled “best practices for dossier management”).

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As in the Fall semester (see September), you will be asked to submit faculty workload reports for the Spring semester. Research productivity reports are also due in spring semester for those faculty with a research release.

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April •

Increment recommendations are generally due some time between March and May, depending on which session the legislature is having that year (the biennial “long session” delays the process). In addition to faculty, clerical, and administrative staff are also given increment recommendations at this time. Your school or college business manager will provide a template for you to use, and information about the amounts you have available to allocate. Annual performance evaluations are used as the basis for increment recommendations, which are based on merit only (no base or cost of living increment is to be included.

May •

Commencement is in May, usually the Wednesday following finals week.

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Summer I classes begin mid May, in the week following Commencement.

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For many chairs, the planning process for LTLs and graduate aides or teaching assistants begins around this time.

June • •

Summer II classes begin in late June.

May be freshmen orientation, advising, registration sessions throughout the summer

Responsibilities of the Department Chair The responsibilities of the department chair are outlined in OAA memorandum 05-03, which can be found on the OAA website (https://www.pfw.edu/offices/oaa/). This section takes much of that memorandum and incorporates it here, while including documents to assist in each of these responsibilities.

1. Leadership

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The chair ensures that the department faculty work together to develop the mission, vision, goals, and objectives of the department and that they use this framework to establish strategic priorities, in keeping with the campus strategic plan.

The chair provides overall leadership of the department by initiating discussion of needed changes and supporting appropriate initiatives generated by colleagues in the department.

The chair communicates departmental priorities to the dean and VCAA, as well as communicating institutional priorities to the department.

The chair is an effective advocate for the department. (Italics from OAA 05-03 here and throughout the manual.)

To assist in your role as academic leader you may wish to turn to chair mentors for their advice.

The books, workshops, and periodicals referred to earlier also often deal with academic leadership.

Establishing the department mission is one of the duties listed under leadership. The Senate document outlining the procedures for development and approval of department and program mission and goals statements can be found at: https://bit.ly/2V5ocTa It is reasonable to use the PFW Mission Statement as a guide for your mission. It can be found at: http://www.pfw.edu/about/ 2. Administration The chair fosters a collegial work climate based on open communication, trust, and shared responsibility for achieving the department’s strategic goals.

The chair ensures that productivity and planning reports, and other reports as needed, are submitted to the dean in a timely fashion.

One major report that is expected on an annual basis is the department productivity report (often called the “annual report”), referred to in the timeline under January. The dean will provide a format for this report, and faculty may use a similar format for the one they give to you, or a slightly different one. The report includes the department’s activities in the areas of teaching, research, and service for the previous calendar year.

For example, it should include information about courses taught during that calendar year (but not courses that were developed, but not yet taught), publications and presentations that were published/presented during that year ( do not include items which have been accepted for publication, but which are not yet out), and service activities that took place during that calendar year.

Other reports include credentials reports and workload reports (requests will come from

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Academic Affairs), and assessment reports (see below).

The chair ensures that needed courses are scheduled and staffed each semester, monitors enrollments, and makes adjustments to the schedule as needed and appropriate.

The course schedules (see the timeline above) are typically due at some point in the Fall semester for the following fall. At the point that schedules go out of the department, not all sections will be assigned to faculty (e.g., part- time faculty may need to be hired to teach some sections), and there are several points in the process where changes may be made. The schedule usually goes online in February (for the following fall semesters) and September (for the following spring and summer semesters). You may need to add new sections to meet enrollment demands, and sections which don’t enroll (typically fewer than 10 students for undergraduate, and 8 for graduate) may be cancelled up to immediately before the start of the semester. Once students are enrolled in a section, if you cancel it, you need to take steps to notify the students and, when possible, give them viable options.

Departments have several different mechanisms for assigning faculty (perhaps especially full time faculty) to courses. In some cases a committee does the schedule, in others it is primarily done by a secretary or administrative assistant, and in other cases the chair or associate chair builds the schedule. It is desirable to have a mechanism in place for faculty to have input about what courses they wish to teach and when, and to have a policy and procedure to handle conflicts (i.e., not everyone can have a teaching schedule between 10 and 3 on Tuesday-Thursday, nor can everyone have the most desirable course assignments – the schedule needs to be built with the needs of the students and curriculum in mind).

Finally, it is also helpful to have a procedure in which faculty provide written feedback to you indicating that the schedule they have been assigned is acceptable to them, or at least indicating that they have been informed about their upcoming schedule. For example, you could provide written copies of a tentative schedule to them and ask that they return it to you indicating that it is acceptable. This will protect you if faculty members don’t recall that they were assigned this schedule.

It is helpful to have a plan for offering courses that are offered infrequently or which are scheduled at particular times only periodically (e.g., evening or late afternoon).

Some of your classes will probably be offered through the Division of Continuing Studies (e.g., online). It is wise to coordinate with them as much as possible. You may wish to develop a plan in the department about how frequently you would like to see courses offered online or in hybrid formats.

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The chair manages and monitors the department’s budget, facilities, and equipment and prepares salary recommendations and requests for new resources as needed to support enrollments and the department’s strategic priorities Chairs often find their budget reports difficult to interpret and follow, but your school or college’s business manager is likely to be of great help in interpreting the budget. The budget is the chair’s responsibility. One rule of thumb is to track the budget monthly, and balance spending against available funds (i.e., don’t spend money you don’t have in the budget!). You may need to ask your dean for assistance with funding priorities which exceed your available budget.

There are usually three major sections to a department budget. In previous budget system language these would have been called accounts, but in the new language of “OnePurdue4,” they are called funds. The basic fund that will be in all departmental accounts is the “general operating fund,” which is a budgeted fund (i.e., you will have a certain amount budgeted each year). This fund includes faculty and clerical/service staff salaries, limited term lecturers budgets, student and part time employee wages budgets, and supplies and equipment budgets (“S&E”).

Travel, equipment, and supplies are all expected to be supported by your S&E budget.

Although you may segregate various amounts to different functions, the budget statement does not. Departments should allocate certain amounts of money to individual faculty members’ travel and/or professional development. It’s helpful to keep your own record of such expenditures in spreadsheets (e.g., in Excel).

Your other department funds are not usually budgeted each year. Rather, they are either income produced by some activity (e.g., dual credit courses), or gifts to the department.

Thus, the second section of most department budgets will be “income producing funds,” and the third will consist of gifts usually coming through the Purdue Foundation, The third category of funds in most departmental budgets is gift money generated by donations to the department (often from your own faculty as well as from alumni). Some departments will have a separate scholarship fund. Money is often transferred to the scholarship fund from the gift fund. Solicitation of gifts must be coordinated with the Development Office (http://www.pfw.edu/develop/).

There are other funds in many departmental budgets (e.g., small grants), but you should work with your school or college business manager to assist in the management of these funds. Larger grants’ budgets (e.g., NSF or NIH grants) are usually managed by the PI, and not by the department chair.

Department chairs formerly received monthly budget statements. Now that we have moved to OnePurdue, you need to log into one.purdue.edu and use the COGNOS application for budget reports. There are trainings about how to run the COGNOS reports You will also receive separate statements for telephone bill and copy card usage. The

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telephone bill will be itemized for each extension in your unit, and will include a standard amount for monthly rental as well as itemized long-distance calls. Suvon calls within Indiana universities will not be itemized as they are essentially equivalent to local calls.

Copy cards will be itemized for each faculty and staff member if they have their own copy cards. If everyone in your unit uses the department master copy card to make photocopies, you will not be able to see individual copy card use.

Increment recommendations are generally requested by the administration in April or May. These increment recommendations are based on annual performance evaluations (see further details below). It is helpful if your department has written procedures to provide guidance in the increment recommendation process. Chairs may also asked about equity and extra merit recommendations to their deans, but the monies for equity and extra merit come from pools at the dean’s and VCAA level.

3. Personnel In consultation with the department’s faculty and the dean, the chair coordinates all personnel searches for the department, ensuring that appropriate procedures are followed, networking contacts are made, and diversity/EEO-AA goals are pursued diligently.

The chair ensures that faculty and staff searches are targeted to the needs of the department’s programs.

When you know that you have a new or replacement tenure track faculty position, or continuing lecturer position, it is important to have a discussion with the full time faculty about curricular needs in the department. When possible, this should happen well in advance of the actual search. It is not necessarily the case that you will simply replace the skills and teaching area of a departing faculty member, rather your discipline or student needs may lead you to search for an entirely new specialty area. You will be asked to justify the need for a faculty member with a particular specialty to your dean and the VCAA, who must approve all searches for faculty.

Departments have different search procedures – there is more than one way to search for a faculty hire, but the chair is ultimately responsible for integrity of the search procedures.

There are a number of OAA/EO forms and procedures that must be followed in a national search. They can be found at the following website: http://www.pfw.edu/offices/hr-oie/ethics-compliance

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On some occasions (e.g., a late resignation) you may need to request a bypass of a national search to do an emergency hire. There are also procedures available for spousal/partner hire, when an appropriate position exists for qualified spouse or partner. Discuss such situations with your dean, the Affirmative Action Officer, and/or the VCAA. The hiring, supervision, and mentoring of limited term lecturers (LTLs; part time faculty) is also the responsibility of the department chair, although some departments have an associate chair or person who oversees the part time faculty. Further details can be found at: https://bit.ly/2WzD3FL Searches for clerical and service staff are coordinated with Human Resources and Office of Institutional Equity (HR & OIE). They will post your job according to criteria and a position description which you provide. If your secretary’s position description hasn’t been updated in some time, HR will work with you to update it. Typically, once the job is posted, HR will screen applicants according to the criteria that you provided, and will provide you with application materials and resumes for applicants who meet the minimum criteria. You, or a search committee in your department (it is wise to include one or two others in this process; if you have two or more clerical/service staff, it is wise to seek their input in the search process) will determine which applicants to interview and hire. HR or your school or college business manager will inform you of the salary range for clerical and service staff; you don’t often have much input into the salary range.

You may also have the need to hire a work study student during the course of the year. Students who are federal work study eligible have a certain amount of money (e.g., $1000) committed to their wages during the academic year semesters, but not generally during summer. The federal work study program pays 75% of their wages and your department budget pays 25% until the point at which their award is exhausted (i.e., the $1000 – or whatever the award amount – is gone), and then you pay the full wages. That usually doesn’t happen until near the end of a semester. If you hire student workers who aren’t eligible for work study, you will pay their full wages. There is a procedure for posting work study positions (see the link below), and you may wish to have a small search committee to hire student workers as well. Finally, contact your business manager who will provide a salary range for work study or other student workers. https://www.pfw.edu/work-study/?s The chair encourages faculty and staff to take advantage of appropriate professional development opportunities and rewards demonstrated improvement in performance.

Among the most important professional development opportunities for faculty are local summer grants to support research and creative endeavor. These are more often available to junior tenure track faculty than to tenured or more senior faculty, and generally not for continuing lecturers.

There are a small number of grants specifically for senior faculty.

Information about summer grants is available at the Institute for Research, Scholarship & Creative Endeavors (IRSC) website. There is also information there about the assistance which can be provided to faculty who wish to seek external support for their scholarship. http://www.pfw.edu/irsc 18

Another significant opportunity for faculty development is a sabbatical. Information regarding sabbatical guidelines, application process, and forms can be found at https://bit.ly/2HX7Acf resources. Departments also have been asked to develop appropriate departmental policies regarding sabbaticals.

Opportunities for professional development in the area of teaching are available through the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching referred to earlier in this manual (CELT).

The CELT website is at: http://www.pfw.edu/celt CELT has two main missions: faculty development and teaching with technology. For faculty development, they maintain a small library, offer regular workshops devoted to improving teaching, and sponsor annual conferences on pedagogical scholarship. They offer peer mentors to those faculty who would like to actively develop their teaching skills. They also offer instructional development grants for various pedagogical purposes (see their website).

Departments may choose to offer regular colloquia, workshops, or other presentations internal to the department to provide their faculty with professional development opportunities. Finally, under the leadership of the chair, departments may provide peer mentoring for faculty professional development in all three areas of endeavor: teaching, research, and service. There are a number of models of departmental mentoring on campus. Consult with the chair mentors listed at the beginning of this document.

The chair ensures that associate faculty (LTLs) and graduate assistants receive necessary training for their teaching responsibilities, that they are integrated into the department in appropriate ways, that they have access to relevant professional development opportunities, and that their work is evaluated.

CELT can also provide assistance for LTLs and graduate assistants in their teaching duties. It is advisable that departments provide informal mentoring or formal instruction to part time faculty and graduate students to develop their teaching skills.

The chair establishes office schedules and work assignments for departmental administrative, clerical, and service staff.

It is the department chair’s responsibility to oversee the clerical and service staff. If there are problems with the clerical and service staff, seek advice from the chair mentors, or from HR. The chair ensures that all faculty and staff in the department receive written performance reviews each year, with formative and summative feedback.

It is essential that department chairs provide all faculty and staff in the department with annual written performance evaluations. These written performance evaluations are used to make increment recommendations. All increment monies are to be merit based. It is desirable that there be departmental written policies concerning both annual performance evaluations and increment recommendations.

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a. Tenured and/or Tenure Track Faculty Annual performance evaluations of faculty are completed based on the annual productivity report which the faculty member turns in to the department chair (deadlines for individual productivity reports vary in departments, but are typically in December or January). Schools and colleges usually set deadlines for chairs to complete annual performance evaluations during the Spring semester, often in February.

There are some cumulative aspects to annual performance evaluations, especially when a promotion is on the horizon (either associate/tenure or a promotion to professor) but annual performance evaluations are essentially reports and evaluations of the previous year’s performance in all three areas, and recommendations for improvement, if needed. The documents on evaluating teaching (OAA Mem. 03-02), research (OAA Mem. 05-06), and service (OAA Mem. 04-02) are useful for this process. These documents can be found on the OAA website referred to early in this manual.

It is recommended that you give faculty their written performance evaluation, followed by a face-to-face meeting to discuss the evaluation and the faculty member’s goals for the following year. Specific details are desirable, rather than generalities. Faculty members should have an opportunity to correct inaccuracies or significant omissions. At that meeting you can correct any inaccuracies, and reprint and sign the evaluation. In some departments there isn’t a tradition of everyone meeting with the chair annually, but if possible, establishing such a tradition is considered desirable.

In some schools and colleges written performance evaluations are sent to the dean’s office. In some schools or colleges, faculty meet annually with the dean as well as with the chair. Certainly many traditions will work for this process, but at a minimum there should be annual written evaluations of all faculty and annual meetings with the chair to discuss performance and goals.

There is no standard format for annual performance evaluations of faculty. A suggested template can be found in Appendix A. One issue that may be of concern in annual performance evaluations of tenured faculty in particular is the issue of satisfactory fulfillment of the scholarship and creative endeavor reduction (“the research release”). It is the norm that most tenured and tenure track faculty have a 9-hour teaching load each semester, and a .25 load reduction for research and creative endeavor. See SD 10-14 for more information.

The implication of these policies is that faculty who have a load reduction for scholarship or creative endeavor need to show evidence of productive use of that reduction. If a faculty member is not effectively using the release time, department chairs may require them to teach a 12-hour load until such time as they develop a plan to use their research/creative endeavor release “productively.” Departments should have specific policies defining what constitutes adequate evidence of productive use of the release, and what procedures faculty can use to regain the use of this time. It is helpful if these policies are as specific as possible, and they should be developed and adopted by the faculty as a whole.

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b. Other Faculty I. Continuing Lecturers Continuing lecturers are treated in the same way as tenure track faculty are with respect to annual performance evaluations, except that continuing lecturers do not have a research or creative endeavor expectation. Their annual performance evaluations focus on teaching and service, using expectations in both areas that are developed at the department level. ii. Limited Term Lecturers (LTLs) There are no official expectations or procedures at the campus level for evaluating limited term lecturers (part time faculty, sometimes also called associate faculty). Therefore, it is completely up to you and your department to establish such procedures. It is certainly desirable to have procedures in place to do so.

To the extent possible given the nature of your program and its part time faculty, it is also desirable to provide mentoring and support to anyone who teaches courses for your program. Some departments provide individual mentors to LTLs, others have a coordinator who mentors all of the LTLs, and still other departments have a seminar in which all LTLs meet together on a somewhat regular basis. iii. Faculty who Teach for Continuing Studies Continuing Studies may approach you to assist them in finding LTLs, visiting faculty, or continuing lecturers to teach weekend courses, and/or hybrid or on-line courses.

Such faculty are not Continuing Studies’ faculty – they are your department’s faculty who teach through Continuing Studies, and you have the same responsibility for mentoring and evaluating them as you have for any other faculty. In the case of continuing lecturers in particular, any expectations you have for continuing lecturers in your department generally should also apply to those continuing lecturers who teach primarily through Continuing Studies. See the following OAA memo for further details about the relationship between chairs and faculty who teach primarily or solely through Continuing Studies: https://www.pfw.edu/offices/oaa/2016-about-academic-affairs/new-memoranda.html? c. Clerical and Service Staff Annual evaluations of clerical and service staff are required via Success Factors (through the OnePurdue portal: https://one.purdue.edu) Timelines for these are set at the system level and usually occur in March – June with self-assessments due first.

The chair serves as mediator in resolving conflicts among employees or between faculty and students.

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You may be able to handle some conflicts fairly easily, simply by meeting with both parties, listening to each, and finding an agreeable solution. Student/faculty conflicts often involve either policies or grades. More information about grade appeals is later in the chair manual, under “students.” Both faculty and students are likely to be more inclined to reach a solution if neither thinks you are taking the other’s position without listening to theirs.

There are resources available to assist you in resolving conflicts. The chair mentors listed earlier in this manual could be a good place to begin seeking assistance.

If the conflict involves harassment or discrimination, consult the HR & OIE Office . Their website, referred to near the beginning of this manual, contains policies and procedures for complaints of this type. This office also can provide resources to assist you if the conflict involves clerical, service staff, or administrative/professional staff members.

If the conflict involves faculty, or is between you and a faculty member, the HR & OIE Office can provide a mediator to assist in resolving such conflicts. You may need to seek assistance from your dean or the VCAA to pay for the cost of a professional mediator.

Generally, mediators are trained in mediation, and are experienced in an academic environment, and are not personally known to anyone involved in the conflict.

4. Promotion and Tenure The chair ensures that the department’s promotion and tenure documents are consistent with school /college and campus policies and criteria, and that departmental criteria for tenure and promotion are appropriate to the discipline and to the department’s mission.

Campus and school/college promotion and tenure documents web links are referred to early in this manual. Departments must have both procedure and criteria documents – some departments have separate documents as the Senate does, others have a promotion and tenure document that includes both procedures and criteria in the same document. Either of the models is acceptable.

It is the responsibility of the department faculty to write promotion and tenure policies that apply appropriately to the department and the discipline. As chair, you are responsible for oversight of this process, but it is the responsibility of the tenure/tenure track faculty to develop and approve it.

Before revising promotion and tenure documents, the department should be very familiar with university and school or college P&T documents. You may wish to ask other department chairs for their policies which may help to serve as models. When departmental procedure policies are developed or changed, Senate policy requires that the departmental procedures and criteria be approved by the faculty of the school or college. A school or college committee (e.g., the Faculty Affairs Committee) may also be required to approve them prior to sending them to the school or college for approval.

The Senate requires that changes to promotion and tenure procedure documents be reviewed by the Senate Faculty Affairs Committee (FAC): 1.1.4. Department procedures must be submitted to the Senate Faculty Affairs Committee for 22

feedback and then reviewed and approved at the college level. The feedback from the Senate Faculty Affairs Committee shall be forwarded to the college. (SD 14-36) Since the Senate FAC simply reviews your procedure documents, but your school or college must approve them, it is reasonable to get the Senate FAC feedback first, and then submit to your school/college level committee for approval, and finally to the entire school or college faculty for approval.

See SD 14-35 and 14-36 for a more complete description of the expectations of criteria and the process for approval.

Note that each department must have criteria for competence and excellence in all three areas for promotion to professor as well as competence and excellence in teaching and research for promotion to Associate and tenure. The OAA memoranda discussing ways to document competence and excellence in teaching (OAA 03-2), research (OAA 05-6), and service (OAA 042) should be helpful in this process.

The Senate (SD 14-36) requires that departments’ policies should be consistent in content and criteria for quality with those governing promotion and tenure in comparable departments at other universities. The policy must also be consistent with applicable Purdue University standards for promotion and tenure.

The chair has primary responsibility for explaining the department’s expectations to pre-tenure faculty and for ensuring that the faculty receive appropriate mentoring assistance. The chair and mentors must make clear to faculty the level of performance/productivity needed to document excellence in teaching, research/creative endeavor, and service. (Guidelines for Reappointment Review, OAA Memo 04-3).

Mentoring of pretenure faculty is one of the most important responsibilities of the department chair. Other tenured faculty may and should also be involved in this process. It is considered desirable that there be a departmental procedure in place for mentoring junior faculty (an assigned formal or perhaps an informal mentor, or a mentoring committee). A teaching mentor is also helpful to junior faculty. Much of this kind of mentoring may take the form of a formative review (a review whose purpose is to assist the person in developing skills in teaching, research, and service in preparation for tenure).

Summative review (making an evaluation and recommendation) of untenured faculty is also a responsibility of the department chair. The chair may be assisted in this responsibility by tenured faculty in the department. Chairs (and possibly faculty committees) undertake annual reappointment recommendations of untenured faculty (as well as continuing lecturers). Some departments have committees (e.g., personnel or promotion and tenure committees) who make recommendations for all reappointments of untenured faculty, other departments do it only for third year review (See SD 14-36 for third year review guidelines).

Having a third year review in which other tenured faculty are involved in a review of untenured faculty performance is required as is having a procedure in place for third year review process.

Note that no faculty are involved in making recommendations for reappointment outside the department. Once a reappointment recommendation leaves the department, only administrators are responsible for making recommendations (e.g., the relevant dean/director, the VCAA, and the 23

Chancellor).

Probationary (untenured) faculty are reappointed annually. A set of guidelines for writing reappointments, and information about the timetable and deadlines can be found in Appendix B. You can find electronic copies of the forms to use for reappointment recommendations at the OAA website (see also Appendix B). In some departments other tenured faculty make annual reappointment recommendations (with a vote and a written recommendation) to the chair, and this documentation, when available, accompanies the chair’s recommendation forward to higher levels.

Faculty committees must make such recommendations for third-year review. The committee letter for third year review must accompany the reappointment for the fifth year (which occurs in the third year).

On occasion an untenured faculty member may request an extension of the probationary period.

This is sometimes called “time out from the tenure clock.” PFW does have such a provision, found in Senate Document 91-20, Extension of the Probationary Period for Justifiable Cause. The preamble to the document is below, and the full document can be found on the faculty senate web page, referred to earlier in this manual: The academic performance of a probationary faculty member can be adversely affected by extraordinary personal circumstances. Such circumstances might include the responsibility as primary care giver after the birth or adoption of a child, serious personal illness, the provision of care for a seriously ill family member, or any similar situation requiring compassion. Such conditions may warrant deviation from the tenure policy.

It is the responsibility of the chair to make this policy known to untenured faculty members.

The request comes from the faculty member to the chair, and requires that the department Personnel or Promotion and Tenure Committee be consulted before the recommendation to extend the probationary period is approved by the chair and sent forward to the dean and the VCAA. The chair assists faculty in preparing and implementing a research/creative endeavor plan appropriate to the faculty member’s rank, length of service, and responsibilities.

The chair supports faculty research/creative endeavor by allowing flexible schedules or other appropriate accommodations to enable faculty to complete significant projects.

If a department’s teaching needs can be met with flexible teaching loads, it is possible for a faculty member to teach more in one semester, and less in another across the same academic year, as long as the faculty member meets the teaching load expectations. For example, a faculty member (untenured or not) who is expected to teach nine credit hours per semester may teach 12 credit hours in one semester and 6 in the other during that academic year. In this way, they might be able to spend more time on scholarship during the semester of the lighter teaching load.

In recommending faculty for reappointment, promotion, and tenure, the chair ensures that relevant criteria are met and standards upheld.

The statements above apply to both pretenure and post tenure faculty.

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5. Curriculum and Instruction The chair ensures that the department’s curricula are current, support the department’s strategic priorities, meet relevant accreditation or other standards, and are responsive to student demand and regional need.

The chair establishes, in consultation with the faculty and the dean, departmental priorities for offering and funding courses and programs by various delivery methods (on-campus, online, at remote sites, weekend) as needed and as appropriate to the discipline(s).

It is the chair’s responsibility to schedule courses, although some departments have a scheduling committee. It is desirable to have an established set of procedures to assist in making decisions about course scheduling (e.g., how often to offer various courses, when to offer at night or in the summer, which faculty members’ preferences take priority over others’ preferences, etc.). See above for more information on timeline, assign Changes to the department’s or program’s existing curricula are approved at both the department and school/college level. New courses are also approved by Purdue University (your school or college office can provide support and information regarding the appropriate procedures and paperwork). New undergraduate academic programs must also be submitted to the Senate Curriculum Review Subcommittee, and new graduate programs to the Graduate Subcommittee and the Senate Curriculum Review Subcommittee. Following appropriate campus approvals, they are also submitted to Purdue University, and to the Indiana Commission on Higher Education. The approval process for new programs is overseen by The Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Programs and Director of Graduate Studies for the Office of Academic Affairs. If you are planning any such new programs, coordinate these efforts with that individual.

The chair ensures that faculty are aware of and have access to training in best practices for teaching the discipline(s) offered, that they have opportunities to participate in peer review and other formative evaluation of their teaching, and that they are encouraged to reflect on and document their teaching effectiveness using multiple measures.

Note the remarks earlier in this document about the services offered through CELT. It is also desirable to make connections with disciplinary pedagogical societies and publications. A department might want to fund travel to a disciplinary pedagogical meeting once a year and have those attending present something about what they learned to the faculty as a whole.

Departmental Brown Bags focusing on teaching issues are also a mechanism to support the department’s teaching mission.

The chair ensures that the department’s assessment plan is aligned with the campus assessment plan, with the department’s mission, and with relevant national or regional standards in the discipline(s) taught.

For programs with external accreditation, the chair ensures that accreditation reports are submitted as required by the agencies.

The chair ensures that periodic program reviews build on annual assessment measures/findings, are 25

conducted with input from all relevant stakeholders (faculty, students, alumni, etc.), and completed in a timely manner.

The assessment website has many resources to help with assessing your program.

It is the chair’s responsibility to make sure that academic program assessment is undertaken and reported annually through the school/college and university channels. Either you or a designated committee or assessment director is responsible for writing the department’s annual assessment report. In this report the department reports on the program assessment measures or the program goals or outcomes that were scheduled for reporting in that year. Information on assessment can be found at: https://www.pfw.edu/assessment/. The current director of assessment is Kent Johnson.

Your school, college, department, or program may also be subject to accreditation review.

Information about accreditation can be found at https://www.pfw.edu/offices/ir/accreditation/ Since assessment is and will continue to be required by accrediting bodies (both regional accreditors such as the Higher Learning Commission, and those for professional programs which undergo accreditation), it is sensible to use assessment to inform the department about the program’s effectiveness in a manner which best serves the department and program.

The Senate document guiding academic program assessment is SD 98-22, and can be found at that website. The purpose of academic assessment in this context is the assessment of the effectiveness of programs, measured against goals established for the program. This is to be distinguished from the assessment of students’ progress and success at an individual level. Of course, they are related, but they are not identical. Each program should have some direct measures (e.g., content knowledge measured by an objective instrument such as a standardized test or direct measures of skills), and some indirect measures (e.g., surveys of current students, graduating students, or alumni regarding satisfaction with or opinions about the effectiveness of various aspects of the program).

Related to academic assessment, but generally with a much broader scope, is program review, undertaken by departments and programs on a seven-year cycle. The documents guiding program review can also found on the assessment website.

In the program review process, departments undertake an extensive self-study, usually during an entire academic year, evaluating their mission and strategic plan, trends in the discipline, the curriculum, issues related to faculty, issues related to students, other programs and services offered by the department, and resources. They also develop an analysis of strengths and weaknesses, and make a set of recommendations. This self-study is examined by an internal review committee, the dean and a member of the OAA staff, and usually (but not always) one or two external reviewers. When included, the external reviewers come to campus for a site visit, and make written recommendations to the department after their visit. Following the conclusion of the self-study, the department implements the recommendations that resulted from the program review, generally over a one to two-year period. All significant resource requests are expected to be tied to program review.

When departments have external accreditation of their programs (generally professional programs in Education, Engineering, Business, and Health Sciences), it is the chair’s 26

responsibility, working with the dean in many cases, to supervise the processes involved for external accreditation.

6. Students The chair ensures that appropriate recruitment and retention practices are followed, that departmental scholarships (if available) are administered appropriately, and that diversity goals for recruitment are pursued diligently.

To the extent possible, department chairs are responsible for taking steps to recruit students with interest in the department’s programs (graduate and/or undergraduate), and who are capable of performing successfully. IRSC has some funding to support talented high school students who can work on research teams with faculty in appropriate disciplines.

The chair ensures that students are aware of standards that must be met for national exams or other credentialing, and that they have ready access to information about the department’s curricula, events, and opportunities for involvement in research/creative endeavor.

The Office of Research and External Programs referred to earlier in this manual has several programs to support undergraduate student research. Pay particular attention to the mini grants for students to support supplies and equipment expenses, the summer support program for students, and the conference travel support program. http://www.pfw.edu/ores/ There is also an annual undergraduate research and creative endeavor symposium, usually in March or April, when students from across campus present their research and creative endeavors. In conjunction with this presentation, the PFW Sigma Xi Chapter makes awards to students whose research falls in the fields represented by Sigma Xi (Agriculture/Soil Science/Natural Resources; Mathematics & Computer Sciences; Biological Sciences; Engineering Sciences; Health Sciences; Physical & Earth Sciences; and Social Sciences).

The chair ensures that all faculty and staff who advise students have had appropriate training and receive regular updates on changes relevant to students’ curricula and/or degree completion.

The chair ensures that students have access to appropriate career counseling and information and that they receive support and guidance as needed for successfully completing licensure exams, applications for employment or graduate/professional school, and other opportunities.

Across the campus, there are many different advising arrangements. In some schools, colleges, and departments, advising is handled by professional advisors; whereas in others, advising is handled by faculty. When faculty advise, in some departments only a few do so; whereas in others, almost everyone serves as an advisor. Some departments have advisors for special functions (e.g., graduate, undergraduate or pre-professional programs such as law or medicine, etc.). Advising may be split into its two basic functions (course or degree program advising versus future career or graduate school advising). Some departments have peer advisors for some functions (e.g., to assist with advising and registering new students in the summer). In any case, the varieties of advising arrangements make generalizations about the chair’s role in 27

supervising advising difficult. It is considered a best practice to have faculty involved in advising to the extent that is possible. Faculty are especially important in their roles as mentors to students as they move into the profession. Regardless of the methods used in the department, chairs are responsible for meeting students’ needs for advising by developing practices that best serve the Department. Departments may wish to write an advising manual to assist faculty in their role as advisors.

If students have not yet declared a major, if students are accepted conditionally and in certain pre-professional programs, academic advising is handled by the Office of Student Success and Transitions.

The Office of Career Services also offers many services to students as they apply for jobs including databases of jobs, and services to assist students in writing letters of application and creating résumés. Staff members of the Office of Career Services are willing to come to classes and give presentations on these topics.

The chair ensures that students have access to appropriate career counseling and information and that they receive support and guidance as needed for successfully completing licensure exams, applications for employment or graduate/professional school and other opportunities.

Another resource for some departments is the Office of Academic Internships, Cooperative Education, and Service Learning (OACS). This office can be of assistance to departments in arranging these kinds of opportunities for students in the community. Their website is: http://www.pfw.edu/oacs The chair ensures that all instructional staff are aware of the rights and responsibilities of PFW students, as published in the Student Handbook, and that they communicate their expectations to students proactively, in order to minimize misunderstandings and prevent situations that can result in grievances. The chair ensures that the department has appropriate policies and procedures for dealing with rights violations and student complaints. In the event of a grievance or grade appeal, the chair advises the student of appropriate procedures and attempts to resolve the complaint informally.

A very important resource for assisting chairs with respect to student rights and responsibilities, grievances, grade appeals and similar matters is the Dean of Students Office. There is information on the Dean of Students web page about student complaints and grade appeal procedures. The Campus Appeals Board hears student complaints against faculty and staff, and disciplinary complaints by faculty (or anyone) against students after they have gone through previous steps. The Grade Appeals Subcommittee hears grade appeals after they have gone through the previous steps (see the grade appeal policy on the Dean of Students web page). It is expected that departments will have their own grade appeals procedures that are consistent with the university policy. http://www.pfw.edu/dos/ When a student comes to the chair to make a complaint (either a grade appeal or another complaint), it is the chair’s responsibility to try to resolve the complaint informally before any 28

formal appeal process is initiated. Be careful to follow the proper “chain of command.” Students should be referred back to the faculty member before seeing you, unless the student resists that action, or unless the type of complaint makes that seem unreasonable. Do everything you can to uphold the rights of both people involved in the complaint, and be cautious about assuming the accuracy of one person’s perspective before hearing the other person’s perspective.

It is possible to arrange for mediation at the department level. If you do not think you can effectively mediate between two parties in such a dispute, your dean or the Dean of Students may be able to provide assistance with possible mediators. If it isn’t possible to resolve the complaint at the department level, seek the assistance of the Dean of Students, who will guide you through the appropriate procedure for the type of complaint involved. Make sure that everyone involved has a written copy of the policy that applies in the type of complaint. If they don’t have one, provide one to them (see the Dean of Students’ web page for relevant policies).

One special type of complaint is complaints of harassment and discrimination. These policies were referred to earlier under faculty and staff (as the policies apply to faculty, staff, and students), and under the Equal Employment Opportunity, Affirmative Action Office (EEO/AA).

The EEO/AA Office coordinates complaints of discrimination and harassment, but complaints which involve only students acting in their capacities as students are handled by the Dean of Students under the Student Code.

Sometimes students come with complaints about conflicts with other students (e.g., fellow officers in student organizations). The Counselors who work through the Dean of Students Office are very helpful resources to which to refer students who have personality conflicts with each other (i.e., conflicts that don’t involve violations of any policies).

Some students also have mental health concerns. The Dean of Students’ Office provides professional counseling for students for a short term, and can provide referrals to outside agencies or counselors when appropriate. Three counselors are on staff. These staff members also provide programs for students on such topics as substance abuse, suicide prevention, and eating disorders.

Some students have disabilities that impact their academic performance. The office which coordinates services for these students is the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD). It is important that faculty understand their obligation to such students as well as the services provided (and not provided) by this office. http://www.pfw.edu/ssd/ All class withdrawals are handled through Student Success and Transitions. Information on types of withdrawals allowed and documentation needed can be found at: https://www.pfw.edu/offices/sst/course-withdrawal-process/ The chair encourages the establishment of appropriate student clubs or other co-curricular activities and rewards faculty who support students in these endeavors.

Student clubs and organizations, including honorary societies, are coordinated by the Student Life Office (http://www.pfw.edu/stulife). Resources from this office are available for student organizations, and they keep records of the groups’ constitutions and other documentation that can be useful to chairs on occasion.

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Typically at least one departmental faculty member serves as an advisor to student organizations that are affiliated with particular departments. The chair may be of some assistance in locating an appropriate advisor. Departments may also provide resources to their clubs such as funding for some activities, space to meet, assistance with room scheduling and the like.

The chair monitors student progress toward graduation and recommends candidates for degrees, subject to the policies of the school.

Normally the school or college office will provide student records to chairs and ask for their approval of the candidates, although the actual verifying of the students having met the graduation requirements is typically completed by the school or college staff.

7. Community Outreach/Engagement The chair ensures that the department’s alumni receive appropriate communication on a regular basis.

The department may (and probably ought to) survey their alumni periodically for purposes of program assessment or program review. The department may also want to develop a newsletter to communicate annually with alumni.

The chair ensures that the department is connected to a community advisory board or other appropriate resources for community involvement and support of the department’s mission.

The chair seeks opportunities for appropriate community partnerships and facilitates communication concerning the establishment of such partnerships.

The chair ensures that community partnerships are nurtured appropriately.

The chair ensures that the department has current and useful information from potential employers of the department’s graduates.

Personnel Policies that Affect the Chair As a department chair, you are mostly likely in either a 10 or 12-month administrative appointment. Thus, there are several personnel policies that affect you which are different from those that affected you as a faculty member.

Typically, you now report to a dean, who oversees the entire college or school. You can expect to be evaluated on all areas of responsibility – teaching, research, service, and administration. You will turn in an annual report to the dean consisting of normal faculty responsibilities as well as information about your administrative duties. Your faculty will also have an opportunity to evaluate your performance as chair annually, and the dean will use that information in his or her written performance evaluation of you.

On the OAA Memoranda web page (https://www.pfw.edu/offices/oaa/2016-about-academicaffairs/new-memoranda.html) there is a memorandum referred to as the Chair Emoluments Policy 30

(OAA 15-2). This consists of guidelines about the administrative FTE associated with departments of various sizes.

Another OAA memorandum outlines the guidelines for selection, appointment, and review of department chairs (OAA 02-2).

Finally, the document outlining the authority and responsibilities of the department chair (OAA 053), used extensively in this manual, can also be found on the OAA website.

On a 12-month appointment, chairs are expected to be on campus unless the university is closed.

This is a very different expectation than that of 10-month faculty. Chairs have sick leave and vacation days and are expected to request the use of this leave when appropriate.

Eligibility for sabbaticals follows the same rules as for 10-month faculty, except that chairs in 12month appointments may be eligible for a six-month sabbatical (or one year at half pay) rather than one semester or two semester sabbaticals that faculty receive, if they have served in a 12-month appointment for at least three years. The PFW document which outlines this policy is OAA Memorandum 05-5.

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Appendix A Sample Annual Evaluation format for faculty Below is a sample optional template for annual performance evaluations. A length of one to two pages would usually suffice.

School of

Department of

February 20__ FACULTY ANNUAL EVALUATION - Faculty Name This appraisal is to be used for the purpose of annual evaluation. Copies will be provided to you, to the department, and to Dean . Please sign the appraisal, which indicates you have read it, but not necessarily that you agree or disagree with anything contained in it.

Teaching Provide details about teaching during the year, including such things as courses taught, new courses developed, evaluations, pedagogical research presented or published, working with students as research assistants, attendance at pedagogical meetings or workshops on or off campus.

Research, Scholarship and Creative Endeavor (for those who have a research reduction) Provide details about scholarship published and presented, as well as ongoing work. If ongoing work was included in the previous annual evaluation, what was the outcome?

Service Provide details about on campus service (departmental, school, and university), professional service (reviewing, editing, officer in professional organization, etc.), and community service.

This can include ongoing service (e.g., particular committees or journal editing), or significant one-time events (e.g., talks given in the community or for professional service).

Progress Toward Promotion This applies to both assistant professors in their progress toward tenure and promotion to associate professor, and associate professors in their progress toward promotion to professor, and should be integrated with departmental criteria.

Chair’s Summary and Recommendation Here the chair summarizes and evaluates the annual performance, and includes recommendations for the next year.

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Your name Department Chair

Date

Faculty member’s name

Date

Faculty Member’s Comments If it is the tradition in your department for the faculty member to make written comments in response to the annual performance evaluation, or if a faculty member wishes to do so, you may wish to have a section for such comments

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Appendix B General Information for Chairs for Reappointments Reappointments are done for untenured faculty during their 7-year probationary period, and for continuing lecturers annually. The process begins in the department with the chair. The chair will receive a request to do the reappointment (usually on email, followed up with a paper request, including the form). Electronic copies of the form for you to type in are available at: https://www.pfw.edu/offices/oaa/2016-faculty-supportresources/faculty/pandtandreappointment/promotion-tenure-reappointment.html?

In all cases, when it leaves the department the form will be accompanied by an updated cv from the faculty member. If the department has an official process for reappointment (e.g., a faculty committee which recommends reappointments, a third year review process, etc.), these materials are also attached to the reappointment. In some departments and schools other materials are also included, such as a brief statement from the faculty member about his or her activities in all three areas since the last reappointment, work in progress, a cumulative set of student evaluations of all courses taught since initial appointment, and/or peer evaluations of teaching, and service activities.

The chair and the probationary faculty member meet to discuss the reappointment, and both sign the reappointment form and the contract. The faculty member has the right to include a response to the chair’s evaluation. After the paperwork leaves the department it goes to the school or college office (if applicable) where the dean makes a recommendation and comments on the form, and from there to the Office of Academic Affairs, where the VCAA makes a recommendation and comments, followed by the Chancellor’s recommendation and comments.

Timetable Year

Reappointment for

Chair receives request

Faculty officially notified

1

2nd year

November

February

2

3rd year

September

November

2

4th year

February

May

3

5th year

February

May

4

6th year

February

May

5

7th year

February

May

The faculty member will be given an opportunity to see everyone’s comments and sign the completed form saying that he or she has seen all of the comments. At this point they again have the right to attach a written response, if desired. Signed copies will then be returned to the faculty member and the chair.

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Guidelines for Writing Reappointments Use OAA Memorandum 04-03 as a guide for your reappointments. It specifies what you might look for in teaching, research, and service during each year of the probationary period. You may also find OAA documents on evaluating teaching (OAA Mem. 03-02), research (OAA Mem. 05- 06), and service (OAA Mem. 04-02) useful. You can find them at: https://bit.ly/2U5FeDZ What follows is a list of guiding principles to use when writing reappointments: •

Faculty members should have a right to correct any inaccuracies or omissions in your written description or assessment of their progress. What follows is just suggested wording; if you don’t like it, feel free to do this differently: This is a draft. Please let me know if I have included information that is not accurate, or if I have missed anything that you consider important in your record. I am very willing to consider your input.

•

It’s helpful, if you can, to complete your first draft of the reappointment recommendations at least a few days in advance its due date in the school or college office. That will give you time to meet with the faculty member, discuss the recommendation, and make appropriate changes in their documentation (e.g., if something important is missing), and in your recommendation.

•

The form gives you a page to write your part of the reappointment. Usually, when chairs write significantly less than a page, not enough information is provided for the dean and the VCAA to understand the specifics of the person’s performance. If you’re going to err, err on the side of too much information rather than too little, but anything beyond a page and a half is probably excessive.

•

When you write your part of the reappointment review, provide specific factual information about the probationary faculty member’s performance in all three areas of performance: teaching, research, and service. For example, it is much more useful to say: Professor T taught two sections of DEPTNAME 113, and developed a new course for the department, DEPTNAME 499, that we have never been able to offer previously. For all her courses, she received student evaluations ranging from 4.3 to 4.9 on the department’s 5-point scale. These evaluations are well within the range considered acceptable in the department. Her classes have been visited by Professor Y, whose report is attached. Professor Y finds that her lectures are clear and organized, and that she invites and stimulates a great deal of student participation.

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Reappointments and Performance Evaluations than it is to say: Professor T is a good teacher. Students say she is interesting and engaging.

It is much more useful to say: Professor X’s research area is . He published two refereed articles in 2006, and presented a paper at a refereed international conference. Another manuscript was submitted to a journal for review, and two research projects are underway in his lab.

Than it is to say: Professor X’s research is progressing well.

It is more useful to say: Professor S is serving on the department Curriculum Committee, and was just elected to serve on the School Faculty Affairs Committee. Last year he was invited to review two articles by journal editors, and one textbook for a publisher.

Than it is to say: Professor S is a generous departmental and university citizen.

•

Administrators outside the department find it useful to know what the person’s teaching and research areas are, so it helps to include that information.

•

Address how well they are meeting the department’s expectations for competent or excellent teaching, research, and service. You can address collegiality as well.   

State the point: “You are not meeting the department’s expectation for research productivity.”

State the evidence: “You have had no conference presentations or publications in over two years.”

State the point again and what you expect: “Since you are not currently meeting the standards for research productivity, I expect at least one conference presentation or publication submission by the time of your next evaluation.” (or some other indication of research progress).

OR (because most of our faculty are working hard :)   

State the point: “You are exceeding the department’s expectation for research productivity!”

State the evidence: “You have had two conference presentations and two national publications in the previous year.”

State the point again and what you expect: “I strongly encourage you to continue developing your research program as you have been doing.”

Be sure you are fairly evaluating each individual by checking:

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   

Are you amplifying some indicators and diminishing others in ways that do not support the expectations of the department?

Do you hold a bias (for or against) a faculty member that is affecting a fair evaluation?

Are you evaluating performance or effort and attitude?

Did the person have enough time and support from you/the department to meet expectations or for performance improvement?

•

Keep in mind that the probationary faculty member will need to determine an area of excellence (usually research or teaching) before submitting a case for promotion. OAA 0403 recommends that by the third reappointment (done in February of year two for year four), that the faculty member be able to identify a potential area of excellence for promotion, and that the person should be well aware of the department’s criteria for excellence and competence in all three areas at that time. This does not necessarily commit the person to choosing this area of excellence when the time comes for submitting a case.

Rather, it implies that the person should be planning which he or she is likely to choose well in advance of submitting a case for tenure and promotion.

•

Finally, consider reappointments to be a cumulative process. Look at the previous year’s reappointments, and build on them from one year to the next. If you said that a course was in development last year, what happened to it? If you said an article was under review, where is it now? If you said the person was redoing the department’s advising web page, what was the outcome? Later, promotion and tenure committees should be able to look at an entire set of reappointment recommendations and determine how the person progressed.

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