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The Multidisciplinary Reorganization Toolkit

Guidance and resources for transitioning from siloed departments to a collaborative academic governance model

The following seven resources are designed for leaders of institutions that are just beginning the transition from siloed to interdisciplinary governance.

Whether motivated by university strategic challenges or simply a desire to increase collaboration between groups of faculty, almost every president and chief academic officer today is contemplating structural change.

This toolkit outlines a new model for organizing decisions and resources in academic units—the multidisciplinary division model—that addresses departmental silo challenges, and offers templates, timelines, and resources to realize a divisional model aligned with institutional strategy and needs.

Introducing the division model: Organizing responsibility for effective multidisciplinary governance

In traditional, single-discipline department models, department chairs simultaneously oversee the administrative needs of an academic unit and represent their disciplines in academic governance. The inherent tension of this role makes departmental leadership challenging and burdensome for many chairs, who lack the training or experience to take on managerial duties. The division model splits these two roles between a professionalized, administrative leader—the division head—and a group of elected disciplinary representatives—faculty leads—and places governance at a higher level in order to promote flexibility and collaboration. The key to successful divisional redesign is aligning each set of leadership decisions at the right organizational level.

This briefing outlines high-level benefits of reorganizing academic departments into multidisciplinary divisions, explains how these divisions are typically organized, and links to resources from institutions that have adopted multidisciplinary organization models. Use this resource to review how division models support and advance student success, cost reduction, curricular innovation, and administrative efficiency.

Read the Introduction

  • “”

    Division heads

    are hired and trained for administrative, budgetary, and strategic oversight over multidisciplinary academic units.

  • “”

    Faculty leads

    are elected to coordinate curricula and serve as shared governance representatives for flexible groupings of faculty in one or more divisions.

Resources to help you reorganize departments into divisions

The following six resources are designed for leaders of institutions that are just beginning the transition from siloed to interdisciplinary governance. They may also be of interest to leaders who are exploring reorganization as a potential option and would like to preview how the process might play out at their institutions.

Learn about the three different phases of reorganization in addition to the purpose and milestones.

Phase 1: Educate

Announce divisional transition and inform the campus community

Purpose

Provide space for understanding the theory and goals of redesign, separate from implementation specifics

Milestones

  • Announce redesign
  • Create committees

Phase 2: Design

Determine new organizational model in faculty-led committees

Purpose

Ensure faculty have input about how their communities will be organized, and design systems and processes

Milestones

  • Finalize org models
  • Select leadership

Phase 3: Implement

Transition from departments into multidisciplinary units

Purpose

Pilot, then fully implement, the consolidation and reorganization of departments and spaces

Milestones

  • Pilot division model
  • Redesign spaces
To further guide your reorganization process, use the tools below to review results and process documents from existing complete, partial, and in-progress divisional reorganization efforts. You can download the six individual tools below.

1. Sample timeline for academic reorganization

This timeline divides a typical 5-year reorganization process into three stages—educating the campus community, designing the new model, and implementing the reorganization—with concrete action steps for each stage. Use this timeline to budget and plan for a reorganization, measure progress, and communicate actionable next steps during the reorganization process.

Download the Timeline

2. Divisional reorganization talking points

This guide provides an overview of some of the most common questions and concerns about multidisciplinary reorganization. Senior administrators can use these talking points to anticipate and structure conversations with faculty, students, and academic leadership.

Download the Guide

3. 8 task forces to guide academic reorganization

This resource outlines the structure, charge, and recommended EAB research for each of the faculty and staff task forces most institutions will need to complete a reorganization. Use the included checklists to keep track of key tasks and questions to address during the reorganization process.

Download the Resource

4. Divisional leadership position descriptions: Division heads and faculty leads

These sample position descriptions describe structures, core responsibilities, and desired qualifications for the two new roles in multidisciplinary governance. Use this resource to clarify the responsibilities for the faculty lead and division head positions, craft job descriptions for potential candidates, educate faculty about the new administrative positions, and ensure that workload is divided optimally.

Download the Resource

5. Divisional faculty evaluation checklist

This checklist compares traditional standards and processes for evaluating faculty in single-discipline departments against flexible criteria for evaluating faculty in multidisciplinary divisions. Faculty evaluation task forces should use this checklist to align their promotion and tenure guidelines with multidisciplinary organizational models.

Download the Checklist

6. 50 indicators of successful academic reorganization

This resource lists metrics to measure the effectiveness of divisional reorganization. Pick the metrics and the goals that are most relevant to your institution and its goals for reorganizing, Evaluate your goals and their corresponding metrics yearly to measure progress.

Download the Resource

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