College of Arts, Social Sciences, & Humanities (CASSH)

A month-by-month overview of major deadlines - Year at-a-glance

Note: Important Human Resources and Records & Registration deadlines are reflected in UWL's master calendar that can be routed to an individual's calendar.

Provost's Office specific list of important dates

CASSH Chair & Program Director Responsibilities

Chairs are considered the supervisors for several types of employees at UWL depending on the department. Different personnel processes are associated with each type of employee.

  Ranked faculty = tenure -track or tenured faculty

      Retention (contract and non-contract reviews), Promotion, and Merit
      
      HR's Faculty Resource - retention, etc.
        Promotion - HR page and Provost's Promotion Pages

  Instructional Academic Staff (IAS)  - semester, academic year, annual or multi-year contract

     Individual Development Plan (IDP) -  annual

     Guide to IAS Promotion - HR Policy 

Classified Staff -  Administrative assistants such as Academic Department Associates  (ADA) and University Service Associate (USA) and Limited Term Employees (LTE)

    Individual Development Plan (IDP) - annual

Academic Staff - non instructional positions

Individual Development Plan (IDP) - annual

Student Workers
Traditionally administrative assistants are the supervisors for student workers; however, chairs may be the supervisors for student workers and/or graduate assistants.

Department Bylaws

WINGS

Chairs have permissions within WINGS allowing access to functions beyond those of faculty. Chairs can modify many aspects associated with the schedule of classes, they can access all class lists associated with their department (and can email the students in a class), they have additional textbook screens and have access to Post Enrollment Requisite Check (PERC) pages and milestone reports. Also, as indicated below, major/minor reports,  and SEI and TAI information.

• WINGS course-related "how-to" information  (Scheduling, Textbook rental, Modify scheduled classes, Facility availability, etc).  
  
  • Emailing majors/minors - how to generate a spreadsheet of the email addresses of majors
  • Enrollment data across courses - how to generate a spreadsheet for all courses per term  
• Student Evaluation of Instruction (SEI) - overview and administration guide
• Grade Distribution Reports  - can be pulled by semester, instructor, section, and department
• TAI (teaching assignment information) for personnel procedures - retention and promotion 

INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH

Data that a chair or administrative assistant cannot pull from WINGS can be requested from Institutional Research - IR.  

Historical and current enrollment data is available on the O: file system.

• Important terms: IFTE - instructional full-time equivalent; SCH - student credit hour (# of students X # of credits) 

PRIMARY CONTACT & RESOURCE: Tony Walker (CASSH Budget Officer) 

ACCOUNT FUND NUMBERS - most common shown below (p. 29 of WISDM manual provides a more complete list)

• 102 - General Program Revenue- main source of department funds
• 128 - special course fees, seg fees, etc.
• 131 - differential tuition (includes GQ&A)
• 133/144 - grants 

COMMON BUDGET DEFINITIONS   

• WISDM - the web-based financial reporting software that is a component of the UW-System's Shared Financial System. Most of the WISDM reports can be downloaded to Excel.  
  • LOGIN -WISDM or use the UWL Quicklinks dropdown menu – WISDM, to login
  • CLS WISDM information
• GPR - General Program Revenue (state funding) 
• GQ&A - Growth, Quality and Access (UWL's tuition plan) - funding for instructors hired through GQ&A is reflected in a different budget lines than those who are GPR  

FOUNDATION ACCOUNTS 

Contact - Business Services: businessservices@uwlax.edu or 608.785.8554

TRAVEL

• Link to UWL travel guidelines, meal per diem, and travel forms.
• Link to UW System Travel Regulations (includes lodging guidelines)
• Link to CASSH STUDENT TRAVEL REQUEST form

Department chairs can access two levels within Digital Measures

1. Individual (each chair’s own individual activities)
2. Departmental 
   • Departmental activities/Annual Reports
   • Departmental components of personnel reports

Digital Measures documentation for chairs

CASSH's Curriculum Review Committee (formerly AOC)

Chart of CASSH Curriculum Workflow Process

Catalog-specific information

Curriculum Assistance

• Curricular Infusion Workshop Worksheet
• Video on Curricular Infusion.  Please play with closed captioning ON.  The worksheet and references links pop up when you click the Information icon (the circled i) in the video player. The video is about 12 1/2 minutes long.

Summer School  

UWL's department-specific spreadsheets  - communication schedule and enrollment and salary data

Quick guide to assessment for chairs
CASSH Assessment Committee
UWL Assessment Resources

Faculty Senate Policy 

IV. Responsibilities of Departments, Department Members and Department Chairpersons
V. The Selection of Department Chairpersons
VI. Remuneration of Department Chairpersons

Chairs/Deans roles and responsibilities chart - (forthcoming)
    personnel review, hiring, curriculum, load, etc. 

Terms. Department chairs serve three year terms. Elections are held in February and conducted by the Dean's office. Faculty Senate policy guides chairs elections. Departmental policy guides who is eligible to vote in the elections.

Reassignment Time: Faculty Senate Policy (October, 2021)

1. Department chairpersons are to be assigned a reduced load depending on department size:

a. A reduction of one-quarter time for a chairperson of a department with fewer than 10 full time faculty positions.
b. A reduction of one-half time for a chairperson of a department with 10 or more full-time positions.

2. Exceptions to the preceding guidelines are permitted when justified by the volume of departmental business or by other university responsibilities held by the chair. However, all such exceptions shall be arranged in consultation with the Dean. Summer appointments are at the discretion of the college Deans.

Academic Year Remuneration: Department chairs receive a stipend of $2,700 per 9-month academic year, paid out at $300 per month, from October through June paychecks (Faculty Senate, November 2007). 

Summer Remuneration: Department chairs receive a summer stipend associated with the IFTE of their department - the amount is determined at the College level.  

• List of chair summer responsibilities

Procedure

• Occurs every other year
• The Dean’s Office distributes an electronic survey to the faculty, IAS and staff associated with any given department
• Surveys administered by Dean’s Office through an on-line survey

Measures: the survey has five major sets of questions

• A set of standard items asked in regards to all chairs (5-point - strongly agree/strongly disagree)
  • 1. Advances the department toward agreed upon goals.
  • 2. Has fair and open communications with faculty, students, and staff.
  • 3. Facilitates open and professional communication amongst department members.
  • 4. Assures that personnel and non-personnel resources are utilized effectively.
  • 5. Fairly and equitably mentors faculty and IAS through the retention, tenure, promotion, merit, and/or post-tenure review process.
  • 6. Allocates resources in ways consistent with department priorities.
  • 7. Facilitates positive relationships among and between faculty and staff.
  • 8. Clearly communicates departmental expectations based on the bylaws for personnel evaluation (career progression, IDP, merit, retention, tenure, post-tenure review, promotion).
• A single overall performance item
  • Indicate the degree of confidence you hold of your department chair in this role:
  • Exceptional confidence – s/he appears to be doing an outstanding job as chair
  • High confidence – s/he appears to be doing a good job as chair
  • Moderate confidence – s/he appears to be doing an adequate job as chair
  • Low confidence – s/he appears to be doing a weak job as chair
  • No confidence – s/he is doing a poor job as chair
• A set of items selected by the department (5-point - strongly agree/strongly disagree)
• A set of open-ended comment boxes regarding chair performance
• A set of open-ended comment boxes regarding departmental goals

Follow-up

• Dean meets with chair and provides the aggregate data.
• Dean relays common themes from survey comments
• Dean discusses her/his professional feedback on the chair’s performance
• Numerical scores returned to all department members and chair

 UWL Provost's Resources for Department Chairs

Recommended reading

Buller, J. L. (2011). The essential department chair: A comprehensive desk reference (Vol. 132). John Wiley & Sons.

Chu, D. (2012). The department chair primer: What chairs need to know and do to make a difference. Jossey-Bass.

Gmelch, W.H. & Miskin, V.D. (2011). Department chair leadership skills. Madison, Wisconsin: Atwood Publishing.

Gunsalus, C. K. (2006). The college administrator's survival guide. Harvard University Press.

Online resources

American Council on Education (ACE) - general higher education topics: http://www.acenet.edu/higher-education/Pages/default.aspx

Association of American Colleges and Universities - useful for resources about the value of a liberal education, global learning practices, civic learning and communication engagement, and more...rubrics available for exploring standards of evaluation for the aforementioned:  http://www.aacu.org/

Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences - information about workshops for department chairs (offered 3 times per year in July, October, and February) - www.ccas.net

The Department Chair Journal - in each issue there will be articles about leadership, useful strategies for chairs, practical ideas, questions for reflection and more.

Jossey-Bass Department Chair resources 

Magna’s Newsletter - Academic Administration - http://www.magnapubs.com/academic-administration/

The CASSH Strategic Plan (2021) outlines the College's mission, the planning process, and the plan's goals.