Administrative

• Manage hiring of new staff (in coordination with Dean for Academic Affairs’ office and any other departments that might be affected) using Recruit
• Coordinate and supervise work schedules
• Approve time sheets for hourly staff on Workday
• Approve monthly administrative staff exception time for salaried staff
• Review coordinator’s and other staff's performance annually
• Review lab instructors’ performance in January for prior calendar year

The following records must be maintained by the department/program:

• Annual department data received from dean’s office each April 15 (maintain for 10 years)
• Annual department report sent to Dean by May 1 (maintain for 10 years)
• Department’s self-study and external reviewers’ report from last review
• What other records does your department maintain?

The chair should maintain the following records in a secure location accessible only to the current chair and coordinator:

• Personnel files for tenure-track and tenured faculty, including:
  • First year letter
  • Reappointment letter
• Bowdoin Course Questionnaires department summary data (10 years)

Department coordinators can answer questions such as:

• Where do documents live? (chair’s office, coordinator’s files?)
• Who has access to documents? (all faculty, tenured faculty, chair only?)
• When in doubt, consult the dean’s office.

Records to be destroyed:

• If you did a job search in Recruit, please destroy paper copies of files of candidates who were not hired. Human Resources has the electronic files that they need to retain. You can request that the Library’s Department of Special Collections & Archives confidentially destroy files immediately for you.

• These are due to the Dean for Academic Affairs each May 31
• Consult previous reports
• Consult previous chair(s) 

• Plan for choosing future chair(s)
• Develop a succession plan in consultation with the dean’s office
• Memo to dean’s office with recommendation for next chair by mid-January
• Hand over all necessary documents (see Department Records above)
• Mentoring (“shadowing” the year before taking over as chair)  

• Mediate conflicts among peers
• Mediate student complaints about faculty performance (including grade disputes)
• Resources for support and advice:
  
  • Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
  • Counseling Services
  • Employee Handbook on Freedom from Harassment
  • Former department chairs and program directors
  • Human Resources
  • Recording Committee
  • Workplace Advisors

• Determine equipment needs and facilitate acquisition when appropriate
  
  • Computer Allocation Program: Approve new computer requests
  • Equipment: Equipment requests are made through the annual budget process.  Departments pull together requests and submit in November for possible funding the following July.  Individual research equipment purchases are funded through start-up or grant funds.
• Work with the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs on office and other space needs for new faculty and staff, as well as for continuing staff

Help facilitate the following:

• Requests from prospective students for meetings
• Departmental representation at Admissions events
• Evaluate student applicants’ work where appropriate (mostly applies to music, visual, and the performing arts) (Admissions deadlines)

• Act as point person for all outside requests for help and expertise
• Respond to surveys
• Act as liaison with State agencies

Schedule and conduct meetings with clarity, efficiency, and fairness in mind. Below are potentially useful tools.

• Checklist for Facilitating Effective Meetings
• Meeting Agenda Template
• Delegation Template