It’s fall—finally. This year, when the season arrived, you could literally hear a sigh of relief across much of the country as the long summer of record-high temperatures in many places finally dissipated. And now the leaves are turning here in my part of the world and there’s a chill in the air that makes it feel that we’ll soon be transitioning to winter.
How apropos, then, that our first two articles in this issue address the subject of transitions. The first, Alisa Gaunder and Karine Moe’s “So You’re Going To Be A New CAO?” poses and answers the crucial question, “What do I need to know and do when I’m starting out in a new role?” The second, “Factors Chief Academic Officers Consider in Deciding to Remain in Their Positions,” by Wepner et al., puts the equally important question, “How do I know when it’s time to go?”
Keeping with that theme, another contribution, Elaine Carey’s “The Big Questions,” considers the lasting effects that budgeting during the COVID era have changed the way we think about resources. (I don’t know if anyone’s keeping track, but this issue is the first in some time that makes few references to COVID. The pandemic remains out there, disruptive and threatening, but this year feels different back on campus.) One other contribution picks up on the notion of change is Susan Gano-Phillips’ “Expanding Responsibilities of Department Chairs,” which argues that the grooming and development of chairs needs to be reconsidered in light of their evolving roles.
Fall of 2022 brings changes to The ACAD Leader as well. Bridget Keegan joins the team as associate editor with this issue. She’s an ACAD board member and the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Creighton University. Bridget and I have collaborated in the past on panel sessions at the annual meeting and on webinars with ACAD Fellows, and I’m very pleased to be working with her again on The Leader. Welcome, Bridget, and thanks for signing on! Other team members who contribute to our enterprise but who don’t make the masthead include Laura Best, our executive director, who plays a key role in production, and Andrew Adams, our erstwhile editor who does amazing work finding and sharing articles from the ACAD archives.