ASSESSING THE POTENTIAL FOR CHANGE 55 responsible for more than you realized. Fortunately, responsibilities often are shared with other support offices on cam- pus. For example, most institutions undergo a periodic review of their academic programs and although your office may be responsible for providing data and lo- gistical support for the review, faculty in their respective departments most likely conduct the review, with the provost’s office or the president’s office tracking and informing your office on schedules necessary for the review. Some of the listed responsibilities are found under several subheadings, such as ADA compliance, which is under administration (e.g., training department heads, monitoring compliance, and managing complaints) as well as under academic programs and instruction (e.g., how to modify classrooms, laboratories, and websites for accessibility). The time needed to address all these responsi- bilities varies by institution and by college. Col- leges of Arts and Sciences may need to commit large amounts of time and effort to general education oversight, whereas a College of Human Sciences will need less. Colleges in a large university may spend much more time with articulation agreements with community colleges than would be necessary at a private liberal arts college, which translates into a corresponding difference in effort at the level of the dean’s office. Knowing that most responsibilities are shared with other offices—and that the effort needed to attend to these responsibilities varies—it is important to assess the responsibility and effort of your college in these different functional areas. We sug- gest a beneficial exercise is for you and your staff to use Appendix B to personalize these responsibilities and efforts to your situation. For the first step of this exercise, the graphic rating scale under the right columns in Appendix B can be used to assess 1) the degree to which you are responsible for an activity (Locus of Responsibility), and 2) the relative amount of time and effort your office commits to that activity on an annual basis (Effort and/or Time Commitment). We recommend you copy these pages from the book and have each staff member in your office complete this activity based on their assigned responsibilities and other activities with which they are involved even if not part of their assigned duties. Answers should be from the perspective of current responsibilities within the dean’s office. For instance, the role of program faculty in assessing student-learning outcomes may be paramount to the tangential role played by staff members in the dean’s office, leading your staff to notate its more limited effort and time commitment. The second step of this exercise identifies gaps in responsibilities. Go through Appendix B again and note where your team feels the responsibility is not being Knowing that most responsibilities are shared with other offices— and that the effort needed to attend to these responsibilities varies— it is important to assess the responsibility and effort of your col- lege in these different functional areas.