Scott Dalrymple has a Gotcha Test for Aspiring Deans which is a lot of fun -- try it even if you don't have any deanly aspirations.
A sample:
2. As dean, do you plan to maintain an active research agenda?
□ YES -> Incorrect. You know you have to work summers, right? Besides, we need you to keep the trains running, not write about the epistemology of postcolonial fruit flies or whatever.
□ NO -> Incorrect. Have you no intellectual curiosity? How can you possibly oversee research faculty? They'll never respect you.
Actually, in many IIXs, the only qualification needed to become a dean is to turn into a prick and jerk who does not deign to even reply to official emails from colleagues.
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