Explores the issue of survival as department chair, examining three interrelated threats to the chairperson's well-being: role conflict, changes in collegial relationships, and job- related stress. Considers reasons for accepting appointment and some practical matters for chairs who serve in a term appointment. (PA)

States that, because teaching and scholarship are expected of all faculty, the broad roles that seem unique to the chair are academic and administrative leadership, resource acquisition and allocation, and constituent relationships/boundary spanning. Comments on and amplifies these requirements and discusses some tensions that arise for the…

Tells stories, somewhat fictionalized, that may help English chairs frame the discussion on curricular revision. Describes the institutional and management issues chairs need to explore when they think about initiating the curriculum debate. Considers departmental structural issues, campus structural issues, organizational issues, and a set of…

Considers how the creativity of individuals can best benefit the whole, without making others feel disenfranchised. Presents four assumptions addressing fragmentation, the reason for fragmentation, the role of the chair regarding fragmentation, and the role of individuality in a small vs. large institution. Notes the author's department has…

Addresses the "community" within an English department. Considers what image of the department the author can have that allows the possibility of forgiving one another. Discusses what metaphors describe the department: a lifeboat; a hive; a monastery; an ecosystem; or a minefield. Considers how metaphors account for the best and the worst things…

The purpose of this study was to redress the paucity of research regarding superintendents and their role in implementing parent and community involvement policies. Another aim was to examine which types of parent and community involvement practices, if any, may be related to student achievement. A mixed methods inquiry was applied. The Measure of…

Suggests some of the roles required of English department heads and gives a few practical tips on how to cope with them. (AEA)

Relates one educator's experiences spanning 16 years as a department chair in both public and private universities. Considers what the role of a chairperson should be. (PA)

Suggestions for a new language department chair are presented. They include the following: assemble teams to help; be accessible; learn administrative details; make decisions; create a procedures manual; be chair of all the department; and be an individual. (LB)

A discussion of college faculty renewal looks at the word's etymology and at concrete ways for departments and their administrators to promote quality faculty research. It also describes four archetypal examples of faculty in need of research renewal, each related to literary history and the workings of a research committee. (Author/MSE)

Describes how the author survived for more than a quarter of a century as a minor university administrator by applying a "schizoid narrativizing strategy" to the art of running, and being run by, an academic department. Notes that established written departmental procedures are indispensable. Discusses briefly the state of the academic economy.…

Describes the author's department goals with three main principles: to build departmental community, to harness rather than dissipate energy, and to address multiple audiences simultaneously. Discusses how she communicates to the college as a whole what the department does well and finds ways in which caring for the department's interests might…

Describes a program in which a department chairperson gains released time for volunteers from a full-time faculty to serve as administrative associates. Discusses such a procedure at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. (AEA)

Describes the management appropriate to different kinds of new curricula within the English program and urges the department chair to assume intellectual, as well as managerial leadership of the department. (HOD)

Exposes the myth of the department chairperson as omnipotent. Demonstrates that by identifying the common interest of the myriad components of an English department, a chairperson can unify them into a successful, dynamic department by power of the faculty members themselves. (HTH)