Chairs still identifying final kinks
Julie Williams
Issue date: 5/1/08 Section: News
The inner workings of Truman have been buzzing lately.
When the University implemented its plan for academic reorganization last fall, the changes created the department chair position. Even though the new structure has been in place for almost a full academic year, James Guffey, Faculty Senate president and professor of mathematics, said the specific responsibilities of this role, as well as other minor details, still are being ironed out.
"In Faculty Senate, a lot of our effort this year has been working on making processes happen in the new structure," Guffey said.
Day-to-day tasks like getting forms signed and answering questions from students are areas Guffey said still need to be streamlined. He said department chairs are working hard to understand the dynamic of the new academic structure.
"They're on a steep learning curve," Guffey said. "They have to deal with all kinds of things that deans dealt with for departments before: hiring, tenure promotion, budget, class scheduling, class assignments, dealing with overrides - all those things."
Guffey said he has been involved in conversations with both faculty members and administrators and that he has heard a lot of different responses - good, bad and somewhere in between - about the new academic structure. He also said he thinks administrators have a different view of the structure than Senate.
"I've talked to some people in the upper administration, and their thinking is 'It's done, it's implemented,'" he said. "I suppose the flow chart is implemented, I suppose the structure is implemented, but there still is an awful lot of work that needs to be done in order to make that implementation work and run on a day-to-day basis."
Ralph Cupelli, assistant to the provost and vice president of academic affairs, also acknowledged that this year has been a learning experience for department chairs because this is their first run-through for many new duties. He said there have been few problems along that line, however. From the administrative perspective, Cupelli said he thinks the reorganization went very well.
When the University implemented its plan for academic reorganization last fall, the changes created the department chair position. Even though the new structure has been in place for almost a full academic year, James Guffey, Faculty Senate president and professor of mathematics, said the specific responsibilities of this role, as well as other minor details, still are being ironed out.
"In Faculty Senate, a lot of our effort this year has been working on making processes happen in the new structure," Guffey said.
Day-to-day tasks like getting forms signed and answering questions from students are areas Guffey said still need to be streamlined. He said department chairs are working hard to understand the dynamic of the new academic structure.
"They're on a steep learning curve," Guffey said. "They have to deal with all kinds of things that deans dealt with for departments before: hiring, tenure promotion, budget, class scheduling, class assignments, dealing with overrides - all those things."
Guffey said he has been involved in conversations with both faculty members and administrators and that he has heard a lot of different responses - good, bad and somewhere in between - about the new academic structure. He also said he thinks administrators have a different view of the structure than Senate.
"I've talked to some people in the upper administration, and their thinking is 'It's done, it's implemented,'" he said. "I suppose the flow chart is implemented, I suppose the structure is implemented, but there still is an awful lot of work that needs to be done in order to make that implementation work and run on a day-to-day basis."
Ralph Cupelli, assistant to the provost and vice president of academic affairs, also acknowledged that this year has been a learning experience for department chairs because this is their first run-through for many new duties. He said there have been few problems along that line, however. From the administrative perspective, Cupelli said he thinks the reorganization went very well.
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