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Is, not Ought

Kent Brintnall, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina, Charlotte To paraphrase Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter, “I have a confession: I don’t much like my students.” It’s not that I don’t like them as...

The Dean and Visual Communication (Part 1)

Israel Galindo Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond Deans work in complex systems and, often, need to communicate complex ideas when leading Faculty to interpret problems and determine solutions. I've found that using graphic interpretation of data helps facilitate communication and...

“We’re Not in Kansas (nor Cambridge) Anymore”

Lisa M. Hess, Associate Professor of Practical Theology, United Theological Seminary Arriving onto the campus of my first fulltime teaching job in higher education was not unlike finding myself in a strange land with a little dog under my arm....

You probably should not be a dean if…

Israel Galindo Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond Deans in theological schools tend to come from the Faculty, for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it's a question of who is most willing to serve (or, who missed the meeting when the...

The Dean and Educational Effectiveness

Israel Galindo Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond Deans in theological schools face increasing demands to demonstrate educational effectiveness from accrediting agencies and constituents. For many theological schools, and for new deans, this can seem like an imposing challenge. Demonstrating educational...

The Dean and Change: Willfulness or Necessity?

Israel Galindo Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond Theological school deans serve in the capacity of institutional change agents. By virtue of leading from the center, deans bring about change through vision, influence, and, by pushing against inertia. As a person...

What Niccolo Machiavelli Can Teach Deans

Israel Galindo Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond The relationship of the dean with faculty does not have to be adversarial, but it occasionally can be. Edwin Friedman wrote, “Living with crisis is a major part of leaders’ lives. The crises...

How Organizations Stay Stuck

Israel Galindo Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond I’ve been observing several leaders in the process of making decisions. Some pertain to leaders making organizational or institutional decisions (dealing with employees, closing a program, dealing with a crisis). In only a...

Five Essential Functions of the Dean

Israel Galindo Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond I agree with Stephen Graham’s assertion that “Right now, theological schools need leaders, not just managers.”(1). He wrote, “Theological schools need leaders who are willing to name the changes that have taken place,...

The Dean as Positive Deviant

Israel Galindo Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond Albert Einstein said, "Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even inapable of forming such opinions." Every organization does...

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We invite friends and colleagues of the Wabash Center from across North America to contribute periodic blog posts for one of our several blog series.

Contact:
Donald Quist
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Educational Design Manager, Wabash Center

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