The roles of academic deans of land-grant universities by the year 2000

Abstract

<p>This study was designed to investigate the perceptions of deans and faculty members of land-grant universities regarding the roles of their academic deans by the year 2000. It was also designed to investigate the respondents' perceptions as to the need for formal preparation of those deans by the same time period;A questionnaire of four sections was generated and mailed to 196 randomly selected deans and faculty members across the contiguous United States as well as Alaska. The data analyses and hypotheses testings were done by utilizing the correlated and independent t-test procedures, the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the chi-square procedures;The conclusions from the findings of the study included the following, among others: (1) That the underlisted roles have been perceived as having potential importance by the year 2000 in the following order: institutional politics, administrative, financial, faculty, global education, enrollment management, student, and academic affairs. (2) That the respondents perceived that there would be no need for formal preparation of deans of land-grant universities by the year 2000;Based on the findings and conclusions of the research, the following are some of the recommendations that were made: (1) That academic deans should involve faculty members in planning for the future of their colleges and universities. (2) That deans should work on improving communications and relationships regarding the roles of conflicting perceptions. Diversified perceptions should be utilized as fountain of ideas for planning purposes. (3) That deans' search committees should incorporate global education and enrollment management roles into the academic deans' future job descriptions. (4) That prospective deans should be interviewed about their educational philosophy(ies) and vision in order to assess compatibility with formulated job description and college mission. (5) That short courses should be encouraged for professional advancement of academic deans as well as other senior higher education administrators instead of formal training. (6) That research on deanship should be made a continual exercise.</p>