This informal forum for academic leaders from across the university is an opportunity to share ideas, expertise, practices, and perhaps even challenges. Over a collegial glass of wine, you'll have a rare chance to talk with your peer group with the aim of making chairing and directing a more enjoyable experience. We've scheduled the first Fridays of select months for these gatherings.
The Chairs' Community of Practice (CoP) is for
To register to attend any of the AY24 Chairs' CoP gatherings, please complete our online registration form.
For these gatherings, we use the "Communities of Practice" model (Wenger 1998), which means you're in charge of what's discussed. You decide which topics are most important for you as chairs right now and each member of the group decides how much or how little to contribute. (For example, the model includes "legitimate peripheral participation" to acknowledge that not everyone wants to join in a discussion even when they chose to attend.)
The Center for Faculty Development's role is simply to facilitate the process for you and to provide the refreshments and appetizers. We also compile notes from each session and upload those to the Chairs' CoP Canvas site. If you are a chair or a program director, you can gain access to the Canvas by emailing us at faculty-development@seattleu.edu.
As with other events run by the Center, this forum is voluntary, formative, and confidential.
Department chairs and program directors are dispersed across the university and we know it can be difficult to share challenges and solutions with one another without a structure. This community of practice provides a loose structure for sharing practice, working out approaches to new challenges and—if the group wishes—to make recommendations on procedures that will improve people's work situations. These communities of practice can forge new links, particularly between schools and colleges, to positive effect.
To register to attend any of the Chairs' CoP gatherings, please complete our online registration form and be sure to include any dietary restrictions you may have so that we know to order sufficient refreshments.