UW SYSTEM DEPARTMENT CHAIRS WORKSHOP

1:45-2:15 Registration

2:15-3:45 Keynote Address and Case Discussion

Street-Level Leadership
Howard Cohen, Vice Chancellor and Provost, UW-Green Bay

This workshop will be spread over three sessions, continuing Friday morning, afternoon, and concluding with an after-dinner session for questions and answers.   It will address issues commonly associated with the types of personnel matters a department chair deals with: renewals and non-renewals; tenure denials and appeals; grievances; and complaints. Other questions include: How do the open meeting and public record laws apply to the conduct of departmental business? What legal support is available to Department Chairs?

8:45-10:45 Continuation of Workshop on Legal and Personnel Issues
John Tallman, former Senior Legal Counsel, UW System

Diversity Issues for the Department Chair
Estella Lauter, UW-Oshkosh

As Chairs, we have many opportunities to foster a climate that is hospitable to people, ideas, and programs that represent diverse cultural perspectives. We supervise curricular development, hiring and renewal decisions, mentoring programs, grievance procedures, and various kinds of outreach into the University and our communities.  After briefly listing what we are, in fact, doing to encourage diversity, we will break into small groups to examine critical points in the process of diversification (for example, the screening process) that present difficulties to our departments. Each group will present at least one solution to a problem it raises.

Bringing Junior Faculty into the Departmental Culture
Lisa Kornetsky, Interim Director, UTIC; Mary Pinkerton, Interim Associate Dean,
College of Letters and Sciences, UW-Whitewater

One of the many roles of a department chair is integrating new faculty into our departments. While this can be a very rewarding experience, it can also be a daunting one. How do we balance our roles as evaluators with our roles as supporter/advocates? With more demands on our time as faculty chairs, how can we involve others in this mentorship project? In this session, we plan to focus on the real and thorny issues of departmental culture and politics, and the ways in which these can be highly alienating to new faculty. Through analysis of examples, we hope to discuss ways in which we can create a more helpful developmental model, which will enable all members of a department to grow towards a common goal.

12:30-1:15 Lunch

1:30-4:00 Workshops:

Faculty Evaluation and Development
Joan North, Dean, Department of Education, UW-Stevens Point

Faculty development in its broadest sense begins in the department. Indeed, department chairs play pivotal roles in both faculty evaluation and faculty development, even though these two practices seem at times to head in contradictory directions. Faculty evaluations can be more developmental and formative if conducted by chairs who, first of all, are more honest, and second, recognize the complexity of teaching and its evaluation. Special topics will include post-tenure review and other sticky issues.

Showing Leadership in Departmental Conflicts
Jonathan Shailor, University of Wisconsin-Parkside

This session will address common sources of conflict at the department level, and the roles chairs must play in dealing with those conflicts. The session will provide participants with strategies for preventing unnecessary conflicts, as well as for practicing constructive conflict management. The format will include lecture, discussion, and role-playing; hand-outs will be provided.

Optimizing Your Program Assessment Efforts
Timothy Sewall, Associate Provost, UW-Green Bay

This session is about the "A" word. With all of the other responsibilities as Chair, it may be difficult to find the time to develop and implement an effective assessment plan. You  have limited (or no) resources that you are able to devote to assessment, and the eyes of  faculty glaze over at the mere mention of the word. This session offers a program assessment primer that may help you overcome some of these barriers. We will review the basic  components of the program assessment process, along with some tips on how to maximize your assessment efforts. The advantages and disadvantages of several assessment techniques, with an emphasis on the capstone course and "embedded" assessment techniques will be the focal points of the session.

4:15-5:30 Continuation of Workshop on Legal and Personnel Issues
John Tallman, former Senior Legal Counsel, UW System

6:30- Dinner and Q & A with John Tallman, former Senior Legal Counsel, UW System

8:45-11:15 Concurrent Workshops-- Repeat of sessions offered on Friday