Based on a workshop for theatre department chairs, guidance on administrative and departmental responsibilities are provided in the following chapters: (1) "Chairs and Deans: Working Together" (J. Robert Wills); (2) "Faculty Evaluation" (Patti P. Gillespie); (3) "Evaluation for Promotion and Tenure" (James M. Symons); (4) "Production Program…

Discusses the role of the administrator in communication programs. Considers educational goals and values of students; variations in enrollments; historically under-represented student populations; and faculty turnover and replacement. (MS)

Typical characteristics of program reviews, illustrations of to whom the reviews relate in a university setting, and conditions and expectations that may enhance the use of the results of program reviews are described in this report. It is argued that program reviews do not serve all levels of a university equally; the primary beneficiaries of the…

During the great increase in college enrollments of the 1950's and 1960's, many linguists saw opportunities for expanding the prominence and practice of linguistics by starting a linguistics program where there had been none before. New linguistics programs can no longer be justified in view of the current job market. The number of linguists being…

To examine the current status of speech and theatre departments in small (1000 to 3000 students) U.S. liberal arts colleges, 24 colleges in the Midwest and Great Lakes areas were surveyed. The survey revealed that the colleges organized speech and theatre in one of four ways; they either (1) combined departments, (2) split the two into separate…

Organizational change in college academic administration and structure is discussed, with attention to both the programs of study and the organizational units. The ideas of Miles and Snow on organizational adaptation are examined, along with the literature on organizational analysis in higher education over the past 20 years. Three main ideas of…

An alternative measure for evaluating the performance of academic departments was studied. A comparison was made with the traditional manner for computing unit costs and productivity ratios: prorating the salary and effort of each faculty member to each course level based on the personal mix of course taught. The alternative method used averaging…

The director of a freshman writing program must establish a position of quiet but firm power. Only if a director starts with authority, money, and intelligence, can he or she hope for lasting and beneficial change in a college writing program. The director should also have a commitment to teaching writing. Dedication to such a task requires…

A 1987 survey of college English departments revealed that only 74 (38%) of the 194 colleges surveyed offered students the opportunity to specialize in some aspect of writing in addition to literature. A 1992 survey showed that 69% of departments had begun to offer this specialization. Respondents outlined possibilities for organizing and…

An expanded program review process that includes qualitative, ethnographic, retrospective, and subjective data is described. At the University of Kansas, qualitative indicators were developed and methods were designed to implement them. Reviews were moved from a process of reacting to quantitative self-studies to a procedure that involved:…

An analytic system for determining student flow in different subject fields in order to produce departmental workload forecasts is examined. The system consists of three steps. The first step, student flow calculation, computes the relationship of enrollments by major and student level from one year to another. This calculation utilizes historical…

Because the structure of a writing program establishes its content and values, a writing program should be integrated with other aspects of English studies to avoid being merely an add-on to the college English department. Several planning strategies can assist in promoting this integration. A writing program should involve all related campus…

The spring of 1995 brought the onus of assessment to the Department of Communication Arts at Ohio Northern University (ONU). Often seen as a painful process, departmental assessments can become productive endeavors. Although, as a private institution, ONU is not subject to the dictates for assessment from the State Board of Education, assessment…

The relationship between strategic planning and environmental determinism was investigated at the University of Minnesota. The central proposition was that for a particular type of institution (a liberal arts college of a large public university), the strategic planning process will not be strategic either in the sense of being environmentally…

Psychology instruction through the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, is described, along with faculty development and teaching philosophy. Courses offered by the department are part of an integrated curriculum in the behavioral sciences, with the central focus being leadership development.…