BRYN MAWR COLLEGE

The Chair is responsible for the strength and vitality of the departmental program, the support and guidance of department colleagues in their research and teaching activity, and the well-being of students enrolled in the department's courses and programs. The Chair helps implement the College's established procedures and practices with respect to faculty and students. The Chair acts as a representative of the department to the wider College community and, at the same time, should make departmental colleagues aware of College-wide policies and concerns. The Chair coordinates the departmental program in relation to other College programs and programs at Haverford College.

Chairs of large departments and programs may get a reduction in teaching load, to be approved by the Provost. Chairs of small departments and programs may get a stipend or research award. There are no financial or other material benefits for the chairmanship.

1. Assign the teaching responsibilities of individual members of the department or program.
2. Prepare class schedules and coordinate these with other relevant departments' and programs' schedules and with Haverford counterparts.
3. Supervise departmental support staff and student workers.
4. Serve on committees as the departmental representative.
5. Maintain the records and files of the department. See the College's Record's Retention Policy.
6. Prepare and monitor the departmental budget.
7. Make the recommendations to the Provost in the full professorial and merit review processes. For these processes, see the Handbookstatement and the policy statement.
8. Convene and chair departmental meetings.
9. Provide for a substitute acting chair in his/her absence. Although department meetings are generally convened by the Chair, it should be noted that any member of the department may initiate a call for a department meeting for the purpose of joint discussion. See the Plan of Governance III.6.b.
10. Monitor the accuracy of departmental webpages in order to maintain a web presence that is informative and up-to-date.
11. Safety: In the departments of natural and physical sciences, in particular, take responsibility for the safety of students, laboratory coordinators, and teaching and laboratory assistants while they are working in the department's laboratories. The College's Office of Environmental Health and Safety works with Chairs to implement safety-related training, work practices and standards.
12. Collections: Work with the Collections staff to assure the safekeeping of any collections the department may have, including gems, baskets, artifacts, rock speciments, fine art, historical equipment, fossils, etc.
13. Equipment: Assure that departmental equipment is properly used, maintained, and secured. Press here for the College's policy on Equipment for Instruction and Research. Equipment security includes observation of the College's policies on Internet use.
14. Make sure that all to-do lists never end in 13.

Departmental leadership

1. Planning: The Chair, together with the members of the department, is expected to guide a departmental planning process, formal or informal, in order to achieve the following goals:
   • Each department should have a basic three-year curriculum and staffing plan, including the cycles of all course offerings, and the leave and research plans of members of the department. These plans are a basic part of the annual budget/staffing planning process. Detailed annual staffing plans will not be reviewed until counterpart departmental approvals have been sought and received. See below on Haverford.
   • Curriculum: It is the responsibility of the Chair to work with all members of the department to see that the courses, the major and the graduate programs (where present) offered by the department meet the College's standards, the students' needs, and the evolving requirements of the particular discipline.
   • Financial planning: The Chair is responsible for all financial matters within the department, including the preparation and monitoring of the annual budget. Departments are encouraged to develop and maintain three-year budget plans that project those anticipated programmatic and staffing needs which have a financial impact; major and minor equipment needs; the replacement and addition of laboratory, research and office equipment and furniture; and the need for office and building renovation. Chairs in the sciences are to work with the Director of Sponsored Research in developing and securing grants in support of major equipment needs.
   • Program development and support: Chairs are expected to work with the Provost and Resources staff on major outside funding initiatives for program development and support.
   • Requests for tenure track positions: Chairs are responsible for making proposals to the Committee on Academic Priorities for replacement and new tenure track appointments. All vacated tenure track lines, whether by departure or retirement, are subject to re-prioritization reallocation by CAP and the President, based on their assessment of the College's academic priorities. CAP guidelines are available electronically. Department chairs should communicate any such requests to the Provost as part of the annual staffing and budget meeting in the fall semester preceding the anticipated search.

2. Pedagogy: It is the responsibility of the Chair to see that the members of the department meet the College's standards for pedagogy, as set forth in this Handbook in the section on responsibilities as a teacher and in the Rules of the Faculty.

3. Teaching Evaluations: It is the responsibility of the Chair to see that teaching evaluations for all members of the department are conducted each semester according to the procedures outlined in the Committee on Appointment's Procedures for Course Evaluations. Evaluations should be conducted in all courses taught by all faculty, whether tenured, on tenure track, or on continuing or interim appointments, and in laboratory and drill sections as well. Chairs should read all the evaluations for untenured Assistant Professors and interim faculty members; they are necessary supporting information for reappointment requests and essential for mentoring junior faculty members. Faculty members and/or departments may append additional questions or individual departmental forms as they see fit. Periodic review of forms of the evaluation procedure is undertaken by the Committee on Appointments in consultation with Department Chairs. Standard forms and guidelines are available here.

4. Student advising: The Chair, together with other members of the department and the Deans, is responsible for seeing that all students enrolled in the department's courses receive the advising they need in meeting course requirements (including seeking approval for course work done elsewhere), preparing major work plans, qualifying for study abroad in the junior year, learning about professional and post-graduate opportunities, and, more generally, dealing with the challenges and difficulties they encounter in their studies.

5. Graduate students: Chairs of the departments in which there are graduate programs have the further responsibility of working to recruit graduate students; securing, where possible, research support for the students; and overseeing their courses of study and professional development.
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6. New members of the department: The Chair is responsible for introducing all new members of the department into the College community. In particular, the Chair should see to the "socializing" of new continuing faculty, including but not limited to guidance in setting a cycle of courses that meet the programmatic needs of the department and the interests of the individual; helping where necessary in the development of the proper pedagogical methods and skills; clearly communicating the department's and the College's expectations for performance in the classroom, in the community, and in the wider scholarly world; assuring that the new faculty member is aware of those College's programs and resources which benefit and support the faculty; including the new member in the planning of departmental programs and functions and in the execution of departmental responsibilities in a judicious fashion. Chairs will understand that new members of the faculty benefit from discussions with their senior colleagues and feedback about their teaching, research and service. See the College's mentoring policy.
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7. Research oversight: In those departments in which research on human subjects is undertaken, the chair is responsible for insuring that department members adhere to the policies and procedures for reviewing research involving human subjects. Each department and the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research is expected to appoint a faculty member as the "departmental reviewer" who will be responsible for overseeing the initial review of proposals and consent forms before they are submitted to the IRB.

8. Appointment and re-appointment of faculty members:
   • If so designated by the Committee on Appointments and the Provost and together with the members of the department, the Chair is responsible for conducting the search for new members of the department, following the College's standard guidelines for faculty searches.
   • The Chair is responsible for conducting the review at the departmental level of members of the department eligible for reappointment and promotion. These responsibilities are assigned in the Plan of Governance III.6.c and in the Procedures for Review of Candidates for Reappointment and Promotion. Occasionally a senior member of one department is asked to assist in the reappointment review process of a faculty member in another department. Calendars for each type of review are available in the Procedures section.
   • Interim faculty: The chair is also responsible for making recommendations for the appointment and reappointment of faculty employed in temporary positions. Such recommendations are submitted to the Provost for appropriate action. Procedures for these appointments are found elsewhere in this Handbook. The Chair is expected to read the teaching evaluations of all interim faculty before considering appointment or reappointment.
   • Research associates: The Chair is responsible for requesting the reauthorization of research associates on an annual basis. Procedures for these appointments are found on the Provost's Office website.
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9. Review of full professors: Those chairs who are full professors are required to write an evaluation of the professors in their departments when the latter come up for review and to forward it with the professor's dossier to the Provost's Office. Chairs who are not full professors may elect not to evaluate a senior colleague and should so inform the Provost's Office after receiving a notice about a full professorial review in the department.

10. Departmental reviews: The Chair is responsible for leading department members in the review of the activities of the department by committees of experts from outside the College. Most reviews are conducted jointly with Haverford College, so that counterpart departments on both campuses are visited simultaneously. Visiting Committees examine the total program of a given department with the purpose of helping the department make a more effective contribution to the life of the College. In addition, Visiting Committees are interested in the professional activities of faculty within a department for the same purpose. The Chair is responsible for leading department members in the preparation of the self-study, a document or profile which serves as a written introduction to the department for an outside review team. Sample departmental self-studies are available in the Provost's Office. Review guidelines and a schedule of recent reviews are posted. In addition to presenting the department to the Visiting Committee in the self-study, the Chair and the members of the department meet individually and collectively with the committee during its visit to the College. In those meetings, they have the opportunity to speak freely about their perceptions of the qualities and problems of the program and about the College. Undergraduate and graduate students are also invited to meet with members of the team in separate sessions. The Visiting Committee prepares a written report, which it sends to the President(s) and Provost(s). The Provost then sends the report to the Department Chair to be shared with members of the department, who are instructed to prepare a written response to the outside team's report. These materials are also shared with the Committee on Appointments and the Committee on Academic Priorities, and, as appropriate, with the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and with the Graduate Council of Arts and Sciences.

    Meetings between the department and the President, Provost, and any other appropriate persons or groups provide opportunities for additional discussion of the outside evaluations and the courses of action they suggest. It is the responsibility of the Chair to see that the appropriate follow-up takes place at both the departmental and administrative level.
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11. Events and programs: Together with the members of the department, the Chair is responsible for planning lectures and other extracurricular events to complement the curricular offerings of the department. Departments are encouraged to post their events on the College Calendar, maintained by the Office of Conferences and Events.

12. Cooperation with Haverford College: In carrying out departmental responsibilities, the Chair should consult routinely with the Chair of the counterpart department at Haverford, in the interests of using program resources most effectively, supporting collegial relationships between members of the same discipline in the two colleges, and seeing that the students are offered as wide and well-coordinated a range of course offerings as possible. See the agreements on bi-college cooperation.

    Chairs are also expected to consult in person with their Haverford counterparts each year when planning the course schedule in order to minimize course conflicts and maximize complementarity in offerings; joint departmental gatherings annually for this purpose are encouraged. Annual staffing and curricular plans cannot be reviewed until counterpart Haverford departmental approvals have been received.

13. Professional development: In the interests of teaching effectively and communicating well with students and colleagues, the Chair should encourage the development of digital (or information) technology skills via participation in the College's training programs, etc.

14. Supervision of support staff: For those departments in which there are dedicated support staff, the Chair is responsible for assuring their effective performance. That involves, but is not limited to, providing a new employee with a careful introduction to the department's needs, practices, procedures, and records; being clear about short- and long-term expectations; meeting as needed to review concerns; providing feedback; approving vacation days and time off, and performing annual employee performance evaluations. The Chair should ensure that the support staff is available to handle the basic needs for assistance of other members of the department, helping staff members to determine priorities when time or resources are in short supply. Chairs should encourage staff to avail themselves of training opportunities sponsored by the College which enhance the staff member's ability to support the department.

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Maintained by the Office of the Provost.
Posted Summer 2001.
Updated Summer 2006.