Department Chairs

Accessibility controls

Pause motion

Motion: On

Play motion

Motion: Off

Increase text contrast

Contrast: Standard

Reset text contrast

Contrast: High

Apply site-wide

As a department chair, you’re not just leading a program, you’re cultivating an environment where both faculty and students can thrive. This collection of resources is designed to support you in building a stronger, more cohesive academic community. Whether you’re looking for tools to help your instructors develop their teaching skills, resources to enhance faculty collaboration, or programming strategies to elevate your department’s impact, you’ll find practical solutions here. Our materials help you foster authentic teaching cultures, support faculty at every career stage, and create the kind of department where learning is bolstered and people flourish.

Supporting Faculty

AI at URI

URI is actively exploring the impact and opportunities of AI. As a public, flagship research university, our mission and responsibility are to prepare students for the future they will occupy.

ATL Walk & Talk

ATL's Walk & Talk is back! Looking for a way to connect with colleagues? Need a break from the stresses of faculty life? Come walk with us! This opportunity gives instructors an informal way to engage with peers, take a leisurely stroll/roll around campus, and discuss teaching and learning topics that are top of mind.

Department Meeting Faculty Development

Hit the easy button on department meetings! If you're looking for an easy way to add professional development to your department meetings this semester, consider these offerings from the Office for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning.

Faculty Resources

An onboarding guide for new faculty, information about promotion and tenure, IDEA ratings, sabbatical leave and more from the office of the Provost.

Faculty Vitality & Well-being Workshops

These workshops are designed to invite reflection and empower faculty with the knowledge to prevent (or manage) burnout, while uplifting the importance of rest and clarity of roles.

Teaching With ChatGPT & Other AI

This curated resource collection introduces Generative AI and its uses in education, with an option for deeper exploration. Open AI’s ChatGPT is only one of many AI-powered tools in use across dozens of sectors. While AI has great potential, human expertise, critical thinking, and social connection remain vital.

Administrative Duties

Academic Testing Center

The mission of the Academic Testing Center is to advance teaching and learning outcomes by offering professional proctoring services that promote honesty, integrity, and equity while providing accessible and inclusive learning assessment opportunities for students, faculty, and academic departments at the University of Rhode Island.

Assessments

The Student Learning Outcomes and Assessment and Accreditation team promotes student success, improved learning, and continuous program improvement through program-level outcomes assessment and curricular innovation.

IDEA: More than just a number

This self-paced Brightspace training will take you through four interactive modules highlighting the purpose of the IDEA Survey and how to effectively choose questions and interpret results.

Supporting Department Life

Ask the Chair: 7 Pillars of Chair Wisdom

Lessons for current and future department heads on how to succeed in this vital yet idiosyncratic role.

Department Culture: Learning to Play Well with Others

Human relationships are rarely simple, especially in organizational settings. How do you strengthen a weak or tense bond with a colleague, mentee, or chair? There are many ways to build and maintain healthy professional relationships, yet academics are rarely exposed to those ideas.

How to Run a Good Meeting

Given their importance and potential, how can we make meetings better? This Chronicle guide will explore how to make your meetings effective, inclusive, and maybe — just maybe — even a little bit fun.

Supporting Yourself as a Department Chair

Department Chair Success Program

The Department Chair Success Program (CSP) is a 12-week program designed to equip new chairs with the skills, strategies, and support they need to lead their departments effectively while maintaining their own academic success.

Essential Leadership Skills for Department Chairs

Join us in person for this essential two-day workshop designed specifically to help academic department chairs discover or reconnect with the most effective ways to lead in a variety of situations and circumstances.

The Chronicle’s Strategic-Leadership Program for Department Chairs

Department chairs have one of the toughest jobs on campus. We’ve partnered with academic leaders at Dever Justice LLC and leading research experts at Ithaka S+R to design a program that will help guide new and experienced chairs through the challenges and transformative opportunities of their role.

ATL Programming Calendar

ATL Programming

View the full programming schedule offered by the ATL, including events, workshops and unique professional and personal development opportunities.