Unlike in many work environments, university professors’ daily activities aren’t managed from on high. Instead, academics govern themselves using a rather unconventional model: collegiality. For better or worse, this self-government often takes the form of departmental meetings. Finding one’s feet as a new professor takes more than just a simple adjustment.
Countless critical issues, like the annual distribution of tasks and work plans, give rise to debate in academic departments. To participate effectively, department members need to collectively show accountability, understand each other’s activities, and sometimes even challenge each other. Some decisions — especially performance evaluations related to tenure and promotion — are rife with consequences not only for individuals, but for the department as a whole. Collegiality is essential given how often professors make recommendations having a major impact — usually positive, sometimes negative — on a colleague’s career.
Department members may find it challenging to navigate this self-managing structure. Ideally, administrative units would operate with easy collegiality, integrating new faculty into the group and considering their opinion as a matter of course. In the right environment, mutual supervision of academic activities is accepted and understood. But authority and power can look different in different contexts and depend heavily on our day-to-day workplace relationships. What’s more, academics are often ill-equipped for management, and not everyone is willing to take on the role.
When the time comes to act, no two departments will proceed the same way. Stances can range from equitable, flexible, and principled, to harsh, inflexible, or lax. Countless different factors inform these reactions. As an example, a department full of experienced faculty might operate completely differently than a department full of fresh faces.
Self-government sounds great on paper, but it can be challenging in practice if departments fail to recognize they have an entitlement and a responsibility, even a duty, to act. Every member of a department should feel empowered to give their opinion on any given matter and trust that their opinion will be considered. But that’s easier said than done! Newcomers to the department may have different perspectives — and more exacting work standards — than senior colleagues who are satisfied to meet teaching requirements while taking on lower research loads. Experienced professors may also forget the generational divide separating them from younger colleagues, who face different realities.
Adjusting to departmental operations and priorities takes time. But a department is a forum of equals, and everyone’s voice deserves to be heard.