Program Director Handbook

Owned by Ronda Rittenhouse
Last updated: Jun 20, 2023
5 min read

Responsibilities and Resources

The academic deans, in consultation with the provost and program faculty, appoint program* directors. For the ongoing effectiveness of administration, directors generally serve a multi-year term subject to periodic review. Exceptions would be a one-year or temporary appointment to fill a vacancy or to meet some other special need. Program Director Responsibilities and resources include the following:

Program Management (Responsibilities shared between dean & director)

  1. Keep school members informed of relevant decisions
    1. Tasks 
      1. Conduct program meetings as necessary to keep your faculty informed.
      2. Share Academic Council meeting information with your program’s faculty 
    2. Resources 
      1. Administrative Calendar (located in Facstaff Workspace; please add to your Google Calendar)
      2. Academic Council minutes 
      3. Academic Council shared drive (if you are a member of the committee)
  2. Organize teaching assignments in consultation with the dean
    1. Tasks
      1. Determine which faculty will be teaching which courses, bearing in mind target loads and employment gaps to be filled by adjuncts.
      2. Enter the loading info for the next year into the loading app during the loading process.
      3. Submit loading and course changes by completing a Load Change Form as needed.
      4. Submit staff requisition forms in Paycom for temporary positions.
    2. Resources
      1. Employee Handbook: Faculty Loading Guidelines
      2. Staff Requisition Form (myEMU > Employee tab)
      3. The loading page (myEMU > Academics tab > Faculty Load on left)
      4. Your dean’s administrative assistant, who will work with you on these tasks
  3. Participate in developing the program budget
    1. Tasks
      1. Create a preliminary budget for your program and consult with your dean to discuss.
    2. Resources
      1. Employee Handbook: Institutional Effectiveness Policy and Procedures
      2. Accessing the General Ledger
      3. Using the General Ledger
      4. The Budgeting Process
  4. Manage the program budget in collaboration with the dean
    1. Tasks
      1. Approve expense reports for your program’s faculty and staff.
      2. Approve your program’s faculty and staff monthly Concur reports.
      3. Review the monthly budget updates.
      4. Correct misappropriated expenses.
      5. Approve professional development spending and assure that the funds have been reimbursed to your program.
    2. Resources
      1. Professional Development Fund Disbursement Request
      2. Using the General Ledger
      3. The Budgeting Process
      4. The Business Office for general ledger access, budget updates, and Concur information
      5. The Provost’s Office for professional development spending
  5. Plan and carry out program review in collaboration with the dean
    1. Resources
      1. Employee Handbook: Curriculum Standards
      2. Academic Program Review Handbook
      3. Employee Handbook: Institutional Effectiveness Policy and Procedures
  6. Work together to promote a culture of equity, anti-racism, and inclusion among faculty, staff, and students in the program and within the program curriculum and activities
    1. Resources
      1. Employee Handbook: Inclusive Community-Creating Best Practices
      2. Employee Handbook: Inclusive Community-Creating Policy

Director Responsibilities

  1. Maintain a vital and appropriate curriculum within budget
    1. Resources
      1. Employee Handbook: Institutional Effectiveness Policy and Procedure
      2. Employee Handbook: Curriculum Standards
      3. Employee Handbook: Academic Program (Curriculum) Changes
  2. Be responsible for program quality, monitoring grading patterns and student outcomes
    1. Tasks
      1. Electronically collect and review all of your program’s syllabi by the due dates.
      2. Orient new hires to the curriculum they are to teach.
    2. Resources
      1. Employee Handbook: Writing Across the Curriculum Policy
      2. Employee Handbook: syllabus templates
  3. Be aware of student retention issues
    1. Resources
      1. Employee Handbook: Academic Advising
      2. The associate provost of student retention
  4. Handle student grievances within the program
    1. Resources
      1. Employee Handbook: Conflict and Grievance Policy and Procedure
      2. Employee Handbook: Academic Accountability
  5. Collaborate with Undergraduate and/or Graduate Admissions on enrollment
    1. Tasks
      1. Oversee your program representation at Open House events.
      2. Work with requests for a program representative to speak to a prospective student.
      3. Market your program’s events to prospective students, local schools, etc.
    2. Resources
      1. The vice president for innovation and student recruitment
      2. The director of undergraduate admissions
      3. The director of graduate and professional recruitment
  6. Collaborate with Marketing to develop marketing plans for the program
    1. Tasks 
      1. Keep your program’s webpages current.
    2. Resources
      1. EMU Style Guide for Writers and Editors (https://emu.edu/marketing/ > Resources > Editorial Style Guide)
      2. The Marketing department
  7. Maintain responsive and adequate academic advising services to students
    1. Resources
      1. Employee Handbook: Academic Advising
      2. Navigate Training (in the Facstaff Workspace shared drive)
      3. The associate provost of student retention
  8. Communicate program activities to students
    1. Tasks 
      1. Work with your faculty to create program-related activities for students to attend.
  9. Oversee PACE with regard to program planning and assessment, outlined in the Institutional Effectiveness Policy and Procedures
    1. Tasks
      1. Complete annual PACE reports.
    2. Resources
      1. PACE materials (myEMU > Employee Info tab > IR and PACE on left) where you will find 
        1. Your Progress dashboard
        2. PACE training resources
        3. Access to old AIER reports
        4. the Weave log-in link
      2. Institutional Effectiveness Policy and Procedure
  10. Facilitate CORE curriculum assessment
    1. Resources
      1. Employee Handbook: Institutional Effectiveness Policy and Procedures
      2. The Core Director
  11. Recruit, hire, and evaluate contingent faculty
    1. Tasks
      1. Responsible for all aspects of hiring and evaluating contingent (i.e. short-term and adjunct) faculty.
    2. Resources
      1. Employee Handbook: Adjunct and Short-term Performance Review Policy and Procedures
      2. Steps to Hiring an Adjunct
      3. Adjunct and Short-Term Faculty Evaluation Form
      4. Your dean’s administrative assistant who handles adjunct hiring
  12. Provide program-specific orientation for new faculty
    1. Tasks
      1. Orient new hires to your program’s office space (or delegate this to your office coordinator) and things like their office mailbox, the copier, department supplies, etc. 
        1. Basic Moodle skills, general policies, university resources, etc. will be covered in the adjunct orientation that is provided by the deans’ administrative assistants in August and January.
    2. Resources
      1. Key Authorization Form (myEMU > Employee tab; contact Facilities Management for instructions associated with this form)
      2. New Faculty and Adjunct Resources (Google shared drive)
  13. Maintain equipment or other program properties
  14. Coordinate the requisitioning of supplies
    1. Tasks
      1. Authorize your office coordinator to make purchases with an EMU credit card and with The Supply Company.
    2. Resources
      1. Employee Handbook: Purchase Orders
      2. Employee Handbook: Instructional Ordering Procedures
      3. Business Office
  15. Keep program section of catalog current
    1. Tasks 
      1. Revise your program’s portion of the undergraduate and/or graduate catalog within the deadlines.
      2. Ensure that your program’s approved curriculum changes are reflected in the next catalog.
    2. Resources
      1. Training videos for Confluence (on the Facstaff Workspace shared drive)
      2. The editors of the undergrad, graduate, and seminary catalogs
  16. Work with Financial Aid to determine scholarship recipients, program awards, etc.
    1. Tasks
      1. Contact Financial Aid for the amount of each award and eligibility.
      2. Notify the recipients of the scholarships and awards.
    2. Resource
      1. Financial Aid office

 Representation in Broader Institutional Contexts

  1. Manage relations with external partners for internships and student placements
  2. Convey program goals and objectives to the dean
  3. Represent program needs in long-range planning processes
    1. Tasks
      1. Work with your program to create new or revise existing courses for the next year. 
      2. Submit a curriculum change form to Academic Council if a curriculum change is desired.
    2. Resources
      1. Employee Handbook: New Program Proposal Process
      2. The current year’s Curriculum Change Form (Facstaff Workspace > Academic Council)
      3. The current facilitator of Academic Council 
  4. Communicate programs and activities to the marketing services and admissions offices
    1. Tasks
      1. Notify Marketing of potential news articles.
      2. Notify Marketing of photo opportunities in your program’s classrooms.
  5. Participate on search committees as requested
    1. Tasks
      1. Review the process in the Employee Handbook.
    2. Resources
      1. Employee Handbook: Hiring, Appointment, Contract Reviews and Promotions
      2. Search Committee documents on myEMU (myEMU > Employee Info tab > Hiring/New Hires on left)
  6. Participate on or chair the Colleague Review Committee as requested
    1. Resources
      1. Employee Handbook: Hiring, Appointment, Contract Reviews and Promotions
      2. executive assistant to the provost
  7. Review course evaluations for program and consult with the dean if necessary
    1. Resources
      1. Course Evaluations information (https://resources.emu.edu  > EMU Helpzone > Teaching & Learning  
      2. The IR team at institutionalresearch@emu.edu

The director may delegate responsibilities as needed.

Academic Leadership Role Clarification 

The Academic Leadership Role Clarification document outlines how the provost’s office, dean’s office, and program directors will relate to each other with responsibility to faculty. Review every three years. 


* A “program” is defined as any degree or credential in a particular field. Individuals may direct multiple programs as decided by the school dean, in consultation with the faculty. Examples include the MDiv program, the writing studies major, photography major, and peacebuilding major.


Responsible Party

The provost is responsible for this policy.

Policy Review

This policy is to be reviewed every three years.

Distribution

Employee Handbook

Approved by Provost’s Council, November 17, 2020

Revised and approved by Provost's Council, June 20, 2023