Sherlock Department Chair
How did that happen?
I find that about a third of my time as a new chair goes into detective work: who made that decision, and when and why did they make it? Here is a recent example.
The mystery of the grade change.
I am copied on an email from the university disciplinary committee summoning an instructor to appear before them to answer a student’s appeal. The instructor asks “can we talk about this?”. I say “sure but what does it have to do with me?”. He says: “you lowered the student’s grade in my course and now they are appealing.” I say “I don’t remember doing that but the first thing to go as department chair was my memory”. I email our undergraduate chair and our academic integrity committee. It appears that the academic integrity committee recommended lowering the grade and the registrar implemented the grade change. Why the registrar’s choices are recorded as coming from csdir I still don’t know. But I’ve found out enough.
Here is a sample of more mysteries that I will never get to the bottom of.
Why was Professor X not assigned teaching duties in the term after his parental leave?
Why did my colleagues with expiring salary supplements not apply to renew them?
Who decided not to renew the director’s operating fund?
What exactly was promised to a Canada Research Chair about their emeritus status?
Who decided on our class size policy and when?
Who revised the terms of reference for our endowed research chairs in 2023?
I have gathered tantalizing clues but no final answers. It’s like reading a mystery novel that ends before you find out whodunit.