Chairperson Interview Questions
30 questions
Question 1: What has made you successful in directing administrative departments?
Suggested answerThe interviewer wants to know how you run offices such as admissions, registration or career services so they serve students well.
This is a reflection question, so name two or three habits that work for you and back each with a short example. Good themes are clear goals for each office, regular use of data, strong office leaders, and attention to the student's experience.
Sample answer: "Three things have helped me most. First, I agree on a few measurable goals with each office director, such as how long transcript requests take, and we review them monthly. Second, I look at our processes from the student's side. When I walked through our own registration steps, I found students were sent between three offices to clear one hold, so we moved that work to a single desk. Third, I hire strong directors, back them, and give them room to decide. Those habits kept our offices steady through a year with a lot of staff turnover."
Pitfalls: Don't list traits without examples. Avoid claiming results you can't explain. Don't talk only about yourself and leave out the people who run each office.
Question 2: What would you check before using a college program's assessment results to judge whether students met its learning outcomes?
What interviewers listen forExpect checks that assessments match the stated learning outcomes, use clear scoring criteria and include suitable student work. Treating a course pass rate as proof of every learning outcome is a red flag.
Candidate tipStart with the program's stated learning outcomes. Describe how you check the assessment tasks, scoring criteria and student work before drawing conclusions about learning.
Question 3: Walk me through a time you cleared up confusion between campus offices about who was responsible for a student service.
What interviewers listen forA strong example shows how the candidate clarified each office's responsibility and checked that the student service improved. Leaving students to sort out the offices' responsibilities is a red flag; ask what they learned.
Candidate tipChoose one real handoff problem between campus offices. Explain your own role in settling responsibilities, how the student service worked afterward and what you learned about preventing gaps.
Question 4: What approach have you found effective when advising a college student who is unsure which courses fit their goals?
What interviewers listen forA strong approach connects the student's goals with course requirements and realistic options. Steering them toward courses without checking how those courses count toward their program is a warning sign.
Candidate tipDescribe how you clarify the student's goals, review program requirements, and help them compare course options. Explain how you check that they understand the choices.
Question 5: Walk me through a time you filled a college department vacancy, from recruiting candidates to preparing the new hire for the role.
What interviewers listen forListen for job-related selection criteria and training tied to the department's work. Choosing someone on personal preference rather than evidence of their ability to do the job is a concern.
Candidate tipUse one actual department hire. Outline the vacancy, your part in recruiting and selecting candidates, and how you prepared the person for the work. End with what showed the hire was ready or still needed support.
Question 6: Describe how you managed a college department's budget through a financial reporting cycle.
What interviewers listen forExpect a real example linking planned spending, actual costs, and the financial report. Hiding an overspend or changing figures just to make the budget appear balanced is a serious concern.
Candidate tipChoose a budget you managed. Explain your spending plan, the figures you checked during the cycle, and how you reported differences between planned and actual costs. Include the outcome and any change you made for the next cycle.
Question 7: Describe a time you narrowed competing campus proposals into priorities for an institution's strategic plan.
What interviewers listen forListen for a real choice among campus proposals, clear criteria tied to the institution's mission and a resulting set of priorities. Claiming every proposal was a priority without making choices avoids the question.
Candidate tipSet out the competing proposals and the institution's limits. Focus on how you helped choose priorities for the strategic plan, the decisions reached and what you learned from the process.
Question 8: Share an example of how research informed a policy or procedure you introduced at a college or university.
What interviewers listen forThe example should connect the research findings to specific choices in the policy or procedure. Treating one unverified complaint as proof of a campus-wide problem weakens the answer.
Candidate tipName the campus problem and the sources you studied, such as student feedback, service records, or published research. Focus on how the findings shaped the policy or procedure and what you learned after it was introduced.
Question 9: What would you do if two campus offices supplied conflicting enrollment totals for an institutional report due that afternoon?
What interviewers listen forThey should compare enrollment definitions, reporting dates and source records with both offices, then explain any unresolved difference to the report's recipient. Averaging the totals just to meet the deadline is a red flag.
Candidate tipExplain how you would trace the two totals to their sources and check that they count the same students at the same point in time. Include how you would handle the deadline if the difference remained unresolved.
Question 10: Walk me through your role in developing or revising a college curriculum.
What interviewers listen forListen for the candidate's own contribution to learning goals, course content, and the review with faculty. Claiming the team's work without explaining their role leaves the example unproven.
Candidate tipPick one curriculum project. Explain the need for the change, how you worked with faculty to develop it, and the evidence used to judge the finished curriculum. Be clear about the decisions you made yourself.
Question 11: How have you coordinated teaching and room assignments to make good use of a college's classrooms and equipment?
What interviewers listen forA useful answer connects instructor availability, class size, and equipment needs to room assignments. Assigning a class to a room that lacks required equipment without resolving the mismatch is a warning sign.
Candidate tipUse an actual scheduling cycle to show how you matched instructors, classes, rooms, and equipment. Describe the conflicts you resolved and how you checked that the final assignments worked.
Question 12: Describe a time you evaluated a college staff member's performance against the expectations for their role.
What interviewers listen forLook for evidence tied to the staff member's duties, clear feedback, and follow-up on the evaluation. Basing a rating on personal liking rather than job performance is a red flag.
Candidate tipKeep the staff member anonymous. Explain the expectations, the work you reviewed, and how you discussed your assessment with them. Close with the result of the evaluation and what you learned from it.
Question 13: Give an example of how your work on a college committee led to a change that helped the institution.
What interviewers listen forThe candidate should identify their contribution and a concrete benefit from the committee's work. Taking credit for a committee decision without describing any personal contribution is a concern.
Candidate tipSet out the committee's purpose briefly, then focus on what you contributed to its work. Name the change that followed and the evidence that it helped the college, rather than just listing meetings you attended.
Question 14: Tell me how you helped a college staff member work through a problem with an administrative procedure.
What interviewers listen forListen for how they helped the staff member understand the procedure and resolve the problem. Telling someone to skip a required step simply to clear the work is a warning sign.
Candidate tipChoose one real problem with a campus procedure. Explain where the staff member was stuck, the help you gave, and how you checked that the problem was resolved. Show what they could handle afterward.
Question 15: Describe a time you represented your college or university in a meeting with an outside organization.
What interviewers listen forA strong example shows accurate communication of the institution's position and a clear account of the meeting's outcome. Making commitments beyond their authority is a red flag.
Candidate tipIdentify the meeting's purpose and what you were authorized to speak for. Focus on how you conveyed the institution's position, handled the discussion, and followed up on the outcome.
Question 16: What method have you found most effective for promoting a university? How does participating in events and developing partnerships compare with this method?
Question 17: Share your experience recruiting and selecting students. What methods have you found most effective?
Question 18: Tell me about a registration policy you developed.
Question 19: Tell me about the last admission requirements or course credit policies you formulated in a conference with academic staff. What methods were effective in formulating the policies?
Question 20: Share an experience in which your consultation with a governmental angency helped you to ensure conformance at your institution.
Question 21: Describe an experience in which you successfully directed a scholarship, fellowship, or loan program. What made you successful?
Question 22: Share an experience in which you counseled with a student who had a difficult misconduct report.
Question 23: Share a method you have found effective for procuring grants.
Question 24: Share an effective method you have used to produce and distribute university publications.
Question 25: Share an experience in which you successfully planned and promoted a university activity.
Question 26: Describe a method you have found effective for encouraging participation in fundraising activities.
Candidate tipBe sure to mention any alumni participation.
Question 27: What method have you found most effective in teaching courses?
Question 28: Describe a multi-year goal you set for a college, department or student service and the steps you took to reach it.
Suggested answerThe interviewer wants to see whether you can plan beyond the current year and carry a plan through with faculty and staff.
Use Situation, Task, Action, Result. Explain the goal and why it mattered, who you needed on board, the steps and milestones, and how you tracked progress. Be honest about where the plan stands now.
Sample answer: "Our first-year students were leaving at a higher rate than at similar colleges. I proposed a three-year goal to raise first-to-second-year retention. In the first year we added early alerts so faculty could flag students who stopped coming to class, and advisors followed up within a week. In the second year we redesigned orientation with input from current students. Each term I shared the numbers with the dean and the faculty senate. Retention rose each year, and the early alert system is now used across the college."
Pitfalls: Don't describe a one-semester project as long-range. Avoid leaving out how you got others to support the plan. Don't present a goal with no way of measuring progress.
What interviewers listen forListen for how they tied the goal to enrollment, student success or accreditation and how they brought faculty along; a plan that stayed on paper is a red flag.
Candidate tipName the goal, why it mattered to students or the institution, who had to agree, and how you tracked progress. Say where it stands now.
Question 29: How do you keep your area in line with accreditation standards and federal rules, such as those on student records and financial aid?
Suggested answerThe interviewer wants to know you treat compliance as ongoing work, not something you think about only before an audit or accreditation visit.
Explain your routine: how you keep up with the rules that apply to your area, who you work with, how you train staff, and how you check that practice matches policy. Then give one example. Rules vary by institution, state and accreditor, so speak to the ones you know and say you check with the compliance or legal office when unsure.
Sample answer: "I keep a calendar of reporting deadlines and accreditation standards for my area, and I meet with our compliance office each term. New staff get training on student records privacy before they can use our records system. Each year we pull a sample of files and check them against our policies. One review showed that some advisors were discussing grades with parents by phone without the student's written consent. We retrained the team and added a consent check to our call notes, and the next review was clean."
Pitfalls: Don't claim to know every rule. Avoid an answer that only describes reacting to an audit. Don't give legal opinions; show you know when to ask.
What interviewers listen forStrong answers mention regular reviews, staff training and working with the compliance or legal office; waiting for an audit to find problems is a red flag.
Candidate tipDescribe how you keep track of the rules that apply to your area, how you train staff on them, and an example of catching and fixing a gap.
Question 30: Tell me about a time you used enrollment, retention or other institutional data to choose between solutions to a problem.
Suggested answerThe interviewer wants to know whether you base decisions on evidence and can explain the trade-offs to others.
Use Situation, Task, Action, Result. Name the problem, the data you used and where it came from, the options you compared, why you chose one, and what happened. Mention who you worked with, such as an institutional research office.
Sample answer: "Many students were on waitlists for required math courses each fall. One option was to add sections; another was to change when students could register. With our institutional research office I looked at three years of registration data. It showed that most waitlisted students were transfer students who registered late, not that we lacked seats overall. We gave new transfer students an earlier registration window and added only one section. The next fall, waitlists for those courses dropped sharply, and we avoided the cost of several extra sections."
Pitfalls: Don't pick an answer first and then look for data to support it. Avoid quoting numbers you can't explain. Don't forget to say how you checked the result.
What interviewers listen forListen for the data they used, how they weighed the options and how they checked the result; picking an answer first and finding data to fit is a red flag.
Candidate tipName the problem, the data you looked at, the options you compared, and why you chose the one you did. End with what happened.