College Evaluating Heads of Department: A Modest Proposal

Abstract

Almost worldwide evaluation i9 a fact of academic life.
Students evaluate their teachers, teachers evaluate their
students, heads of department appraise their staff; deans
appraise heads of department. But the intention Of this small
effort is to introduce in to the system of our- university the
evaluation of chairpersons by faculty. The area to be
addressed has been largely neglected, but nonetheless
warrantees university attention.
The current practice of colleague evaluating chairpersons as
ordinary members of the academic staff appears at best
irrelevant and at worst useless. Chairpersons occupy a
position of academic and administrative leadership vital tot he
departments they head, t~eir faculty, ana the university as a
whole. The position involves a wide range of duties of
enormous significance as laid down in the leadership portfolio