When Your Department Has Problems

In previous posts I described the general process of reviewing a department and issues to consider when you believe your department is in good shape. But in many cases, you are requesting consulting services because you know that your department has problems.

Consultants are frequently asked to help with personnel problems. One example of this is that the department may have difficulty conducting its business due to a lack of civility among the faculty. In some cases, there may be conflict between different factions of the faculty (such as between junior and senior faculty or among individuals in different program areas). Consultants have been asked to help referee situations in which one or more faculty members has been identified as poor performing, misbehaving, or simply not contributing to the department.

Another area of concern revolves around resources. A department may request consulting services to confirm a perceived need for program funding, faculty lines, or space for labs, classrooms, and offices.

Departments may want advice about academic programs. The department may need help in identifying program goals, aligning curricula with standards, or developing assessment programs.

DCS consultants are prepared to help with any of these concerns (or combinations of them!). As usual, I would like to offer a few suggestions that I think will help your department through the process.

• Try to do an honest appraisal of the problem areas your department is experiencing. Be very clear about what you perceive as problems, both when requesting recommendations for consultants and when arranging consulting services with a particular person. If we know what your concerns are, we can do a better job of finding consultants who have experience and expertise in those areas. Your consultant can better help you when you have identified the problems in advance and provided supporting documentation.
  
• It is not realistic to expect a consultant to solve your problems. Often the best thing a consultant can do is to help your department prioritize problem areas and chart a strategy toward improvement. If the problem is serious enough to warrant consulting services, it is probably not going to be resolved overnight.
  
• Think about whether it's a good idea to hire a consultant to do your dirty work. If you have evidence that a faculty member has engaged in misconduct, there are surely formal procedures at your institution for addressing that. Consultants know when they are being asked to do something that a department should be handling through institutional procedures. This may signify an even deeper problem with your department.
  
• Be prepared for a different point of view. For example, you may think that your department is not doing enough on assessment, but the consultant might point out that you are actually doing more than most departments. You may believe that a particular faculty member or faction is the problem, but the consultant may not see it that way. You might be hoping for the consultant to support your department's request for additional faculty lines, only to find that the consultant believes you should trim back your program offerings instead. Of course, your consultant may or may not be right. But there is little point in your going to the time and expense of requesting an outside point of view if you are not willing to consider it.
  

In a future post, I will comment on requesting a consultant to help you identify problems that you don't know you have.