Administrative philosophy

My administrative philosophy is simple and straightforward: articulate and lead a vision for my institution that creates public value by ensuring that students, faculty, and staff have equitable access to the institution as they pursue excellence in achieving their individual and collective goals. This requires that I seek input and feedback from all stakeholders affected by programs that I administer; include a diversity of voices in all discussions; and build community among faculty, staff, students so as to ensure the health of the institution. I value honesty, fairness, and transparency in decision-making and subscribe to the philosophy of "nothing about us without us.” If we are making decisions that affect faculty, staff, and students, but we are not including them in those decisions, then we have lost sight of the reason the institution exists.

A sampling of my administrative initiatives and successes is listed below:

Initiatives undertaken as DEAN

Management of a college comprised of diverse disciplines is a joy and a challenge. I think the best leaders pursue initiatives that help to bring faculty, staff, and students together in service of a common goal. Below are four initiatives that I hope serve to create a strong institutional culture.

Strategic Planning

My first year as dean coincided with our university president’s first full year in office. He began a university strategic planning process, so I made the decision to hold our college strategic planning process until the university process was well underway. As a result, we began our strategic planning efforts in late summer 2022 with a wide-ranging discussion among department chairs, and we are continuing that process in AY22-23. It is important to me that this be a different kind of strategic plan. Thus we are using a values-based planning approach that includes defining our core values, asset mapping, and creating a strategic framework with no more than three foundational elements. The goal is to produce a clear, concise plan that all departments and programs can easily identify and implement.

Curriculum Clusters

Curricular clusters are a form of integrative learning intended to help students make meaningful connections across disciplines, with the goal of improving student engagement and success (retention, persistence). Research suggests that clusters improve student critical thinking and analytical problem-solving skills while helping students to build their learning capacity. They may also help students to form social connections that are valuable for student success and well-being. In Fall 2022, I launched a new curriculum clusters initiative within the Spadoni College. In a curricular cluster, each faculty member teaches their own course. Proposed clusters include at least three, and no more than four, courses distributed across the regular fall and spring semester in a single academic year; those courses must span both education and social science disciplines. They also include a 1-credit integrative capstone. Courses within the cluster are centered around a broad theme. However, this does not require the creation of new courses; indeed, faculty are encouraged to use existing courses to better integrate with existing curricula.

Faculty Workload

My current institution is in the midst of a significant change, with a new focus on the reach and reputation of the institution. As a consequence, academic units have been encouraged to highlight faculty research activity and increase efforts towards procuring external funding for scholarly work. At the same time, faculty in my college were teaching a 4-3 course load with significant service expectations. Shortly after I became dean, I began to collect data on faculty workload, utilizing a number of metrics. I then asked department chairs to run a simulated schedule: what would the schedule look like if every tenure-track/tenured faculty member with research expectations had a 3-3 teaching load? I provided parameters that included no increase in course overloads, no increase in teaching associates, and minimal increases in course caps. Otherwise, departments could use whatever strategies worked best for their faculty and students, including reconfiguring course sequencing, changes to academic programs, etc. After several months of discussion, we instituted a new 3 - 3 course load for all faculty with research expectations. This load meets the minimum AAUP recommendation for faculty with research expectations for tenure and promotion.

#deansT

My greatest fear as an administrator is becoming isolated. I’ve seen far too many administrators lose their way because they succumbed to the busy-ness of the job, losing track of the folks they serve. When administrators become “unknowable,” mistrust can follow, as individuals mistakenly ascribe malicious motives to those who make decisions. In my quest to share my beliefs, values, and self with others, I began wearing message t-shirts on Fridays and sharing them on personal and college social media accounts with the hashtag #deansT. The response was fantastic, with faculty, staff, and students following along, suggesting new shirts, and wearing shirts of their own. Importantly, it served my goal of connecting with others — and helped me to clearly define my leadership style for myself and others. To see the #deansT gallery, visit this link.

Initiatives undertaken as Associate Provost

COVID-19 RESPONSE: SPRING AND FALL 2020

When the COVID-19 pandemic threw higher education into chaos, my current institution — like many others — went into emergency management mode. In my role as associate provost, I was tasked with identifying policies that would need to be temporarily changed or suspended in order to meet the challenges of both emergency remote teaching and faculty displacement. Among the exigency policies I issued were an extension of promotion and tenure probationary periods, an undergraduate and graduate pass/fail grading policy, and options for faculty who held university-sponsored grants/funds that would have expired at the end of AY19-20. As we moved into the summer, my role shifted to planning for Fall 2020. In addition to serving as the Provost’s liaison to the university’s Emergency Management Team, I chaired the Academics Reopening Planning Committee. Our committee was responsible for identifying all academic needs for Fall 2020 and developing action items for implementation. Categories for action included classroom instruction (physical distancing, instructional modalities, etc.), changes to experiential learning (standards for internships, field study, etc.), instructional technology (hardware and software needs, digital learning training for faculty and students), library services, student advising and academic support services, accessibility and inclusion, faculty support, and academic outreach and auxiliary actions. As we moved into the implementation phase, I helped to coordinate individuals to carry out the reopening plan and shifted my own work to providing guidance to faculty, creating a Fall 2020 Classroom Startup Guide to help faculty delineate attendance policies in the virtual classroom environment, instructional modalities, and other classroom changes. Some of the changes we implemented were documented in our university's “Coastal Comeback Countdown” video series; select links are included below.

Coastal Comeback Countdown Day 11: the Cohort Model

Coastal Comeback Countdown Day 20: Instructional Modalities

As the Fall 2020 semester unfolds, I am working with the Coastal Office of Online Learning (COOL), Center for Teaching Excellence to Advance Learning (CeTeal), and various faculty colleagues to provide support and collaborative experiences for faculty as they master the online teaching and learning environment. Links to those sessions are included below.

Fall 2020 Faculty Roundtable: Tips and Techniques for Online Learning

The Provost began having “fireside chats” aimed at parents and students as campus closed in March. We have continued those sessions throughout the pandemic response. Typically the Provost is on camera and my fellow associate provost and I answer questions in the chat. However, sometimes we assist by hosting the events on camera. A sample of how I handled these chats can be accessed via the link below.

Facebook Live: Fireside Chat regarding COVID response

Finally, in recognition of the fact that this has been an incredibly stressful time for faculty, I am currently working with the Chair of Faculty Senate and the Faculty Welfare Committee to identify and implement programs and activities that support faculty needs, recognize faculty contributions and work, and show appreciation for everything faculty have done to bolster and strengthen the institution during this crisis.

Grassroots Governance: Understanding and Meeting Our Challenges Together

While my institution has robust programming for faculty professional development related to pedagogy, there has been very little faculty development offered in the way of understanding the challenges facing higher education institutions, or in understanding how colleges and universities operate on a day-to-day basis. This is unfortunate, given that faculty should be full partners in university governance. Shared governance requires transparency and shared understanding of global trends in higher education and the local context in which those trends get translated into strategic decision-making. To that end, I created a new faculty development series called “Grassroots Governance: Understanding and Meeting Our Challenges Together.” The goal of this series is to empower faculty to action by providing them with the same information university administrators utilize to set policy, and by encouraging open and honest discussion about the institution’s well-being and strategy. The theme for Fall 2019 was “The Completion Agenda”; these sessions introduced nationwide and local trends in retention and graduation rates, the reality of student financial aid and student debt, and effective pedagogical and departmental or program structure approaches to ensuring student success and degree completion. Over 200 faculty members completed the Completion Agenda training. In Spring 2020, we tackled the topic of University finances and budgeting. Unfortunately, COVID-19 disrupted our schedule, and we were only able to hold one session before the semester was cut short. We plan to resume those sessions in Spring 2021 before moving on to a discussion about how admissions and financial aid work.

TOWn & Gown

In order to expand Academic and Community Outreach beyond our successful Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and course/degree program/department based community engagement projects, I worked with campus partners to organize a day-long, on-campus community assembly consisting of lectures, performances, and displays that feature the work of our faculty, staff, and students. The majority of our outreach and engagement happens when faculty, staff, and students take their work into nearby neighborhoods and towns. By inviting our neighbors to visit campus, we hoped to build stronger bonds in the community while also featuring disciplines and departments that do not have as many natural opportunities for engagement and outreach. The 2020 launch of Town & Gown was cancelled due to COVID-19, but I am working to resume the program in Spring 2021 in a virtual environment.

Initiatives undertaken as associate dean

implementation of the college strategic vision

While serving as department chair, I was tasked with chairing the college-wide planning committee. A college strategic vision, along with department strategic plans, were generated from that effort. As associate dean, I was responsible for working with the planning committee to implement, track, and evaluate implementation of that plan. This also involves constant review of what we were doing to meet our college-wide commitments and strategic vision, and soliciting suggestions for improving and revising the plan.

Create a university-wide structured dialogue program

In preparing for an academic leadership program, I discovered that our campus climate survey uncovered student concerns about diversity on campus. Students were happy with their interactions with faculty, satisfied with the diversity of the curriculum, and reasonably comfortable with general campus climate, but indicated that peer relationships on campus were not as healthy as they could be with respect to diversity, inclusion, acceptance, and understanding of student differences. To address this concern, I worked with the vice-president for student affairs to develop a structured dialogue program. In May 2018, our first group of CCU Dialogue Fellows -- a group of 12 faculty, staff, and students -- received training on how to develop and facilitate structured dialogue. In academic year 2018-2019, we moved into the implementation phase of this new program, as Dialogue Fellows committed to driving diversity programming on campus, from small-group discussion to hosting roundtable discussions and panels on important social issues.

The Edwards College "Future Forge"

From popular outlets such as The Atlantic, Forbes, and Fortune magazines to higher education professional associations (AAC&U) and publications (The Chronicle of Higher Education), there is positive renewed focus on the value of a liberal arts education. Liberal arts majors are sought after by public- and private-sector employers alike for their ability to think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems. At the same time there is broad discussion about economic and social inequality in the U.S. Part of this discussion is focused on whether colleges and universities are fulfilling their roles as creators of public value, especially as it pertains to career preparation, student loan debt, and social mobility for students from a diversity of backgrounds. In Spring semester 2018 I developed and implemented the first "Future Forge" program. Future Forge prepares and empowers students for post-graduation endeavors via a one-week immersive experience consisting of workshops and practical experiences. The program encourages students to think creatively about how to use their liberal arts skills to pursue careers that match their goals, giving them an edge over their peers via a series of workshops and practical experiences.

Program Development and curriculum management

Part of my portfolio as associate dean was to monitor enrollment and retention data and aid departments in revising current programs and developing new programs that will not only attract and retain students, but also best support their success and personal development. I worked with departments on a variety of new programs, from traditional single-department degree programs (e.g., B.F.A. in Visual Communication Design, B.A. in Religious Studies) to multidisciplinary majors (e.g., B.A. in Languages and Intercultural Studies) to new graduate programs (M.A. in Communication, M.A. in Applied Politics, M.A. in Music Technology). Additionally, I helped to build program infrastructure to support all graduate programs by facilitating a working group of graduate program coordinators. This working group collaborated on a college-wide orientation for graduate students and is currently working to enhance graduate student recruitment efforts.