Weekly Briefing: Would You Rather Be President or Department Chair?

Being a department chair has always been a tough gig. It's only getting harder. ADVERTISEMENT [Weekly Briefing Logo]( Did someone forward you this newsletter? [Sign up free]( to receive your own copy. The job no one wants. What’s the hardest job on campus? President? Faculty recruiter? Those gigs and others are tough, but what about department chair? Our Megan Zahneis spoke recently with department chairs across the country about the faculty job that’s only gotten harder with the pandemic. What they detailed is telling about the position. Department chairs straddle a no man’s land. They aren’t just administrators or just faculty members. Somewhere in between those positions, chairs must navigate departmental dynamics, not to mention the colleagues whom chairs are asked to evaluate and supervise. Maybe you associate the position with power and prestige. To burst your bubble, when faculty members become department chairs, they aren’t awarded nicer offices like those shown in the Netflix series [The Chair](. Instead, many manage an illusion of power while navigating the administration’s limits. Though many academics agree to hold the position and look forward to altruistic goals, such as improving the experiences of faculty members, teaching assistants, and students, the job doesn’t always come with training to help meet those goals. During the pandemic, that desire to improve working conditions for department members led Mary Beth Dawson, biology chair at the City University of New York’s Kingsborough Community College, to work six days a week for 12 to 15 hours a day. Though Dawson didn’t usually answer colleagues’ emails in the evenings or on weekends, the pandemic and her chair position pushed her to do so. Sometimes she didn’t know how to handle panicked calls from colleagues, and responded with a positive refrain, “We can fix this.” [A 2016 study]( found that 67 percent of department chairs did not receive any formal training for the post from their institutions. Two-thirds of those who were trained said it hadn’t helped them prepare for the gig. Many institutions give their chairs a course release or a stipend — or sometimes a combination of the two — in return for their service. Others negotiate an extended sabbatical or more research funding. But one expert said such perks don’t cover the full cost of the job. Then there’s the worry that leading a department could hinder an academic career. For example, if younger scholars become chairs before they become full professors or have established research records, the duty can affect their career and potential for advancement. A few improvements would make chairing more appealing, experts told Megan. Colleges could pay chairs better. Institutions could offer training or improve existing training. And administrators could recognize chairs’ work instead of allowing them to be largely invisible. [Read Megan’s full article here](. More tough campus jobs. The list of difficult jobs on a college campus is long. Here are more stories about those posts and the people who hold them: - Admissions officers: [The People Who Deliver Your Students]( - Interlibrary-loan managers: [When You Need That One and Only Book]( - College presidents: [Who Wants to Be a College President?]( - Campus janitors: [The Cleanup Never Ends]( SPONSOR CONTENT | Rowan university [Built 'from scratch' Rowan University engineers fly drone swarms around the world]( ADVERTISEMENT Lagniappe. - Learn. Why is going to the grocery store getting [more expensive]( (The Washington Post) - Read. What’s this Olympic figure skater’s winning secret? [Chess](. (GQ) - Listen. 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