A question for department chairs, past and present:
If you are or have ever been a department chair, what did you get from the Dean or other relevant administrator to compensate for your chairly time and efforts? Or, even if you are not and have never been a department chair but have authoritative knowledge of the resources with which chairs in your department have been provided, please provide some data. What did you/they get?
__ A reduction in number of courses taught?
__ A postdoc (or two), fully or partially funded?
__ Grad RA money?
__ Some nifty things for your department (faculty hires, technical support, renovations)?
__ Some summer salary?
__ A big/modest/miniscule raise?
__ Snazzy new office furniture?
__ Nothing but the warm fuzzy feeling that comes from doing administrative tasks?
__ Other?
And how does what you got relate to what you asked for? A "friend" of mine needs to know.
14 years ago
20 comments:
R1 public, science: chairs get stipend based on campus formula and department size, roughly $10k/yr. Dean adds one month (1/9) summer salary. Normal expectation is a teaching reduction by one course. Normally no negotiation is expected or encouraged over financial terms. Some departments have designated office for chair, some don't.
At my last US position (small R1 uni) the chair got $10k extra salary, course reduction from 2/2 to 1/1, a RA, and new furniture.
As a department chair in a master's level institution (no graduate program in my area):
- 50% teaching download
- better summer salary
In addition, I insisted on a small raise in my base salary going into the chair position (it's "chair for life" around here, no fixed terms) because I really didn't want the position.
I know ours gets a raise and money for a tech (to help keep their research afloat). I don't know about anything else. We have a head, not a chair.
Dept chair: a course off plus summer money.
One chair I know of got a full time senior post doc to keep the lab running (the post-doc is a friend of mine). It means the lab has more publications now that the lab-head is a chair rather than less. But most don't get that.
R1 private: 10K bonus stipend, course reduction (both standard - no negotiation necessary), "back up" support in case of grant proposal failures (not used); additional sysadmin for department (badly needed and long argued for). Also significant base pay enhancement, but I was way behind before that.
Our chair got:
1) a no-teaching load during his time as chair
2) permanent salary increase
3) summer salary during his time as chair
4) money for research
We have a BIG department (60 faculty).
R1 public, big department (70+).
-No teaching
-$20K stipend
-contribution towards a PDF salary (negotiable)
there is also talk of making a portion of the stipend permanent, if you last the full six years.
at a large public R1 university our chair got:
a HUGE permanent salary raise (about 50 K), plus summer salary, which makes him the least productive (scientifically) but highest paid full prof in the dept
Release from teaching- he does a seminar course every once in a while
no research personnel (I guess he didn't ask, as his research activities are non-existent)
The previous chair got a permanent raise, although not as large; not sure about summer salary, but he did get a superpostdoc to run the lab.
Ours was a rotating chair. Half the teaching load and summer salary.
Small liberal arts college: Chairs get nothing but that warm fuzzy feeling. There is a lot of competition NOT to be chair.
R1 public, science: chair gets a funded postdoc, reduced teaching and extra salary. Not sure how much exactly. Fixed term of 5 years I believe.
Oh, and congratulations to your "friend"!
We have a fabulous department chair, one result being that our faculty meetings can't be more different than what you describe in your department... (less than one hour, no arguing/bickering, everyone is in good spirits). So a good chair can really make a huge difference!
And I have a hunch your "friend" will be a good chair...
R1, public, mathematics, 60ish faculty (2 assoc. chairs): course reduction to 1/0 (from 2/1), 1/2 post doc per year, furniture, roughly 25k salary top up (between dean and department).
I know what our chair did not get -- RAs or any type of research money. (But that could well be because he didn't ask for it. I am his perpetually TAing student, so that's an annoying thought.) I believe he did get a reduction in course load, and of course, a nice office.
Top 10 University:
First, resources for the Department to be able to do the job of chair. (Long conversations with Dean about plans, resources, minimum [additional] support, changes, etc.)
Teaching reduction (from 1,1,1 [trimesters] to 0,1,1.
Others got 0,0,1, but I like teaching)
Summer salary. Got chair's office, but kept mine, which was an extremely useful thing, physically separating chair and research duties.
For me it was two months of summer salary and half teaching reduction (1,1 to 0,1). I should have asked for postdoc support. Hindsight! My research is definitely suffering.
R1 Private, Science Department (29 faculty)- Our chairperson gets a full time post doc, reduction in teaching to one course per year, one month of summer salary,and a fancy office.
Our chair gets a course reduction from 3 courses to 2 a year, plus a small summer stipend. The trick is to get extra resources for the DEPARTMENT not for oneself. When our chair started he managed to get an extra lab space for an undergrad teaching lab that we desperately needed.
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