Questions tagged [administration]
On the administration or running of an academic department or organization, or the people associated with this role. [administration] is mainly concerned with overseeing regular operations, while [governance] involves strategic tasks of setting goals and direction.
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Teaching a class likely meant to inflate the GPA of student athletes
Premise
My department recently finalized the faculty teaching assignments for the Fall 2019 semester (starts at the end of August 2019). As these assignments were being discussed a few weeks ago, my ...
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Reporting a student who may be psychologically disturbed
Yesterday, a colleague from my school's history department brought me a student's final project from her history class. The assigned project was to produce a "creative" project dealing with ...
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As a department head, what to do if a professor leaves without giving out grades?
I am department head. An adjunct professor teaching two courses in my department left without notice. He did not deliver the grades to me.
We have no staff in that field to give the final exam again. ...
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What is the point of being the head of the department?
What is the point of being the head of the department ?
I'm an undergraduate Physics & Mathematics student and I want to stay in academia, do research and also teach. I'm assuming professors also ...
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Consequences I should expect of violence in my classroom
I'm asking what to expect after violence in my classroom, will I be fired, expelled? What is the procedure?
Hopefully this is the correct stack exchange for this, if not feel free to tell me where ...
anon
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Dean will not tell me what upcoming meeting is about. What do I do?
I am a tenured professor and co-chair at a small teaching college. I received an email last Friday morning from the head of facilities requesting confirmation of my attendance at a meeting for this ...
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I left college in the last semester (did not finish), but the college "transferred military experience to credits" and gave me a diploma. Normal?
When I was in community college (2016), I wasn't on good terms with the school. I was harassed occasionally and complained about it very forcefully to representatives of the administration. I passed ...
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How to move forward following an unpleasant situation with colleagues?
I'm a recently hired assistant professor at a small teaching
university. The department head has been successful in dramatically
increasing student enrollment, such that our department is viewed
...
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11
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Reasons for an academic to need administrator rights on work computer
Questions related to this in a not specifically academic setting have been asked elsewhere, notably Should developers have administrator permissions on their PC? and Should dev be admin on their ...
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What leverage do universities have over sexual violence in fraternities?
IMPORTANT: The allegation of gang-rape in the Rolling Stone article that formed the basis for this question has been retracted; later evidence on the matter shows that the allegation that gang-rape ...
user1482
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What are the benefits of becoming an academic administrator?
Why do some professors choose to go into academic administration (e.g., become associate deans, etc.)? I've always assumed the main attraction is that they get paid more.
But I've also thought that ...
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What are the ethics involved in teaching my chair's child in my undergrad class?
I'm a faculty member, and my department chair's son is enrolled in a course I'm teaching. Actually, this happened twice during the past academic year and is slated to happen again this fall.
I'm ...
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What incentive does a professor have to allow a student to enroll in a course that is already full?
I'm hoping trying to register for a course I need that is currently full, and am told that I can try contacting the professor for permission to enroll. Under what circumstances are such requests ...
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As faculty, can I bring about changes in our outsourced campus bookstore?
I am tenured faculty at a state university in the US. Our campus bookstore is not run by the university; instead, it is owned and operated by a large, well-known corporation, and has a contractual ...
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Why do research faculty pursue administrative positions, such as dean, provost, president, etc. ? Do such positions spell the end of one's research?
At a recent seminar talk, I was amazed to note that one of the two coauthors (not the presenter) was the president of a large and well-known university, since I had always assumed that taking on such ...
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Saying no to miscellaneous administrative tasks as a Grad student
In my university, graduate students under scholarship have to perform certain tasks like tutoring and grading. I have no problem with that since it is part of the contract.
There are also some ...
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For what reasons might a full professor lose tenure?
Recently, a full professor at my university lost their tenure and had their employment with the university terminated. I have never heard of a tenured faculty member "being fired" before. I am not ...
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What is a "good" PhD dropout rate, and how would we know?
In a few questions/answers on here (e.g., here), passing reference has been made to the difficulty of determining a good/acceptable/healthy dropout rate for a PhD program. However, I haven't seen any ...
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What steps can faculty and staff take to promote excellence in, and importance of, teaching?
tl;dr
Faculty don't think teaching is as important as their other responsibilities; how do we change that?
Long version
I've been working in academia for a long time and whenever I see instructors ...
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Is doing a favor for a professor in return for a favor strange?
I’m an undergraduate student and want to teach a workshop next semester, so I’m working with my school’s administration to get help with room reservations and stuff.
I have been bounced around between ...
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Starting PhD, university says I don't have to sign contract
I am starting my PhD in three weeks in Denmark. In Denmark, it is usual that PhD students are formally employees of the university but also have student status. I have received recently my employee ...
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A female professor was found responsible for sexual harassment – what can happen to the signatories of a letter in support of her?
The New York Times article reported a female professor at New York University was found to be responsible for sexual harassment of a male student.
There's a letter of support for this professor, sent ...
user93132
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5
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How should an educational institute woo good faculty?
What steps must an educational institution wanting to recruit good faculty take? There is a cycle in the academia:
Good doctorates from top universities invariably join other top universities as ...
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How to assess the long-term stability of a college as part of a job search
A few weeks from now, I'll be traveling for a flyout interview to a SLAC (small liberal arts college) in the eastern United States. The college is very small, less than 1,500 students. If hired, I ...
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4
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How to deal with inappropriate hiring instructions that are only given verbally?
Suppose I am chairing a hiring committee for a faculty position
in a north American university,
and suppose the administration have some verbal instructions on how the search should be conducted that ...
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1
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Do course buyouts happen in pure mathematics?
I am a pure mathematician teaching a 2-2 load at a state research university in the United States. I know that many of my colleagues in applied math, engineering, and the laboratory sciences are able ...
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PhD stipend continues being paid
I graduated with a PhD after 2 years (I was very efficient) and even though I have already received my degree and moved out of town, I'm still getting a stipend deposited into my bank account. I ...
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How to deal with administrative duties killing the research spirit?
Some months ago I was promoted with a managing position inside the university (in my case, associated chair of my school, being for instance the head of admission committee and the director of ...
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1
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Semi-administrative position in academic/research setting after finishing Ph.D. and postdoc(s)
I would like to know what are the scopes for semi-administrative positions like research coordinator, scientific coordinator, program manager or something similar that are available for someone with ...
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1
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Variation in drop dates, and effect on student outcomes
(This question may be specific to US university systems. Also, sorry it is long.)
US universities usually have some provision for students to drop a course. Within the first N weeks of the term, if ...
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6
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Should tenured researchers be "encouraged" (forced) to retire at a certain age?
While thinking about this recent question, I was reminded of an issue at two different institutions I've taught at, as well as a third institution I am aware of via my father.
One complication I ...
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2
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Is it appropriate for department administrators to send political emails?
In my department, it has been fairly common to receive mass emails from our department chair about political developments. These emails followed the election last winter, recent executive orders from ...
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1
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Administrative recognition of frequently-cited unpublished manuscripts
This is not a question about academia per se, but about the academia-administration interface.
When I was a postdoc, I wrote a paper that started to be cited quite often (by the standards of my ...
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Is it fair for my PI to ask me to do administrative work like submitting reports for grants?
If this occurs, is this normal? It seems like work necessary for an administrator. Moreover, there is nothing to learn from doing so. It just seems like a lot of work towards something that is not a ...
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How does management work in academia? Who do professors report to?
In commercial companies you will mostly only have a handful people per manager. For example in a law firm it might be four or five and rarely that I know of more than a dozen. But in (university) ...
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3
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What is an academic's responsibility when a high-level administrator makes false statements to the media?
In a recent media article on the quality of education and curricular changes at our university (elimination of remedial courses), a high-ranking administrator asserted that no changes to any credit-...
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Can a student seek redress for the administration neglecting their paperwork?
(Breakdown of a larger issue - full story here)
Following the (delayed) approval of my thesis paperwork by my professor, the review staff of my small (~20 grad students?) department took weeks to ...
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3
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What is a "graduate school"?
Specifically, why do some universities have a defined "graduate school" and associated "graduate faculty," with separate appointment process, and some do not, even when they offer many graduate ...
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2
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Destructive bureaucracy and how to oppose it
In my country researchers are overburdened with paperwork and are struggling with increasingly overwhelming bureaucracy while being underpaid. This all leaves them not much time for actual research ...
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2
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Should I try to warn administration about truly unacceptable professor behavior?
I was kicked out of my lab late in my graduate school career, which destroyed my confidence and obviously delayed my graduation by 2+ years. What's more, my advisor tried to convince me to drop out of ...
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How can I go back to a PhD program I left for another?
TL;DR: First, all of this is happening in the US. I was a PhD student in X, in good standing, but had a shift of interest towards field Y, so I switched programs and universities to study Y. A year is ...
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Do German universities have "ethics boards"?
In many questions on this site, I see the suggestion to contact one's university's "ethics board" (or "ethics committee" or similar) to decide in the case of disputes related to research or general ...
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How should I publicize a university event of wide interest?
I am a mathematics professor, and recently I invited (using my own grant funding) a speaker to campus give a lecture on popular math. As I expected, he gave a wonderful talk that any undergraduate ...
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As temporary faculty, how to deal with a colleague who, via email, questions agreements made in a meeting? [closed]
I'm on a short-term contract with a local state university. I have been teaching there as an adjunct for a while, but a full-time faculty needed to take emergency leave so I was asked to cover their ...
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Is there a powerful exam template that doesn't require an engineering degree to use?
Microsoft Word is the standard product for documents in my department as far as the administration is concerned. Final exams go through a work-flow that involves department secretaries creating a ...
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Can a PhD student co-supervise master students in Germany?
In Germany, is it possible for a PhD student to be co-supervisor of a master thesis?
user90834
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4
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What can a student do to respond to faculty/administration decisions based on current political events? [closed]
We are from Kuwait. Our university often has many foreign professors visiting for extended periods.
In my particular department, the head has now begun rejecting professors from the US, and starting ...
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Is Dean-hood largely irreversible, and if so why?
In academia, I have noticed a number of cases where a professor who becomes a Dean (or other non-department administrative post like Provost) effectively permanently stops being a researcher ...
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In recent academic history, why has research funding increasingly focused upon large interdisciplinary teams?
As noted in Derek Bok's "Higher Education in America," there is a trend in increased funding for large interdisciplinary research programs since the 1970's (Think NSF MRSEC, for example).
What is the ...
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Can administrative work benefit a PostDoc?
Imagine a relatively new Postdoc. She joined a new group (3-5 PhDs, 1 Prof.) and due to 'special circumstances' (Prof. too busy and mostly unavailable) is now responsible for all the PhD and Master/...
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