Intra-university collaboration
Rod Little
Department of Biostatistics
University of Michigan
Preamble: random thoughts on
chairing
• Paul Meier: be a good listener!
• Key is to recruit the best faculty, students and staff and
let them get on with it
• Service orientation
• Consensus decision making
– Collective wisdom generally better than mine
– Don’t favor your research area
• Democratic culture
– Every one has a say (even if they can’t vote)
• Make a decision
– Wrong decision may be better than no decision
– If it’s not clear what to do, toss a coin and do something
Working with administration
Initial appointment negotiation
• Window of opportunity for resources
• Strong negotiating position – the Dean’s office really
want you to take the job once you’re selected, since
it’s a pain to find someone else
• After you’ve agreed to chair resources are harder to
procure
• Talk to faculty, staff and students to assess priorities
• Be selective and realistic
• No harm in asking!
Working with administration
Some thoughts on how to be effective
• Be prepared on issues
• Be evidence-based, quantitative (it’s our strength!)
• write well-crafted meaty memos, and run them by
senior colleagues to improve the arguments
• Run the department well so people are happy and
problems don’t filter up to the dean’s office –
administrators are judged by how invisible they are
• Be calm, amusing and congenial – and selectively
forceful and emotional on issues you really care about
– the contrast has an impact
• Role is to advocate for department, but understand
the Dean’s perspective
Prioritize
• Figure out what’s important and argue
strenuously and persuasively for those
things
– A departmental strategic planning exercise
can help figure out what’s important and
impress the dean
• Don’t whine about rejection!
• Learn about the budget
• Cost-share (as many ways as possible)
Building/maintaining infrastructure
• Infrastructure is important
• Treat staff well, since retention of good
staff is important for continuity
• Infrastructure other than staff costs is
(relatively) cheap – since it’s a one time
cost
Hiring/retention
• Key job – Dean should be supportive
• Generally our searches are not targeted
– Seek best person
• Chair is often the referee at faculty meetings to
select candidates
– Faculty often disagree, sometimes heatedly
• Be prepared for failure!
– Competitive, many factors not under your control
– Be philosophical
• Clear expectations about job are helpful
• Staff/faculty doing leg work should be
personable and organized
promotions
• Key is to hire good people in the first place
• Clear promotion criteria
– But not too clear!
• Annual documented feedback on progress
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Input from all senior faculty
Should not pull punches
Junior faculty should have clear picture of prospects
Faculty not likely to make it should ideally leave
before being put up – failures hurt
• It’s important, but not life and death
service
• Committee structure
– Student recruitment, curriculum, candidacy,
computing, search, student activities
• Senior faculty should do more
– Junior faculty need time to develop research
and teaching skills
• Professional service encouraged and
rewarded
external reviews
• Valuable opportunity to learn best
practices, where department stands
• One way to persuade a dean to do what
you want
– Visiting committees usually want to be helpful
• Preparation is onerous but has benefits
Collaborations across university
departments
• Collaborative research is major part of our
mission
– stat/biostat departments should be outward-looking
– Michigan recognized for interdisciplinary strengths
– Subaccounts for biostatistics cores – statistician gains
recognition as PI, indirect costs flow with space
– Joint appointments (there are pros and cons)
– Value interdisciplinary research in merit/promotion
– Broad view of methods development beyond the
major stat/biostat journals
– Provides student support
– Focus on collaborator needs