As I write this in early August, I am wrapping up planning for my faculty development office’s annual kickoff for the New Faculty Leaders Academy, a yearlong series of workshops and conversations on topics new chairs and assistant deans will find important to their jobs. Practical topics like budgeting, negotiating difficult conversations, and writing faculty assessments will be covered in a just-in-time fashion throughout the year. For the kickoff, the new leaders will meet with the leadership in the Office of the Vice Provost of Faculty for breakfast, introductions, and most importantly, time to define their leadership values and philosophy.
Connections Are Everything: Putting Relationships at the Heart of Higher Ed
As academic leaders, we are under so much pressure to deliver—enrollment targets, strategic plans, graduation rates, AI policies, and on and on—that we can lose sight of what our students