School of Education

A month-by-month overview of major deadlines - Year at-a-glance

Note: Important Human Resources and Records & Registration deadlines are reflected in UWL's master calendar that can be routed to an individual's calendar.

Provost's Office specific list of important dates

Coming soon!

Chairs are considered the supervisors for several types of employees at UWL depending on the department. Different personnel processes are associated with each type of employee.

  Ranked faculty = tenure -track or tenured faculty

      Retention (contract and non-contract reviews), Promotion, and Merit
      
      HR's Faculty Resource - retention, etc.
        Promotion - HR page and Provost's Promotion Pages

  Instructional Academic Staff (IAS)  - semester, academic year, annual or multi-year contract

     Individual Development Plan (IDP) -  annual

     Guide to IAS Promotion - HR Policy 

Classified Staff -  Administrative assistants such as Academic Department Associates  (ADA) and University Service Associate (USA) and Limited Term Employees (LTE)

    Individual Development Plan (IDP) - annual

Academic Staff - non instructional positions

Individual Development Plan (IDP) - annual

Student Workers
Traditionally administrative assistants are the supervisors for student workers; however, chairs may be the supervisors for student workers and/or graduate assistants.

EDS Department Bylaws

Data that a chair or administrative assistant cannot pull from WINGS can be requested from Institutional Research - IR.  

Historical and current enrollment data is available on the O: file system.

• Important terms: IFTE - instructional full-time equivalent; SCH - student credit hour (# of students X # of credits) 

PRIMARY CONTACT & RESOURCE: Scott Peterson (SOE Business Manager)

Department chairs can access two levels within Digital Measures

1. Individual (each chair’s own individual activities)
2. Departmental 
   • Departmental activities/Annual Reports
   • Departmental components of personnel reports

Digital Measures documentation for chairs

Quick guide to assessment for chairs
UWL Assessment Resources

Faculty Senate Policy 

IV. Responsibilities of Departments, Department Members and Department Chairpersons
V. The Selection of Department Chairpersons
VI. Remuneration of Department Chairpersons

Chairs/Deans roles and responsibilities chart - (forthcoming)
    personnel review, hiring, curriculum, load, etc. 

erms. Department chairs serve three year terms. Elections are held in February and conducted by the Dean's office. Faculty Senate policy guides chairs elections. Departmental policy guides who is eligible to vote in the elections.

Reassignment Time: Faculty Senate Policy (October, 2021)

1. Department chairpersons are to be assigned a reduced load depending on department size:

a. A reduction of one-quarter time for a chairperson of a department with fewer than 10 full time faculty positions.
b. A reduction of one-half time for a chairperson of a department with 10 or more full-time positions.

2. Exceptions to the preceding guidelines are permitted when justified by the volume of departmental business or by other university responsibilities held by the chair. However, all such exceptions shall be arranged in consultation with the Dean. Summer appointments are at the discretion of the college Deans.

Procedure

• Occurs every year
• The Dean’s Office distributes an electronic survey to the faculty, IAS and staff associated with any given department
• Surveys administered by Dean’s Office through an on-line survey

Measures: the survey has five major sets of questions

• A set of standard items asked in regards to all chairs (5-point - strongly agree/strongly disagree)
  • 1. Advances the department toward agreed upon goals.
  • 2. Facilitates open and professional communication amongst faculty, staff, and students.
  • 3. Assures that personnel and non-personnel resources are utilized effectively to reflect departmental priorities.
  • 4. Fairly and equitably mentors faculty and IAS through the retention, tenure, promotion, merit, and/or post-tenure review process.
  • 5. Facilitates positive relationships among and between faculty and staff.
  • 6. Clearly communicates departmental expectations based on the bylaws for personnel evaluation (career progression, merit, retention, tenure, post-tenure review, promotion).
    
• A single overall performance item
  • Indicate the degree of confidence you hold of your department chair in this role:
  • Exceptional confidence – they appear to be doing an outstanding job as chair
  • High confidence – they appear to be doing a good job as chair
  • Moderate confidence – they appear to be doing an adequate job as chair
  • Low confidence – they appear to be doing a weak job as chair
  • No confidence – they are doing a poor job as chair
• A set of open-ended comment boxes regarding chair performance
• A set of open-ended comment boxes regarding departmental goals

Follow-up

• Dean meets with chair and provides the aggregate data.
• Dean relays common themes from survey comments
• Dean discusses their professional feedback on the chair’s performance

UWL Provost's Resources for Department Chairs

Recommended reading

Buller, J. L. (2011). The essential department chair: A comprehensive desk reference (Vol. 132). John Wiley & Sons.

Chu, D. (2012). The department chair primer: What chairs need to know and do to make a difference. Jossey-Bass.

Gmelch, W.H. & Miskin, V.D. (2011). Department chair leadership skills. Madison, Wisconsin: Atwood Publishing.

Gunsalus, C. K. (2006). The college administrator's survival guide. Harvard University Press.

Online resources

American Council on Education (ACE) - general higher education topics: http://www.acenet.edu/higher-education/Pages/default.aspx

Association of American Colleges and Universities - useful for resources about the value of a liberal education, global learning practices, civic learning and communication engagement, and more...rubrics available for exploring standards of evaluation for the aforementioned:  http://www.aacu.org/

Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences - information about workshops for department chairs (offered 3 times per year in July, October, and February) - www.ccas.net

The Department Chair Journal - in each issue there will be articles about leadership, useful strategies for chairs, practical ideas, questions for reflection and more.

Jossey-Bass Department Chair resources 

Magna’s Newsletter - Academic Administration - http://www.magnapubs.com/academic-administration/

J-Term Policy

Reassignment and Grant Policies

Diversity & Equity in Recruitment & Retention for Students, Faculty/IAS, and Staff

The SOE Strategic Plan outlines the College's mission, the planning process, and the plan's goals.

Coming soon!

The SOEL (School of Education Leadership Team) meets every third Wednesday from 12:30-2:00 pm.

The SOE meets the first Friday of the month from 1:15-3:15