Why Would You Want to be a DCS Consultant?

If you are reading this blog (which you are!), you probably already have a good idea of what DCS is about. You may have even used DCS as a resource when locating a consultant for your own department. But have you considered becoming a consultant for DCS?

First, you should know that DCS does not pay consultants. Not even a dime! But the departments that contract with consultants do pay. So one reason to consider becoming listed as a DCS consultant is that it can provide opportunities to add to your income. Departments are expected to cover your travel expenses plus an honorarium, the honorarium being negotiated between you and the department.

You may also enjoy serving as a consultant because of the intellectual adventure involved in learning about a department and providing recommendations. You may find it satisfying to help a department make progress toward its goals, solve a problem, or validate its excellence.

Another benefit is the opportunity to learn about different departments and meet diverse faculty and staff. You may find that you learn things from other departments that you can apply to your own department.

If this sounds good to you, I hope you will consider applying to be listed as a DCS consultant. The basic requirements are that you must have some experience as an administrator (e.g. department chair, assistant dean), you must have experience as a program evaluator, and you must have expertise in multiple consultation areas (e.g., curriculum, faculty development, advising, assessment). The most common request that we get is for an overall department evaluation or self-assessment. We do have a fairly rigorous review process involving review by current DCS consultants and by the APA's Board of Educational Affairs.

We review applications at the beginning of the fall and spring semesters. The deadline for spring, 2011 applications is January 28. If you are interested in applying, please contact me at kreiner@ucmo.edu.

Identifying Problems You Don’t Know Your Department Has

One of the most common requests that we receive is for a consultant to do a general evaluation of the department or to help the department conduct a self-assessment. In previous posts, I outlined some issues that come up in two common situations: (1) you think your department is in excellent shape; and (2) you know that your department has problems. In the last post of this series, I will address what happens if your department is somewhere in between. In other words, you have a general awareness that your department could be in better shape, but you're not sure what particular problems might exist. This is an excellent time to seek out an experienced external consultant to help you identify those problems.

It might help to consider some of the more likely culprits, those issues that tend to present difficulties to many departments. Of course, the specifics associated with any of these areas may well be unique to your institution.

• Do you have clearly defined goals for each of your degree programs?
  
• Do the goals of your programs fit with the mission of your department and your institution?
  
• Could the design of your programs be improved? Have you compared against APA recommendations and benchmarked against other departments?
  
• Are you doing a good job of advising and mentoring your students? Are they aware of the opportunities in your department? Are they prepared for the workplace and/or graduate school?
  
• Do you have assessment activities that provide useful information about whether you are meeting your goals?
  

Depending on where you are in evaluating your department, you may want to develop a list of questions like these, but tailor them specifically to your department. Your department could then ask one or more external consultants to help you answer your questions. If the answer is that your department could improve, consultants can help you plan a path to make changes. If your department is not at the point of being able to formulate specific questions, then consultants can guide you through that process.

If you are interested in hiring one or more external consultants, DCS can provide you (at no charge!) with a list of recommendations for potential consultants. If you have any questions about our services, please contact me at kreiner@ucmo.edu.

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.

When Your Department is in Great Shape

In my last post about the Departmental Consulting Service (DCS), I outlined the general process of working with a consultant for your department. I asked our consultants to share some examples of issues that they have dealt with in their consulting work. In the next few posts, I will summarize some of these issues by grouping them into three situations: (1) your department is doing well; (2) you know your department has problems; and (3) you don't know what problems you have.

Why would you want to hire a consultant if you are confident that your department is already in excellent condition? At many institutions, there is a regular program review process that may require some type of outside evaluation. For programs that are accredited by APA or some other organization, the accreditation process often satisfies the need for external review. When such accreditation is not involved, the administration at your college or university may request or require an external evaluation. There may be a particular desire to demonstrate that an academic program is "excellent" or "distinguished."

There are a few important issues you should keep in mind if you see yourself in this situation.

• If your goal is to have an outside evaluator confirm that your department is distinguished, you should not only communicate that goal, but what criteria you would like the consultant(s) to take into account.
  
• If your department has not already gone through a thorough self-evaluation process, I recommend that you do so prior to asking a consultant to confirm that you are in good shape. If your department has some weaknesses, it is better to identify those up front than to be surprised when a consultant identifies them for you.
  
• Don't expect a consultant to simply rubber-stamp your department's own self-assessment. Be prepared for an honest, open review process. Then, when the consultant writes a report indicating the excellence of your department, it will be meaningful. Also, keep in mind that the decision-makers at your institution may find a consultant's report more credible if it mentions areas for improvement in addition to highlighting the department's strengths.
  
• Even if the consultant's evaluation indicates a department that is in good shape, don't be surprised if the consultant offers some suggestions. The consultant may help the department anticipate future opportunities or challenges. For example, the consultant may notice that your department's standard of excellence is threatened by thin resources or an impending loss of faculty. Coming from a well-qualified external consultant, concerns such as these may provide some leverage for your department with the administration.
  

Remember that a good consultation process is a two-way street. You can make the most of the process by communicating with your consultant and listening carefully to the feedback that you receive.

How Does a Departmental Review Work?

The most common type of request we get at the Departmental Consulting Service is a general one. Many departments request an overall evaluation of the department, or perhaps a review of the curriculum. If you are wondering how such a review would work, here is an overview.

• The most important aspect of the review is that it is tailored to the needs of your department. As you make arrangements with a consultant, you will discuss what the department hopes to accomplish with the review as well as details such as the time frame and expenses associated with the review. The consultant will work with you to customize the review. It will not be very helpful for the department to tell the consultant something vague like, "We just want someone to take a look at our department." If you can give the consultant specific ideas about your needs, the review process will make better use of your time and money.
  
• The department should expect to provide some information to the consultant prior to a site visit. The exact information that you supply will depend on what you want the consultant to do for you, as well as on what information you actually have available. Very likely, the DCS consultant will ask for specific types of information. Do your best to supply these materials in a timely manner.
  
• The structure of the site visit will again depend on what the department hopes to accomplish with the review. Typically, the consultant will want to meet with various groups and individuals (faculty, students, office staff, administrators), tour facilities, and possibly present some ideas or a preliminary report to the department.
  
• After the site visit, the consultant will submit a report to the department. Your department should review this report and decide what actions, if any, should be taken. For example, the consultant may recommend that a degree program be revised, that advising should be done in a different way, or that the department should change the way it makes decisions. After some deliberation, you may or may not agree with suggestions that the consultant has made.
  
• It is very helpful if the department can submit an evaluation of the consultant to the DCS coordinator at the end of the entire process. An evaluation form is included in the materials that I will send to you when you request a consultant.
  

In forthcoming posts, I will describe some examples of particular issues that have come up in departmental reviews. As always, if you are interesting in finding a consultant for your department, contact me at kreiner@ucmo.edu.

Is it Review Time for Your Department?

If your department is looking for one or more consultants/external reviewers, the Departmental Consulting Service can help you. Is it program review time at your institution? Did your dean request an external review? Is there a specific opportunity or challenge that your department is facing?

Consulting is not one-size-fits-all. Sometimes a department needs a fairly comprehensive evaluation. Sometimes a department needs a consultant for one specific issue, such as revising a degree program or developing a laboratory. We can help you find consultants to meet your needs.

One of the nice things about DCS is that our matching service is provided at no cost to you. Note that departments are expected to cover travel costs for consultants and provide an honorarium to be negotiated with each consultant. But DCS will not charge you for providing a list of qualified consultants.

If you'd like to get started, just contact me at kreiner@ucmo.edu. I'll ask you for some detailed information about what your needs are, then I'll match that with our list of approved consultants.

Interesting in Being a DCS Consultant?

Each semester, the Departmental Consulting Service considers applications for those who wish to be listed as DCS consultants. Completed applications will be reviewed by both DCS and by APA's Board of Educational Affairs (BEA). For applications to be ready for the spring BEA meeting, I will need to receive your application materials by January 12 so that we can complete the review process by the beginning of February.

In order to qualify as a DCS consultant, applicants must have the following qualifications:

1. Administration experience (department chair, assistant department chair, etc.).

2. Experience as a program evaluator.

3. Expertise in multiple consultation areas (examples listed below).

Specific areas for consultation include (but are not limited to): curriculum (evaluation, development, designing/improving special programs or courses, fieldwork or honors); faculty (writing grant proposals, developing funding sources, writing for publication, promoting professional development, enhancing/evaluating teacher effectiveness); advising (student advising for career planning, graduate school preparation, changing enrollments, minority recruitment and retention); research facilities (designing psychology labs, designing teaching facilities, computer applications for courses, labs, or administration); departmental program evaluation (self-assessments, program evaluation, department evaluation).

If you are interested in applying, please email me at kreiner@ucmo.edu.

 

Department Consulting Service

As the coordinator of the Departmental Consulting Service, I hope to use this blog to provide information about both the services we provide and about how evaluations of departments might be done in a productive manner. If you've never heard of DCS before, you have now! Briefly, DCS is a service provided jointly by the Society for the Teaching of Psychology and APA's Board of Educational Affairs. We help match departments who would like to hire consultants with qualified individuals. For more information, see the DCS page.