The College of Business is about to embark on a new administrative model that will, as I understand it, eliminate the position of department chair. I have heard it from no official sources, but I get the sense that this model is being considered for the other colleges across campus, depending on how well it goes in the COB.
What do you think of this change? Can it work? Are there potential problems? What are they? Does anyone have experience at an institution without department chairs?
I'm trying to keep an open mind on this subject, so let me know what you're thinking.
Ron
P.S. As soon as I receive an agenda for the 6/11/09 BOR Quarterly Meeting, I will either post it or post a link to the BOR site.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
We will need more information other than rumor to address this change in administrative structure. Please keep us informed of what you find out about this situation. It is a major shift if what is rumored takes root at MSU. How can we address this if we don't have any information of what the changes are.
I would agree that we need answers to many of the questions that come to mind. Without any knowledge of the structure or responsibilities of what a coordinator does, rather than a chair, it is impossible to evaluate this situation.
Here are ten questions that come to mind:
1. What will be the difference between a chair and a coordinator?
2. What workload responsibilities will change for that individual?
3. If chairs can't serve on standing committees or serve in the Faculty Senate, will coordinators be able to serve in those capacities?
4. If coordinators don't get paid any more than they are now as faculty but get a reduced course load, what are the current chairs doing at the present time to earn over $100,000 per year?
5. What will happen to program coordinators? How will they work with department coordinators?
6. What will happen to the salaries of the current chairs? Will any reduction in pay result from the reduction in status from chair to coordinator? Really now!
7. Will all faculty members in the College of Business further reduce their teaching load from just three courses to just two so they can all become coordinators?
8. If COB faculty members reduce their course load by one then they will be equal to what chairs do in other colleges. Isn't this whole thing moot? COB pays faculty as much as chairs in other colleges so what is the big change?
9. Will IRAPP faculty get a course reduction for being a coordinator? They then will be reduced to teaching only one course per semester, which less than a chair in other colleges. How can this be equitable?
10. Has the COB and IRAPP situation ever affected the rest of the colleges on any issue in the past? Those details are more secret than US nuclear codes.
There is no transparency to any of this, only rumors to speculate on. Until there is more concrete information no one can address this. Since you are asking this without any details, then there can't be much transparency in any of it. Unless you're holding out on us and know more than you are letting on.
Reader:
Please be assured that I don't know any more than I have written here. I wanted to gauge the faculty's reaction to this experiment in the COB and to start making a list of problems and questions. You've given me a great start.
I am also concerned about how the tenure, promotion, and annual evaluation processes might work without a chair.
What are some of the other concerns?
Ron
One has to remember that the College of Business operates on a whole different structure than the rest of the colleges at MSU. There is nothing similar in how the COB pays their faculty or how they manage faculty workload with that of any other college on campus. COB faculty members only teach three courses per semester and their pay scale is considerably higher than faculty in other disciplines (almost double some disciplines). More power to them. We should all be so fortunate.
COB has had department chairs that made over $100,000 with only a couple of faculty members to supervise, while other department chairs across campus can supervise from 20-30 faculty members with up to five different discipline programs. Now with the IRAPP program joining the COB they will have even less in common with other colleges. IRAPP faculty members only teach two classes per semester. Rumor also has it their former dean has used his dictatorial powers to declare himself coordinator of the department with the IRAPP faculty in it so he can still maintain control. That whole situation has not been explained to anyone and is not transparent in any regard. This is nothing new and seems to be standard operating procedure for that part of our university.
One can't blame the COB for trying to work out better deals for their people. Throw in the IRAPP component and the whole thing becomes a black hole of inequity. I think the whole university should follow whatever lead the COB takes. Everyone should only teach two to three courses per semester and should get a giant raise in salary (some doubling to meet COB/IRAPP standards). We all should become coordinators of something to provide us status. We need to know more about how this works.
Go for it COB.
Are there any models for us to look at to see how this would work with multi-disciplinary departments?
All the comments so far seem to revolve around workload and salary, which are important elements in this, but we need to know the dynamics of the responsibilities. If a person is only coordinating a few people in the same discipline then that program may not need a separate chair. For departments with a couple dozen faculty members with varied disciplines then the responsibilities will increase as will the need for a chairperson.
If the COB has small departments with the same discipline they may not need a chair. If the department is all the same discipline then that makes it a lot easier to just have a coordinator. Few departments across campus work this way. Not to elevate the previous blogger's statements, but there may be differences in the COB and how other colleges operate where this could be more easily structured in COB but may not work with more multi-disciplinary departments.
If COB faculty have high salaries and only teach three courses then a course reduction of one course to become a coordinator is equal to a chair's workload in other colleges. There is a huge salary difference between a coordinator and a chair in other colleges. The difference would come back to the original concerns with workload and salary.
It looks like the University is seeking out ways to save money to just have coordinators. This could work in the COB where a full chair may only supervise a few people. It would not be reasonable to see how this would work in large programs or multi-disciplinary departments.
Inequities remain an issue.
Post a Comment