Providing useful information for deans and department chairs

The major purpose of this volume of New Directions for Institutional Research is to increase the attention institutional researchers give to the information needs of deans and department chairs. Higher education in the United States is in the midst of a major transformation. This process will reshape and reposition in fundamental ways higher education's role in the society. Deans and department chairs are pivotal change agents in this process. To survive, indeed to thrive, postsecondary education institutions must become more learner-centered and must redefine the nature and balance of valued faculty work. Institutional researchers can provide useful information to deans and chairs that will help them to understand changing student needs, to facilitate and assess student learning, to assess and understand faculty culture, and to redefine, assign, and assess faculty work.