Midyear Update

I have not posted here lately. It has been a crazy semester for me, full of added responsibility, change and experimentation. Leading assessment of general education, implementing two grant projects, writing several articles and training and supervising 40-plus staff are just some of the projects that have filled my fall semester. Still, I have already accomplished many of my leadership goals for the year. I have also been very active in my leadership "action learning" group project. I created the group's first interactive website, led the initial discussion and have contributed at length regarding our project. While I have not been able to participate in the group's "Web Ex" meetings since they have been held during my teaching times, I have commented on every development in the project. Below is just one example of my email posts on the project. Despite my hectic schedule, I still believe that the year to date has greatly enhanced my understanding of leadership and expanded my leadership role at my institution and beyond.

From: McClure, Randall W
Sent: Mon 11/27/2006 9:49 AM
To: Sue Field; k.nelson@lsc.edu; choate@mnstate.eduCc: JOlson@bemidjistate.edu; todd.jagerson@dctc.mnscu.edu; b.dahl@lsc.edu; rshand@sctc.edu; deborah.proctor@so.mnscu.edu;
Subject: RE: URGENT: FOR THE Project

Sue--

Thanks for your note here and, yes, you've got it. I have not seen any MnSCU data/research on the problems of virtual faculty. While I realize (and as Ed points out) that there are likely some problems, we are building this project on a dicey set of assumptions in my opinion. Therefore, I support the earlier suggestion of developing a list of suggested practices for employers and virtual faculty to help them excel in their professional development. I would then argue that we pair this with a call for further research to get a more complete picture of the problem(s).A similar issue arose several years ago in my field--writing program administration (wpa). Most WPAs are in faculty positions but really have administrative jobs (For example, I only teach 1 graduate course a year). When some of these folks were going up for tenure, they were shot down because the deans/vps at their schools did not see the value of their administrative work. In many cases, the tenure committees wanted to view WPAs only through the "faculty" lens. This might be the case with virtual faculty, but I am not sure. For more discussion on this, please feel free to visit http://wpacouncil.org/positions/intellectualwork.html. This document "Evaluating the Intellectual Work of Writing Administration" has helped many WPAs and their employers better define their work.Perhaps, we could develop a similar statement for "Promoting the Intellectual Work of Virtual Faculty." Such a statement steers away from assumptions and moves toward mutual understanding. In the end, I just want to stay away from work that is not adequately supported by research and could easily be misinterpreted. Are you still with me?
Thanks again.
Randall