Department Chair Roles & Responsibilities

Overall Role & Responsibility

The Department Chair (or program director) provides the first level of institutional endorsement and oversight for sponsored activity originating in the department. The Chair confirms that proposed projects fit the department’s mission and capacity, commits departmental resources where needed, authorizes proposals during routing, and shares responsibility for the financial and personnel implications of awards held by department faculty.

For detailed lists of specific responsibilities, please click to expand the sections below.

Proposal Endorsement and Departmental Commitments

• Provide departmental authorization for each proposal during Cayuse routing, endorsing that the department supports the proposed activity and guaranteeing any departmental matching or commitments in the request.
• Approve and commit departmental resources pledged in a proposal — such as space, equipment, protected time, cost-share, or bridge funding — coordinating with ORSP, since these commit University resources.
• Assess and address the impact of proposed work on the department’s instructional and service mission.

Course Releases and Workload

• Approve course-release (buyout) requests in writing before they go to the Dean, ensuring teaching coverage and that a faculty member’s load is not reduced below the program’s minimum without appropriate approval.
• Discuss and manage the workload implications of sponsored commitments with faculty early.
• Approve faculty effort, salary distribution, and leave arrangements that affect departmental staffing.

Financial Oversight

• Share responsibility for the financial health of departmental awards: if a PI incurs a deficit or disallowance and cannot cover it, the PI’s department is responsible for covering the overage and transferring it off the sponsored account.
• Support resolution of cost overruns in coordination with the PI, GCM, and central administration.

Personnel and Environment

• Support the hiring and appointment of departmental research personnel in coordination with HR and the GCM.
• Foster a safe, inclusive, and compliant research environment within the department.

Laboratory Renovations

• In collaboration with Facilities & Campus Services, the department chair or designate manages laboratory renovations on behalf of departmental faculty — from initiating the request, through tracking the project timeline, to completion of the project.
• Coordinate the scope, design, and budget of renovations with Facilities and, where school-level resources or approvals are involved, the Dean’s office.
• Track project milestones and schedule, and communicate timelines and any disruptions to affected faculty and lab personnel.
• Coordinate lab setup, moves, and decommissioning, including for new faculty and newly acquired equipment.
• Ensure renovated spaces meet research needs and applicable safety and code requirements, coordinating with Environmental Health & Safety on lab-specific elements such as fume hoods, biosafety, and chemical storage.

Laboratory Safety

• The department works with Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) to provide and maintain a safe research environment across departmental laboratories.
• Support PIs and lab personnel in meeting laboratory-safety requirements, including required training, standard operating procedures, personal protective equipment, and routine self-inspections.
• Facilitate EHS inspections and ensure timely corrective action on any findings within the department.
• Confirm that new and renovated lab spaces meet safety requirements before research begins.
• Support onboarding of new lab personnel into required safety training and promote a positive, proactive safety culture in the department.
• Coordinate department-level support for hazardous-materials handling, chemical inventory, waste disposal, and emergency procedures.