It is easy to overlook how much coordination, time and dedication goes into running a college campus and ensuring everything runs smoothly. Often, the work that is the most vital happens behind the scenes and is thus under-appreciated. One such role, without which there would be no hope of maintaining the strong academics of Colgate University, is that of the academic department coordinators.
The academic department coordinators (ADCs) play a key role in nearly every aspect of their department. As the ultimate problem solvers, they tackle challenges faced by faculty and staff while navigating their own responsibilities. Julie Vair, the academic department coordinator for the department of religion and Middle Eastern & Islamic studies, described the role in her own words.
“It’s a variety of things; it’s helping with day-to-day operations on the floor, just supplies and making sure everybody has what they need. Individual professors have different needs,” Vair explained. “It’s a lot of event management for preregistration or lecture events or luncheons and brown bags. I coordinate all of those things with professors.”
Academic department coordinators frequently interact with the Office of the Registrar, as well.
“There are a lot of forms we have to fill out to get information to the registrar and back. I am responsible for getting the course descriptions from professors and the projections for what they plan to do over the next two years,” Vair continued. “We update the catalog every year with different course information. But every day is a different day.”
A lot of the work of an ADC is also department-specific, as explained by Tess Jones, the ADC for the English and creative writing department.
“For readings, I get the posters made, and I send out the emails, and I post on Instagram,” Jones explained. “For the Living Writers course, I do all the logistics of that, working the guests coming in, arranging their lodging, getting their transportation and making sure it all works.”
Another aspect of the job is the aid that the ADCs provide to the professors and staff of their department. Cindy Terrier, the ADC for the political science department and international relations program, described the catch-all nature of her job.
“I have 26 faculty, and they are in here for everything. I am their calendar, their problem solver, so it’s a little bit just managing everything and making sure they have everything they need,” Terrier said.
Because there are so many actions an ADC performs, there are countless forms and procedures they must complete, especially when creating the large files for professor tenure evaluation. Recognizing the need for a simpler, more standardized approach, the ADCs developed a solution to streamline this aspect of the job. This solution was the Best Practices Committee, which was largely due in part to the work of Terrier. The best practices committee is a group of academic department and division coordinators who work to support the ADC community and provide other ADCs with valuable resources. From this committee, a web page was created with resources, including document templates, guides on how to complete paperwork and answers to other common questions.
“Some of the ADCs have created the best practices committee, and it’s the best thing since sliced bread. It’s a webpage, and it’s a resource, so I can reference the best practices manual that’s online,” Jones explained. “It gives us templates to create these faculty dossiers that are 250 pages. But now you can just go into the file and edit it to make it yours. The best practices committee is especially wonderful for new hires.”
The best practices committee is a statement of the care and dedication that the ADCs put into Colgate. This dedication is further exemplified by the love and passion the ADCs have for both their departments and the broader community.
“You get to know the faculty here […] we’re like a family,” Terrier reflected. “Mentoring the other ADCs and working with the faculty and helping them solve their problems and the Colgate community — I just love it.”
When Jones was asked about the English and creative writing department, she shared her admiration for her colleagues, emphasizing their collaborative spirit and dedication.
“This department is the best department on campus. They are really wonderful people — they love teaching, they love doing their scholarly work, but they are so respectful of having somebody in the office. You know they say, ‘She holds the whole place together.’ But that’s not true. We do it together,” Jones said.
The ADCs are truly holding Colgate together. Their wide range of impact is astounding, and their roles are a combination of multiple jobs rolled into one. Without the ADCs and all that they do, none of the classes, events or academic processes would function as smoothly and timely as they do now.
With the emergence of new technology, ADCs are put into significantly less contact with students, giving us less of an opportunity to both understand how impactful the ADCs are and show our appreciation for them. The next time you walk through any of the academic buildings, think about whose work is enabling you to take that class and then add a stop on your way back to your dorm to say thank you.
