Department Chair Checklist
Major Roles and Responsibilities of a Department Chair, School Director, or Academic Area Head
Defining a Chair:
Chair is operationally defined as the head of a department or school.
A Chair is an essential and significant member of the University leadership. The Chair is both the chief academic and chief executive officer of a university unit and, as such, reports to the Dean who is the chief academic and executive officer of the college. They represent their faculty colleagues to the administration and the administration to their faculty. They encourage and foster excellence in research, scholarship, creative works of art, teaching, and professional, university, and community service. They also provide crucial leadership in the pursuit of the University's commitment to the strategic priorities, student access and student success.
Clear communication is critical and must flow up and down through the Chair, and the Chair must be able to explain and persuade to faculty members, the Dean, and administrators of what is best for both the department and the institution. They speak for the department (or area) to the college, university, and community, serving as a channel of communication on program, personnel, and budget matters.
Department Chairs work as professors who also perform administrative duties. They work with their faculty to modify and build the department curriculum, interview potential new faculty, manage faculty schedules, settle faculty and student disputes, and oversee departmental research and grant submissions. In this role, the department Chair liaisons between a department and the administration, reporting to the Dean.
The Chair serves at the pleasure of the Dean and the position is a twelve-month commitment, paid through two contracts: a 9-month and a 3-month full-summer contract, that each include a stipend for the Chair duties. Chairs should not expect a salary adjustment to their base 9-month salary, but will receive a stipend while fulfilling the Chair role. External Chairs shall be hired with a salary commensurate of the academic rank in which they are hired and the salaries of the existing faculty in the department. Appropriate compensation (stipend) for this commitment should be determined by the Dean at the time of appointment.
A Chair should have the stature to represent the academic ideals and aspirations of the department as well as the ability to perform its executive functions, including budget and resource allocations. The ideal Chair stimulates the department by generating ideas and initiatives. The Chair position involves a myriad of responsibilities and challenges and the work covers a wide range of activities, issues, and potential problem areas.