68 ORGANIZING ACADEMIC COLLEGES: A GUIDE FOR DEANS directly. The responsibilities of every position in the office changes through time, and if you don’t lead the charge to keep the office responsive to current needs, the faculty of the college and even the office staff will be awaiting your retirement! For example, not long ago, deans were not heavily involved in fundraising—but these days it often represents a quarter of a dean’s workload. Similarly, student ad- visement used to be little more than assuring students had planned a reasonable course schedule for their next semester. With an increasing focus on student success, advising now encompasses the entire student expe- rience—from early alert grade discussions, to study skills, identifying support networks, and career ad- vice—along with course scheduling. As higher edu- cation continues to evolve, so must the responsibili- ties of the dean’s office staff. Adjusting the responsibilities of office staff is both necessary and anticipated, and therefore it is usually the simplest change you can make in the office. Of course such changes should be discussed within your office and with Human Resources where appropriate if it impacts staff job descriptions, for instance. But the need to discuss changes with the provost or units of the college depends on the scale of the change. You need a staff member to stop filing paper records and start maintaining an electronic database? Don’t check with the provost; this one is on you. Do you want to place oversight of advisement and curriculum under the same associate dean, necessitating a change in who participates on a university committee? You want to check in with your boss for something like that. The way you inform the provost is important. If you think you should make the change but want advice, ask the provost for an opinion. Realize if the provost recom- mends against the proposal and you decide to do it anyway, this decision may put you in the uncomfortable position of either holding back the potential of your office or getting on the wrong side of the provost. If you must make the change, outlining the rationale for the reorganization is as much as you should do. In this case, you are not asking permission to make the change; rather you are making the provost aware of the reorganization and how it will benefit the college, and ultimately the university. Further, the earlier in the process you can up- date the provost on your analysis of the need for change the better; the provost will be more apt to view these changes as a positive sign of your leadership. Since the responsibilities of positions shift on a regular basis to keep up with the changing office needs, reassignments can be done through a thoughtful conversa- tion with the individuals, followed by a memo outlining the changed duties. When the reorganization runs deeper, or is driven by budgetary changes, the process can The earlier in the process you can update the provost on your analysis of the need for change the better; the provost will be more apt to view these changes as a positive sign of your leadership.