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UNM Provost Chaouki Abdallah had little administrative experience when he took over as provost last year.
Abdallah’s experience of moving from chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department to provost inspired the creation of the Academic Leadership Academy. The program aims to equip faculty members with the skills necessary to climb the administrative ladder.
Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Michael Dougher said Abdallah knows just how challenging a move from professor to administrator can be.
“He had the same situation — one day he was a professor, the next one he was a chair,” Dougher said, referring to Abdallah. “He didn’t have any experience in the upper administration. He saw how difficult this transition can be if you don’t have any experience.”
Abdallah was unavailable for comment.
The program aims to remedy a shortage of employees qualified for administrative positions. The provost’s chief of staff Melissa Vargas said the program, which is open to full-time faculty members, will act as a training system. The deadline for applications was Oct. 31, and the provost’s office will select four applicants to participate.
She said the program received about 10 applicants who will be screened and selected by a committee composed of members from the offices involved in the program.
“We are trying to train the next generation of the academic leaders,” she said.
Vargas, who will administer the project, said participants will spend one to two years working in as many as four executive offices, where they will learn upper administrative decision-making skills and decide whether they are interested in administrative positions.
She said participants can work in the provost’s office, the president’s office, the vice president for administration’s office and the vice president for research office, depending on their interests.
Program participants who reduce their course loads to make time for training will not receive pay cuts because they will be compensated in the form of Special Administrative Components.
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According to the terms of the ALA application, program participants will be eligible for the SACs, which are additional pay added to their base salary.
Vargas said each of the four fellowships will cost the provost’s office about $30,000. She said resources for each professor’s department, such as a replacement for the professor, will be provided if necessary.
“We don’t want to harm the department,” she said. “We just want to give them a glimpse to what’s going on in the administration.”
Vargas said that because the provost is responsible for working with multiple offices, boards and committees across campus, a reliable and experienced staff is necessary. Dougher said UNM has a rich talent pool in its faculty and that internal promotion is ideal.
“We have a lot of talent on this campus, we try to identify that talent, cultivate that talent and put that talent to use in the administration,” he said. “New Mexico is unique so there is a real value in working with our people.”
