Inside Higher Ed, the online source for news, opinion and jobs for all of higher education recently posted an article on their blog titled, “Memo to Chairs: Provosts Feel Your Pain” that revealed that provosts are worried that they provide too little training to Department Chairs.

Author: Doug Lederman on November 8, 2011
Source: Inside Higher Ed

It sometimes seems as if everyone on campuses is at odds with everyone else. Senior administrators complain about intransigent faculty members. Professors gripe about their presidents’ excessive compensation. And as economic tensions worsen on many campuses, the blame game may only increase.

Which is why it was heartening — touching, almost — to hear a group of senior college administrators on Monday express sympathy and concern for the professional and personal well-being of department chairs and division heads at their institutions.

The conversation, at a session at the Council of Independent Colleges’ annual meeting of chief academic officers, discussed the key themes and findings that emerged from a series of workshops that the private college group held for department heads during the course of this year. The workshops, entitled “Leading From the Middle,” were designed to recognize the important but often vexed position that department chairs fill at the intersection between the faculty and the central administration — a role that is especially key at the sort of mostly small, often fairly lean institutions that make up the CIC.

At Monday’s session, chief academic officers who had helped lead the CIC workshops for department heads shared the chairs’ perspectives and concerns with their fellow provosts. There were many — focused heavily on the difficult position they find themselves in and how ill-prepared they sometimes feel for their jobs. Read Full Article Here>>