University at Buffalo (UB)
The Office of Faculty Affairs continues its conversation series to help department chairs more effectively lead and respond to challenges they confront in their departments and/or units. We look forward to another year of robust and engaging conversations about departmental life at UB.
Over this academic year, the division of Faculty Devlopment within the Office of Faculty Affairs will be hosting a series of monthly lunch-time sessions to discuss various issues related to academic leadership. We will address issues related to effective communication, budgets and resources, mentoring and work/life balance, faculty and student diversity, recruitment and hiring, tenure and promotion to name a few.
Conversation Series sessions are:
What makes a university department not just collegial, but genuinely inclusive, effective, and able to get things done? Department Chairs play a central role in shaping the culture, norms, and systems that determine who has voice, how decisions are made, how work is distributed, and how accountability happens. In this highly interactive session, Chairs will explore the everyday dynamics that can strengthen—or undermine—departmental trust, inclusion, and effectiveness. Through a departmental health check and realistic case scenarios, we will discuss the structural and interpersonal factors that can undermine inclusion and department effectiveness. Participants will leave with practical strategies they can use immediately, along with one concrete change they can test in their own department.
Conversation series sessions will be held throughout the fall semester. Additional dates will be available soon.
Requests for past workshop PowerPoint presentations should be directed to facultyaffairs@buffalo.edu.