Department Chair Handbook

I. Introduction

Thank you for agreeing to serve as a leader of your department or program. As Department Chair or Program Director, you will be working with the Dean’s Office to manage day-to-day resources and personnel issues (e.g. budgets, office space, recruiting, etc.) for your department. It will be challenging and rewarding work. Your goal will be to make the department function effectively, fundamentally by ensuring that the courses our students need get taught and that faculty in the department are kept aware of shared resources in order to carry out their scholarly and curricular work. You can also guide the department to positive change in terms of curriculum, student experience, and faculty morale. We have prepared this Handbook to be a first resource and guide for the many tasks and responsibilities you will face. We hope you will turn to it often, and that you give us feedback to improve it and keep it up to date.

Remember that you are not in this alone. A good leader is able to delegate some of the work of managing the department, and this good practice gives potential future chairs vital experience. The Dean and Associate Deans are also very willing to work with you. Please contact us for help on any aspect of your work.

Ngoni Munemo: Dean of the Faculty
Tina Hall: Associate Dean for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Penny Yee: Associate Dean for Arts and Sciences