BGU | PRESIDENT'S REPORT 2024

RECTOR Prof. CHAIM

HAMES

SNIPPETS FROM THE RECTOR'S DIARY (APRIL 2023 - MARCH 2024) 23 April 2023 For a long time, we have been thinking about how to change the way our faculties are funded in order to provide the deans with more funds to encourage research, to incentivize departments to increase the numbers of students and the quality of the teaching, to encourage interdisciplinary teaching and research, and to better utilize our tenure-track positions. Following much discussion and preparatory work, we have a new model, and I am now working with each of the deans to fully understand the implications for their faculties and plan on how we are going to implement the change. In the long term, the model will give more freedom and flexibility to the deans, but, as with any change in the way things have been done, there is a lot of concern about the ramifications. 3 May 2023 A meeting with the heads of schools and departments. This is something that I instigated after being invited to the concluding session of a leadership training program that we organized for new heads of departments. I understood that there was a need for a forum where heads of departments could meet and get to know each other, exchange ideas, ask questions and get information. These meetings are well attended, and I enjoy the give

and take, along with hearing criticism, and dispelling "myths". Being a head of an academic department is one of the most difficult administrative and leadership jobs in the University, and it is important to give them as much knowledge, support, tools, and leadership skills as possible, because they are on the frontlines with our students and with the faculty. 18 May 2023 The Board of Governors has just finished, and we are now starting the process of electing five deans. Some will be running for a second term; some will be entirely new. We pride ourselves on our democratic system of governance in the University, so there will be search committees who will approve the candidates, who will then campaign in their respective faculties, and the academic faculty councils will then vote to choose their next dean. Looking at the list of candidates, I am delighted to see that a considerable number of women are running, and I hope that some of them will be elected [look at the current list of deans and you will see that the faculties chose well!]. 5 June 2023 The nationwide senior faculty strike over a wage agreement has just come to an end and we have to inform faculty and students how we are going to catch up with the teaching missed. The dispute has been going on for years, and along with everything else,

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President's Report 2024