Department chairs serve a vital function at community colleges. They are middle managers, mid-level leaders, and faculty members. They serve a unique position within the organization because they interact with nearly every unit: academics affairs, student affairs, senior administrators and students. At a time when professional organizations are…

This essay revisits and expands on Gary A. Olson and Joseph M. Moxley's 1989 article "Directing Freshman Composition: The Limits of Authority" by looking at revised notions of writing program administrators' work and authority in 2012. Whereas the original essay surveyed only department chairs, our study includes data from both…

Currently, two-year colleges are teaching the lion's share of college composition classes, mainly consisting of developmental writing and first-year composition courses; however, those same two-year colleges have been slow in embracing the composition theory and practices that are studied and implemented at four-year colleges. One way to…

Many teachers have known of (or been members of) departments in which all of the potentially successful chairs--after having proven themselves by running subunits or graduate programs--have decided to devote themselves solely to research or teaching, and to leave department administration to whoever is willing to do it or whoever can be talked…

Discusses faculty development and the role of the English department chairperson in that area. (FL)

Notes that the question of whether English departments had a future was asked 17 years ago when the author first became a department chair as it is asked now upon her retirement. Discusses things about the profession that have changed, for good or ill. Suggests that the profession's penchant for self-examination has not changed. (RS)

Discusses the responsibilities of serving as English department head. Two main duties identified are (1) to preserve and expand knowledge and (2) to ensure the success of the educational mission of the department. The administrator is encouraged to maintain scholarly activities while being a student of departmental and institutional affairs. (DF)

Briefly reviews personal experiences as an English department chair and compares the relative advantages of two systems of department administration: long-standing and short-term headships. (AEA)

Describes seven things the author would do, were he chairing an English department, to solve some of the problems that go with the post. (DD)

Stresses the importance and need for a college English department chair--in spite of the difficulties. (HOD)

Elaborates on five structural questions with which a department chair must contend.

Discusses the obligations of spending donor money at the university level: stewardship, donors' expectations, how to get maximum benefit from the money, and best projects to support. (PA)

Discusses form and content in the relationships between department chairpersons and deans, review committees, vice-presidents, English faculties in high schools, and others in the world beyond the English department. (JM)

Surveys the types of support and compensation that chairs in the Association of Departments of English (ADE) community receive. Notes that in the survey larger institutions and those granting advanced degrees are overrepresented, as they are in the ADE membership. Presents results of the surveys in 17 different tables. (SG)

Describes the results of a questionnaire survey of English department heads regarding teaching load and teaching conditions. (DD)