Why I Liked Being Dean…

Jay’s Story

Many faculty are uninterested in/hesitant to explore university leadership positions. Yet, higher education needs effective leaders. To shed some light on what you actually do in an administrative role and why these jobs can be so rewarding, David shared his leadership story last week. I will return the favor this week, focusing on my time as Dean. I also served as Provost, but that role is much different (I enjoyed it too!) and will come back to it in a future post.

While our paths were different, David and I had a common starting point: neither of us had an academic leadership position on our career bucket list. Yet, we both found the role of Dean among our most gratifying professional experiences. Here’s my story.

My Path

Colleges of Agriculture are like mini-universities given the range of disciplines they include (economics to engineering to biochemistry to …) and their full embrace of the land-grant mission (learning, discovery, and engagement). Most of the disciplines in a College of Agriculture are life and physical sciences and engineering – not social sciences. As an economist, serving as Dean of such a college wasn’t on my radar.

I was quite happy as a faculty member leading a self-funding Center that provided educational programs/research to the agribusiness industry and teaching a number of courses. That said, after several years leading the Center, I was at a point in my career where I felt like I was doing a lot of administration (Center) and a lot of scholarly work (teaching and research) and wondering what I really wanted to be doing going forward.

Then, like David, I received a call out of the proverbial blue from the Interim Provost (and former Agriculture Dean): would I be interested in filling the role he had vacated (Vice Provost for Engagement) as an interim until the University hired a Provost? After a LOT of thought, I accepted – we had a great team in our Center and it seemed like a low-risk way to find out if academic leadership was something I might be interested in.

I recall vividly carrying my small box of stuff to an empty office in Hovde Hall of Administration - and wondering what in the heck am I supposed to do in this job! Yep, full-fledged case of imposter syndrome. After the initial shock wore off, I had a great year, got to know the campus and our state in a way I had never before, and worked with an amazing team in the Office of Engagement.

As the year was winding down, there was another leadership transition: the Dean of Agriculture had been hired as Provost. That led to another call: was I interested in serving as Interim Dean? Evidently, I was Purdue’s ‘utility infielder’! Might as well extend my ‘administrative sabbatical’ I thought, so I carried my box of stuff to the Agricultural Administration Building and set up shop.

Again, I recall vividly my first day in that job, leading the Academic Council meeting – and wondering what I was doing at the head of a table encircled by a dozen department heads and another dozen or so associate deans and professional staff members… (Looking back, they were probably wondering as well!).

Long story short, after a national search, I lost the interim title and served as Dean for the next eight years. My path to the role provided an early lesson – I am a huge proponent of interim appointments and administrative fellow assignments (part or full time). I was able to trial these jobs, learned much, and frankly, would never have been considered for the ‘permanent role’ without the experience.

Some Early Lessons Learned

My path was a non-traditional one, so I had plenty to learn. That is in itself a lesson – there are many ways to accumulate experience that will serve you well in an administrative role. I was keenly aware I had not served as a Department Head but also realized quickly that my faculty experience in all three land-grant mission areas and my disciplinary focus on managing agribusiness organizations gave me a solid foundation for the job.

As a faculty member, you are a domain expert – you know as much or more about your specific area than anyone else. Well, the opposite is true when you are Dean of Agriculture – in the vast majority of the conversations you are NOT the subject matter expert – the biochemist, the food scientist, the animal nutritionist, the biological engineer….is. Knowing what you don’t know is kind of important. A bit of a science geek growing up, I loved learning more about the disciplines represented in the College – and also learned the importance of intentional listening.

A related lesson is about what you find rewarding/gratifying in your work. As a faculty member, I took great pride in securing a grant, getting a paper published, wrapping up a course successfully, seeing a graduate student complete their degree…. For sure, some of this was about the accomplishment of others - but much of it centered on what I was doing/had done in my role as an academic entrepreneur.

That switch flipped – and I found out how much I enjoyed supporting the success of others and the success of the College. We had 300+ faculty, 1000+ staff, and 3500+ students – and my role was to help each of them reach their highest aspirations. If that happened, our College would thrive, and any personal recognition for me would take care of itself. Seeing one of our students win an award, recognizing a faculty member when they received a major grant, hearing from a stakeholder about how one of our Extension staff had helped them with a problem, such accomplishment by our students, faculty, and staff became my personal measuring stick for success.

You also learn that your office can be a catalyst or it can be a roadblock. Moving approvals/requests along, respecting faculty and staff time with ‘administrative’ requests and policies, and generally keeping the trains running on schedule sounds mundane – until you don’t do it. Most faculty don’t care much about administration – until you create friction between them and their work.

Why I Liked Being Dean

I really enjoyed serving as Dean. Maybe the biggest reason was personal: like many, I have always been someone who wanted to put whatever talents I had to their highest and best use. In the role of Dean, I felt like I was doing that with any leadership abilities I have. The work of the College was important: food insecurity, sustainable use of natural resources, supporting rural communities, preparing the next generation of talent for the agricultural industries,… We were doing big things and having some role in making those things happen was energizing.

As Dean, I never lost connection with the teaching and scholarly activity in the College. It was a large unit, but not so large I couldn’t stay connected. By the time I left the role, I knew almost every faculty member and many of the staff by name – and something about the work they did. I didn’t know as many of the students but enough to stay engaged in their world. And, I came to know so many of the stakeholders of the College – alumni, friends, ag and community leaders, elected officials.

All these connections were constant reminders of why I had pursued an academic career in the first place and who we served. This last point was one I believed important for our leadership team: I recall hanging very large photos of faculty, staff, students, and stakeholders in our leadership team meeting room so we never forgot on whose behalf we were making decisions.

One of my biggest surprises was how much I enjoyed fund raising. While I had led a self-funding center and was comfortable seeking funds through proposals, asking folks for gifts was new. With a patient chief development officer, I came to love the process of connecting the needs of our College with those who were passionate about supporting it.

I had always enjoyed working with our Center’s team, and being Dean let me take that experience to an entirely different level. For me, there is nothing like working with an engaged group of professionals committed to a common purpose. We had such a team in the College, and I found supporting them in their roles – helping them realize their goals and grow as professionals, clearing barriers to their success and celebrating that success, having their back when needed – to be something I so valued about the role.

Okay, What About the Bad Days?

Hey, any job will have its downsides – no matter how much you enjoy it. David covered many of the challenges of being Dean in his post.

In the Dean’s job, there is never enough time. Period. Keeping the main thing, the main thing took work and sometimes I wanted more time than I had to deal with a challenge. I had a lot of direct reports (20+) and didn’t always feel they got as much attention as they deserved (but maybe they got than they wanted!)

Given the role as ambassador and chief fund-raiser for the College, work time and personal time got blended – ask my wife: we hosted a lot of events in our home – which we enjoyed, but... All of this helped me understand the importance of a terrific administrative assistant.

There is never enough money. Period. Ideas and ‘opportunities’ pour into a Dean’s office. Some of course don’t deserve a nickel. But many have merit and funds are limited. This situation put a premium on finding some creative way to support an idea with merit – to keep morale up and options open.

Faculty are trained to study a tightly defined issue/problem from a somewhat detached perspective and through the process contribute additional knowledge/insight. ‘Findings’ may be definitive, but may also raise as many questions as they answer. (My own discipline of economics is infamous for an ‘on the other hand’ perspective.)

Plenty (most?) of the hard questions I had to answer as Dean were messy and ambiguous, with no clear answer, and solutions demanded compromise. Someone had to make the decision – and the College buck stopped with the Dean – no ‘on the other hand’! You learn quickly that somebody (maybe everybody) won’t be happy with the decision – and deal with it.

Parting Comments

In these roles, others pass judgement on whether or not they thought you were effective as a leader. That said, I believe our leadership team and the College accomplished much while I had the privilege of serving as Dean.

Speaking to our academic readers, if you have even the slightest interest in a leadership role, find an opportunity to get some experience. Don’t be constrained by traditional paths to these positions – but do find opportunities to practice leadership – in your lab, through a large grant, in a center, in your professional association, in an interim or fellow role. In the process, perhaps you will find as I did that supporting the success of others can be far more enriching than whatever you can accomplish on your own.

“Finding Equilibrium” is coauthored by Jay Akridge, Professor of Agricultural Economics, Trustee Chair in Teaching and Learning Excellence, and Provost Emeritus at Purdue University and David Hummels, Distinguished Professor of Economics and Dean Emeritus at the Daniels School of Business at Purdue.