Ten IU Bloomington faculty will participate in two Big Ten Academic Alliance programs, according to an IU press release on Sept. 16.
“The Big Ten Academic Alliance offers fantastic professional development opportunities for our campus leaders,” Carrie Docherty, vice provost for faculty and academic affairs, said in the press release. “These leaders already do so much for our campus, and I look forward to seeing the amazing ways they shape the future of IU.”
Herman B Wells, former IU chancellor and president, founded the Big Ten Academic Alliance in 1958. It now includes all 18 Big Ten universities and allows universities to share expertise, leverage campus resources and collaborate, according to its website.
The alliance also includes peer networks, shared library resources and research opportunities for faculty and students.
Past participating faculty have gone on to serve as university presidents, provosts and deans.
IU selected five faculty members — Anke Birkenmaier, Erik Gonzalez-Mulé, Jessica Steinberg, Ayana Smith and Johan Bollen — for the Departmental Executive Officer Program.
The program covers conflict resolution, mentoring, performance review and group problem-solving and features more than 65 Big Ten faculty members each year.
It includes three virtual sessions in October and a three-day, in-person seminar Nov. 14-16 at the Big Ten Conference Center in Rosemont, Illinois.
Ayana Smith, Jacobs School of Music Department of Musicology chair and professor, said she was surprised to hear she had been selected.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” she said. “I’m looking forward to being able to meet the other selected leaders from IU that are in this program and being able to interact with people from other Big Ten schools to learn about what they’re doing, things that have been successful for them, to learn strategies of being an administrator and getting there to see what it’s all about.”
She also said she appreciates the opportunity and wants to apply what she will learn.
“I’d like to learn whatever I can from this,” she said. “I’m kind of someone that likes to learn a lot of new things, and it’s an opportunity to network with people, to learn more about different types of administrative roles and different processes that other campuses may be engaging that could be helpful for us to know about here at IU.”
Erik Gonzalez-Mulé is a professor at the Kelley School of Business and serves as the chair of the management and entrepreneurship department. He is also the Randall L. Tobias Chair in Leadership at IU’s Tobias Leadership Center.
He said he aims to get to know his colleagues better, meet other faculty members from other universities and develop leadership skills.
“I hope I come out of it a better leader and better able to navigate some of the complexities and challenges that are facing higher education institutions these days,” he said. “I mean, it just feels like it’s never been a tougher time to be in an academic leadership position than it is now.”
Gonzalez-Mulé also said he hopes the program equips him with tools and skills to better support his colleagues.
“That’s why you do these jobs,” he said. “It’s to really help other people.”
He added he wants to look back on the program and see it as a collective effort.
“A great mentor of mine, he described the transition from an individual contributor role to a leadership role is ‘we not me,’” he said.
IU selected five other faculty members — William Ramos, Apu Kapadia, Bryan Orthel, Dan Li and Vivian Halloran — for the Academic Leadership Program.
The program began in 1989 and covers academic administration, specifically at major research universities, and prepares faculty members for those responsibilities.
Faculty members will participate in three in-person seminars, which are Nov. 7-9 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Feb. 6-8, 2025, at the Big Ten Conference Center and April 3-5, 2025, at Rutgers University.
Vivian Halloran has taught English at IU since 2002. She has also taught American Studies, Human Biology and Latino Studies, among others. Halloran also serves as the associate dean for diversity and inclusion and arts and humanities for the College of Arts and Sciences.
“The Big Ten has expanded so broad, so to hear how folks at other universities do what we take for granted: the way we do things, the way we organize departments, the way we carry out things — they do it differently.” she said. “So it’s nice to check our assumptions and maybe learn about new things.”
She also said she is eager to meet with the other selected IU faculty and wants to use the program as a way to ask better questions.
“We’re going to learn about IU in ways we haven’t figured out before,” she said. “Learn more and ask some real questions about the hard parts of leadership as opposed to the nice, fun parts.
Apu Kapadia, Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering professor and associate dean for graduate studies, said he is excited about strengthening his leadership skills.
“I’m looking forward to its immersive nature, which provides regular opportunities to discuss the complexities of managing a large university with peers and administrators from Indiana University as well as other Big Ten institutions,” he wrote in an email to the IDS.
More information about the Big Ten Academic Alliance and the programs is available on its website.
