8 Tips to Help New Deans Get Off to a Good Start

A Newer Education for Our Era 1 — Pat Kinsella for The Chronicle

You’ve ditched your course load, slowed the pace of your research, and taken the bold step of becoming a college leader. You’re a new dean, and you probably have some anxieties about your new job, especially how to hit the ground running. Longtime deans and others offer some tips on how to get there:

Think about your new identity. You may feel comfortable viewing yourself as a faculty member, but that’s over. “As a new dean, I still taught some chemistry courses,” says Benjamin Caldwell, dean of graduate studies at Missouri Western State University. “I remember talking to a chemistry professor who’s a good friend of mine and saying, ‘I’m glad faculty still see me as a fellow faculty member.’ He answered that they didn’t — that I was a dean to them.
So, Have You Thought About Becoming a Dean?

Facing a shortage of faculty candidates interested in administrative careers, some colleges are taking steps to nurture new leaders.
- How to Be Both a Professor and a Dean
- No One Wants to Be Your Dean. Here’s How You Might Fix That.

“You have to accept that and move fully into the role of an administrator.”

Get used to being under the microscope. “People will have a shift of perspective about you,” says Marci Sortor, provost and dean of the college at St. Olaf College. “Their expectations will be much different.” Disappearing into your research or focusing exclusively on your department’s majors is no longer an option. More people will need to see you more often.
Know your faculty. It pays to focus on educators in academic departments you don’t already know well, Caldwell advises. Meet with them regularly to learn their strengths and weaknesses so you can help them improve at their jobs.
Ask lots of questions. Initiate and maintain contact with a range of administrators and faculty members to learn what they know, and what they expect of you. Be open to learning.
Learn to handle managerial minutiae. Details will rule much of your time: budget numbers, curriculum decisions, enrollment reports.
Prepare to be a social animal. Ceremonies, dinners, luncheons, and receptions will become a big part of your life, as will fund-raising visits. “If you are not a naturally gregarious person, you will learn to become one,” says Bonnie Irwin, provost and vice president for academic affairs at California State University-Monterey Bay.
Speak more, but less freely. As institutional representatives, deans give up some of their freedom of speech. When she served as a music professor at Lawrence University, in Appleton, Wis., Kathleen Murray was an outspoken critic of its trimester schedule. As dean, though, “I had to tone it down a bit.” Murray is now president of Whitman College.
Lose any illusions about control. Every day on the job will be different. The parade of surprises should come as no surprise. “I tell all my new deans that they are on a two-day learning curve,” says Thomas Meyer, vice president for academic services and student development at Lehigh Carbon Community College. “The first year, you’re learning so much that it’s downright dizzying.”

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Think about your new identity. You may feel comfortable viewing yourself as a faculty member, but that’s over. “As a new dean, I still taught some chemistry courses,” says Benjamin Caldwell, dean of graduate studies at Missouri Western State University. “I remember talking to a chemistry professor who’s a good friend of mine and saying, ‘I’m glad faculty still see me as a fellow faculty member.’ He answered that they didn’t — that I was a dean to them.

So, Have You Thought About Becoming a Dean?

Facing a shortage of faculty candidates interested in administrative careers, some colleges are taking steps to nurture new leaders.

“You have to accept that and move fully into the role of an administrator.”

Get used to being under the microscope. “People will have a shift of perspective about you,” says Marci Sortor, provost and dean of the college at St. Olaf College. “Their expectations will be much different.” Disappearing into your research or focusing exclusively on your department’s majors is no longer an option. More people will need to see you more often.
Know your faculty. It pays to focus on educators in academic departments you don’t already know well, Caldwell advises. Meet with them regularly to learn their strengths and weaknesses so you can help them improve at their jobs.
Ask lots of questions. Initiate and maintain contact with a range of administrators and faculty members to learn what they know, and what they expect of you. Be open to learning.
Learn to handle managerial minutiae. Details will rule much of your time: budget numbers, curriculum decisions, enrollment reports.
Prepare to be a social animal. Ceremonies, dinners, luncheons, and receptions will become a big part of your life, as will fund-raising visits. “If you are not a naturally gregarious person, you will learn to become one,” says Bonnie Irwin, provost and vice president for academic affairs at California State University-Monterey Bay.
Speak more, but less freely. As institutional representatives, deans give up some of their freedom of speech. When she served as a music professor at Lawrence University, in Appleton, Wis., Kathleen Murray was an outspoken critic of its trimester schedule. As dean, though, “I had to tone it down a bit.” Murray is now president of Whitman College.
Lose any illusions about control. Every day on the job will be different. The parade of surprises should come as no surprise. “I tell all my new deans that they are on a two-day learning curve,” says Thomas Meyer, vice president for academic services and student development at Lehigh Carbon Community College. “The first year, you’re learning so much that it’s downright dizzying.”