Academic Administration
“Life is a sea upon which the proud are humbled, the shirker is exposed, and
the leader is revealed.” --Thomas S. Monson
the leader is revealed.” --Thomas S. Monson
I am a leader. From 2012 to 2020, I have been the academic Dean of Lower Division Collegiate and Developmental Education at Southwestern Oregon Community College. And for seventeen years I have served in administrative roles at the university while being a full-time faculty member at Ricks College and Brigham Young University-Idaho. I have been a college dean, department chair, and director of composition. I have been directly responsible for 5 departments (Academic Learning; English; Foreign Languages and Literatures; History, Geography, and Political Science; Humanities and Philosophy), 150+ faculty members, multi-million dollar budgets, developing and implementing new majors and programs, supporting the mission of the university.
At Ricks College and at Brigham Young University-Idaho, administrative leadership positions are rotated through the faculty rather than chosen from external recruiting. When Academic Vice President Dean Sorensen first asked me in 1992 to serve as Director of Composition, I told him directly that didn't want a leadership position because I wanted to stay in the classroom with students. He wisely told me that as an administrator I would continue to teach and that I would have a significant impact on more students by assisting their teachers. Over the years, I have come to appreciate his experience and wisdom. |
Academic Administration Positions
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Academic Administration ResponsibilitiesAt Ricks College and continuing at BYU-Idaho, department chairs and college deans remain full-time faculty while receiving reduced teaching loads. For both positions, I continued to teach two classes each semester. Teaching helped greatly to keep me grounded in my primary role at the university--a teacher who is a leader. Teachers are leaders. And leaders are teachers.
Additionally, my leadership opportunities came at the time of the historic announcement and transition from the two-year Ricks College to the four-year Brigham Young University-Idaho. Few individuals have the challenge and blessing of creating a new major and university from the ground up. We received broad, yet specific guidelines from President Gordon B. Hinckley, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, when he made the surprising announcement in June 2001. For instance, we must keep programs under 120 credits and prepare students for careers. My academic administration responsibilities lie in the following areas:
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Programs
New ProgramsEnglish Major. I was the English Department Chair at the time of the announcement. I had two weeks to propose to the Board that English be the first of eight majors at BYU-Idaho. With the help of Elaine Hawker, Director of Composition, we became the chief architects of the English major that has remained relatively unchanged for over ten years.
I have included the original proposal to the Board, the English Major ovrview, and the English Major first catalog draft for 2001-2002.
AccreditationI was the college dean during two accreditation processes and the department chair for one. The first accreditation review as dean was to request provisional status as a new BYU-Idaho. The second review was to receive permanent status as an accredited university through the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. Because of our English Education, Spanish Education, and History Education majors, I was involved with NCATE certifications. The dean's responsibility was to prepare and train departments in writing self-studies which became a part of the College of Language and Letters self-study.
Accreditation becomes a valuable method of program assessment, development, and improvement. I have included a English self-study I wrote as the department chair plus self-studies I requested from three departments. I have also included a specific course assessment based on Idaho Language Arts standards. |
English Chair Accreditation Reports
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College Dean Accreditation Reports
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Faculty
New HiresPerhaps the most significant role a dean has is the hiring of faculty. Each new hire becomes a multi-million dollar investment to the university with immeasurable impact on thousands and thousands of students.
Over the course of my academic administrative service, I was directly involved with hiring 70% of the English Department faculty and 40% of the college faculty. These hiring experiences represent the screening of thousands of applications, interviewing and observing teaching demonstrations of hundreds of candidates. Hiring decision meetings have become some of the most meaningful opportunities of my administrative career as chairs, deans, and administrators meet to discuss each candidate. After reviewing candidates' qualifications, analyzing teaching demonstrations, and evaluating interviews, we nearly always reached unanimous decisions. I have included samples of hiring process documents, mostly from my chair experience. |
Retention (Continuing Faculty Satus)Pre-CFS. When new faculty members are hired, they begin the process of Continuing Faculty Status, much like tenure. Chairs and deans are to nurture and train new candidates into mature, experienced faculty members. CFS Committees, chairs, and deans mentor and evaluate candidates' progress and make recommendations for CFS. The university president and academic vice president make final CFS decisions.
.As a dean, I was directly involved with the development and implementation of the CFS process at BYU-Idaho. I was also the first dean to request pre-CFS candidates generate a teaching portfolio to document their performances. The university later adopted portoflios as a significant part of the CFS review process. The following documents I have developed as dean outline and demonstrate the process. |
Post-CFS. After BYU-Idaho faculty receive CFS, they continue in a similar review process every three years. As chair and dean, I was to observe and evaluate all faculty every three years; therefore, each year would focus on one-third of the faculty. Not only did I observe each review teacher each semester, I also developed a peer review process where the review faculty would observe and evaluate two others that semester.
The following samples document the post-CFS review process. They include an overview of the process, sample letters to faculty outlining the review process, peer review teams, guidelines to evaluating a peer's teaching performance, and a sample of my teacher evaluation letter. |
Faculty Professional Development. As an academic administrator, I continued to focus on faculty professional development. Not only did I approve requests and provide monies for travel to professional conferences, I also encouraged in-house training workshops for faculty to highlight their areas and expertise. I conducted annual college meetings and workshops.
Below are sample programs of the meetings workshop announcements, college teaching newsletters, and college dean fall faculty addresses. |
Faculty Workshop Flyers
College Faculty Teaching Newsletters |
Students
Most of the monumental experiences I have had as an academic administrator center on improving the student experience at BYU-Idaho. These university-wide programs were initiated, developed, and implemented through college deans. These have now become defining features of BYU-Idaho students' experience.
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Community
Community service as a dean is in two principal areas: the university community and the professional community. Generally development monies are the responsibility of LDS Philanthropies, so deans rarely participated in contacting donors and securing grants.
University Communities. BYU-Idaho works predominantly through councils. I have served on the following councils:
Budget and Resources |
Another significant responsibility of academic administrators is to manage and account for multi-million dollar budgets.
Each year department chairs and deans meet with Presidents Council in Stewardship Reviews to account for the previous year's resources and to request resources for the upcoming year, including new hires, facilities, and monies. My first year as dean, college deans prepared and presented the annual report from the college which incorporated requests from each department to the Presidents Council. I have included that report. After that first year, the university reorganized the annual reports into Stewardship Reviews, where all department chairs within the college present to the dean and Presidents Council their accounts and requests. The dean assists chairs in developing their reports. |