The fourth annual series of spring workshops for department/division chairs sponsored by CIC will focus on the theme of “Effective Personnel Practices.” The workshops, designed to serve both experienced and new chairs, will offer opportunities to explore strategies for department and division chairs to work effectively in sensitive situations with colleagues, staff, and students.

Workshop topics will include:

      Preventive Law. Lawyers familiar with legal issues at private colleges and universities will explain the basic principles with which department chairs should be familiar and situations in which it is necessary to document actions. Emphasis will be placed on legal planning and preventing legal problems.
      Theory and Practice of Conflict Resolution. Conflict between individuals or groups within a department or between departments often emerges but chairs are not always prepared to find and resolve the source of the problem. Frameworks for understanding the source of conflict and approaches to addressing the underlying issues will be explored.
      Legal Issues in Hiring, Non-Renewal of Contracts, and Firing. Legal experts will explain how legal problems arise and offer strategies for preventing litigation in the hiring and firing of faculty members and staff as well as procedures to consider in
non-renewal of contracts for faculty members. Key concepts such as equal treatment, breach of oral and written contracts, and implied contracts will be examined.
      Conducting Difficult Conversations on Personnel Issues. Department chairs can prevent many personnel issues from mushrooming into major problems through early intervention. Sometimes chairs delay difficult conversations with colleagues because they lack expertise in tactfully encouraging change or in delivering bad news. Participants will explore how to have a frank conversation with a colleague or staff member when he or she may have done something potentially harmful to the institution.
      Support for Personnel in Stressful Circumstances. Department chairs are on the front line playing a key role in helping faculty members and staff succeed during times of change such as a transition in administration, the implementation of a new curriculum, or adjustments to a budget reduction. What strategies might chairs employ during difficult times to effectively lead the department and encourage their colleagues?
      Working with the CAO. What do CAOs expect of department chairs? What are the do’s and don’ts for chairs in creating an effective working relationship with the CAO?

      Speakers on legal issues will include Steve Hirschfeld, a partner in Curiale Dellaverson Hirschfeld Kraemer & Sloan, LLP, a practice involving labor, employment, and higher education law, who is also the chief executive officer of the Employment Law Alliance, the world’s largest network of labor and employment lawyers; attorney Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, principal of CG2 Consulting and a seminar leader on a variety of higher education management and legal subjects including faculty hiring procedures, academic ethics, and sexual harassment policies; Philip Moots, president of Moots, Cope and Stanton, a private law practice specializing in legal problems of colleges and universities and employment law; and R. Peter Carey, a partner in Mandel, Lipton and Stevenson Ltd., who has extensive experience with employment issues, including employment discrimination.
      Other speakers at the workshops will be Rita Callahan, a mediator, trainer, and consultant working with organizations and individuals to improve the ability of people and groups to manage conflict, who also co-chairs the Workplace Section of the Association for Conflict Resolution; Nancy Geist Giacomini, an educator, mediator, and editor of Mastering Mediation: A Guide for Training Mediators in the College and University Setting; and Jane Jakoubek, vice president and dean of academic affairs at Hanover College (IN), who has worked to strengthen faculty leadership of academic departments through research on institutional change and the support of new faculty members.
      Several experienced chief academic officers will also make presentations, including Sharon J. Washington, provost and vice president of academic affairs at Spelman College (GA); John F. Piper, Jr., dean of the college and professor of history at Lycoming College (PA); and Carl H. Caldwell, vice president for academic affairs and dean of Anderson University (IN).
      Campuses are encouraged to send several department chairs to a workshop so they may support one another in managing change upon return to their institution.

Click here for more information about registering for the program and hotel arrangements.