COMMENT FROM THE CHAIR

Thanks for taking the time to check the department's online presence. We appreciate your interest in what is happening at UND and what is happening in the Psychology Department.

Let me begin by saying that I intend the following comments to be available for a relatively brief period of time. If nothing else, framing this statement as temporary should motivate me to write a more complete description of department happenings within a couple of months. Much of the department's web content is focused on official guidelines and formal statements. I have been a blogger for many years (you can access my blog at http://learningaloud.com/blog/aboutme/) and I will likely bring this more informal approach to at least some part of this web page. I intend to be frank and offer comments that reflect my own perspective. A department, after all, is made up of people with values and beliefs. As you might guess, whatever I say here is thus based in my own biases and does not necessarily imply the position of my colleagues or actions the department as a whole may decide to take in the future. I am an elected official and we operate as a democracy.

In early summer, Dr. Weatherly after six successful years made a decision to step down as department chair. My colleagues elected me as the replacement. I have more than a dozen years of experience functioning in this role, but my reaction heading into this new and final term as department administrator is that the challenges in this position are quite different from what I remember. What follows are some personal observations on what seems to have changed.

Resources and Entrepreneurship

I used to think of my job as balancing resources and projects. Life followed a predictable cycle - 1) assign instructional commitments and encourage faculty scholarship and service based on the existing budget, 2) examine consequences (enrollment data, research generated, grants submitted), 3) request adjustments to budget when credible arguments could be made, 4) receive a new budget and 5) repeat. I assumed other administrators at my level and above were doing pretty much the same thing. There were constraints on this system, e.g., the number of high school seniors in the region, the principle of critical mass which sets a level below which resources allocation could not fall, etc. The entire system across departments soon reaches a point at which little change seemed possible.

In my view, things started to change at the levels "above my pay grade" some years ago when the legislature cut the base commitment to individual institutions, but allowed institutions greater control over the tuition dollars that were generated. I would argue that a similar logic is now being moved down to the department level.

Two factors seem to have changed how things work. The first is what I would describe as the opportunity to be entrepreneurial and the second is online distance education. There have always been some entrepreneurial opportunities. For example, individuals and departments are allowed to keep some of the overhead from successful grant applications. Now, instruction has also become more entrepreneurial. As a department, we will aggressively pursue both opportunities, but realistically it is probably the instructional area in which the greatest change is likely. I say this because of the second factor I mention. Online education has opened up the pool of students we can attempt to attract. We can make programs available to those unable to come to campus and we are less capped by the number of students within our geographic region.

The thing about entrepreneurial ventures that everyone including us have to understand is the combination of opportunities and risks one faces. Most institutions in higher education see the same opportunities. The realization of opportunities will go to those offering quality educational programs and gaining the reputation for doing so. After reputations have been made or lost, it will be much more difficult to make headway. Under the guidance of those who came before me, the university and the department have taken bold steps. Some of these steps may be known to you. First, the department instituted a graduate program in forensic psychology and expanded existing personnel resources to meet the growing demand for this program. Many of you may remember Dr. Peters who was instrumental in getting this program started and now serves as program administrator. Information on this program appeared in past information we have provided our alumni and you can still locate elsewhere within this web site. The newest venture involves the opportunity to earn an undergraduate major in psychology. This program will offer all of the Psychology courses required for a major both expanding the diversity of courses that anyone can take and allowing those who are inclined to pursue a major. Three presently non-tenured faculty positions have been added to meet anticipated demands. This number of new positions and other related costs are quite significant for a department of our size.

So, what has changed. We are now in the position of having opportunities for generating resources not previously available to us, but also having costs that are our responsibility external to our "stable" budget. In the short term, there are related factors that will be difficult for us to control and others we can control if committed. We cannot necessarily generate interest in these programs. The reputation of the programs once established will eventually represent a natural recruitment tool, but you must start without benefit of an online reputation. The forensic program now has some history and is doing well. We anticipate the same will be true of the undergraduate major. There are important factors we can control. We can and must be internally sensitive to the needs of these programs as they emerge. Not everyone is involved. but we all stand to benefit if the programs are successful.

Stay tuned. This should be interesting.

Mark Grabe
July 16, 2009

Weatherly Receives McDermott Award

The Department of Psychology is pleased to announce that Dr. Jeff Weatherly was awarded the UND Foundation/McDermott Award for Excellence in Teaching, Research or Creative Activity at the 2009 Founders Day Banquet. As the name of the award implies this competitive annual recognition goes to a faculty member meeting the highest standards for multiple areas of performance. Dr. Weatherly was recognized as an outstanding researcher while concurrently serving as Chair of the Psychology Department and Interim Chair of the Languages Department. Recently, Dr. Weatherly's research has focused on gambling behavior. He has established an authentic laboratory complete with slot machines in an attempt to observe gambling behavior within a controlled but realistic setting. Dr. Weatherly has successfully participated in efforts to seek external funding to support his research and other projects that have resulted in approximately $4 milllion.

Photo of President Kelley and Dr Weatherly taken by UND photographer Chuck Kimmerle following presentation of award.

Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Program Remains Active

Alumni from the clinical psychology Ph.D. program can keep up with the aggregate achievements of the current students and faculty by checking out the outcome statistics that we post on an annual basis. The faculty membership is also shown under an individual icon. Each year we also honor a distinguished graduate of the department with a listing of past recipients provided under the Northern Lights Conference icon. Every five to seven years we conduct alumni surveys for our routine self-study which is prepared in anticipation of site visits. Alumns from the clinical Ph.D. program should feel free to contact Dr. King (Director of Clinical Psychology Training) if interested in seeing more extensive outcome data (alumni survey results, annual student body survey results, student publication lists, EPPP results, internship matches, Graduate Student Handbook, etc.) regarding the alumni survey or our other indices of program progress at: alan.king@und.nodak.edu. We are proud of the annual achievements and continued accreditation of our clinical psychology Ph.D. training program.