Pre-Meeting Workshops

A key element of administration is personnel management. For art/design administrators, this means overseeing day-to-day interactions, delegating responsibilities and expectations to faculty and staff, and evaluating the work of those individuals whom administrators oversee. This session will consider a variety of management and communication strategies that may be employed by administrators who are responsible for supervising individuals within art and design units. Developing and maintaining effective relationships between and among administrators, faculty, and staff will be explored. Questions such as the following will be discussed: How might administrators work to establish and maintain clear chains of command? How might administrators best manage and communicate with those individuals who report to them? While serving as a manager, what communication styles are most effective, clear, and appropriate, and how might or must they differ based on the various constituencies? How might administrators ensure that individuals tasked with administrative duties have appropriate expertise and the dispositions necessary to carry out their assigned duties? How might administrators work to promote excellence and continued improvement among faculty and staff? How should administrators evaluate results and how might these results be used to inform decision-making? What can administrators do to ensure that they maintain appropriate professional distance, necessary confidentiality, and levels of collegiality with their colleagues? Issues regarding tenure, unions, contracts, FERPA, and various personnel-related regulations will also be addressed.

As members of the academic community, art and design administrators must work to establish and cultivate relationships between the art/design unit and various academic communities both within and beyond the institution. This session will focus on 1) developing relationships with other administrators and leaders in the academic community, 2) designing and revising effective strategies and approaches for promoting art and design as indispensable academic disciplines within the institution and community, and 3) accurately and positively representing the art/design unit both on and off campus.

Together, the attendees will consider the following questions: What are some examples of effective leadership styles for art and design administrators? How does one find his/her own leadership style? How does one develop a leadership style that will be effective given the multitude of issues that exist in any given art/design unit? Do different issues require different styles? How can a leader improve his/her leadership skills?

Several short examples describing leadership successes and failures will be provided and are intended to assist attendees to explore ways of finding their own leadership styles. These vignettes will serve as springboards, providing opportunities for attendees to discuss the myriad leadership responsibilities of art/design administrators, such as the management of people, oral and written communication, resource allocation, and planning.

This session will focus on the value of and suggested procedures for establishing realistic goals and objectives that serve as the basis for effective long-range planning and enable realistic considerations that govern the productive use of time.

The work of the art and design administrator requires an awareness of the necessity for careful and balanced cultivation among multiple constituencies.

Therefore, goal setting becomes a necessary and effective way to establish personal, institutional, and community priorities. When successful, this effort lays the groundwork for and focuses planning initiatives. Successful administrators are able to set goals, plan, and manage time—and understand the relationships between and among these three important aspects. Establishing a firm foundation based on carefully articulated goals enhances the administrator’s ability to develop multiple skills and acquire detailed subject matter knowledge that will assist to address efficiently and effectively the number and pace of questions, challenges, and issues that arise.

Suggestions with regard to setting goals, developing approaches to planning, and successful ways to think about time and its effective use will be explored.

Administrators often find themselves in charge of, and having to work across, multiple discipline-specific units; responsible for a broad array of degrees by level, major, and area of emphasis; and in need of finding commonalities so that resources can be maximized while at the same time emphasizing and promoting the attributes of specific areas of study. A key factor in addressing these challenges and ensuring that the complexities support, rather than constrain institutional mission, is the role assumed by the faculty. Keen leadership abilities and skills are not only required to navigate these circumstances, but also to manage and direct faculty resources and address the needs of faculty members. This session will focus on approaches that can assist to create and develop cultures that stress the importance of participation and collaboration, the assumption of responsibility and ownership, and the value of establishing camaraderie and respect, as well as cultures that offer permissions which enable, and protections which safeguard, innovation. The session will also focus on nuts-and-bolts issues such as hiring and firing; conducting annual performance reviews; promotion, tenure, and reward systems; and faculty development opportunities. A variety of situations will be presented, each followed by time for discussion.

Art and design programs are complex. Such complexities create costs on many levels and in many dimensions. Technology compounds this issue by producing additional and possibly new budget pressures in terms of equipment and the need to maintain its currency. Successful financial management, therefore, requires not only detailed knowledge of costs, but also the savvy required to advocate for budget needs, the ability to allocate and manage funds effectively, and the wherewithal to exercise fiscal responsibility—while at the same time dealing with issues that range from scholarship to facility maintenance/repair to faculty compensation.

This session will begin with an introduction of existing realities and the pressures they bring to bear on institutions, and specifically, art/design units. Predominant focus will be placed on financial planning, both short- and long-range; ideas and approaches with regard to budget advocacy; developing and maintaining sound fiscal policies and procedures; and ways to approach fiscal stability in order to ensure the ongoing financial viability of the institution or unit.

Many successful art and design administrators maintain extensive contacts in their local and regional communities. These contacts can prove valuable when interests in developing institution/community collaborations arise. They can also provide opportunities to develop and cultivate beneficial fundraising relationships. Fundraising, once solely the purview of the upper administration, now more often is a challenge and a responsibility art/design administrators must face.

This session will consider the strong relationship between community relations and fundraising. It will consider how presentations of art and design, relationships with art/design programs in the public and private schools, and the development of community support groups can enhance fundraising opportunities. Methodologies for connecting educational goals and objectives with community development goals will be explored.