Key Resources: Responsibilities of the Chair

Navigate below to find the 2024-2025 resources developed as part of the Academic Leadership Program.

Click on each tile to access each resource. 

Note: New Chairs will find very quickly that between faculty and staff performance evaluations and budget planning, Winter tends to be the heaviest term (though October and November can be crowded if there are tenure and promotion cases). Chairs would be well-advised to concentrate their teaching in the other terms and keep the Winter term free of teaching if possible.

Additional obligations for Chairs

Numerous other obligations fall on the Chair on a regular basis, but the following are not necessarily tied to an annual calendric cycle. Where relevant these activities are understood to take place in conjunction with Faculty-level processes:

  • Hiring (faculty staff, sessional and definite term appointments). Advertising for faculty positions may happen at any time, though late summer/fall advertising may be advisable (all other things being equal).
  • Probationary contract renewals.
  • Regular program reviews, both graduate and undergraduate1
  • Department/School advancement (development and alumni).

1Normally program reviews are held on a seven-year cycle; professional programs requiring accreditation review may be on a five-year cycle.