After years of service and moving up through the faculty ranks, senior faculty members often feel they have earned the privilege of concentrating their teaching efforts on upper-division courses, leaving the introductory courses to younger faculty members. It seems fair enough: If you stick around long enough, you will be able to teach the courses you enjoy most. But is it the best arrangement for students?

When faculty members receive phone calls from parents about their children’s academic work, the response is often, “Our contract is with the students, not the parents,” says Marjorie Savage, parent program director at the University of Minnesota.

Collegiality—the ability of faculty members to get along with each other and contribute to the collective good—is a key component of success within the department and the higher education institution as a whole. It is largely up to the department chair to promote collegiality, but everyone plays a part. In an email interview, Robert Cipriano, chair of Recreation and Leisure Studies at Southern Connecticut State University, explained the importance of collegiality, strategies for encouraging collegiality, and the role of collegiality in personnel decisions.

In Tuesday’s post, we talked about a survey conducted by Brenda Coppard, chair of occupational therapy at Creighton University, on the transition from faculty to chair, and what experiences they found most helpful in making the move.

Despite all that has been written about leadership, the question still remains: What does it take to be an effective academic leader?

Inadequate preparation, unrealistic expectations, and increased workload can be overwhelming for faculty members making the transition to department chair. Brenda Coppard, chair of occupational therapy at Creighton University, found this transition “just a little mind boggling” and decided to focus her research on it.

Academic dishonesty can come in a variety of forms. From roving eyes during exams to buying papers off the Internet to any number of other low or high-tech forms of cheating and plagiarism. Anyone who works in higher education is aware that this kind of thing goes on at colleges everywhere, and has for a long time. But if you want to know how often it occurs on your campus, a good place to start might be to ask the students.

Few issues have more powder keg potential than academic tenure. Not only is applying for tenure a nerve-racking, time and labor intensive process for faculty, but the resulting tenure decisions can cause discontent for tenure candidates and ill will in departments. Tenure even carries the potential for costly lawsuits for institutions.

How do you come across to the people you work with? Does what you say and how you say it send mixed messages? Are your actions consistent with your words? Do you listen intently? Do you acknowledge others’ ideas? All these questions are important for any leader, and answering them honestly can help you become a better leader, says Florence Richman, special assistant to the president for academic growth at Northern Virginia Community College.