The Administrative Portfolio

Academic administrators occupy a position that is highly complex and entails unrelenting demands such as managing heightened workloads, stretching ever-tightening budgets, and promoting collegiality among intensely driven individuals. At the same time, administrators are facing increased accountability for their job performances. While confronted by these challenges, how can they supply concrete evidence of their accomplishments? The authors of this practical guide recommend preparing an administrative portfolio.

Including ready-to-use and field-tested information, The Administrative Portfolio is a hands-on look at the why, what, and how of preparing and successfully using the portfolio. It includes

• Practical suggestions for getting started and then maintaining the most effective use of portfolios
• Key issues, red-flag warnings, and benchmarks for success
• Helpful answers to common questions
• Differentiation between portfolios for personnel decisions and those that are used for performance improvement
• A list of 21 possible portfolio items from which administrators can choose the ones most personally relevant
• A selection of 13 real portfolios from across administration positions and institutions

Written for presidents, provosts, academic vice presidents, deans, department chairs, and program directors, The Administrative Portfolio presents as well as demonstrates sensible strategies for how to develop and use a strong portfolio.

Part I : The administrative portfolio : purpose, process, and product

Changing roles and expectations of academic administrators

The administrative portfolio

The importance of collaboration

Steps to creating an administrative portfolio

Choosing items for the portfolio

Uses of the portfolio

Answers to common questions about the administrative portfolio

Building the administrative portfolio

Serving as an administrative portfolio mentor

Implementing an administrative portfolio review program

Special questions, concerns, and issues

Reflections on developing an administrative portfolio / Deborah DeZure

Part II : Sample administrative portfolios

Baldwin-Wallace College

Columbia College

Columbus State University

Harrisburg Area Community College

James Madison University

Rutgers University

The University of Akron

University of Missouri, Kansas City

University of Northern Iowa

University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point

PETER SELDIN is Distinguished Professor of Management at pace University in Pleasantville, New York. A Behavioral scientist,, educator, author, and specialist in the evaluation and development of faculty and administrative performance, he has been a consultant on higher education issues to more than 300 colleges and universities throughout the United States and 40 countries around the world.
A well-known speaker at national and international conference, Seldin regularly serves as a faculty leader in programs offered by the American council on Education, the American Association for Higher Education, and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
His well-received books include:The Administrative Portfolio (2002, with Mary Lou Higgerson); Changing Practices in Evaluating Teaching (1999, with associates); The Teaching Portfolio, second edition (1997); Improving College Teaching (1995, with associates); Successful Use of Teaching Portfolios (1993, with associates); The Teaching Portfolio (1991); How Administrators Can Improve teaching (1990, with associates); Evaluating and Developing Administrative Performance (1988); Coping with Faculty Stress (1987, with associates); Changing Practices in faculty Evaluation (1984); Successful Faculty Evaluation programs (1980); Teaching Professors to teach (1977); How College Evaluate Professors (1975).
He has contributed to numerous articles on the teaching profession, student ratings, educational practice, and academic culture to such publications as The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education and Change magazine,. For his contributions to the scholarship of teaching, he has received honorary degrees from Keystone College (Pennsylvania) and Columbia College (South Carolina).