My course is a big success but my deaprtment head is not happy with me

[hamburger]

Hi, my course finished. The majority of students got 90s while a few got 80s. In the last class, I organized a school event to showcase the work of my students. It was a big success. My students loved it! The event was also widely publicized via the school social media. Many of my friends told me that they saw that. Yet, after the event, the former deputy head gave me shit. The current head sent me an email questioning me what that event was for and mentioned that I "involved" the school's media. I told her that it was part of the final project as described in the syllabus I modified with her approval at the beginning of the semester. I also mentioned that students loved it and some future students told me that they would like to take my course next year. So, it was good for increasing future enrollment. Yet, she did not seem to be happy about it. Rather than praising me, she continues to send me email "in an unfriendly tone" asking me to explain to her about me inviting the media. What is this? In other top universities I taught, administrators loved this sort of things. What is wrong with my new department head? The day before the event, I asked an administrator in the department if we could let students in the entire department to know about the event, she did not reply.

[polly_mer]

Let me see if I have this straight.  You invited the media to student presentations without having had the chair explicitly, in writing, sign something like:

I approve of hamburger's students in Course XYZ presenting to the public including the media (list of possible outlets here) on DATE/TIME

The term "shooting one's self in the foot on full auto" comes immediately to mind.  Nothing at this institution has worked the way you think it should because it is not a top university showcasing research.  Why would this situation be the same as a top research university?

[hamburger]

Let me see if I have this straight.  You invited the media to student presentations without having had the chair explicitly, in writing, sign something like:

I approve of hamburger's students in Course XYZ presenting to the public including the media (list of possible outlets here) on DATE/TIME

The term "shooting one's self in the foot on full auto" comes immediately to mind.  Nothing at this institution has worked the way you think it should because it is not a top university showcasing research.  Why would this situation be the same as a top research university?

I talked about this event to the Marketing department within the school and they were excited about it. So they sent a reporter to attend the event to write something about it. I have seen articles about other courses. There is no big deal. I did not involve media outside the school.

Throughout the semesters, my students told me that many students asked them about my course as it is interesting. To get more students in up-coming semesters, before the event, I asked the coordinator if she could inform all the students in my department about the event. She did not reply. Two hours before the event, she suddenly showed up with a staff. She asked a staff to take photos and videos so as to post on the department's website. So, it means they like publicity. Right? Why the new chair keeps asking me to explain involvement of the media. I am the professor for this course, I don't need her permission for such simple thing. By the way, she is not an academic.

The college has showcase events in the past college-wide.

Recently there was an open house event. It was on a volunteering basis. I did not go as the head was money pinching on me about developing a new course. After the event she said to me over the phone that many visitors came and it was a success. Perhaps she was not happy that I did not do a similar thing in the open house event.

There seems to be something fishy going on. Before I worked for this department, I was from another department in the same college. The head of previous department openly told everybody in the department that he planned to have an even to showcase students' work and he had some budgets. I proposed but he told me to talk to the coordinator. Coordinator told me that they had no budget and asked me to wait for another year. It seems that in this school, some department heads don't want their part-time professors to succeed nor get some publicity. Everything in this school is strange.

[polly_mer]

I talked about this event to the Marketing department within the school and they were excited about it.

The Marketing department is not in your chain of command.  What they want and what your department (or possibly anyone on the academic side of the house) want do not have to align and often won't align.  That's a "fun" reality of working with groups of people with their own priorities and agendas.

Recently there was an open house event. It was on a volunteering basis. I did not go as the head was money pinching on me about developing a new course. After the event she said to me over the phone that many visitors came and it was a success. Perhaps she was not happy that I did not do a similar thing in the open house event.

Possibly.  This is a typical academic-side-of-the-house preference for something that will help your department directly instead of the farther removed overall marketing aspects for the institution as a whole.

It seems that in this school, some department heads don't want their part-time professors to succeed nor get some publicity.

Are you familiar with the forumite Mahagonny?  He can give you chapter and verse on how your institution is not alone in that mindset.

[hamburger]

I talked about this event to the Marketing department within the school and they were excited about it.

The Marketing department is not in your chain of command.  What they want and what your department (or possibly anyone on the academic side of the house) want do not have to align and often won't align.  That's a "fun" reality of working with groups of people with their own priorities and agendas.

Recently there was an open house event. It was on a volunteering basis. I did not go as the head was money pinching on me about developing a new course. After the event she said to me over the phone that many visitors came and it was a success. Perhaps she was not happy that I did not do a similar thing in the open house event.

Possibly.  This is a typical academic-side-of-the-house preference for something that will help your department directly instead of the farther removed overall marketing aspects for the institution as a whole.

It seems that in this school, some department heads don't want their part-time professors to succeed nor get some publicity.

Are you familiar with the forumite Mahagonny?  He can give you chapter and verse on how your institution is not alone in that mindset.

I am not familiar with forumite Mahagonny. 

The department head is not an academic. More interested students means higher enrollment which in turns leads to more profit for the school. Isn't this what they want? Many colleagues and even students have told me that this school is all about business. I consider the Chair harassing me. My contact for this semester has ended. Every time I am supposed to have a holiday, I ended up spending time and energy to deal with complaints from bad students or extra demands from administrators.

[polly_mer]

More interested students means higher enrollment which in turns leads to more profit for the school. Isn't this what they want? Many colleagues and even students have told me that this school is all about business.

The details matter strongly. 

Full-pay students who will stick around long enough to graduate are much, much more desirable than heavily discounted students who pay less or students who use a lot of the support mechanisms for the couple terms they are enrolled, but drop out early.

If this particular department is struggling to have enough majors to avoid more cuts in budget, TT lines, facilities, etc., then recruiting more students to the institution at large who will only interact with this department through service courses can be a much worse outcome for the department than simply having fewer overall students.

[hamburger]

More interested students means higher enrollment which in turns leads to more profit for the school. Isn't this what they want? Many colleagues and even students have told me that this school is all about business.

The details matter strongly. 

Full-pay students who will stick around long enough to graduate are much, much more desirable than heavily discounted students who pay less or students who use a lot of the support mechanisms for the couple terms they are enrolled, but drop out early.

If this particular department is struggling to have enough majors to avoid more cuts in budget, TT lines, facilities, etc., then recruiting more students to the institution at large who will only interact with this department through service courses can be a much worse outcome for the department than simply having fewer overall students.

My current course is an optional course for upper year degree students only.

[polly_mer]

My current course is an optional course for upper year degree students only.

Yeah, I see how a department head would not be thrilled with someone promoting an elective through the media channels instead of going to a recruiting event to get new students.  The benefit to your department for better advertising for an elective for majors-only is very, very minor.

[ciao_yall]

If it didn't cost your department head (or the school) any money, then why on earth should she care?

And if the school social media got content to promote about the school in general, then, that's a good thing. All publicity is good publicity.

Your department head sounds like a control freak who gets upset when something happens that doesn't have her fingerprints all over it so she can get credit.

[downer]

It is easy to explain the dept head's behavior. It is clear from previous posts that the head does not respect or even much trust the OP. No wonder they are alarmed that external observers are coming to see the classes -- it could be a PR disaster for the dept. Whatever possible benefits the event might offer are very small compared to the perceived risks.

[mahagonny]

Mahagonny here, at your service.

I once invited a local journalist to a public event that I was doing on campus, as a volunteer effort. It never occurred to me to ask permission. The public were already invited. It's a state university, and my taxes are helping to run it. In retrospect, I think,  what right would they have to say no? But I certainly wasn't stressing about it at the time. The journalist never showed up, but maybe he put a blurb about it in his newspaper, to which I do not subscribe.
A few years a ago we had an adjunct faculty member who got a big article written about his work, with prominent mention of the college. I can't remember which work it was, independent of the college teaching or part of it. HE told me he was leaving after that semester, got a better offer, and was extremely frustrated with our university' policy of paying late (which was eventually improved, thanks to the union. If we had a union then, that adjunct would have stayed longer. And the university opposed the union drive. Idiots.)

[Ruralguy]

Downer has it about right. The dept. head doesn't trust the OP. So, she's a bit alarmed that "something" not under her control might "happen" in front of media eyes.  Its probably a bit too alarmist, so she should probably just let it go and say something like "Oh, I heard about your event . I would have loved to have attended but only new about it after the fact. I'd like to about these sorts of things in advance. Thanks!"

[Ruralguy]

By the way, most colleges have a well defined "process" for involving media. The OP's college/university might need a chair's signature.

[hamburger]

It is easy to explain the dept head's behavior. It is clear from previous posts that the head does not respect or even much trust the OP. No wonder they are alarmed that external observers are coming to see the classes -- it could be a PR disaster for the dept. Whatever possible benefits the event might offer are very small compared to the perceived risks.

Likewise I don't trust nor respect the current and the former heads given their behaviour.

Given the kind of students we have (especially a lot of them do not follow instructions), I also had to take a big risk myself for having the event outside the classroom and had live coverage by the school's media. Any mistake by my students could ruin my reputation as well. Fortunately, it went well.

[hamburger]

If it didn't cost your department head (or the school) any money, then why on earth should she care?

And if the school social media got content to promote about the school in general, then, that's a good thing. All publicity is good publicity.

Your department head sounds like a control freak who gets upset when something happens that doesn't have her fingerprints all over it so she can get credit.

Exactly, it did not cost the department head or the school any money! Before the event, I asked for a small amount of budget. Then, I asked her to disregard it given her money pinching way of making me to develop new materials for the new course without paying a penny.

She just joined our department (one of the areas in STEM) this semester. Previously, she was the head of a Business Department from another CC. Perhaps as an academic/researcher, I don't understand the thinking of business people. The previous head was an ESL teacher and graduated from the same college. Colleagues talked about how she became the head as her field is completely unrelated. I applied for about 10 full-time teaching positions within a year under her and she never invited me for an interview. Some of the jobs have been posted for the public for months but still no hiring. Her explanation for the recently failed six applications was that "a lot of documents were mssing". This is bulls*it as for each application, the system combined all documents in one pdf file and I reviewed it before submission. After the showcase event, she also gave me shit!

In other schools I taught and studied, all department heads were academics and have long publication records. Why this CC hired non-academic with a diploma or undergraduate degree to be department heads?