Up
Is the chair to blame when department turnover is high
-
I am surprised to see this post, becuase that is exactly what is happening in my department. Can anyone tell how to resolve this toxic situation?
In my department the chair has a simple formula -
He uses junior faculty to help him hire who he wants. The hires are not the strongest candidates. He then tells these new APs that they wouldn’t be hired if not for him. The junior faculty feel obligated to follow him. By the time they realize that they’re being used, they’re out of the department. Rinse. Repeat.
-
If you don’t like what you see, feel free to leave.
In the end, it's always the dean who's to blame. They are the ones that give money for retention offers (or not), who find a job for spouses (or not), etc. They are also the ones who give (or not) new lines. And they should step in if a chair is incompetent.
-
Should be illegal
In my department the chair has a simple formula -
He uses junior faculty to help him hire who he wants. The hires are not the strongest candidates. He then tells these new APs that they wouldn’t be hired if not for him. The junior faculty feel obligated to follow him. By the time they realize that they’re being used, they’re out of the department. Rinse. Repeat. -
It depends a lot on the place. Some chairs have almost no power, and are simply relaying the decisions of the department. If $$ are controlled by accounting rather than the chair. If program directors pick the profs they want. Other chairs control every decision (approve every $ spent, course assignment, hiring) and then it’s a different ballgame. The concentration of power can make places like fiefdoms. It’s not the person, it’s the institution.
-
Should be illegal
In my department the chair has a simple formula -
He uses junior faculty to help him hire who he wants. The hires are not the strongest candidates. He then tells these new APs that they wouldn’t be hired if not for him. The junior faculty feel obligated to follow him. By the time they realize that they’re being used, they’re out of the department. Rinse. Repeat.This is all too common by bad department heads. Every few years, you get to vote to remove the department head or not. Don't waste the vote
-
The tallies of our votes are never disclosed, so we have no idea whether our votes really mean or count for anything. As such, the department head only cares about pleasing the dean and his/her other senior colleagues.
Our Dean routinely ignores the votes, saying they are only advisory.
-
Nobody below the university leadership has any real power where I am (a UK university). Chairs and departments get defunded if they are not in line. Deans get demoted if they don't enforce university strategy. It's an autocracy. The university also decided never to make retention offers for people who have outside offers. With such a policy, how would you blame the chair?
-
Nobody below the university leadership has any real power where I am (a UK university). Chairs and departments get defunded if they are not in line. Deans get demoted if they don't enforce university strategy. It's an autocracy. The university also decided never to make retention offers for people who have outside offers. With such a policy, how would you blame the chair?
Where is this uni? Sounds like a place in a downhill
-
Nobody below the university leadership has any real power where I am (a UK university). Chairs and departments get defunded if they are not in line. Deans get demoted if they don't enforce university strategy. It's an autocracy. The university also decided never to make retention offers for people who have outside offers. With such a policy, how would you blame the chair?
There is no rule that every Uni shall respond to outside offers
Some schools might do but it is not compulsory. So take or leave