New Web site for academic leaders
Archived article from Dec 8, 2000
By Pam Orel
Deans, department chairs, undergraduate and graduate directors, and other administrators have a new place to turn for comprehensive information about personnel, research and student issues - a Web site developed by the Academic Leadership Program, a university-wide group supported by Rutgers' Center for Organizational Development and Leadership (formerly QCI) and a W.K. Kellogg Foundation grant.
The site, at www.academicleadership.rutgers.edu, contains links to many sources of information for faculty and administrative leaders across the university.
Visitors to the site will find links to online copies of policies and procedures governing teaching and institutional practices; academic calendars and class schedules; information on student life and the Code of Student Conduct; and home pages for various university offices.
Administrators can locate information on university procedures for post-tenure review, services for international faculty and AAUP contract information. There are also links to key research offices serving faculty, copies of institutional policies on research and on technology transfer, and a database of potential funding sources.
The site was developed by Barbara Bender, associate dean of the Graduate School-New Brunswick, who serves as chair of the Academic Leadership Program. It was designed and will be maintained by Nikola Stojsin, a doctoral candidate in comparative literature.
"This Web site is for academics who are involved in administration and for administrators who also have roles as academics," said Brent Ruben, professor of communication and executive director of the Center for Organizational Development and Leadership (ODL). The organization's name was changed from Quality and Communication Improvement (QCI) over the summer to provide a clearer description of its mission and programs.
"This is an extremely useful tool that will help our academic administrators and faculty find solutions to complex problems quickly and efficiently," said Joseph J. Seneca, university vice president for academic affairs. "Academic administration is a multifaceted responsibility involving personnel, budget, curriculum, technology, space, student and external relations issues, to list only a few. This site helps our academic administrators manage these complex tasks, and I believe that many of our professors and administrators will benefit significantly from using it."
Bender said the concept for the Web page grew from initial meetings held last year with new department chairs.
Many faculty suggested that they needed one Web site with links to all the resources they need to do their jobs, she said. "We haven't found any other site at another university that is quite like this," she added.
"This is an important new resource for faculty and staff who are taking on administrative duties," said Ronald E. Rice, recently named chair of the communication department at the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies. "We will definitely make a link to this from our faculty handbook Web pages, which are now being redeveloped."
Ruben said the new site may serve as a model for several major universities that are also looking at ways to provide professional development opportunities for faculty who are new to administrative duties. Such initiatives are under way at the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Maryland and the University of Michigan.
"It's always been assumed in higher education that excellent teachers can easily become administrators, but the transition is a very complex one," Ruben said. "This is one learning tool that will help professors and administrators achieve their full potential in their new roles."
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