As much as I liked the Chair, I think it would have been more riveting with other premises.
How about a Grisham style thriller, were all the old faculty are killed off one at a time and surprise surprise, it's not the Dean that is doing it, its the disgruntled students with huge loans :-)
Or how about Robin Williams (RIP) like character reading papers from faculty that are neither cited or funded. We can call it, "The Dead Wood Society"
Kelly Oliver has the Jessica James mysteries about a Jessica Jones clone who's a grad student. They're truly awful. As much as reading them lowered my opinion of Kelly Oliver, actually talking to her about them lowered it a lot more.
They might be someone's cup of teea, though.
If you haven't already read it, I'd highly recommend Straight Man by Richard Russo. Although it shares some elements with his other books, it is much lighter, and often very funny.