NDSU Welcomes 13 New Chairs and Heads

Thirteen faculty members have taken on new leadership of departments and schools at North Dakota State University since last fall. They lead units in all five of the university’s colleges.

The job they have stepped into is the one closest to the academic work of the university. A chair or head leads an academic department while remaining a faculty member in it.

The role reaches every part of the academic mission. Chairs and heads carry the administrative responsibility for evaluating probationary and tenured faculty and recommending tenure, promotion, renewal and dismissal, and for making sure every faculty member has a current job description. They shape degree programs and curriculum, decide who teaches what and when, manage department budgets, lead searches that determine who joins the faculty, and work with students whose plans or programs have run into trouble.

Those decisions matter because the department is where teaching and research happen. A major is delivered by a department, not by an institution, and a faculty career is built inside one. The choices that determine both are made at that level.

“Chairs and heads make decisions every day that shape the quality of a student’s education and the course of a faculty member’s career,” said Provost Shari Veil. “Their work is critical to the success of the institution, and I thank these colleagues for taking on this important role.”