Guide for Department Chairs

Knox College
2006

A pdf version of the entire Guide.
A Word document of the entire Guide.

For an overview of what's in the Guide, here's the table of contents.

                                                table of contents

Preface iii

Acknowledgments iv

The General Picture

Role of Department Chairs 2

Departmental Cultures and Chair Styles 6

The Biggest Responsibilities

Searches 9

New Faculty Orientation 20

Care of and Attention to Untenured Faculty 23

Shared Appointments 31

Relationship to Tenured Faculty 34

Dealing with Complaints and Problems concerning Faculty 35

The Department Curriculum 37

Course Scheduling 39

Enrollment Management 43

Majors and Minors 45

Length of Term and Transition to a New Chair 49

The Day-to-Day Tasks

Delegating 51

Department Meetings 52

Role of Non-tenure-track Positions 54

Sabbaticals and Leaves 57

Use of Secretaries and Other Support Staff 59

Cultivation and Stewardship of Donors 61

Retirement 63

Planning a Retirement Celebration 64

Budgets & Money Transactions 66

Paper Flow 72

Appendices

A Year in the Life of the Chair 74

Contact List 79

Sample Letter to Donor 82

Notes on Using CARS 83

Kronos Notes for Managers 87

Policy on Increasing Faculty Diversity through Opportunity Hires 90

Policy on Shared Faculty Appointments 91

Policy on Continuing Non-tenure-track Appointments 93

DOCUMENTS RELEVANT TO FACULTY SEARCHES

Faculty Personnel Policies (from the Faculty Handbook, section III. A. 1-2) 96

Sample job ads 97

Letter acknowledging receipt of application 100

Checklist for the front of each application folder 101

Letter confirming a convention interview 102

Campus visit checklist 103

Campus visit schedule 104

Sample campus visit 105

PR for the job talk 106

Rejection letterÑstandard 107

Rejection letterÑfor a candidate interviewed on campus 108

The Golden Rule for Job Searches 109

index 110