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[profxfiles]

Here is the situation: my department chair is dearly beloved by everyone, including yours truly, and he appears to have no desire to step down any time soon. I would like the opportunity to move into administrative work for a while, in part because I have kids heading to college soon and the college fund is a bit low. Since my chair does not appear ready to move aside, it makes it difficult for me to move into the administration, as "previous administrative experience" is nearly always considered a necessity to getting in... Thus, I am left trying to figure out how to make myself a viable candidate lacking the one thing that would really help me become a viable candidate!

In a twisted way, I feel like someone fresh out of college--I need the experience to get the job, but I can't get the experience without first getting the job! I would love to hear from other administrators that moved into the area without being chair first-how did you do it?
Thanks-
profxfiles

[zharkov]

Talk to your chair and dean about possibilities where you are now. I've known a few deans/deanlets who moved from being profs w/o being department chairs, but they needed to network their way into admin.

[prof_d]

Serve on university committees, major searches for top administrators, and also do what Zharkov suggested. There are decent and academically interesting admin jobs that are more staff than line.  Hard to get line without the chair, but not impossible.  You can also move into a chair position at another university.

Don't do it just for the money. You won't be home to enjoy your family.

[sibyl]

Department chair is the principal avenue for faculty, but hardly the only one.  In addition to assistant/associate dean positions you can head interdepartmental programs, university-wide positions like library task forces or budget task forces, etc.  Run for faculty senate; that can also be an avenue, although it sounds as though it may not be as fast as you want.  Keep your eyes open for university-wide opportunities as prof_d says.

And, as is well known, you can get to many a high-level position without a faculty background... though you get a lot of faculty carping that way.  I mean, more so.

[aandsdean]

Department chair is the principal avenue for faculty, but hardly the only one.  In addition to assistant/associate dean positions you can head interdepartmental programs, university-wide positions like library task forces or budget task forces, etc.  Run for faculty senate; that can also be an avenue, although it sounds as though it may not be as fast as you want.  Keep your eyes open for university-wide opportunities as prof_d says.

And, as is well known, you can get to many a high-level position without a faculty background... though you get a lot of faculty carping that way.  I mean, more so.

I did it the regular way, via chair (first at a SLAC, then at a 6,000-student master's university) and now dean at a 3,600-student master's university, but I understand the challenge.  A lot, I think, depends on what kind of school you inhabit--at a SLAC, all the other committee things you can do will really prime you for further administrative work, because the things that committees tend to do at that kind of school land on the desk of deans at larger schools like my current one--at least in one way or another.

Several things really helped me, which echo what people say above.  I chaired a presidential search--learned more in the four or five months of that process than in pretty much anything else I've done.  Working on whatever committee does your curriculum, general education, and other academic policy work is also very helpful.  If you show a lot of strength in a particular area you have a shot at an assistant dean or director position--such as interdisciplinary studies, an honors program that sort of thing. 

The main thing I notice about myself is that I have quite a good idea of how almost everything at the institution works.  This is the result both of being on a lot of committees, task forces, and that sort of thing, but also of simply paying attention to what's going on at the university.  Many, many faculty I've known haven't the slightest idea of most functions of the university--don't understand budgeting, for example (in fact, aggressively avoid understanding it), student discipline, capital projects, and so on.  So, the process of moving up is two-fold:  get the paper experience you need, but while you're doing so, be attentive to everything you encounter. 

It does take a lot of energy and has, frankly, pretty much destroyed me as a scholar because the eye for detail and the holding of much information in my head that would normally be going into scholarship (I'm in English) now goes into doing my job and paying attention to the 8,000,000 things I have to watch on at least a weekly basis.  However, in my daily work, as well as when I look (e.g.) at other jobs, the thing that really helps me is thorough mastery of many or most of the management and operational issues confronting our school, and, by extension, other schools as well.  So put yourself in a position to learn these things, and then, when the chance presents itself, DO learn them!

Good luck!

[betterthanok]

Please don't do administration just for the money. The money is not nearly enough to compensate for the hours and the headaches.

[aandsdean]

Please don't do administration just for the money. The money is not nearly enough to compensate for the hours and the headaches.

Truer words have never been spoken.  Take them to heart, all.

The upside is that if you do really care about education and institutional functioning, you can have a vast impact, and there is a chance occasionally to do something very meaningful.  But the stress is tremendous and the constant low- and high-level conflict can be wearing.

[dale1]

There's another thing to be said about administration, and that is that your role can change quite quickly.  One can be in an Assoc./Asst. Dean position in an academic unit one minute, and back down to "regular faculty" the next.  Just have a transition in a Dean position, and that's all it takes. 

Arts & Sciences Dean is right on with her/his comments, as usual.  Events, committees, faculty governance; all of these things take incredible amounts of effort and time. 

Regarding your need for funds, perhaps you can engage in some consulting or other side work that helps foot the bills.  Or, encourage your progeny to go to your institution, or less expensive in-state public institutions. 

[pirouz]

I empathized with those peers herein who state that no-one should get into the administration just for the money or fame, as her/his quality of life will seriously be undermined. And yet, with the increasing discussion about taking away the TENURE or serious debate about POST-TENURE REVIEW, which to many is the prelude for terminating many faculty, the merit and need to complement one’s stellar faculty performance with relevant academic leadership is more of a necessity than ego-ambitions!

Put is simply, a productive faculty must remian employable in a comparable lateral, and hopefully up-bound position elsewhere during one’s 30-35 years of active service. Ironically, however, this may only be possible for a few peers from the Ivy Leagues who might exercise a move to a smaller school, while they bring with them millions of money, and a bus load of graduate students and post docs; otherwise, almost 90% plus of university faculty positions worldwide are at the entry level, thereby making it almost impossible for more senior faculty to even be considered (it is the ECONOMIC and AGE stupid!).

So, once again, let me reiterate a philosophical paradigm that both the faculty and upper administration echelons have got to make a commitment to, if they don’t wish to talk from both sides of their mouth-and that is a university must, under contractual obligation, provide career development through academic leaderships, for its [stellar] faculty so that they in principle remain employable. Unfortunately, this necessitates the need to elect exemplary faculty for chair, assoc dean or deanship, but the upper echelons are much more comfortable with other faculty who are not as accomplished and thus independently- minded. The result is chairs and deans for life leading to mediocrity, ineptitude and incompetence.

[engineer_adrift]

I'm a chair (third year of five year appt) at a medium size school.  I recommend that the OP have a talk with his/her dean and chair about the possibilities for advancement.  They should have the best ideas, and frankly, without their support, your chances are greatly diminished.

Be aware that both my dean and I realize that administration is much less rewarding that teaching and research.  Administrators spend 90% of their time dealing with messes, so that their faculty can be free and have the necessary resources to concentrate on the important tasks of teaching, research, and publishing.  The best administrators are selfless servants of their faculty. 

I look forward to the end of my term, and am already mentoring two internal candidates for the next chair search.  Perhaps your chair would do the same for you?  Ask!

In the meantime, I agree with the previous posts that suggest learning as much about your school as possible, especially budgeting.

Good luck!

[neniaf]

I agree with the others to let people know that you have an interest in administration.  I have been to a number of administrative meetings lately at which a major topic has been a shortage of potential future administrators among the faculty.  Within the past few months, I've been asked twice to suggest someone from the faculty for an administrative position, and in each case, the person I recommended was NOT a department chair; nor was either of them a person from my own College.  In both cases, these were people I had worked with on committees and whose approach I respected.  However, particularly if you don't look like the other administrators at your institution by gender or ethnicity, you may need to let them know directly that you are interested, or it might not even occur to them to think of you in that light.

[ccyphers]

As others have pointed out, university-wide committee work is a great way to gain administrative experience and build your administrative credentials:  senior administrative search committees, accreditation self-study steering committees (or sub-committee), strategic or master planning committee, and so forth.  You might also want to consult the American Council on Education (ACE) Web site, which provides a wealth of information on moving up in the academy.  ACE has a fellows program that places faculty and administrators at another institution for a semester or year to work with the host institution's president and other senior administrators, as a way to provide intensive on-the-job training in some administrative capacity.  The hitch is that your home institution must continue to pay your salary and benefits and be willing to relieve you of your responsibilities for at least a semester. 

[georgia_guy]

My current dean went straight from faculty to associate dean. From there she became interim dean, and finally the interim was removed.

I have a friend who was hired as a faculty endowed chair. He volunteered to take over the graduate program director position when It became vacant (his offer was granted, as he didn't ask for any extra money to do so). A couple years later he was hired as an assistant dean by another university.

So, to answer your initial question: No, dept. chair is not the only route into admin, it is just a common one.

[engineer_adrift]

My current dean went straight from faculty to associate dean. From there she became interim dean, and finally the interim was removed.

I have a friend who was hired as a faculty endowed chair. He volunteered to take over the graduate program director position when It became vacant (his offer was granted, as he didn't ask for any extra money to do so). A couple years later he was hired as an assistant dean by another university.

So, to answer your initial question: No, dept. chair is not the only route into admin, it is just a common one.

At my school, we have a senior administrator who was not a chair.  His/her effectiveness is limited by not understanding what the challenges are at the department level.  This person truly doesn't get it.  A tour as a chair is very important.

That said,  you can get there without being a chair, as gaguy states.  But will you be well prepared?

Best wishes

[patchouli]

On my campus, the chair is only one of several avenues to an administrative post.  Being the chair or co-chair of a major/important campus committee is another avenue.