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[sinatra]

While attending a conference recently, a 40-ish man told me that he was interested in becoming a dean in a college of liberal arts or arts and sciences and asked me for my opinion as to what career path he should pursue. I told him that I was only a department chair, but suggested that being a chair might be a good first step since it gave one excellent line experience managing budgets, having people directly report to the position, work with directives that one might not be terribly enthusiastic about, and so on. I also suggested that he look into efforts on his campus involving strategic planning, program development, assessment, and curriculum development. What happened next was interesting.

As soon as I finished with my short two cents on the topic, a woman joined the conversation, saying that being a chair was not enough. As a dean, she felt that one should also be an associate dean to learn to see things above the parochialism that can befall smaller departments. Another woman chimed in and noted that you should never try to be a dean at your own institution because you carry too much baggage. Then another gentleman chimed in and disagreed with that, saying that an internal candidate would not need to worry about "fit." Obviously, then, there is more than one way to get to a deanship. But I am curious: What do you wise forumites who are/have been deans feel "qualifies" one to be a GOOD dean in a college of liberal arts or college of arts and sciences? Is it experience, a set of titles, "yes," or something else entirely?

[simplesimon]

Certainly titles and experience matter; presumably the latter comes with the former.  I have said before that “Chair” or “Associate Dean” should be the on resume of someone applying to become Dean.  What search committees want to see is that someone has had a respectable tenure in previous positions and managed to accomplish a few things that suggest future success in the new position.  Every institution has different culture and tradition; some schools have a history of promoting Deans from within, others want someone to come in with a clean slate.  No one approach is necessarily right or wrong.

For decanal appointments the usual qualifications are always wanted: vision, political savvy, a willingness to listen, follow through, and the ability to raise money—though not necessarily in that order.

[tuxedo_cat]

I can unfortunately tell you a whole lot more about what makes a *bad* Dean.  If you're curious about how people get there, you could simply look at the c.v.s of Deans at a number of SLACs and see what paths they followed.  I'm going to guess that there are a lot of paths.  In my experience, serving as an "interim" Dean very rarely leads to becoming a bona fide Dean, at least not at the same institution.  But that's another (well-worn) topic.

[sirkdn]

In my own experience I think being a Chair (at two places) was most valuable in terms of the skills I gained.  Also, various "search consultants" over the years have told me that "line authority" was critical - supporting the idea that being a Chair is important.  Having said that, however, I was also an Associate Dean, and an Interim Dean (and also served on a bunch of committees as a faculty member - Tenure, Strategic Planning, etc).

Overall there is no single path to the Deanship - but I would argue that coming up through the faculty ranks and serving as a Chair is quite important in obtaining needed experience.

[aandsdean]

All of this makes sense.  "Assistant" or "associate dean"--it depends.  Some of them are glorified paper-pushers, some of them are real leaders, depending on the institutional culture and the job description.  Chair probably has a little more uniformity.

I did the chair-at-SLAC (6-person department)->chair at small public university (department started at 19 and grew to 30 while I was there)->dean at small private master's university (65 faculty in A&S)->VPAA at SLAC-ish school with about 85 faculty route.

The best jobs, in terms of learning how to do stuff, were the second (lg. department chair) and the current one.  As chair I had lots of clout--biggest department at the university, salary authority (in consultation with the dean), administration of a pretty good departmental budget, etc.  The dean job really wasn't that different, except that it included roles in university leadership that the chair didn't have, and a bit more institutional clout (biggest school, largest subsidy back to the institution over net tuition revenue, etc.).  My current job has the whole package of stuff--the big decisions, 99% of the institution's confidential information, etc.

Looking back, though, I wonder at previous generations:  You used to be able to go from faculty/chair at many SLACs to VPAA.  Though it wasn't apparent to me back then, this is now a huge--likely fatal--leap.

On top of what others have said, you need to be able to talk convincingly (and basically know what you're talking about, which is not necessarily the same thing) about how you deal with disciplines outside your own, particularly across conceptual boundaries such as, say, English and chemistry.  Thus in addition to chairing, you should have curriculum experience (as in the curriculum committee, assessment, something like that). 

Probably most importantly, the thing that is most likely to make you good is having a thirst for knowing how institutions and people work.  If you don't care about the funcitioning of an institution, you're likely to try to do things (even if you're fundamentally right) that will lead you to fail massively.  A sympathy for nuts and bolts is a huge part of the job.

[verbena]

A sympathy for nuts and bolts is a huge part of the job.

So true. Once I walked into my dean's office without knocking and he was moving some little bits of metal around on his desk and saying very, very quietly, "how's your day going, little bolty?"

Gosh, was it ever awkward when he realized I'd overheard him!

<giggle>

[deadcatbounce]

Department chair is a much more important step for potential deans than is Assoc. or Asst. Dean, largely because Chairs have greater budgeting authority, which is a key responsibility for Deans.

Another useful element on the CV now is anything having to do with development, since fundraising at so many universities has been devolved to the decanal level

[prytania3]

Welcome, Deadcat. Do you play the stock market?

[anthroid]

I have heard that applicants must clear GMAT/CAT exam for becoming a CAS/CLAS dean. Does anyone know here is it correct or not?

Your information is completely incorrect.  You must be selling something given that this is your first post.  We will hope that it is your last.

D'oh.  Of course.  There is a link. 

Go away, spammer.  Reported.