Monday Matters
Welcome back to a new semester and a new year! For many of us the start of a new year brings with it an excuse to "begin again," set new goals, and plan to accomplish all of the great tasks that we know we are capable of but never quite manage to finish (or even start!). At the risk of boring you with personal details, I am going to share with you a partial list of my New Year's resolutions. In past issues of this column I have outlined most of my major goals to accomplish in the near future so there is no need to revisit these. Instead I'll tell you about a few resolutions that reveal something about what I consider to be positive improvements I can make as a faculty member and administrator. (I'll skip talking about my annual weight-loss resolution. After all, Les has already set an example that would be tough to beat!)
Resolution #1: Focus More on Mission and Vision
I don't know why the obvious gets lost so easily in the day-to-day repetition of dealing with budgets, personnel, grant proposals, and the like, but it does. The College Mission and Vision statements stare me in the face every time I visit our web home page as well when I walk through the lobby of the Dean's Office. Some key terms strike me when I spend time reading this statement of what we are all about. These key terms basically define how I must operationally change if I am going to focus on our mission and vision.
Although I believe I have done fairly well in being "engaged and collaborative" in addressing the needs of students, my profession, and the community, there is much room for improvement when it comes to being responsive. In practical terms, to be responsive implies to me that I take stock of the needs of those I work for and address these. This should be easy to do when it comes to my students, yet I have been prone to sometimes put student needs second to the deadlines imposed by administrative minutia. It is time for me to stop taking advantage of the good spirit and understanding nature of most my students and instead consider the "deadline" of their needs to be the highest priority. As an administrator this can be a bit of a balancing act and may require that sometimes I resist the temptation to rush to teach more classes. After all, when I assumed an administrative position I accepted the challenge of making service to the faculty and staff a priority. This balance between the daily tasks of administration that facilitate the work of others in the College and being responsive to the needs of our clientele and our community is just one example of how I need to consider my true priorities on a regular basis.
Another term that stands out in the vision statement is "excellence" and I can attest that this is difficult to achieve when priorities are lost in the stacks of paperwork on my desk. We all are challenged (and challenge ourselves) to take on extra duties to meet the demands created by a smaller faculty and staff, more entrepreneurial activities, and greater involvement in service to the community and the state. I suspect that I will be among those that continue to offer this challenge, but for now my introspection presents a different sort of challenge. The challenge is to put quality before quantity. Though I am quite capable of developing high caliber products, teaching well-conceived classes, and generally producing quality outcomes, this past year I noticed with some consternation that I often lost the sense of excellence just so that I could do lots of "stuff." This isn't good for anybody, including the College, our students, and my profession. It certainly isn't good for me. I encountered a number of embarrassing situations as a result of being in over my head. I have resolved to resist the temptation to do everything, but do it poorly, and choose instead to focus on what is most important and to do that well.
The College Mission states that we will bridge the gap among theory, research, and practice. As the associate dean responsible for facilitating research in the College I believe that this year I should shift some of my focus from administrative initiatives to both assisting the faculty with their research and developing new ways to disseminate research findings to the profession and community. This could include the development of streamlined electronic ways to propose research projects along with expanded services to help maintain the project budget and take care of paperwork once the research has been funded. For both funded and unfunded research, I must take the lead in obtaining research findings from the faculty and disseminating these to the public. The latter could be done via existing media outlets as well as through new outlets, such as College web pages designed for this purpose.
Resolution #2: Become a Better E-Citizen
As much as I love working with emerging technologies, I often neglect my role as a citizen in the electronic community. The result is that I am not doing my part to present a forward-thinking public image to our students and other constituents. My home page is often outdated, so one place I can start is to keep the information on the page current and relevant to the needs of those who might be seeking my help. Even though I have developed course web pages for each of my courses, these pale in comparison to what many of my colleagues have done. Most university public relations offices recognize that web pages have become the first and probably primary source of information for prospective students. I cannot expect to attract excellent students if I do not portray myself as a technologically savvy and cutting-edge instructor. Some of the steps I need to take are quite simple. For example, the University has already developed a simple way to link the information on the Master Schedule to the course information on my web page. All I have to do is remember to browse over to VIP and create this link. I don't always remember. As a result, students don't have the information they need about my course when they are deciding whether to register for the course.
I read an article recently with a survey result that I found quite remarkable. Over 1,000 information technology (IT) managers were surveyed. One of the questions asked what they believed to be the biggest threat to company security. If you're like me, you would expect the answer to be "hackers" or "viruses" or some such. Actually, the overwhelming majority of respondents listed "company employees" as the biggest threat to company security! This reminded me that to be a better e-citizen I must be more attentive to updating the security on my computer system. This includes obtaining the latest security patches and virus protection updates. I need to respond quickly when IT managers inform us of problems that need to be addressed. I'm usually pretty good about this, but I have been known to go a week or two without updating my virus protection software. There's room to improve.
Although I might be reasonably good about updating the security on my computer system, I am absolutely dreadful when it comes to backing up the data on my computer. Failure to back-up data can be just as costly and time consuming to a company as allowing a security breach on a computer. I can personally attest that a hard drive crash is very distressing! This happened to me two years ago and I lost about a month's worth of work. You would think that I would have learned my lesson, but the evidence doesn't suggest that I did. I still only backup my computer hard drive every couple of months. One of my resolutions is to change this behavior. I can't afford to lose work again.
Resolution #3: Keep Better Documentation
One of my biggest complaints since becoming an administrator is that it is often difficult to find policies or procedures to answer a question that I have. When I resort to asking other administrators for assistance, I get an answer without any documentation to support the answer. This means that if I ask three different administrators the same question I will typically get three different answers. (There are advantages to this. I keep asking until I get the answer I want!) This reliance on oral history is inefficient and can also lead to inequitable treatment that could be legally challenged.
Rather than setting a different kind of standard for the College, I have found myself falling into the same trap. It is easy to tell myself, "I'll write this down soon" and then I forget all about it. The next time a similar situation arises I can't remember how I handled it the previous time. These Monday Matters columns have been an attempt to make plans, procedures, and policies public, but like decisions hidden in committee minutes the information is easily lost unless it is extracted and placed in a well-organized and searchable format. One of my resolutions is to begin documenting policies and procedures (my own as well as those of others) in a way that is both public and readily accessible.
The Future of Monday Matters
Last semester it was easy to write this column each week because I began a number of initiatives and wanted to bring important policies and procedures to your attention. As I spend more time working toward the goals I have described to you in the past, I find that it becomes increasingly difficult to write about something new and meaningful. Although I want to use this medium to keep the lines of communication open, I am going to reserve your time and mine for when there are College happenings that require more explanation than we can give in our short news items on the College news web page. I will be switching Monday Matters to an "occasional" format. I anticipate that I will use this space to update you about every month or so. If you are not already on the reminder list and wish to be added to this list now that I am dropping the weekly format, email me and I'll be happy to send you a notice when I publish a new edition. In any case, I look forward to keeping you informed of College happenings in Monday Matters throughout 2004.
Until next time,
Mike