The Department Chair: Leading the Charge to Build Student Character and Leaders

A community college perspective on one role of department chairs addressing perceived need to develop student character and leadership as workforce preparation: "Can these issues be converted to measurable outcomes within the department? Can the department holistically shift its present paradigm to include leadership and character development in every course, lab, and team function within the plan of study? Is it possible to hold students accountable for learning how to be leaders of character and the successful practice therein?"

Read the article here:
http://www.league.org/blog/post.cfm/the-department-chair-leading-the-charge-to-build-student-character-and-leaders

Can't We All Just Get Along?

Related: Related: A concurrent session at SCUP–44: Building the Plane in the Air: Changing a Campus Culture While Integrating Vision, Budget and Program Review.

---

We completely agree with the initial premiss of this article by Scott Jaschik in Inside Higher Ed:

You know the stereotypes—perhaps even believe them. College administrators these days care only for the bottom line. Professors can't decide anything or ever endorse change. When professors become department chairs or deans, they cross over to the 'dark side,' and forget their old values and friends. . . . In various forms, these views of the 'other side' are hardly new. But several researchers [recently argued at the 2009 AERA conference] that the economic crisis facing higher education makes it particularly important for the various players to work well together . . . . The idea . . . is not to presume that the differences will vanish. There are bound to still be professors more deliberative than administrators might want—especially those administrators facing deadlines to cut budgets. . . . a more nuanced approach might yield strategies that move beyond the false dichotomy of, for example, making every budget cut today or waiting two years to come up with a plan.