Academic Trajectories: Pathways to the Deanship proposes to present the perspective of four active deans on the transition from the faculty, campus perspectives, budget, fund-raising, personnel, advocacy for the humanities, and the experience of changing roles. The session will be interactive and we will respond to questions.

This session invites faculty members who have an interest in administrative careers to bring their questions to a group of deans with experience from different institutional perspectives. The panel, assembled by the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences, represents research institutions, regional public and flagship state institutions, and a liberal arts college. Its members are deans and associate deans, and they will discuss career paths, moving from faculty to administration at one's own institution, working on administrative teams, administrative professional development options, institutional differences, and the place of the humanities faculty member in university administration. Too often faculty members contemplating moving into administration have no one outside their own campus to consult about the challenges and opportunities of such a mover. The CCAS wants to offer national perspective through outreach via disciplinary associations, and we see this program as fitting in the MLA's plans for professional development for members. The session will pair day-to-day issues of administrative life with a larger, national perspective on higher education, combining personal experience from the panelists with big-picture reflections from their professional involvement through CCAS, ACE, and other national administrative organizations.