Flagstaff vol. 10, issue 9

              ARCHIVES*
a biweekly newsletter for faculty and staff
Vol. 10 No. 9 November 5,1996
The Faculty Gets Involved:
How the BET Programs are Making a Difference
As the Business/Engineering & Technologies Division has been making some fundamental
changes in the way decisions are made, the faculty teams have become the catalyst for change.
Under the premise that their program needs to be the best, the division faculty has been di-vided
into teams. At the head of these teams are team leaders who, with the division chair,
schedule, organize, and lead the other members of their team as well as do all the administra-tive
duties that will enable them to accomplish their goal~to improve their program as a whole.
Timothy Wiedman, Associate Professor of Business Management says that this program is
indeed empowering, if not a bit overwhelming at first. "I think at first, it's a little bit scary for
some of the faculty. Some of them are used to having someone tell them what to do. Now
they have a chance to be involved with a lot of the decision making and realize that the conse-quences
are their own. Right now it's very overwhelming."
Ann Barnard, Associate Professor of Administrative Support Technology, asserts that the
team concept is the way to go. "Everyone has a better understanding, everyone has a stake in
the program and they want to make a difference. It really encompasses everyone who is a part of the program.
"I find that everyone is more open," Barnard continues, "we have to share what's going on, we all have a responsibility to our
program . . . it's not somebody else's, it's ours."
"Our program caters to a field whose technology changes very quickly. Programs become obsolete. Faculty members can see
what's working well, and streamline things very quickly. We,
could have another program ready to replace an obsolete
one. We can help modify things—adjust our programs
and course content much faster than we could have
before the BET team concept."
Though everyone seems excited about the new S
BET program teams, it is a lot of hard work, but
between teaching and making last minute ad- ^ Í a S V ? ^
justments to this new concept, there have al-ready
been some very innovative changes within
the department. Ann Barnard asserts, "We have
a lot of flexibility for our programs. Paul
Kauffmann gives us the big picture and we set
our goals and objectives. It's just all so new and
not everyone is sure how to react. It is over-whelming.
But this is
the way we need to go."