Transitioning from Administration to Faculty: Addictions to Break

Any type of transition involves challenges. Generally, the more extreme the transition, the more difficult people will find the adjustment process. The present conceptual article provides insight that focuses on one particular transition in higher education. Administrators that transition from their managerial roles to those of \u27\u27regular faculty likely will experience internal and external dynamics with which they will need to cope successfully. This article identifies these potential areas and offers insights that are intended to be useful for administrators to make the transition as successful as possible. Administration is not always a unidirection career path, so advanced preparation can help ensure that soon-to-be former administrators bridge the transition, experiencing optimal vocational success

Utilizing Undergraduate Assistants In General Education Courses

This conceptual article relates a best-practice paradigm for undergraduate faculty who teach relatively large, undergraduate, general education courses and utilize an undergraduate teaching assistant (TA).  Suggested characteristics for successful TAs are related as well as intrinsic and extrinsic motivators that help recruit quality assistants.  Five factors are shared that are believed to have made an undergraduate TA program successful for 20 years: the quality of students recruited, helping students to handle well their peer-relationships with students in the class, learning which items can and cannot successfully be delegated to TAs, harnessing the potency of relationships, and maintaining a healthy benefit/cost equilibrium with TAs

Perils of Being Friends with College Administrators

This conceptual paper addresses an issue that may never be a problem for some in higher education, and yet may be the Achilles\u27 heel for others. No absolute answers exist regarding befriending administrators, but I will address some of the dynamics that inherently are involved with the phenomenon and also various potential perils. To be clear, I am addressing situations where a faculty member is a friend with a Dean or Academic Vice President. In some contexts, the principles also may apply to friends in a position lower, such as Department Chair, or higher, such as Provost or institutional President. The friendships may be preexistent to an administrator\u27s appointment-or friendships that budded after the administrator\u27s installation

Computers: The Adversary of Effective Church Administration

Without question, computers and associated technologies have opened a vast new world to American society. Through internet access, e-mail, CD Roms, and other electronic sources, people now possess access to new worlds of information which a few years ago appeared impossible to conceive. Pastors stand to benefit from this new world of data. Web sites, data base searches, and e-mail are but a few examples of ways pastors can tap into this emerging technological world. While computers are a large benefit for pastoral ministry, they pose a significant danger relative to exercising principles of good church administration. This article is written from the perspective of one who is pro-computers for pastoral ministry. The author proposes that, while pastors should possess basic computer knowledge and literacy skills, they should not be using computers on a regular day-to-day basis

Utilizing Undergraduate Assistants In General Education Courses

This conceptual article relates a best-practice paradigm for undergraduate faculty who teach relatively large, undergraduate, general education courses and utilize an undergraduate teaching assistant (TA). Suggested characteristics for successful TAs are related as well as intrinsic and extrinsic motivators that help recruit quality assistants. Five factors are shared that are believed to have made an undergraduate TA program successful for 20 years: the quality of students recruited, helping students to handle well their peer-relationships with students in the class, learning which items can and cannot successfully be delegated to TAs, harnessing the potency of relationships, and maintaining a healthy benefit/cost equilibrium with TAs