Council of Chairs and Directors

Department chairs and program directors play a central role in CU Denver’s academic life. They support faculty and staff, guide curriculum and program development, respond to student needs, manage complex personnel and workload issues, and translate institutional priorities into the everyday work of departments, programs, and academic units.

The Council of Chairs and Directors is designed to support these leaders by creating a regular forum for connection, shared understanding, and practical problem-solving. Through Council meetings, peer discussion, leadership development, and structured feedback to the Office of Faculty Affairs and Professional Development and the Provost’s Office, the Council helps strengthen the conditions for effective academic leadership across CU Denver.

The Council complements other faculty leadership development opportunities, including the New Academic Leaders Training program, by providing an ongoing space for chairs and directors at different stages of leadership to learn from one another, surface shared concerns, and contribute to campus-level conversations.

The Council of Chairs and Directors reflects CU Denver’s ongoing commitment to supporting faculty leaders who carry significant responsibility for academic quality, faculty and staff wellbeing, student success, and institutional change.

The Council builds on the legacy of Dr. Turan Kayaoglu, whose leadership helped establish and institutionalize the Council as a meaningful forum for department chairs, program directors, and related academic leaders across CU Denver. Through this work, the Council became a mechanism for strengthening communication, building community among academic leaders, and connecting the practical realities of unit leadership with the broader work of the Office of Faculty Affairs and the Provost’s Office.

The Council also extends the spirit of CU Denver’s faculty leadership development efforts. The C-SAT Program, co-designed by Turan Kayaoglu and Lisa Keränen and supported by Aubrey Thorburn, launched in fall 2022 to support new chairs and directors through community, training, mentorship, and leadership development. The Council of Chairs and Directors provides a complementary structure for ongoing engagement among chairs and directors beyond initial leadership development.

As CU Denver navigates academic transformation, enrollment pressures, student success goals, evolving expectations for academic programs, budget constraints, artificial intelligence, workload concerns, and changing state and system requirements, chairs and directors play a vital role in translating institutional priorities into academic practice. The Council provides a structured forum for making those experiences visible and for turning shared concerns into institutional learning.

The Council of Chairs and Directors serves as a campuswide forum for academic unit leaders to:

• Build community across departments, programs, schools, and colleges.
• Share practical knowledge and effective leadership practices.
• Discuss common challenges affecting chairs and directors.
• Strengthen communication among academic units, the Office of Faculty Affairs and Professional Development, and the Provost’s Office.
• Provide structured feedback on policies, processes, initiatives, and academic planning efforts that affect academic units.
• Support faculty-informed leadership and shared problem-solving across CU Denver.

The Council is intended to serve as a forum for shared understanding, practical problem-solving, and faculty-informed leadership across CU Denver’s academic units. This framing aligns with the annual Council survey, which describes the Council as a place to identify issues chairs and directors are navigating, areas where greater coordination or clarity would be helpful, and topics that should shape the Council’s agenda.

The Council seeks to:

• Strengthen the Council as a durable faculty-leadership body, not only a meeting series.
• Create a regular feedback loop between chairs/directors and the Office of Faculty Affairs and Professional Development / Provost’s Office.
• Support chairs and directors through practical tools, shared resources, peer learning, and leadership development.
• Improve clarity around the roles, responsibilities, authority, and support needs of chairs and directors.
• Surface common operational challenges affecting academic units.
• Support more coherent academic planning, program review, assessment, and data-informed decision-making.
• Build cross-program learning by sharing examples of effective practice across units.
• Help translate the experience of academic units into institutional learning and better decision-making.

These goals involve establishing the Council as a faculty-leadership body, producing an annual “state of chairs and directors” report, creating support architecture, building feedback loops into academic planning, developing cross-program learning, and producing a year-end report with recommendations.

Council meetings may include: 

• Briefings from campus leaders followed by discussion.
• Chair/director-only peer discussion.
• Problem-solving workshops.
• Case studies from academic units.
• Policy and process explainers.
• Data interpretation sessions.
• Small-group discussions by issue.
• Shared templates and tools sessions.
• Joint meetings with deans or central offices.
   

These formats will align with the annual Council survey, which asks chairs and directors to identify the meeting formats that would be most useful for the year.
 

The Council’s annual agenda will be informed by feedback from chairs and directors. Possible themes include:

• Chair and Director Role Clarity
• Academic Planning and Program Review
• Faculty Workload and Morale
• Enrollment, Student Success, and Curriculum
• Shared Governance and Decision-Making
• AI and Operational Modernization
• Practical Tools for Chairs and Directors

These themes will come directly from the survey’s recommended agenda-setting structure and are designed to position the Council as a mechanism for translating academic unit experience into institutional learning.

The Council provides a regular space for chairs and directors to connect with peers across schools and colleges, share experiences, and discuss common leadership challenges.

Examples of topics:

• Faculty workload and morale.
• Chair/director role clarity.
• Conflict management and personnel issues.
• Staff capacity and administrative support.
• Student complaints and student wellbeing.
• Budget and resource constraints.
• Faculty evaluation and merit.
• Hiring, retention, and succession planning.
• Enrollment management and student recruitment.
• Graduate and undergraduate student retention.
• Career readiness, internships, and job placement.
• Alumni engagement and external partnerships.
• Scholarship development and fundraising.
• Accreditation and specialized program requirements.

The Council helps chairs and directors interpret and respond to campus-level priorities, policies, and initiatives.

Examples of topics:

• Academic Program Check-Ins.
• Seven-year program reviews.
• Outcomes assessment.
• Core Curriculum implementation.
• Enrollment management and student success.
• Graduate education policies and practices.
• Data dashboards and institutional metrics.
• Curriculum approval and policy routing.
• Accreditation requirements and reporting.
• AI in teaching, curriculum, research, and administration.
• Strategic planning and resource allocation.

The Council provides a structured way for chairs and directors to raise issues, identify patterns, and provide feedback to the Office of Faculty Affairs and Professional Development, the Provost’s Office, and other campus partners.

This feedback may inform:

• Future Council programming.
• Faculty Affairs leadership development offerings.
• Academic planning processes.
• Policy and process clarification.
• Communication strategies.
• Resource development for chairs and directors.

The Council develops or curates resources:

• Chair/director annual calendar.
• Frequently asked questions.
• Meeting templates and communication tools.
• Academic planning and program review resources.
• AI-related guidance for chairs and directors.

See Resources section below.

The Council will use an annual survey, pulse checks, and structured feedback opportunities to identify the issues most affecting chairs and directors and to shape Council programming.

2026–27 Priorities and Leadership Conditions Survey

Purpose: The Council of Chairs and Directors survey is designed to identify the issues chairs and directors are currently navigating, the areas where greater coordination or clarity would be helpful, and the topics that should shape the Council’s agenda for the coming year.

Survey areas include:

• Role and unit context.
• Current pressures on chairs and directors.
• Academic planning, program health, and data.
• Faculty workload, morale, and unit capacity.
• Student success, enrollment, curriculum, and modality.
• Shared governance, communication, and decision-making.
• AI, technology, and administrative work.
• Council priorities and agenda-setting.

Survey results: Please contact the current Faculty Fellow

Chair/director “Playbook.” Forthcoming in AY 2026-2027