12 Indiana University Bloomington faculty members were featured in a recent IU Bloomington Today story about their selection for one of three Big Ten Academic Alliance leadership programs.
Armin Moczek, professor and chair of the Department of Biology in the College of Arts + Sciences, is among five department chairs included this year who will be joining more than 60 department heads in the Departmental Executive Officer (DEO) Program. This program, involving a series of virtual workshops and a three-day in person conference, covers topics such as group problem solving, faculty development, performance reviews, and conflict resolution.
Moczek said, “Effective academic leadership is not easy, but it is something that can be taught and that can be learned. Yet academia generally does not provide a lot of opportunities to do so – instead, department chairs often get thrown into their position, expected to either already know what it takes to lead their unit, or to somehow sponge it up along the way by osmosis.”
“The DEO program is a well-recognized exception, where new and experienced academic leaders across diverse universities and academic units work with and learn from each other,” he said. “The first virtual workshops are off to a great start, and I look forward to the remaining events this semester.”
The Big Ten Academic Alliance, formerly the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, includes the 18 universities of the Big Ten Conference. The alliance is governed and funded by the provosts of the member universities. Big Ten Academic Alliance programs and initiatives are coordinated by staff at its Champaign, Illinois, headquarters.
The College of Arts