Dr.
Peter A. (Pete) Facione brings three decades of higher
education leadership experience as a Chair, Division Director, Dean,
and Provost. His higher education writings include essays on budgeting,
governance, liberal education, outcomes assessment, faculty evaluation,
and critical thinking. He has consulted on-site at over fifty institutions
around the country. In 2007 Dr. Facione became a senior associate
with Stratus-Heery
a higher education consulting firm known for strategic positioning
and comprehensive master planning.
The
materials below, developed during his years as a faculty member
and academic leader, are presented here for the benefit of the higher
education community. There are fictional
case studies to stimulate conversations as well as
workshop materials relating
to faculty evaluation and leadership responsibilities.
Permission
is granted to make copies of these cases and materials for personal,
noncommercial use. To discuss your academic leadership development
program needs with Dr. Facione contact him directly through Stratus-Heery
at pfacione@stratus-Heery.com
Conversations
and reflections on case studies refine academic leadership and
professional decision making by helping people see assumptions,
consequences and options. To maximize the learning potential of
a case studies, one would be well advised to articulate the reasons
for the decisions envisioned as flowing from the principles of
good leadership and professional practice. What might really have
happened (were these not fictional cases in the first place) is
not as important as what should have happened, had the people
been wiser about what they took the problems to be or more imaginative
regarding finding resolutions.
The events and characters depicted in the short cases presented
here are all fictional. The situations, however, are not uncommon.
There is more than one reasonable way to approach each case; yet,
some ideas about what to do or why to do it are going to be more
humane, more prudent, more just, more sensitive to core responsibilities,
more practical, more effective in the short and long term, and,
hence, frankly, better, than others. There are certainly some
serious mistakes a person can make in each case, mistakes with
unfortunate consequences for the individuals involved, for the
common good, and for the institution. If these cases seem too
easy, either you are a knowledgeable, skilled, and wise person,
or you may be missing something important! Enjoy.
There
are 25 brief fictional cases below. The grouping
suggests the organizational and leadership level where the case
is has proven to be most helpful. But there are no secrets. You
can download cases at every level and enjoy thinking through the
issues at hand. Each "case" is really a story with questions
interspersed to provide opportunities for problem framing, critical
and creative thinking, decision-making, and good judgment. Click
on a title to view the case in PDF file format.
Faculty
|
 "Too
Busy " (1 page) |
A
request from the Chair tips the scales for a colleague trying
to balance responsibilities to family and to academia.
|
"Seven
Is Forever" (1 page)
|
The
tenure clock continues to run as an assistant professor lives
as if there is no urgency about using the years wisely.
|
|
"Academic
Integrity -- Four Vignettes" (2
pages)
|
"Another
Einstein?" "Just a Quick Question," "Protecting
the Standards," and "The Data That Wasn't The Data."
|
| "The
Reader of Signs" (1 page) |
A
faculty mentor receives an e-mail from an anxious colleague
asking for assistance in looking for a job at a different
institution.
|
| "The
Decomposing Constructivist" (1
page) |
A
faculty mentor must figure out how to help a colleague who
seems to have serious classroom management problems.
|
| "The
Holiday Blues" (2 pages) |
A
phone call from a student raises questions about a colleague's
integrity and good judgment. What to do?
|
|
"Grade,
Grade Me Good" (1
page)
|
A
faculty member must respond to a student who complains about
a grade, asserts the faculty member is being arbitrary, and
believes a much higher grade is essential.
|
Chairs
|
"The
Core Course Setback" (2 pages) |
A
faculty colleague fails to complete a curricular project of
vitally importance to the future of the department.
|
"The
Defenders of the Right" (2 pages)
|
A
student, encouraged by a faculty member, appeals to the Chair
to change a final grade assigned by an obstreperous professor.
|
| "The
Innocent Gift" (2 pages) |
A
faculty member gives an administrative assistant a gift as
compensation for unauthorized overtime work.
|
| "Moonlight
and Sunshine" (2 pages) |
Faculty
moonlighting causes hard feelings in the department and creates
potential conflicts of interest.
|
| "Between
The Rock and a Hard Place" (2 pages) |
A
Chair tries to sort out the rights and responsibilities of
the departmental administrative assistant vis-à-vis
the expectations of different departmental faculty.
|
|
Chairs and Deans
|
"Clearing
Trees and Planting Seeds" (3 pages) |
A
Chair seeks the Dean's advice on making a very difficult colleague
take on a needed assignment.
|
| "Rumors
and Ruminations" (2 pages) |
Senior
faculty from different departments compare inconsistent interpretations
of college budget policy.
|
|
"Eye
of the Beholder" (1 page) |
The
new Chair's evaluation of an untenured faculty colleague is
seriously inconsistent with the past Chair's.
|
| "You
Can't Copyright an Idea" (1 page) |
An
angry and aggrieved assistant professor accuses a senior colleague
of plagiarizing research.
|
|
Deans
and Associate Dean Leadership Teams
|
"The
Dean Team" (2 pages) |
The
strength of an established leadership team is threatened by
divergent expectations and aspirations.
|
| "Let
Me Count the Ways" (2 pages) |
A
good Associate Dean struggles with the approaches taken by
a newly appointed Dean.
|
| Deans |
"The
Powerdiving Probationer" (3 pages)
|
A
new assistant professor alienates almost all departmental
colleagues in record time.
|
| "The
Evaluation Appeal" (2 pages) |
A faculty member appeals an unfavorable departmental evaluation
on grounds of both merit and disability.
|
| "Welcome
Back, Popper" (1 page) |
Just
before the term starts the Dean learns that a tenured professor,
whose courses are fully enrolled, may need a disability leave
relating to substance abuse..
|
| "Friends
and Family" (1 page) |
A
Chair's enthusiasm for hiring a talented friend threatens
to generate multiple problems.
|
| "Never
Again: The Promotion Denial" (2 pages) |
A
new President, seeking to raise standards, denies promotion
to a long serving associate dean whom the Dean wants to support.
|
|
Chief
Academic Officers
|
"The
One-time Budget Fix" (2 pages)
|
An
in-basket awash in budget problems leads the vice president
seriously to consider selling parts of the curriculum.
|
| "Serving
the Stockholder's Interests" (1 page) |
An
influential benefactor and an angry President demand that
an offending assistant professor be summarily fired.
|
| "The
Free Market of Ideas" (2 pages) |
Questions
of intellectual property rights and curricular control emerge
when a star professor's course is sold.
|
| "The
Husband's Wife's Professor" (2 pages) |
The
husband's attorney demands that college take steps to end
an alleged affair between the wife and her professor.
|
