Hi guys, I wonder if any of you have this problem. I am in my second year of employment in a small college. I have been asked to head a programme which involves part-timers. The problem is, the syllabus and everything related to the course seem to be a mess. One person, A, seems to be teaching almost all subjects, there is no proper filing, previous semester's marks are often missing, that sort of thing. I asked the previous head to help me; unfortunately his answer always seem to be 'I do not have those files.' I am a junior in this department, and the seniors would tell me to be more firm, especially regarding A, who is also a senior, and also to keep all the course specifications up to date. So What do I do when I don't know anything about what is going on ?

Charliebrown is A a senior with regard to his/her rank or just age and time spent in the department?

Can you ask your previous head the one with the stock reply 'I do not have those files' to spend around 30 minutes or so with you to nut out the basic outlines of each course or program. Or perhaps if you spend a weekend thinking, planning and drawing up some outlines, then meet with him to get his perspective on what you think would be okay and to comment on the programs-then go ahead and start the process of filing the programs and slowly fleshing them out. Can you delegate resourcing of outlines out to other part-timers-some of the more helpful ones perhaps?

Sounds to me like A is someone you are going to need to 'go around' but not in an antagonistic way-more of a just get on with it and then let him in on things on an 'as needs basis'. (This might be really annoying personally because A really does need to get his/her act together-however, it seems unlikely that this will happen anytime soon, so best to go to plan B in this case).

With regard to marks and assessment records-that's pretty serious mismanagement and this is surely not just down to you to fix up. Who helps or sorts out the admin side of things with this sort of stuff-they must be pretty frustrated with all of this as well (unless they are really lazy or inefficient)? They might be able to be an ally and help you introduce some basic processes for filing, recording and keeping central copies of programs. Do you have any supportive seniors? If it is really this bad, then they need to know just how lacking it really is...

(NB-My experience is in educational secondary ed 7-12 though not post secondary level. However I've inherited dodgy departments and practices in my different roles in secondary schools over the years- I hope this helps, even with some moral support if nothing else.)

A is a senior with regard to rank and also age. Other seniors know that he is a bit on the dodgy side but they don't seem to want to complain about him to the higher-ups. Or, perhaps someone had complained before. Since he is already a permanent lecturer, the management can't really sack him, unless he has stolen a really huge sum of money from the college.

I have a feeling I am being made the scapegoat here, so that people can complain about me when things go wrong.

I think I will have to try and compile everything from various sources. If everything fails, I will just do my worst (!) and then pray someone else is selected to take over my post !

Nobody wants these extra duties. If only we could just be allowed to teach and do research, instead of having to handle all these admin work !

Thanks Pjlu.