Training Opportunities

Chairs Training

Are you new to the role of department chair and wonder what you need to know? The chairs training series is offered on a regular basis and is an opportunity to learn how best to manage the duties and responsibilities of being a program chair. All sessions offered are based on the Chairs' Roles and Responsibilities document.

View recordings from these previous chairs' training sessions, scroll down:

Working with the Registration Centre

Join the leadership team from the registration centre for an informative session on the core functions of registration services. Topics covered include: 

• Who your contacts are in the Registration Centre and their roles and responsibilities
• How your role as department chair intersects with the Registrar’s office through activities such as graduation and convocation, course changes, appeals and withdrawals
• Explore the role of the records office and its oversight on university functionality such as using SAWS, managing room bookings, tools for degree advisors and understanding the document archive portal
• The registration process, including managing reserves, late registration and waitlists
• And other matters, such as managing privacy, confidentiality and forms.

Promoting Your Program

Did you know that part of the role of program chair involves working to develop initiatives to promote your program and recruit students? This session will cover aspects of that task and provide you with the knowledge you need to move forward with your efforts.

Introduction to Budgeting 

As program Chairs, you have some expenditure authority and budget monitoring responsibilities. This session will cover an introduction of how budgeting and financial performance monitoring at VIU works. Topics will include the budget development process, the variance reporting cycle and budgeting for new program development.

Managing Search Committees with HireServe

In your role as program chair, you will likely find yourself chairing a search committee for your area. In this session, we will explore best practices in managing a search committee and working with candidates. Now that candidate assessment and planning is managed online with Hireserve, we'll also explore how to work with that system and how you can find efficiency with the platform.

Your Supervisory Role

As a Program Chair you have supervisory responsibilities within your department. What are those responsibilities and what resources are available to support you in this role? You'll also learn the details of how collective agreement language applies to this work and explore your scope of responsibility.