Contact person: Oliver Walter, Dean (owalter@uwyo.edu)
No department or program can operate in isolation. It is always wise to keep appropriate administrators informed of your unit’s accomplishments, as well as problems. In particular, it is important to keep the dean or one of the associate deans informed of problems, opportunities, etc!
Maintaining cordial working relations with other administrators is invariably wise. Don’t think you can intimidate your fellow heads or university administrators; in neither the short nor the long run will this strategy move your department forward.
The university does have a chain of command. As a department head or program director you should make it very clear to departmental academic personnel and staff that you are the administrator in charge of the unit, and consequently, they should come to you first with their problems and concerns. Moreover, any request for financial support must start with you and be approved by you prior to leaving the department. This said, it is true that academic institutions are not nearly as hierarchical as business or military bureaucracies.
Likewise, before you approach Old Main, inform the dean of your request or concern. If ever you have a concern with a college policy or a Dean’s Office decision, you are very strongly encouraged to communicate this concern in person, by phone, or by e-mail. Don’t stew about an issue. Talk to the dean about it. Keep the dean informed.
Whether at the department, college, or university level, prioritizing is difficult. If you believe something is important, don’t let it drop. For instance, if you believe additional space is a very high department priority, it is your job to keep it on the agenda. Few difficult problems are solved immediately. Polite tenacity in pursuit of a solution is clearly a virtue.
Heads or their designee are required to attend regularly scheduled meetings (monthly heads’ meetings) and a retreat for heads (meeting schedule.doc). If you must be absent for a scheduled meeting, send a faculty member as a substitute.
A&S holds college meetings once each fall and spring. The dean discusses the state of the college in both meetings.
At the fall meeting the department head or program director introduces all new academic personnel and recognize the A&S Extraordinary Merit for Teaching, Research and Advising award winners. It is your responsibility to inform your new academic personnel of this event, and encourage them to attend.
In the spring, the college meeting is primarily devoted to recognizing faculty who have received various college and university awards. It is your responsibility to nominate faculty, academic professionals, and staff advisors for awards.
You are expected to attend both meetings and to strongly encourage your academic personnel to do so.
Each spring, the Dean’s Office prepares a list of the openings on college committees as defined by the A&S Bylaws (Central Committee, A&S T&P, Teaching) and any university committees for which A&S needs to elect members (for example, the University T&P Committee, UNIREG 702). A major responsibility for the senior head in each division is to be in charge of the committee nomination process. The senior head in each division is notified of the openings on each committee and contacts the other division's heads to prepare a slate of nominees for each of the openings. The senior head of the division is responsible for sending at least two candidates from the division for each vacancy to the Dean’s Office. To provide faculty with choices, there will be two candidates for each position. If the senior head cannot identify willing candidates, the dean will do do. The Dean’s Office prepares the on-line ballot, notifies academic personnel of the deadline for voting, tallies the votes, and announces the results. All faculty and academic professionals in the college vote on each committee opening, whether or not the nominees are in their division.
These committees make decisions that affect the college in important ways. Department heads need to nominate faculty who will contribute positively to the committees to which they may be elected.
Academic departments
The department’s performance is assessed by the information contained in the department’s annual report. For academic departments, the annual report format can be found at the following link (Annual Report DEPTGUIDE.doc). The report for each department is due in the Dean’s Office each June. Areas discussed in the report include: Introduction; academic planning implementation; teaching activities; research and/or creative activities; service, extension and outreach activities; student recruitment, retention activities and enrollment trends; development activities and public relations; classified and professional staffing; diversity; and classified and professional staffing. Please note that progress on attaining goals stated in the department academic plans must be discussed in the report. This report is part of the university’s unit review process Policy Statements.
According to UW’s policy on minors, (http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/AcadAffairs/policystatements/minors.htm) the Annual Report should include a report on the department’s minor curriculum and status.
Non-academic programs
For non-academic programs, the annual report format can be found at the following link Non-Academic Annual Report DEPTGUIDE.doc. This report is due in the Dean’s Office in mid-July. Areas discussed in the report include the program’s mission statement, accomplishments, budget, trends in clientele served, external funding, public relations, staffing, Web pages, and a planning update. This report will become part of the program’s unit review.
Prior to extending an invitation to a high-level dignitary*, the inviting unit should:
√ Prepare a visit proposal including
tentative schedule of activities and meetings
extent of the President's participation
tentative guest list for each part of the event
risk security assessment and security plan (if applicable)
√ Formulate a tentative budget for the visit, including costs and potential sources of funding for
Security
Catering
Vehicle and equipment rental
Honorarium (if applicable)
Lodging
Gifts (if applicable)
√ Present proposal, budget, and brief biographical information on the dignitary to your
Department chair, manager, or director;
Dean;
Vice President
√ Notify the following points of contact for dignitary visits
Vice President for Government, Community Affairs (care of Gloria Baker)
The President's Office (care of Kim Reichert)
The Office of International Programs (care of Anne Alexander), if applicable.
√ Consult widely with other units on campus who may have an interest in and/or be required to participate in the visit, such as units with related academic interests, the U.W. Police Department, and the Alumni Association, and so on.
* a high-level dignitary includes but is not limited to heads-of-state/government; high-ranking members of royalty; U.S./foreign first spouses; former heads-of-state/government; sitting United States Cabinet members; high level representatives of foreign governments, including Ambassadors, Foreign Ministers, and Consuls General, current and former United Nations Secretaries General; non-Wyoming U.S. Senators and Representatives, and high-profile individuals who may generate substantial media attention and a large audience.
** This checklist does not apply to invitations issued to Wyoming's Governor, First Spouse, members of the Congressional delegation, the other four state elected officials, and Wyoming legislators to events on campus. Please do notify the Office of the Vice President for Government, Legal, and Community affairs when issuing an invitation to these dignitaries, to avoid multiple, conflicting invitations, as they are frequently invited to UW.