Dates and Deadlines (part of a letter to the incoming chair)

Just a little housekeeping left in my letter to the incoming chair: dates, a manifest, a list things I forgot to include in the first round of writing, and perhaps a one-page summary. In this section, we consider some of the key dates and deadlines for the chair.

While the Dean’s office has a list of faculty dates to remember, that list contains a number of events that are not immediately relevant to your role as department chair. It also lacks some regular events that are important to the chair, but don’t necessarily flow through the Dean’s office. Here are the ones that come to mind. I recommend that you update it as you get new requests. I also recommend that you put deadlines on a calendar or equivalent. And pay attention to the Faculty News Digest. Many important deadlines appear there.

Mid Summer

• 1 July: Chair takes office. (maybe this one is only important to me)
• Identify department representatives for GSP.

Late Summer

• Department workshop (this year).
• Plan first CS extras.
• Plan first CS table.
• Schedule first department meeting of fall semester
• Plan an event for second-year students. Make sure to coordinate the date/time with Math, Stats, Physics, and Econ, which are the most common overlap departments.
• Pick date and make reservations for Stats/Math/CS picnic.

First department meeting of the fall

• Review department goals for the year.
• Plan as much of CS extras as possible.
• Assign department responsibilities.
• Elect department representative to Division Personnel.
• Review budget.

Early Fall (First month or so)

• Schedule class visits for faculty under review.
• New course proposals and course changes to Registrar (first week of September).
• Day-long event for second-year science students.
• Event for second-year students (second week of September).
• Meet with SEPC to discuss their role in reviews.
• Special topics proposals to Registrar.
• Stats/Math/CS picnic.

Mid Fall (before Fall break)

• Corrected spring schedules to Registrar.
• Interim reviews due.
• Complete reviews due.
• Applications for Term faculty due.
• Applications for Alumni Scholars due.
• CS extra on graduate school.
• Contact FM to discuss any major projects, such as converting rooms.

Fall Break

• Work on reviews.
• Start preparing budget.

Late Fall (after Fall break)

• Tenure reviews due. (None to worry about at the moment, but ….)
• Distribute Data Buddies survey.
• Faculty salary reviews due (early December).
• Budget due (early December).
• Major FM requests due (early December).
• ACM NDC Survey. (Ask Jim Mulholland to do the salaries and make it clear that he only has to do the salaries.)
• CS extra on summer opportunities (usually last Thursday of the semester).

Early Spring (before Spring break)

• CS extra on summer research opportunities (usually first Thursday of the semester).
• Start planning schedule of courses.
• Remind faculty to submit MAP requests.
• Submit new course proposals and course changes.
• Submit special topics proposals.
• Schedule of courses due.
• Decide on honors.
• Pick date and make reservations for Stats/Math/CS Picnic
• Encourage students to declare their majors early so that you don’t have to do lots of last-minute work.
• Revisit exit interview questions.

Spring break

• Request department data for tenure-track staffing proposal.
• Prepare tenure-track staffing proposal.

Late Spring (after Spring break)

• Tenure-track staffing proposals due (usually April 1)
• Declarations of majors due Monday after spring break.
• Proofread schedule of courses (immediately after break).
• Academic equipment requests due (usually first week of May)
• Review catalog copy provided by Registrar.
  
• Review recommendations for Tutorial professors and incoming students.
• Exit interviews.
• Plan pledge of computing professional.
• Work with ASA on senior breakfast.
• Stats/Math/CS picnic (often Friday of week 14).
• Senior lunch (Monday of finals week).

Early Summer

• Clean out mailing lists.

Version 1.0 of 2017-05-30.