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Author Topic: Administrative Vagueness  (Read 1927 times)
hulahu
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Posts: 146


« on: November 04, 2007, 02:11:47 PM »

The situation--a small (10-15 student) interdisciplinary program is being moved to my department. Lots of people both inside and outside the university had input into the decision to move the program, which has been around a long time but has also had some challenges. Someone from the internal advisory committee for the program, who I have known for a long time, called me personally last year and asked if I would be interested in taking over the program, and I said I might be. I since learned that this person did not follow appropriate procedures in making this and other inquiries, and I have mostly STFU about the matter since then as the admins hammer out the details.
  Now, after many months, the transfer of the program is actually happening. One of our tenured faculty(tenurehu), who I like very much, has asked me to help hu with the administrative transfer and has stated clearly that I will (eventually) be running the program. I should note that I have no other service responsibilities--this will be it for me, for the forseeable future.
   What bothers me is the vagueness about who is running this program--if tenurehu is running it, then tenurehu should be listed as the director, if I am running it, then I should be, or maybe we can be co-directors. Right now there is this vagueness, which I think stems from the unwillingness of tenurehu to officially take on the program (tenurehu has an extremely full plane of admin responsibilities), and on the other side I suspect, the department not wanting to officially admit that they are in the process of giving this responsibility to me, a junior faculty member. So, what we have is official statements on the web, eg,  "for more information on program X, contact tenurehu".
   The problem is, I interact with many of the faculty teaching in the program on a regular basis as well as others on campus, and at this point they know me better than they know tenurehu. They have heard our department has taken over the program, and have valuable advice. When they have specific suggestions, I have told them that I would need to discuss the matter with tenurehu. I would also like to get credit for my role (whatever it is, at the moment) on my CV and on other grants I am writing.
Should I push for more clarity or is this too pushy? Any advice?   
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finallyfullprof
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Posts: 646


« Reply #1 on: November 04, 2007, 02:21:22 PM »

I would ask. My read on this is tenurehu is going to be listed as the director but you are going to be stuck doing the work.  If you are not going to get any formal credit for your role and can get out of doing this, then by all means do so. Otherwise you need some sort of title other than "committee member" in order for your CV to properly reflect your efforts.
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hulahu
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Posts: 146


« Reply #2 on: November 04, 2007, 03:28:31 PM »

Interesting about "committee member"--this was actually Chair's initial idea, that this program be run by a committee. I'm not sure that this idea has been totally abandoned.
  I think full prof is right--tenurehu is running the program, just too polite to say so. I can imagine the conversation with the chair going something like this:

chair: You need to run program X; we need good leadership.

tenurehu: What about hulahu? I hear Hula may be interested.

chair: This would not look good to the administration. It would look as if we were dumping the program on an untenured person.  Besides, it would go against our unofficial policy of treating tt faculty like kindergartners.

tenurehu: I am already running a,b,c, and d. Running X is not in my contract

chair: But we can give you resources! How about asking Hulahu, and just so no one feels left out, hula's colleague, unpublishedhu, to be on the committee. They can help you. And supervising junior faculty IS in your contract. Suck it up.

tenurehu (to self): I feel guilty about this, but I think I had better do as I'm told and ask hula for help.
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august_leo
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Posts: 1,335


« Reply #3 on: November 04, 2007, 03:52:32 PM »

How about asking tenuredhu what to list this as on your CV? How about "Assistant Director"?
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Your environment sounds vaguely toxic.  Or maybe just characteristically British.
I heart august_leo.
arts4ever
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Posts: 304


« Reply #4 on: November 05, 2007, 07:34:45 PM »

I must say I can identify with tenurehu's full PLANE of administrative duties: I left the full plate stage quite some time ago! (Mine is an old C-47)
« Last Edit: November 05, 2007, 07:35:28 PM by hoppy » Logged
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