Getting Started

Suggestions to get you started: 

1. Add these orientation sessions to your calendar:

• In August, attend the New Heads and Chairs Academy

• Throughout the year, attend biweekly UMass LEAD+ sessions (Leadership Enhancement for Academic Departments).  These valuable sessions provide leaders the opportunity to hear from campus administrators and learn about policies and resources.  

   

2. Schedule meetings with the important people around you: 

• Previous Heads/Chairs and Associate Chairs:  review this toolkit together and get access to all their past files, e.g. OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, Sharepoint.
• Your Dean
• Your staff: How did they work with the previous head/chair?  How will you work together going forward?
• Your faculty: What are their main goals and issues?  

• Peers: Schedule regular get-togethers with peers who are also department leaders. 

   

3. Get access to the online financial, academic and HR systems for approvals:

• Review the list of A&F applications with both your department administrator and school/college administration office and request access to the systems relevant to your role.

• Make sure you have access to all the past files from the department's head/chair in OneDrive or TEAMS, and prepare to add your own.

   

4. Prepare to review and/or approve proposals and award notices for your department:

• Kuali Approver Add/Change Form: Request Kuali Research Administration System approver changes by lead unit (dept) or parent unit (college)
• Set reminders on your calendar to approve research actions often.  At least two times each day is recommended for research-heavy departments.
   

5.  Review guiding documents:

• Departmental bylaws

• Relevant Union contracts

   

6. Familiarize yourself with the local support from your school/college:

• Each college provides support to their department chairs in a variety of ways. (e.g. onboarding meetings and individual meetings with college administrators, monthly leadership meetings, and/or mutual mentoring groups of "new department leaders"). 

   

7. Take a deep breath and think about what's important to you about being a department leader:

• What are one or two goals you have for this year?
• Schedule time each week for your research and writing.  Just a few hours of protected time will provide some necessary balance to your work.

8. Schedule writing time. OFD operates a heads and chairs writing group and a heads and chairs mutual mentoring group. 

• You can also check out the Healthy Relationships at Work Fellowship, the Leadership Essentials series, and the VALUES series for more workshops and support from OFD.

UMass Amherst administrative offices and administrators:  

• The UMass Amherst Provost's page for Faculty is a key centralized resource you should bookmark. The page points to the information you will need on such areas as administration and finance, personnel, collective bargaining agreements, faculty diversity, curricular planning, and much more.
• Campus Leaders in the Chancellors Office
• UMass Amherst Faculty Diversity Office

Organizational Charts of UMass administrative offices:

• UMass Amherst Organizational Chart
• UMass Amherst Administration and Finance Organizational Chart

Guidance on accessing systems:

• UMass HR, Financial, and Academic Systems  

Resources regarding department leadership expectations:

• Office of Faculty Development Leadership Development Programming
• Center for Faculty Advancement, New York - a selection of articles on department leadership from the Chronicle of Higher Education and other resources