Dan, Paula, and I met yesterday to work through our ideas – no major changes to existing departments emerged from that meeting, but we are interested in some team-building ideas, clarification of what it means to be a department chair, load/stipends/responsibilities/authority associated with that job, etc. We are also trying to keep access to the deans as simple and direct as possible.

Dan and Paula will be meeting with department chairs and perhaps entire departments in the next two weeks to share their thoughts and listen to faculty input, so it’s too early for me to roll out anything at this point. There are ideas on the table that need to be discussed and vetted before we roll out a plan. I am pleased with the direction we are going at this point, but now we need to listen before we act.

I hope that Paula and Dan can wrap up their conversations by early March (the board meeting) and we will have a final structural organization for next year. Like everything, we will assess our structural effectiveness a year from now and see whether any more changes are warranted.