Chair, Department of Counselor Education, Counseling Psychology, or Both and More

The role of head, chair, or administrator of a university or college department, which includes or is solely focused on counselor education or counseling psychology, is a complex job requiring multitasking. In some respects, it is difficult to talk about the organizational configuration in which programs of Counselor Education or Counseling Psychology are located because there are so many variations in such structures across the nation. The first author of this book was an administrator of a Department of Counselor Education, Counseling Psychology, and Rehabilitation Services for 24 years at the same institution. During that period, the organizational structure that he headed began as part of a Department of Educational Leadership. Then the Counselor Education program was pulled from that structure and became an autonomous Department of Counselor Education. Subsequently, a new dean decided to organize the college into divisions. In that case, the division became the Division of Counseling and Educational Psychology. A further reorganization renamed that division and increased the programs it housed and it became the Division of Counseling and Educational Psychology and Career Studies. At that point, the division included programs preparing elementary school counselors, secondary school counselors, directors of guidance, rehabilitation counselors (and undergraduates in rehabilitation education), college student personnel specialists, educational psychologists (specializing in learning, measurement), vocational teachers, vocational administrators, industrial trainers, and school psychologists. After 10 years in this structure, with the arrival of another dean, the

divisional structure was abolished and a departmental structure was reinstituted; to wit, the Department of Counselor Education, Counseling Psychology, and Rehabilitation Services. In each of the configurations cited, the chair or administrator of the department or division remained the same, but the programs grew or receded in number and complexity.