The Department Chair最新文献

{"title":"Jennings v. Frostburg State University et al.","authors":"","doi":"10.1002/dch.70019","DOIUrl":"10.1002/dch.70019","url":null,"abstract":"<p><b>Case:</b> <i>Jennings v. Frostburg State University et al.</i>, No. ELH-21-656 (D. Md. 06/27/23)</p><p><b>Ruling:</b> The US District Court, District of Maryland, refused to dismiss a claim in a suit against Frostburg State University.</p><p><b>Significance:</b> A plaintiff claiming disability discrimination in violation of the Rehabilitation Act must show that he is disabled within the meaning of the statute, was otherwise qualified for the position, and suffered an adverse employment action solely because of the disability.</p><p><b>Summary:</b> The plaintiff's spinal atrophy required him to use a customized power wheelchair. A few weeks after he started working as a Frostburg biology professor in August 2017, the plaintiff allegedly asked in vain for the accommodation of power door openers for his lab. A couple of months later, the plaintiff filed a petition with the provost because he learned that the department chair and the dean didn't want his contract renewed.</p><p>While the petition to the provost was pending, the department chair allegedly told two colleagues that the provost intended to renew the plaintiff's contract and that he had only one day to convince her otherwise. The department chair promptly met with the provost, and she sent a recommendation of nonrenewal to the Frostburg president two days later.</p><p>The plaintiff filed a suit when the president refused to renew his contract, claiming that the provost's reversal of her decision from renewal to nonrenewal after meeting with the department chair demonstrated disability discrimination because the Frostburg renewal process didn't contemplate a meeting between the department chair and the provost.</p><p>Frostburg filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that a department chair should remain engaged in the process because they would know the most about the faculty member whose contract was being considered. The district court judge refused to dismiss the claim, ruling that a jury would decide whether Frostburg had acted properly.</p>","PeriodicalId":101228,"journal":{"name":"The Department Chair","volume":"36 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/dch.70019","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146136563","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"When Chairs Shield Faculty from Service Opportunities: Protecting Colleagues or Hindering Community?","authors":"Nick McRee","doi":"10.1002/dch.70007","DOIUrl":"10.1002/dch.70007","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;I am a tenured professor of sociology at a liberal arts comprehensive university. For twelve years I served as chair of my multidisciplinary social science department. I am now approaching the final stage of my academic career, a position where I can apply what the sociologist C. Wright Mills described as sociological imagination to better understand how my vision of the chair role was informed by forces of socialization that are foundational to a typical American graduate student education.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When I first took on the role of department chair, I believed that the most meaningful aspects of an academic life would be discovered in teaching and scholarship. I approached the job with a clear sense of purpose: protect my faculty colleagues from the often mindless churn of committee work, unnecessary meetings, and institutional bureaucracy. What I've come to understand, however, is that this well-meaning, pragmatic stance inadvertently contributed to a culture of disengagement and isolation in my department. The insight I share in this article is one I learned the hard way: Overburdening faculty with service obligations can stifle creativity and sap morale, but service and motivation to embrace shared governance, when approached in the right spirit, can also be vital sources of community, identity, and purpose.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I came to this realization late. Like many academics, I had never been formally coached to think of department leadership in this way. In fact, I had never really been trained to be a department chair at all. I received my PhD from one of the largest public research universities in the country. My mentors were prolific, internationally respected scholars. They led research centers and authored influential articles and books. They communicated in seminars and informal office conversation that avoiding distractions from developing a strong research trajectory was crucial for landing and keeping a tenure-track position. Indeed, they rarely spoke with enthusiasm—if at all—about departmental service. Service, although influential for tenure files and job performance reviews, was not the path to prestige, professional advancement, or personal satisfaction.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This message was reinforced in the early years of my academic career and long before I entered the role of department chair. Like many teaching-centered institutions, mine made a concerted effort to “protect” new hires from service demands. We wanted our junior colleagues to succeed, and that meant helping them build a research record and develop strong courses without getting bogged down in committee work or overloaded with academic advising. I agreed with this approach and felt I was a beneficiary of it. It matched what I had seen and internalized in graduate school: Committee work was a drain and an obligation to be completed as quickly and painlessly as possible, ideally by someone else.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;By the time I became chair, I had fully absorbed and embraced this mindset. I ran ef","PeriodicalId":101228,"journal":{"name":"The Department Chair","volume":"36 3","pages":"11-13"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/dch.70007","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146140078","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Growth of Doctoral Enrollment: Compounding Interest of Dissertation Students","authors":"Steven Tolman","doi":"10.1002/dch.70011","DOIUrl":"10.1002/dch.70011","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;Graduating doctoral students has become a priority as institutions pursue becoming R1 and R2 universities. The Carnegie Classification requires institutions to graduate at least seventy doctoral research degrees annually to achieve R1 status and twenty for R2. This need to produce doctoral graduates puts a renewed focus on programs to reduce time to completion and to ultimately increase doctoral enrollment. As undergraduate matriculation faces the predicted enrollment cliff nationally, increasing graduate and doctoral enrollment can offset this potentially shrinking undergraduate population. However, to graduate doctoral students, they must successfully navigate the dissertation process, which can be challenging even for the strongest students academically.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Traditionally, doctoral education has followed an apprenticeship model, where student admissions aligned with the doctoral faculty's abilities to take on new students whose research agendas aligned with the program faculty. This model fosters research mentorship centered on shared scholarly interests, which can yield scholarly productivity for the student and the faculty member. However, as enrollment grows, many institutions admit students far beyond congruence with the faculty's research specializations. Beyond admitting students with research interests that fall outside the wheelhouse of the faculty, students are readily seeking doctoral programs that are shorter and more affordable. As a result, many PhD programs traditionally took five to seven years, and EdD programs three to five years, with some now being marketed for completion in as little as three years.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These shifting expectations for increasing doctoral enrollment while graduating students sooner are disconcerting. The compression of these doctoral programs can potentially reduce the development of students' identities as researchers—particularly in research methodology courses, which are critical to successfully developing a robust research study needed for a doctoral dissertation. Recognizing that a doctoral student's success often hinges on their ability to conduct a self-directed and robust research study, this truncated coursework may be related to students remaining all but dissertation (ABD).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Programs that market three-year timelines set expectations that may be unrealistic for some students. Typically, these programs propose two years of coursework followed by one year to complete the dissertation. In reality, many institutions allow five or more years for dissertation completion before students time out, which speaks to the time-intensive and lengthy process that the dissertation can be. For those trying to complete their dissertation within the one-year time frame, students must develop a research study; write and revise chapters 1, 2, and 3 with committee feedback; defend their prospectus defense; obtain IRB approval; collect and analyze data; engage in scholarly discussion; write and revise chapter","PeriodicalId":101228,"journal":{"name":"The Department Chair","volume":"36 3","pages":"18-20"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/dch.70011","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146136645","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Bosses Are Human (Too): Agile Behavioral Nudges for Managing Up","authors":"Richard J. Holden,&nbsp;Jose M. Azar,&nbsp;Malaz Boustani","doi":"10.1002/dch.70013","DOIUrl":"10.1002/dch.70013","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;To succeed in any hierarchy, leaders must manage up. This concept, pervasive in the business literature, is gaining attention in healthcare and academia.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We define managing up as follows: The deliberate process of shaping the relationship with, strategic alignment to, and perceptions of one's boss to enable workplace success.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Managing up entails self-advocacy, impression management, effective communication, steering change, and performance excellence (Molina &lt;span&gt;2023&lt;/span&gt;; O'Toole et al. 2005). In addition, we introduce a novel and complementary managing-up approach: Agile behavioral nudges.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Agile science posits that we operate in complex adaptive human networks (Boustani et al. &lt;span&gt;2020&lt;/span&gt;). To improve the output of such sociotechnical systems, we must harness deep understanding of human social behavior in general and the behavior of the specific human networks we seek to influence. One type of human-centered design is a behavioral nudge: a change to the social, physical, or digital environment to facilitate desired behavior without forbidding choice. In our Agile Nudge University program (Mehta et al. &lt;span&gt;2023&lt;/span&gt;), we train future leaders to design (or select) human-centered nudges, then use Agile change management techniques to localize, implement, and empirically assess them in iterative sprints. Here we focus on the nudges leaders can design to manage up.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bosses are humans too. Human behavior is driven largely by what scientists call System 1, characterized by mental shortcuts, fast emotional processing, and leveraging environmental cues (Kahneman &lt;span&gt;2011&lt;/span&gt;). More rarely we use System 2, our deliberate, analytical, and systematic information processor. This is a feature, not a bug, of human cognitive systems, as System 1 is far more time- and energy-efficient than System 2 and in the typical twenty-four-hour day produces far more correct than incorrect decisions. System 1 thinking is often labeled as biased, irrational, or impulsive but is in fact adaptive for human needs, such as reducing effort, acting quickly, gaining social approval, and feeling good. People differ in—but tend to underestimate—how much and when they use System 1 over System 2.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Accepting that bosses—like other humans—engage System 1 more than System 2, leaders can deploy nudges to manage up. A leader who masters nudging can both design choices that comport to a boss's behavioral tendencies and frame existing choices to promote favorable decisions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The MINDSPACE X framework (Hodson et al. &lt;span&gt;2025&lt;/span&gt;) defines thirty-six nudgeable human tendencies, broken into nine categories (see table 1).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Messenger (M): The messenger who delivers the message matters more than the message.&lt;/b&gt; A leader may be the wrong messenger for their boss and could have more influence if their message is conveyed by their boss's boss, a respected peer or an organizational champion, an outside expert consultant (M1), someone ","PeriodicalId":101228,"journal":{"name":"The Department Chair","volume":"36 3","pages":"24-27"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/dch.70013","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146139994","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"What Does the Future Hold for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Leadership in Higher Education in the United Kingdom?","authors":"Emma Yhnell,&nbsp;Stephany Veuger","doi":"10.1002/dch.70015","DOIUrl":"10.1002/dch.70015","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;As academics with senior leadership roles in equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) within our respective institutions, in this article we reflect on what our roles mean, the impact we have within these roles, and how they may look in the future in higher education institutions (HEIs) across the United Kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The structures that different HEIs have in place for EDI leadership within their individual institutions can vary significantly. They are organized differently across the sector, and it can be difficult to agree on consistent approaches. Although some HEIs have senior members of their executive board with sole responsibility for EDI, others combine EDI into wider and broader portfolios. We believe that everyone &lt;i&gt;should&lt;/i&gt; have responsibility for EDI in HEIs. One of the significant challenges of EDI leadership structures in HEIs is empowering and enabling everyone, across often large and complex institutions, to take ownership of and responsibility for EDI while also embedding it across the HEI.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Although approaches that give individual EDI leadership to senior leaders can highlight and signal the organization's commitment to EDI, thus giving it visibility, this approach can make EDI appear separate to the organization's strategy, as an optional extra that is not embedded. Conversely, incorporating EDI into all leadership roles integrates EDI work with core university policies and business but risks losing visibility and ownership, making it difficult to see who is doing the work, who to go to in case of queries, and what tangible actions are being taken to create meaningful change.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The broad nature and lack of clear definition and focus on what EDI means practically and logistically can also lead to a lack of confidence among colleagues, particularly among senior leaders. Senior leaders often come under increased scrutiny and have additional responsibilities to deliver against strategic priorities. Therefore, they may feel substantial pressure and be afraid to “get EDI wrong” and/or feel threatened, as this could lead to both personal and professional reputational harm.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We both identify as women in HEI, and in taking on our EDI department leadership roles, we were acutely aware that EDI work is often accepted by already underrepresented groups who have lived experience in the EDI space. In addition, in agreeing to embrace EDI leadership roles, we were mindful that this may lead some colleagues to think that EDI is the responsibility of others. Although, ultimately, we were both in agreement that in taking on our respective roles that EDI leadership is required to provide strategic direction and to bring EDI to the front and center of decision-making.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, clarity is needed on what EDI leadership roles entail. EDI and its associated activities are broad and undefined. We believe that there are EDI implications to everything; therefore, if undefined, these roles can be expansive, lack structure, and, ","PeriodicalId":101228,"journal":{"name":"The Department Chair","volume":"36 3","pages":"28-29"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/dch.70015","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146140075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Generative AI in Higher Education: Challenges and Strategic Responses","authors":"Lilian W. Mina,&nbsp;Rick S. Kurtz,&nbsp;Christopher Nelson,&nbsp;Leslie Zenk","doi":"10.1002/dch.30670","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/dch.30670","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":101228,"journal":{"name":"The Department Chair","volume":"36 2","pages":"25-27"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145719594","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Navigating Complex Challenges: Trauma-Informed Strategies for Academic Leaders","authors":"Corinne L. McNamara,&nbsp;Jennifer Willard,&nbsp;Chinasa Elue","doi":"10.1002/dch.30664","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/dch.30664","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":101228,"journal":{"name":"The Department Chair","volume":"36 2","pages":"6-11"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145719724","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Don't Squander Your Transition Year: Two Heads Are Better Than One","authors":"Trey Guinn,&nbsp;Darlene Carbajal","doi":"10.1002/dch.70000","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/dch.70000","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":101228,"journal":{"name":"The Department Chair","volume":"36 2","pages":"1-4"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145730506","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Anticipating and Managing Institutional Roadblocks","authors":"Sarah B. Westfall,&nbsp;Tammy Gocial","doi":"10.1002/dch.30667","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/dch.30667","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":101228,"journal":{"name":"The Department Chair","volume":"36 2","pages":"17-20"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145730507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Fiscal Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Research at New R1 Universities","authors":"N. Douglas Lees","doi":"10.1002/dch.30668","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/dch.30668","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":101228,"journal":{"name":"The Department Chair","volume":"36 2","pages":"21-23"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145719722","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}