Being an Effective Department Chairperson

Terence C. Krell, Ph.D.

Survey Results

"My sense of being a department chair is that
1) you govern at the will of the department
2) you govern to remove the department from having to do a bunch of onerous tasks.
3) you are expected (by the department and the administration) to come up with some future directions (but keep in mind #1)
4) you are likely to get overwhelmed

Therefore, the role for the chair should be to
a) learn the will of the department - what makes the most difference to them and be sure to do it,

b) handle all of the onerous tasks without putting too much of your own energy into it,

c) get a clear sense of how you want to spend your energy, both inside and outside the department and then go after it."