Latest Updates

Chairs Can Be the Changemakers Colleges Need

February 6, 2025

Don Chu argues that department chairs should take a much more proactive role in confronting institutional budget challenges.

Ask the Chair: ‘The Job Keeps Changing and I Can’t Keep Up’

February 6, 2025

How to cope with new work obligations raining down from central administration and onto department heads.

Small Shifts, Big Impact: Elevate Your Leadership

January 29, 2025

In this Nano Tool for Leaders, Adam Grant and other Wharton experts offer quick tips to enhance your leadership effectiveness.

Admin 101: How to Keep Your Trial Balloons From Sinking

January 23, 2025

Sending out feelers is a time-honored administrative tradition, but it backfires all too often in higher ed.

How to Respond to Changes at Work with ‘Rugged Flexibility’

When we make changes that we prefer, we are in control.

January 12, 2025

Rugged flexibility is to be tough, determined, and durable, while also consciously responding to altered circumstances or conditions, and, like a palm tree in a storm, adapt and bend easily without breaking.

Mind matters: investigating academia’s ‘mental health crisis’

January 11, 2025

Adam Levy discusses some of the systemic changes needed to make the academic workplace both a happier and healthier place.

Building a Culture of Gratitude on Campus

Giving Thanks

November 28, 2024

Building a culture of gratitude on campus can help shape a learning community for the better, M’hammed Abdous and Annette Finley-Croswhite write.

Admin 101: The Friend Deficit in Leadership Jobs

Giving Thanks

November 16, 2024

How to build authentic personal and professional friendships as you climb the administrative ranks.

Colleges Are Still Failing Their Employees

October 23, 2024

Despite widespread rhetoric on social media about the importance of combating toxic workplaces and the expense associated with replacing versus retaining talent, the reality for many higher-education workers is that their experience on the job today isn’t substantially different from 2019 — raising the question of what, if anything, we learned from the pandemic.

How To Make Team Meetings More Productive and Inclusive

October 21, 2024

Drawing from research and expert advice, this article outlines practical strategies to combat meeting inefficiency in higher education through better preparation, streamlined scheduling, and increased participant engagement.

Admin 101: Making Friends in High Places

October 9, 2024

The assumption is true that the higher you go in administration, the fewer friendships you’ll have on the campus — sometimes for good reason.

Navigating Authenticity: How To Be Honest With Your Manager Without Overstepping

September 26, 2024

A lot has been said recently about authenticity in the workplace, but what does this mean when it comes to your relationship with your manager? Sure, you want to be genuine at work, but you also want to cultivate relationships that are high-functioning, predictable, and productive, and that serve your professional ambitions. So how can you develop good rules of thumb to decide what to share with your manager and what to keep to yourself?