Transcript Think you want to be a dean? Janie Fouke Michigan State University

Think you want to be a
dean?
Janie Fouke
Michigan State University
NSF Women in Engineering Leadership
Conference (10/12/00)
Outline
Why in the world?
Creating opportunity
Evaluating opportunity
Making the jump
The first year
Why in the world?
Personal motivation?
Serendipity?
Life of service?
Builder?
Deserve it (“It’s my turn”)?
The trick is this: whatever your
motivation, it will be very difficulty to
assess the match!
Serendipity
The big driver
The match of resource and opportunity
So rare . . .
Creating opportunity
Build your skill set
Interpersonal relations
Budget and finance
Strategic/long-range planning
Matching tactics to strategy
Problem solving
Creating opportunity
Revise your resume (S)
Let it be known
Enlarge your network
Find advocates
Be visible
Professional societies
Multi-campus task forces
Evaluating opportunity
It’s not a competition!
Read everything (Web-site, faculty
governance, budget, strategic planning,
CV’s of faculty, college catalog, president’s
speeches, local newspapers, Chronicle,
various ranking services, etc)
Evaluating Opportunity
Their interview schedule is a “draft”
Read about the people that you will meet
Listen during your visit! Take notes
Analyze: find the dissonance
Write it down
Mission statement
Is there one?
Does anyone know?
How does the reality match?
How does it influence budget/personnel?
Making the jump
Negotiations with the Provost
That’s why you wrote it down!
Short term (2-3 years) and long term plan
Do your homework!
Get on the phone!
Priorities
The salary is not the key to your success!
The First Year
Relationships
Your team
The budget
Internal vs external affairs
Relationships
Who reports to you?
Chairs, directors, associate deans
Who should report to you?
Reorganize the office/reporting structure?
Based on who you have or who you need?
You need them: they don’t
report to you!
Custodial staff
Secretarial staff
Land management
Curriculum office
Physical plant
Athletic department (if you are Big Ten!)
Students
Alumni
Communications with
faculty
Don’t count on the chairs!
E-mail letter? Flyer in mailbox?
Under ~200, then visit each of them
within a couple of years
Celebrate with them; be the cheerleader
Your Teams
Associate deans/front office
Don’t leave out personnel and budget people
Your chairs/heads
Development/alumni relations people
Alumni “kitchen cabinet”
Student groups
Other services (computing, library, etc)
Budget and Finances
How is the university budget determined?
Report to legislature/regents/trustees?
Annual/biennial/rolling five year?
Who are the other players on campus?
How are internal (dean to dean) decisions
made? Top down?
What is the value on partnerships?
It can be too great!
Budget and Finance
Compare budget (the past . . . ) and
expenditures (the reality)
Ask the pro’s
Get quarterly reports
Manage indirect cost returns/grant
commitments (this is REAL money!)
Budget and Finances
Look at several years of expenditures
What is the budgeting style?
Incremental/zero-based?
How much of the budget is in salaries?
What tools do you have for long-range
expenditures?
How much is the endowment? How is it
used and who determines that?
Alumni and Development
Critical in this climate
Opportunity of a generation with the
recent economy
Friend-raising and fund-raising
Method/plan
Control the pathways to potential donors
Friend-raising
Who are your partners?
Focus on 25 years in addition to now!
Faculty can be valuable resources
Don’t lose the alumni
Communicate with them!
Increase the value of their degree!
Fund-raising
Plan for what you need
Endowed funds for
students/faculty/programs
Write it down
Identify 3-4 prospects for each need
Make your case with each of them
How do I spend my time?
Meeting with the teams (communication)
Receptions (recognition)
Development (resources)
Week-ends commitments? Absolutely
Survival tactic? Have a great team!
Final points
Take on the difficult jobs
Keep physically fit
Never write a nasty memo
Spend an hour thinking each day
Recognize the people that you need
Keep a “people” file
Final points
Don’t hide the elephant
Don’t let a good Boss make a mistake
Make your Boss look good and your Boss’s
Boos look even better
MBWA (Management by Walking Around)
WACADAD (Words are cheap and deeds
are dear)