In praise of department chairs and heads

By Richard McCarty
Executive Director for Science

To my way of thinking, much of the responsibility for maintaining the vitality of academic psychology departments falls to department chairs and heads. These talented people are faced with many responsibilities, and they must constantly be mindful of where to apply a drop or two of oil to keep the gears of the academic enterprise turning smoothly. On occasion, they may even have to roll up their sleeves and do a complete engine overhaul.

Consider for a moment that psychology is one of the most popular undergraduate majors in colleges and universities throughout the United States. In addition, graduate programs in psychology are the training ground for future leaders in scienific psychology. And although students at all levels are attracted in droves to psychology programs, funding does not always follow. Many college and university administrators have not yet recognized psychology as a scientific discipline, and funding for our programs is often significantly less than for programs in physics, biology and chemistry. It often falls to department chairs and heads to be creative managers with loads of human resources but many fewer financial resources.

Kudos for COGDOP

Why, you may ask, am I extolling the virtues of department chairs and heads? Well, I just returned from the annual meeting of the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology (COGDOP) held in San Diego, Feb. 20?22. As a department chair for the past eight years at the University of Virginia, I came to rely on my COGDOP colleagues as a constant source of great ideas, balanced perspectives, insightful solutions to difficult problems and great friendships.

Many individuals who are selected to serve as department chairs or heads rarely have a substantial background in the finer points of managing a staff, preparing budgets, negotiating with deans and other administrators, mediating serious conflicts and a host of other time-consuming activities. Instead, most have led busy lives as faculty members, and their strengths lie more in preparing lectures, writing grants and manuscripts and supervising students in laboratory research projects. Becoming the chair or head of a department can be a daunting task given the lack of training.

For many new as well as experienced chairs and heads, COGDOP provides on-the-job training via its annual meetings, frequent exchanges on an electronic bulletin board and occasional telephone conversations with COGDOP colleagues.

Ties that bind

The APA Science Directorate has established a solid working relationship with COGDOP: Our Science Directorate graduate fellowship program depends on nominations of talented graduate students by chairs and heads of COGDOP member departments. Our speakers program makes available distinguished psychological scientists to students and faculty members at regional psychology meetings and the APA annual convention. Our Summer Science Institute seeks to encourage future leaders in psychological science by attracting the most talented undergraduates in the nation to an intensive summer research experience. And our Public Policy Office works to ensure that funding of psychological scientists and graduate students expands rather than contracts.

COGDOP has also made substantial contributions to a host of APA programs. A COGDOP committee selects awardees for an annual graduate fellowship program funded by the American Psychological Foundation (APF). COGDOP member departments also contribute data relating to faculty salaries, infrastructure support, graduate student training and undergraduate psychology programs to the APA Research Office on an annual basis. These data are then made available to department chairs and heads to support their efforts to garner much-needed resources for their departments. Current and former COGDOP members have also made important contributions to the work of many APA boards and committees. I am also pleased to report that COGDOP endorsed the Decade of Behavior initiative at its business meeting in San Diego.

In short, psychology has been enriched in many ways by the efforts of department chairs and heads acting individually in their home departments and on a national level under the COGDOP umbrella. In many ways, department chairs and heads set the tone for their departments and facilitate the successes of faculty colleagues and students in their departments. Chairs and heads are a valuable resource, and our discipline owes many current and former chairs and heads a hearty thank you for a job well done. The same can be said of COGDOP. I hope this important organization enjoys many more successes in influencing policies relating to undergraduate and graduate training and research in psychology.