The Professor Is In


Book Description

The definitive career guide for grad students, adjuncts, post-docs and anyone else eager to get tenure or turn their Ph.D. into their ideal job Each year tens of thousands of students will, after years of hard work and enormous amounts of money, earn their Ph.D. And each year only a small percentage of them will land a job that justifies and rewards their investment. For every comfortably tenured professor or well-paid former academic, there are countless underpaid and overworked adjuncts, and many more who simply give up in frustration. Those who do make it share an important asset that separates them from the pack: they have a plan. They understand exactly what they need to do to set themselves up for success. They know what really moves the needle in academic job searches, how to avoid the all-too-common mistakes that sink so many of their peers, and how to decide when to point their Ph.D. toward other, non-academic options. Karen Kelsky has made it her mission to help readers join the select few who get the most out of their Ph.D. As a former tenured professor and department head who oversaw numerous academic job searches, she knows from experience exactly what gets an academic applicant a job. And as the creator of the popular and widely respected advice site The Professor is In, she has helped countless Ph.D.’s turn themselves into stronger applicants and land their dream careers. Now, for the first time ever, Karen has poured all her best advice into a single handy guide that addresses the most important issues facing any Ph.D., including: -When, where, and what to publish -Writing a foolproof grant application -Cultivating references and crafting the perfect CV -Acing the job talk and campus interview -Avoiding the adjunct trap -Making the leap to nonacademic work, when the time is right The Professor Is In addresses all of these issues, and many more.




Inside the Role of Dean


Book Description

Despite deans playing critical roles in education, little is known about the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed for the job, or the practical dilemmas they face on an almost daily basis. Each chapter of this international collection opens the role up for examination and critique, developing a deeper understanding of what it means to be a dean, and offering insights into the transition into the role, managing the daily demands and expectations of it, and what it means to exit the deanship. The book brings being a dean and the leadership inherent in the position into sharp focus based on international perspectives on doing the job.




The Dean


Book Description

More than 20,000 engineering students at Purdue University have been touched in some way by the ides or the warm personality of Andrey A. Potter, who served for 33 years as dean of the Schools of Engineering at Purdue, the world’s largest engineering institution. Awarded the honorary title of “Dean of the Deans of Engineering Universities” in 1949 by his alma mater, MIT, Potter has been a teacher for 48 years and a dean for 40. Among his thousands of colleagues at Kansas State, Purdue, and the professional societies he has headed, he is known with respect and affection simply as “the Dean.” This book, illustrated with photographs, traces his life from his boyhood in Russia and his journey at age 15 to America where, he contends, his life really began. We see him as a student cutting lab classes to attend an afternoon concert of the Boston Symphony, as a young man growing a van Dyke beard to make himself look older for his first job as an engineer with General Electric, and as a new assistant professor at Kansas State, courting his schoolteacher-sweetheart in a horse and buggy. His contributions to the engineering profession are many. He was president of the leading professional societies, prepared an exhaustive state-of-the-art study of engineering, and enhanced the public service aspects of his field by participating in government advisory boards. Greatly admired for his work with the National Patent Planning Commission, where he protected the right of the inventor to the fruits of his ingenuity, he is also respected for his publications in his own area of research, power generation and super-critical steam. A selected bibliography lists his writings. At Kansas State and Purdue, he organized curricula to emphasize study that could be used by engineers to solve problems in agriculture and industry; this brought farmers and businessmen closer to the campus and more aware of the university’s service to their state. He found deepest pleasure, however, not in these accomplishments, but in the personal contacts he established with students and colleagues. In his own words, “the secret of success is to love one’s fellow men.”




Keep Calm and Call the Dean of Students


Book Description

The role of Dean of Students is pivotal: in students’ lives; for their institutions as a conduit to senior administration about issues of concern to students; as a figure who can coordinate disparate campus constituencies -- from academic affairs and athletics to campus safety and relationships with parents and alums; and as a crisis manager.What preparation, skills, dispositions, and knowledge do DOSs need to be effective in their role; and, indeed, what areas and range of activities generally fall under their responsibility?Through chapters by experienced DOSs – from early career to veterans and in between – this book provides vivid first-hand accounts of what’s involved in managing the multiple roles of the deanship, its immense personal rewards, the positive impact that practitioners can make in the lives of students, and on campus policy and environment, without glossing over the demands on time and the concomitant stresses. The contributors describe the paths they followed to take on the role, and what they do to keep current.Each chapter offers a wealth of anecdotes that provide an insider’s feel for the daily life of the DOS, and how incumbents have found ways to integrate family and personal needs with the discharging of their often demanding responsibilities. The contributing authors offer valuable advice on setting priorities and dealing with issues as varied as setting budgets, creating an effective team, delegation, and addressing student conduct issues. They offer guidance on developing allies across campus, keeping up to date with trends and legislation, and building a network of mentors and advisors through professional associations and connection with their peers at institutions around the country. The book concludes with some perspectives about the meaning and purpose of the dean of students role in our current era and as we look to the future of higher education.The dean of students is a challenging role because it is often the one administrator thrust onto the frontlines to meet students not only at their best, but also at their worst. This person is an advocate and educator, disciplinarian and friend, confidant and counselor, and advisor and parent all rolled into one. Keep Calm and Call the Dean of Students offers a unique window into this challenging and rewarding position that will appeal to sitting deans; to those seeking this role; and to senior leaders in higher education seeking to appoint a DOS and/or organize a dean of students portfolio of responsibilities.







So You Want to be a Dean? Pathways to the Deanship


Book Description

This volume comprises chapters by humanist and interdisciplinary arts and sciences faculty who became academic deans, with reflections on how they used their position to further the liberal arts, fulfill special projects, and play a leadership role in shared governance on their campuses. These chapters shed light on how these colleagues were motivated to join the administration in public and private, large and small institutions, how their career pathways led them there, what their jobs entailed, what was some of the satisfaction they derived from their work, and, in some cases, how they felt about the experience. So You Want to be a Dean? provides a critical update to the experience of academic leadership at American colleges and universities during the pandemic because of the focus on leading a liberal arts faculty through Covid-19. The core focus of the volume is on the experience of leadership through personal reflections provided by academic leaders, the spark that motivates them to serve their colleagues and their university in their capacity as deans. This volume will greatly benefit mid-career academics in all fields working at American liberal arts colleges and universities who are curious about possible pathways into administration for faculty and the rewards that such career choices may hold.




From the Desk of the Dean


Book Description

Deans and former deans map the recent past and contemplate the immediate future of liberal arts and sciences education For those who have devoted their lives to teaching, learning, and innovation in the arts and sciences, it likely comes as no surprise that there has been a revaluing and devaluing of the work of students and faculty in the arts and sciences fields. In response Mary Anne Fitzpatrick and Elizabeth A. Say offer From the Desk of the Dean, an anthology of original essays by arts and sciences deans and former deans addressing the increasing demands for vocational education at the expense of the liberal arts and sciences. This informative collection examines the challenges in higher education and offers a compelling case for the value of the liberal arts and sciences. To honor the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences (CCAS), the largest association of arts and sciences deans in the country, editors Fitzpatrick and Say, both past presidents of CCAS, have assembled nine essays as well as three section introductions to create From the Desk of the Dean. Their goal is to prompt open discussions about American higher education and the perceived value of degrees in the basic arts and science fields. Many agree that to the public an accounting degree is of greater value than an art history degree and a civil engineering degree has more value than a degree in physics. The contributors to the volume include deans with experience working at public and private universities, large research universities, comprehensive teaching institutions, as well as scholarly and advocacy groups. Their essays, informed by their experiences as leaders who support excellence in teaching, research, and creative activity in the basic fields of human knowledge, examine the many criticisms of higher education and of the faculty and programs in arts and sciences. Sally Mason, president emerita of the University of Iowa, provides a foreword.




The Essential Academic Dean or Provost


Book Description

The go-to reference for academic leaders seeking practical answers to everyday challenges The Essential Academic Dean or Provost explains the "how" of academic leadership, providing a practical, comprehensive, reality-based reference for almost any problem, challenge, or opportunity. This updated second edition includes new chapters on the difference between leadership and management in higher education, leadership in politically charged environments, effective strategies for making decisions, and working with associate deans or provosts, plus new case studies, new research, and ten additional chapters available on the companion website. Each topic deals concisely with the most important information deans and provosts need when faced with a particular situation, providing both a comprehensive guide to academic leadership as well as a ready reference to be consulted as needed. The role of a dean or provost at a modern university is extremely complex, involving budgeting, community relations, personnel decisions, management of a large enterprise, fundraising, and guiding a school, college, or entire institution toward a compelling vision of the future. The details academic leaders have to deal with are numerous and critical, and every little thing matters. This invaluable guide provides the answers you need when you need them, and gives you framework for successfully navigating your job's many competing demands. Build support for a shared vision of the future Interact effectively with different internal and external constituencies Learn decision-making techniques specific to the academic environment Set, supervise, and implement a budget that allows your programs to flourish Academic leaders need a handy, focused reference that provides authoritative answers to the many issues and questions that arise every day. With proven solutions to a multitude of challenges, The Essential Academic Dean or Provost shows academic leaders what they need to know in order to successfully guide their institutions into the future.