The position, as one professor wryly remarked, tends to go to the person in the department who "moves the slowest." A colleague speculated as to why one might accept the job at all; his only explanation is that it is "for the good of the University."
Yet these professors are not describing a position usually labeled as tiresome and unrewarding. Each is instead referring to his experience as a department chair at Princeton, an office that — at least among outsiders — suggests considerable prestige and influence.
This lack of enthusiasm is not unique to Princeton. Increasingly, department chairs across the nation are expressing disillusionment with the position. Some have had experiences so unfavorable that they regard the job with utter disgust. While chairs at Princeton seem appreciably more content with the office than do many of their colleagues teaching elsewhere, it still is true that leading a department is a demanding, time consuming task that necessarily diverts one's attention from teaching and research.
Princeton currently has 31 academic departments, each of which has a chair selected from among the department's faculty. Because chairs frequently are excellent professors, one might be lead to believe that the responsibilities of the position are primarily academic — tasks like sponsoring cultural events and conferences on campus or developing a department's curriculum.
The undertakings of chairs, however, are very often administrative. While involvement in academic decisions is by no means rare, it does tend to be indirect.
Chairs at Princeton consistently mention two means by which they can influence the character and scholarly emphasis of their departments. Both are administrative.
First, the University delegates a fair amount of budgetary authority to its department chairs, although many decisions remain in the hands of University administrators.
In the mathematics department, chair Charles Fefferman said he has "some discretion" in departmental finances. He explained that the total amount of money in his department's budget is largely out of his control, but that he is entrusted to allocate those resources that it does receive — particularly funds slated for research — in a way he believes will prove most beneficial.
The situation in the Germanic languages and literatures department, chaired by Professor Michael Jennings, is similar. Jennings chooses to divide much of his budget among various subgroups within the department, such as the lecture committee, which are then free to exercise their own financial judgment.
Chairs also tend to be major players behind fundraising for their department, and — as is the case with the operating budget — have much to say about how these funds are to be used.
Department chairs do have some influence regarding salaries. Increased interaction with University officials is required in this area, however, and the chair's authority is more diffuse here than with the departmental budget.
The University has clear guidelines for the modification of salaries, and it is not unusual to find chairs in close consultation with other administrators when compensation issues are concerned. Still, according to Jennings, this represents an "above average level of responsibility" in comparison to chairs elsewhere.
But the most profound effect that a chair can have is exercised through his or her ability to influence the composition of the faculty. Professor Thomas Shenk, chair of the molecular biology department, argued that nothing less than the "future of the department and the University" depends upon the acquisition and retention of exemplary professors.
As crucial as this responsibility is, it remains anything but easy. English department chair Michael Wood observed that "retaining and hiring faculty requires quite a lot of imagination. It is a very competitive world."
And one can see why. Economics chair Benjamin Bernanke said that much of his job consists of "trying to hire away other people's stars and keeping ours."
This level of competition is far from unjustified. Demand for the best professors is staggering in every academic pursuit.
"It is crucial to get and keep the best faculty members we can find," Fefferman explained, "But holding on to them is not easy."
Princeton's faculty members often receive very attractive offers from prestigious institutions around the world, and this can cause considerable frustration for any chair.
Classics chair Robert Kaster — who himself was recruited from the University of Chicago — said that he has learned from his experience that "any good faculty will attract attention elsewhere." While this makes his job decidedly more difficult, he explained, the more important thing to realize is that these challenges are introduced precisely because the quality of Princeton's faculty is so high.
Chairs at Princeton do cite rather consistently the University's vast support in providing the resources to maintain an excellent faculty. Similarly, those already on the faculty also devote substantial efforts to furthering these interests.
In the politics department, chair Jeffrey Herbst '83 said he works "intensively with all members of the department for a broad and diverse faculty." And both Jennings and Shenk emphasize their desires for new professors to be welcomed into their departments by a consensus of the faculty.
While the job of a department chair at Princeton appears, at times, to be a burden, at other schools the job can approach intolerability, according to an article that appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education recently. Some institutions expect chairs to offer advice — whether it is solicited or not — that they believe will improve the teaching of their colleagues.
As innocuous or even helpful as this responsibility may sound, it can place a chair in a rather precarious position. Professors are supposed to already be intelligent and independently minded professionals, so even the most well-intentioned and legitimate advice can escalate tensions if just a hint of condescension is detected.
But personnel issues often are just the beginning. When resources become short, chairs find themselves encumbered with the additional task of ensuring that their department's classroom space or teaching and support staff is not reassigned elsewhere.
Finally, frequently a daunting amount of paperwork is associated with the position, much of it the result of a tangled bureaucracy through which the chair must navigate to accomplish anything substantive.
There is general agreement that Princeton avoids these problems almost entirely, and in many ways stands out even among elite colleges. At many of these institutions, Bernanke noted, "Chairmen are less autonomous than at Princeton" since the dean of the faculty does more recruiting of professors.
Bernanke said he prefers the University's policy, which allows chairs and their colleagues "freedom to build the department[s]" as they desire.
Perhaps a more fundamental reason that Princeton's chairs seem to experience relative success is the egalitarianism that exists within each department — something that many chairs acknowledged.
The practice of offering unsolicited advice to others on the faculty is not common at Princeton. "I am not their boss," Fefferman said. "Except in very extreme cases, I would not presume to tell someone how or what to teach."
Bernanke approaches the job similarly, describing his position as "primus inter pares" — or first among equals. "We're all the same rank," he said. "I'm just the one sitting in the chair."
Chairs at Princeton often describe themselves as "facilitators" or "coordinators" working towards a consensus rather than as leaders in the traditional sense, Kaster said. Few people see the office as a concentration of power. Jennings observed that "nobody in the department wants to be chair, which is healthy."
And as might be expected, chairs tend to speak rather highly of their coworkers. Shenk notes that Princeton is fortunate to have faculty members of "such high quality that they do not need a chair regulating what they teach."
Princeton also avoids many problems by allowing its department chairs to report directly to the dean of the faculty or to the provost. This relatively simple administrative structure and the intimacy it encourages tends to be very efficient and comes as an advantage of being a small institution.
Although paperwork can become problematic for chairs, the University provides an extensive support staff to help alleviate this particular burden. "If you have a good staff, they really make things happen," Wood said.
Fefferman, too, is grateful for his department manager, who handles "a thousand little petty details" on his behalf.
Still, the job remains trying at times, and one can see why — even at Princeton — it is "highly uncontested." Paperwork can accumulate, particularly when the course guide is needs editing.
Moreover, as is the case at most universities, department chairs are greatly distracted from their teaching and research by the responsibilities of the office. Although he has managed to teach two courses this year, Kaster said he regrets that he is "not able to give the same attention to teaching and scholarship" as he has in the past.
Wood tries not to let the position daunt him. "I like teaching, so I just do it anyway," he said. But Wood admitted that "time gets very crowded" as a result.
There is also the danger of becoming isolated from students, which Wood said he has thus far managed to escape.
"I do think [my position] could be isolating," he said. "But I would dislike the isolation even more than the paperwork."
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Day nine of ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment’ at Princeton
Daily Princetonian StaffThe “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” enters its ninth day after a quiet night in Cannon Green — follow for live updates.
The “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” enters its ninth day after a quiet night in Cannon Green — follow for live updates.
