Distance ed and information technology (IT) have had to teamed up to boost Wi-Fi on campus and provide students with face-to-face tutoring due to COVID-19. While the relationship between IT and distance-learning staff is often necessity-driven, changes wrought by the coronavirus resulted in more of a "hand-and-glove" approach, where most…

Academic department chairs serve as front-line managers and leaders who perform a wide variety of tasks. These tasks may include mundane chores, such as ordering office supplies, or important ones, such as changing the department culture to one that embraces assessment. Too often, however, individuals take on the chair position with little to no…

This study utilizes a mixed methods exploratory design to examine the nature of math faculty engagement in the student learning outcomes assessment cycle. The focus of the study is on the types of changes that math faculty are implementing as a result of assessment outcomes and the institutional environmental factors that impact faculty engagement…

In an earlier report, ("Physics Enrollments in Two-Year Colleges," ED547610), Susan White and Raymond Chu examined physics enrollments--both the number of students and the types of classes taught--at the 1,063 two-year college campuses in the US where they believe physics is offered. This "Focus On" considers the faculty…

This article is concerned with the status of middle management in the community college. Aspects discussed include the dual role of the chairman and alternative models of departmental organization which attempt to reduce separatism within the college. Community Colleges is a monthly supplement to Change magazine. (RN)

Describes a survey of department chairs of the public two-year colleges in Tennessee, which investigated the degree to which administrators understand strategic planning and feel their institutions are practicing strategic planning, and the implications of observed discrepancies between the perceived and actual practice of strategic planning. (DMM)

Based on research conducted in a three-year, mixed-method, multi-site National Science Foundation, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program (STEP) Project, this book offers a comprehensive look into how engineering department culture and climate impacts the successful retention of female and under-represented…

Argues that community college organization at the department level presents challenging leadership issues for the newly appointed department chair. Asserts that existing culture, which looks upon the chair with some mistrust, demands chairs who behave as peers rather than military commanders. Concludes that democratic leadership is the most…

In an era of diminishing public resources, community college departments need a budgetary system in which options are clearly spelled out, consequences projected, priorities delineated, and budget requests made that are functional and provide useful results. Unfortunately, few colleges and even fewer departments are developing and utilizing such…

Describes a study of 205 community college tourism programs to determine whether programs were most frequently free standing, placed within another department, or a collection of courses within a department. Reveals that two-thirds of the 150 responding programs were placed in another department, and over half of these were placed in the business…

A national survey of community college department chairpersons was conducted in 1978 to determine: (1) the purposes, procedures, criteria, and standards used to evaluate their administrative performance; (2) their opinions about the present and the desirable components of chairperson appraisal systems; and (3) how chairpersons from various…

Six division chairpersons at Central Virginia Community College participated in a study designed to develop a problem situation set which can be used to examine academic managers' preferred decision processes; to identify the existing preferred decision processes of chairpersons within the community college setting; and to ascertain how problem…

In November 1985, a study was conducted within 10 State University of New York community colleges to determine whether faculty and department heads in a profession-based department (i.e., Business) and a discipline-based department (i.e., English) had the same perceptions of organizational effectiveness characteristics and organizational culture…

One of the most distinctive features of academic departments in community colleges is their multi-disciplinary nature. While the creation of multi-disciplinary departments usually results from pragmatic considerations, they do present some advantages over one-subject departments in that faculty are obliged to learn other disciplines and a system…

The chairman and faculty from four departments in each of eight public 2-year colleges in New York State were surveyed to determine: (1) the status of the department in the organizational structure; (2) the relative influence of the chairman and his colleagues in the department; and (3) the relationship between degree of faculty influence and both…