Leaming Deryl R. (1998).
Academic Leadership: A Practical Guide to Chairing the Department.
Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing.
Leaming has impressive credentials for writing this text. He has served as
department chair for nearly 20 years at several different universities. The
book covers the entire spectrum of concerns a chair faces; from recruiting
students to faculty development to fundraising. Information in each section
is brief, precise and often unapologetically verified only by Leaming's
experience. This makes for a somewhat choppy flow of ideas, but when combined
with one of the better indexes I've seen, makes the book easy to use as a
desk reference for quick consultation on specific topics.
I found the tenor of the book somewhat harsh. This may be due in part to
the quick pointed writing style that does not spend much time on philosophical
debate as it covers some of the major issues confronting higher education today. For
example in the section entitled Should I hire part-time faculty members?,
Leaming tells us right away "The answer is yes if you can find qualified persons,
and if you have the funds." "Hiring part-time faculty members is a way to save
money for the university; we usually pay them so little it's embarrassing. Too
many universities resort to this practice simply because of the economy, and students
end up the losers." The remaining paragraphs in the section go on to deal with
the problems part-time faculty present and the efforts that need to be made to
integrate them into the department.
