While many professors find their hands full teaching and doing research, some professors must also deal with the extra responsibility of running their departments.
Religion Department Chair Hans Penner said every full professor must serve as the chair of his or her department at some time.
"You have to do it because of your dharma -- it's your duty," he said.
Department chairs serve three-year terms, where they approve transfer credits, plan and schedule courses, sign major cards and lead department meetings.
Chairs also works with the department's administrative assistant to plan the department's budget and sit on the Committee of Chairs. The Committee of Chairs, which meets once or twice a term to discuss issues affecting the faculty, consists of all of the chairs of the College's academic departments and programs.
All chairs are chosen by the Dean of the Faculty, who bases decisions on faculty recommendations.
"We poll the faculty in the specific department and ask them to rank their choices for department chair," said George Wolford, the assistant dean of faculty for the social sciences.
"We're not obligated to follow the votes, but 98 out of 100 times, we go with the faculty's wishes," Wolford said. "If a department overwhelmingly chooses person X, we'd probably go with that person, even if we thought there was a mistake."
Although new chairs are chosen every three years, they do not all step down the same year. Rather, the position is handed over on a staggered basis.
"I don't really think that that was the design, but it seems to have evolved that way," Wolford said.
Penner said the three-year interval works well.
"The three-year chairmanship gives everyone a chance to do it, and it's a short enough time period that one doesn't become stale at it," Penner said.
"And even if the department gets a really bad chair, three years isn't going to kill the department," he said.
Drama Department Chair Mara Sabinson said she also agrees with the policy of changing chairs every three years.
"It's healthy to get new people as chairs," she said. "It prevents the creation of a hierarchical fiefdom."
Sabinson said she has a more time-consuming role that most department chairs.
In addition to the work all chairs do, Sabinson also heads the committee that oversees the College's dramatic productions.
"I have to make sure that the season choices are done on time, and I have to take our philosophy and mission and make it happen in our productions," Sabinson said.
Sabinson's job also involves bringing in outsiders who review the work of drama professors.
The negatives
Professors said there are many negatives to serving as a department chair.
"It is most joyless when I have to tell a particular colleague that his promotion isn't going to work out or he's not going to receive a recommendation," Penner said.
The large amount of communication required by the position is annoying, Sabinson said.
"There are too many paper and e-mail massages sent, and it often seems like a waste of trees, electricity and time," she said.
Being a department chair also involves a huge time commitment.
"You need to be here around the clock when you're the chair," History Department Chair Gene Garthwaite said. "You just don't have time for anything else."
The positives
Professors did say that the position of department chair does have certain advantages -- like fewer classes and more money.
To compensate for increased time constraints, chairs teach one class fewer than their colleagues.
"It just wouldn't be fair to the students for the department chairs to be teaching more," Garthwaite said.
Another benefit of serving as department chair is a salary increase.
"When a professor becomes a department chair, they are put in a quasi-administrative position, which requires 11 months of duty, instead of the nine months that faculty members put in," Penner said. "The chair is given one-ninth of his or her salary as compensation for that extra time."
Sabinson said it is unfair that chairs from different departments receive different salaries.
"We're all making basically the same time commitment, but we don't get the same compensation," she said.
Other professor said the position of department chair has more to offer than fewer classes and an increased salary.
"I've been able to meet a broader range of students as department chair," Garthwaite said, "and it's been a real pleasure."
"There's a certain pleasure in seeing the class schedules working smoothly and in writing letters of recommendation for your colleagues' promotions and grants," Penner said.
