MWC Home Page
[Resources for Prospective Students] [Resources for Current Students] [Resources for Faculty and Staff] [Resources for Alumni] [Resources for Community and Visitors] [A to Z Index] [People Search] [Search MWC]
 


MWC COC-SACS Home
> Analogs and Other Resources> Articles on Academic Change > Abstracts


 


Abstracts of articles of potential interest

 

The articles below are a partial result of a search I ran on ERIC using the key words, Academic Change. Some of them may be of interest to your committee.   Articles that are already in our archives have titles in red and are also listed on the Academic Change Articles page with links made to the abstract.



 A choice of transformations for the 21st-century university

AUTHOR(S): Duderstadt,-James-J., 1942-

SOURCE: The Chronicle of Higher Education v 46 no22 Feb 4 2000. p. B6-B7

ABSTRACT: The writer considers some new models that suggest the great changes that institutions may undergo in the years ahead. He describes these models as the world university, the diverse university, the creative university, the divisionless university, the cyberspace university, the adult university, the lifelong university, the ubiquitous university, and the laboratory university. He argues that each of these paradigms has features that will almost definitely be a part of the character of higher education in America in the coming century.

Return to the list of articles

 Collegial entrepreneurialism in proactive universities: lessons from Europe

AUTHOR(S): Clark,-Burton-R

SOURCE: Change v 32 no1 Jan/Feb 2000. p. 10-19

ABSTRACT: Modern universities are developing a worrying imbalance with their environments. They are unable to meet the demands placed on them and lack sufficient response capabilities, particularly financially. Many universities should become far more proactive, even entrepreneurial, improving their response capability and ability to meet the demands made of them. The writer examines the demands placed on higher education and explores how universities can become more responsive and adaptive.

Return to the list of articles

 

Academic restructuring: organizational change and institutional imperatives

AUTHOR(S): Gumport,-Patricia-J

SOURCE: Higher Education v 39 no1 Jan 2000. p. 67-91

ABSTRACT: A perennial challenge for universities and colleges is to keep pace with knowledge change by reconsidering their structural and resource commitments to various knowledge areas. Reflecting upon changes in the academic landscape of public higher education in the United States over the past quarter of a century, the author diagnoses a macro-trend whereby the dominant legitimating idea of public higher education has changed from higher education as a social institution to higher education as an industry. Three interrelated mechanisms are identified as having advanced this process: academic management, academic consumerism, and academic stratification. This pattern of academic restructuring reflects multiple institutional pressures. While public universities and colleges have increasingly come to rely on market discourse and managerial approaches in order to demonstrate responsiveness to economic exigencies, they may end up losing legitimacy as they move away from their historical character, functions, and accumulated heritage as educational institutions. Thus, responsiveness to compelling economic pressures that dominate contemporary organizational imperatives in an attempt to gain legitimacy in one dimension may result in loss for another. Wholesale adaptation to market pressures and managerial rationales could thereby subsume the discourse about the future of colleges and universities within a logic of economic rationality at a detriment to the longer-term educational legacies and democratic interests that have long characterized American public education. Reprinted with permission from Kluwer Academic Publishers. Copyright 2000. 

Return to the list of articles

Forces driving organizational change: a business school perspective

AUTHOR(S): Kemelgor,-Bruce; Johnson,-Scott-D; Srinivasan,-S, 1932-

SOURCE: Journal of Education for Business v 75 no3 Jan/Feb 2000. p. 133-7

ABSTRACT: Business school deans rated the present and future importance of factors driving organizational change, including technology, competition, and factors specific to the workplace or industry. Some specific items of high perceived importance were student recruitment, multimedia classrooms, and the Internet for instruction. Analysis was performed to investigate differences in the perceptions of respondents from AACSB- versus non-AACSB-accredited institutions and public versus private institutions. Results demonstrate that the importance of key forces driving organizational change will intensify in the future. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

  Return to the list of articles

 The challenge of planning in public

AUTHOR(S): Johnstone,-D.-Bruce

SOURCE: Planning for Higher Education v 28 no2 Winter 1999/2000. p. 57-64

ABSTRACT: The writer considers the issue of change in public higher education. The notion of the unchanging institution of higher education is a myth--colleges and universities do respond to changing markets, revenues, and social and political forces. Although the changes appear deliberate, slow, circular, or reluctant, this is because of the fundamental nature of higher education itself. Change in higher education is affected by the existence of multiple goals, multiple measures of success, and a professional and antiauthoritarian organizational culture. The process of change is also limited by certain peculiarities of the public sector. These include the role of politics in the budget and planning process, public sector rules, the punishing of surpluses by revenue reduction, and the reluctance of politicians to allow radical action. The writer also presents some thoughts on the special role of leadership in planning for change in public higher education.

Return to the list of articles

 The emerging third stage in higher education planning

AUTHOR(S): Keller,-George, 1928-

SOURCE: Planning for Higher Education v 28 no2 Winter 1999/2000. p. 1-7

ABSTRACT: The writer discusses the need for a third stage in higher education planning. Colleges and universities have responded to the economic and social transformation of society by reorganizing themselves. There are now at least four distinct kinds of higher education institution including the research university; the liberal arts college; the state colleges and universities, colleges of technology, and regional private colleges; and the proprietary schools, two-year colleges, and the less well-endowed private colleges. These changes suggest that planners must be prepared to enter a third stage of higher education planning. They must focus more on adaptive structural changes and the different needs of the four segments of higher learning. This third stage of academic planning will most likely derive from increased advocacy by planners for structural change and the adoption of innovative forms of postsecondary education created by institutions outside the traditional colleges and universities.

 Return to the list of articles

 Changes in higher education and its societal context as a challenge for future research (I)

OTHER TITLES: Augmented title: symposium

SOURCE: Higher Education v 38 no1 July 1999. p. 1-122

ABSTRACT: A special issue on changes in higher education and its social context as a challenge for future research is presented. Articles discuss governmental policies and organizational change in higher education, research and practice in undergraduate education, contours of the emergent knowledge society, the academic profession in the knowledge society, Australian science and technology academics and university-industry research links, and the modernization of research evaluation. An introduction to the special issue is provided. 

Return to the list of articles

Managing academics on short term contracts

AUTHOR(S): Barnes,-Nicola; O'Hara,-Suzanne

SOURCE: Higher Education Quarterly v 53 no3 July 1999. p. 229-39

ABSTRACT: A study investigated the experiences of academic staff on fixed term contracts in Great Britain. Participants were 15 academic staff from both an old and a post-1992 university in Great Britain. Results revealed three broad sets of issues. The first issue related to problems linked to the use of temporary contracts that affected participants' ability to work as effectively as they would have wished. The second concerned the effect of temporary contracts on participants' willingness to contribute to organizational development and change. The final set of issues related to temporary staff management and included issues affecting both commitment and ability. Results suggested that some institutional policies failed to address the presence of temporary workers. Results also suggested that organizational efficiency and success may be endangered by inadequate management systems.

Return to the list of articles

 Toward a constructivist framework for guiding change and innovation in higher education

AUTHOR(S): Lueddeke,-George-R

SOURCE: The Journal of Higher Education (Columbus, Ohio) v 70 no3 May/June 1999. p. 235-60

ABSTRACT: The writer explains the types of change implementation strategies currently required by higher education and proposes a model for change that is appropriate for the environments and actual decision-making processes of higher education.
Return to the list of articles

 

 7 habits of schools where cultural change happens

AUTHOR(S): Fried,-Robert-L

SOURCE: Thrust for Educational Leadership v 28 no5 May/June 1999. p. 8-10

ABSTRACT: Part of a special issue on skills for school leaders. Seven key aspects that define and make possible cultural change in schools are presented. These aspects are a shared sense of where the school is heading, respectful leaders, authentic conversation, faculty collegiality, an emphasis on student performance, assessment and accountability, and a reflective environment.
Return to the list of articles

 

Habits hard to break: how persistent features of campus life frustrate curricular reform

AUTHOR(S): Schneider,-Carol-G; Shoenberg,-Robert-E

SOURCE: Change v 31 no2 Mar/Apr 1999. p. 30-5

ABSTRACT: Hundreds of colleges are struggling to modernize or change the liberal arts element of their curricula. During the 1990s, a sense has emerged that hands-on, inquiry-oriented strategies for learning may be the approach required for undergraduate regeneration. Time and again, however, faculty design teams have quickly been confronted with organizational realities that frustrate their high hopes. Almost regardless of whatever plan for integrative, practice-oriented learning has been envisaged, there are structural features of the academic environment that work noiselessly but powerfully to undo it. The writers examine some of the most formidable of these obstacles and look at a remedy. 

Return to the list of articles

Information technology as a change agent

OTHER TITLES: Augmented title: excerpt from What business wants from higher education

AUTHOR(S): Oblinger,-Diana-G; Verville,-Anne-Lee

SOURCE: EDUCOM Review v 34 no1 Jan/Feb 1999. p. 46-55

ABSTRACT: An excerpt from What Business Wants from Higher Education, by Diana G. Oblinger and Anne-Lee Verville, is presented. Information technology is a basic agent of change that will lead to individual, social, and organizational shifts. Digitization, storage, the increase in processing power, and universal communications are the four main trends behind changes as a result of information technology, and each affects business and higher education. It is the improvements in these areas that have created the networking revolution, which is changing approaches to business, the manufacturing of goods, and the provision of services. Some of the implications of information technology for business, industry, and education are discussed. 

Return to the list of articles

 

Restructuring universities and colleges: the student-focused paradigm

AUTHOR(S): Havranek,-Joseph-E; Brodwin,-Martin-G

SOURCE: Education (Chula Vista, Calif) v 119 no1 Fall 1998. p. 115-19+

ABSTRACT: Rising costs in education, accompanied by declining performance and productivity, indicate a need for a change. This article suggests a new focus to create higher education institutions that are more responsive to students' needs. A new organizational culture intent on providing the best education and services for students will help ensure that all students receive maximum quality services while, at the same time, institutional spending is decreased. To maximize provision of services to students, increase student satisfaction, and minimize costs for the institution, the authors recommend formation of student-focused learning teams. A student-focused management program will help institutions of higher education achieve maximum flexibility, greater efficiency, and increased productivity. Reprinted by permission of the publisher. 

Return to the list of articles

Are they singing from the same hymn book?

OTHER TITLES: Augmented title: common perspectives on organizational change by faculty and presidents

AUTHOR(S): Eckel,-Peter

SOURCE: Planning for Higher Education v 27 no1 Fall 1998. p. 30-6

ABSTRACT: A study investigated the extent to which faculty and presidents share some common perspectives about institutional change. The participants were 16 presidents and 56 faculty members from colleges and universities involved in the American Council on Education's Project on Leadership and Institutional Transformation. Among other results, it was found that both presidents and faculty did not think that external pressure for change was as important a force for change as internal pressure from the top; that faculty and presidents frequently agreed on very important strategies for change among themselves and with each other but disagreed on who does what; that presidents thought limited financial resources were a very significant obstacle to change, whereas faculty did not; and that faculty thought making resources available was an important leadership task of presidents and senior administrators, whereas presidents did not. The results demonstrate that presidents and faculty agree more often than is commonly suggested and confirm common beliefs that presidents and faculty disagree on who should be doing what when it comes to leading institutional change and setting the institutional agenda for change. 

Return to the list of articles

Understanding residential learning: the power of detachment and continuity

AUTHOR(S): Fleming,-Jean-Anderson

SOURCE: Adult Education Quarterly v 48 no4 Summer 1998. p. 260-71

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to understand more clearly the residential learning experience. Participant perspectives were obtained from 30 individuals in five focus groups representing three programs of residential learning. An inductive approach to data analysis was followed, yielding first categories, then themes and elements with which the residential learning experiences of participants were described. Three descriptive themes, building relationships, learning, and individual change, and two overarching themes, detachment and continuity, were distinguished. These themes are similar to yet augment those found in the literature. Two conclusions were derived: (1) the overarching themes of detachment and continuity characterize and distinguish the phenomenon of residential learning; (2) relationships among key elements of the descriptive and overarching themes suggest an organizational framework from which to examine and understand residential learning. Reprinted by permission of the publisher. Copyright by Fleming

.Return to the list of articles

 

How the social environment influences curriculum change

AUTHOR(S): Gose,-Michael-D

SOURCE: Catalyst for Change v 27 no3 Spring/Summer 1998. p. 24-6

ABSTRACT: A case study illustrating how the social environment influences curriculum change is presented. The curriculum change in question involved the implementation of a great books program in an undergraduate general studies course. The implementation was successful, and the system perspective was absolutely necessary for such success. It was concluded that the subsystems of an organization are interdependent; that the educational code is very important in determining the character of each subsystem and thus the character of change; that the curriculum leader can utilize the organizational perspective of subsystems for bringing about change, anticipating potential unintended consequences of change, and appreciating the costs of change to other subsystems; and that the organizational perspective is useful in considering other literature of educational change. 

Return to the list of articles

Why change doesn't happen and how to make sure it does

AUTHOR(S): Schwahn,-Charles-J; Spady,-William-G

SOURCE: Educational Leadership v 55 no7 Apr 1998. p. 45-7

ABSTRACT: Part of a special section on school leadership. There are five interdependent reasons why productive change does not occur in schools. Productive change in schools occurs only when the organizational structure and the staff are aligned with the school vision. Productive change does not occur if the purpose is not compelling enough, if it is not developed right, if it is not used immediately, if the organizational vision is not aligned with the actions of those who are part of the organization, and if people are not provided with organizational support. Five rules that must be observed if change is to occur are provided. 

Return to the list of articles

 Harsh realities about decentralized decision making

AUTHOR(S): Patterson,-Jerry-L

SOURCE: School Administrator v 55 Mar 1998. p. 6-8+

ABSTRACT: Part of a special section on shared decision making in school administration. Strategies to help administrators increase their chances of success in leading decentralized decision making are presented. The strategies, which are based on the realities of organizational change, are to accommodate various groups' self-interests related to decentralized decision making while remaining true to the core values of decentralized decision making, to help others to understand the what and why of decentralized decision making, and to create a sense of urgency for decentralized decision making by selling change on the principle of pain.

Return to the list of articles

How colleges cope when a president leaves in the midst of restructuring

AUTHOR(S): Mercer,-Joye

SOURCE: The Chronicle of Higher Education v 44 Jan 16 1998. p. A41+

ABSTRACT: The experience of undergoing a leadership change while in the process of a major restructuring is becoming more common in higher education institutions. Changes at such junctures can lead to more than the usual upheaval that accompanies the departure of a university president.

Return to the list of articles

Tenure and community in academe

AUTHOR(S): Tierney,-William-G

SOURCE: Educational Researcher v 26 Nov 1997. p. 17-23

ABSTRACT: Tenure should remain as a structure until those in academe have determined another force that affords the same or greater protection for academic freedom as tenure. Tenure is an organizational structure that provides support for academic freedom, which is a core cultural belief of those in academe. Alternatives to tenure that have been mooted relate to contracts, salary definition, and where tenure is located. However, academic freedom must remain the foundational principle of academe if it is to remain intellectually curious, competitive, and free. Therefore, a cultural framework in which to change tenure is required. Such a cultural framework involves faculty developing their own solutions, such as reflexive assessment or dialogues of respect, rather than opposing ill-conceived solutions of others.

Return to the list of articles

 Strategic change among U.S. business schools: a strategic group analysis

AUTHOR(S): Ramaswamy,-Kannan; Li,-Mingfang

SOURCE: Journal of Education for Business v 72 July/Aug 1997. p. 343-7

ABSTRACT: This study cluster analyzed U.S. business schools along strategic dimensions related to program offerings, student body diversity, and administrative approach. The resultant strategic groups and significant movements among them between 1988 and 1993 were evaluated in light of the critical transitions that have taken place in the business school environment. Reprinted with the permission of the Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation; published by Heldref Publications, 1319 18th St., NW, Washington, DC 20036-1802. Copyright 1997. 

Return to the list of articles

Technology and emerging metaphors for education into the 21st century

AUTHOR(S): Steinhoff,-Carl-R; Chance,-Edward-W

SOURCE: Catalyst for Change v 26 Spring 1997. p. 27-9

ABSTRACT: The introduction of fundamentally new technology into the school highlights the need for people in the school, the tasks they perform, and the school's organizational structures to adjust. Currently, public education's buildings, administrative structure, classroom organization, and organizational culture is based on the image of a school that reflects the needs of an early 20th-century industrial economy. As a result of technological changes, the school as an institution must undergo the same fundamental changes that have occurred in other organizations. In a world where information can be accessed from an almost infinite library, new roles for teachers might include cataloging, information management, and teacher as data sharer and researcher. Furthermore, teachers should be given the task of navigating students through this information, and students would become explorers and discovers of knowledge. Information technology demands that new relationships are created among information resources, the teacher, the student, and the administrative hierarchy. 

Return to the list of articles

 Cultural change through quality process management

AUTHOR(S): McClennen,-Joan-C; Ingersoll,-Doris-M

SOURCE: College Student Journal v 31 Mar 1997. p. 51-68

ABSTRACT: This research summarizes a long-term ethnographic study of a Total Quality Management (TQM) project initiated at a southern private university utilizing process teams to promote an emphasis on quality and create cultural change. The authors adopted ideas from Deming (1986), Juran (1964, 1992), and Hubbard (1993) to implement TQM ideas including the use of process teams. To determine the amount of cultural change which occurred due to implementation of this new management philosophy, researchers utilized a triangulation approach combining data from three sources (historical writings, interviews, and process team meetings). Data were analyzed using the Constant Comparative Method with Hirokawa and Keyton's (1995) Organizational Group Effectiveness model as a reference. The results indicated ineffectiveness in changing the culture due to lack of training and support for the process, lack of leadership for the project, and lack of acceptance of the project from the organization. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

Return to the list of articles

The virtual campus: technology and reform in higher education

AUTHOR(S): Van-Dusen,-Gerald-C

SOURCE: ASHE ERIC Higher Education Reports v 25 no5 1997. p. 1-147

ABSTRACT: The writer discusses technology and reform in higher education. Higher education is now moving from modest experimentation with information technologies to mainstream adoption. These new technologies have implications for five critical areas: teaching, learning, scholarly activity, organizational culture, and governance and finance. The already serious repercussions of reform efforts warrant a number of conclusions. A paradigm shift can occur only where there is commitment to comprehensive reform, change to collaborative learning in the classroom is likely to require a considerable commitment to professional development, academic productivity must be defined given the continuing market-driven nature of higher education, a variety of distance learning venues seem to be adequately serving new constituencies, the total quality management movement is making impressive inroads in administration but not in academia, institutional support for applications development is slow, and vacillation may undermine general education requirements in electronically delivered programs. Recommendations for integrating information into teaching, learning, and research are outlined. 

Return to the list of articles

 

 Impediments and imperatives in restructuring higher education

AUTHOR(S): Benjamin,-Roger, 1957-; Carroll,-Stephen-J., 1940-

SOURCE: Educational Administration Quarterly v 32 Dec 1996. p. 705-19

ABSTRACT: The writers discuss the basic assumptions built into the governance of higher education that obstruct effective response to restructuring education. The three dogmas of higher education that fundamentally obstruct effective governance are the lack of a means of reallocating funds within a higher education institution because of the lack of a basis for evaluating the relative merits of different disciplines, the impossibility of shifting resources from one campus to another because there is no basis for evaluating the relative merits of academic programs and activities at different institutions in postsecondary education, and the need for an institution to allocate resources to every mission because of a lack of a basis for evaluating the relative merits of an institution's diverse missions. Other obstacles to the effective governance of higher education institutions include Byzantine structures, unclear priorities, the inadequacy of information available to higher education officials, and dispersed power. The writers describe how the structure of higher education governance could be redesigned.

Return to the list of articles

 Changing worlds, changing paradigms: redesigning administrative practice for more turbulent times

AUTHOR(S): Behar-Horenstein,-Linda-S; Amatea,-Ellen-S., 1944-

SOURCE: Educational Horizons v 75 Fall 1996. p. 27-35

ABSTRACT: The original paradigm on which school administrative practices have been based is becoming obsolete and must be redesigned. The mechanistic nature of traditional administrative practice is insufficient to deal with the increasing diversity of the student body and changing educational and sociopolitical trends. The practice of administration must be directed toward change that provides for systemic transformation guided by a self-organizing systems organizational model. This shift in school organization and leadership would see the student as a client or customer, the teacher as an innovator and initiator, and the principal as an organizational leader. 

Return to the list of articles

Rethinking stability: the role of conflict in schools

AUTHOR(S): Larson,-Colleen-L

SOURCE: Planning and Changing v 27 Fall/Winter 1996. p. 130-44

ABSTRACT: It is contended that the new sciences may provide insights into why traditional bureaucratic practices are failing to maintain order and stability in schools and into why school administrators need more effective ways of understanding and responding to social pressures for organizational change. Administrators often view disturbances as harmful to the school, its rules, and its practices, thus they often invoke bureaucratic rules of the system in an effort to maintain stability and control. However, the new sciences have shown that the natural system achieves higher levels of functioning through conflict, not stability. As a result, efforts to maintain absolute stability in educational systems will likely constrain or ignore the very forces that are needed to inform, improve, and better adapt schools to their changing educational environment. If administrators view forces for change as normative features of organizational life, they may begin to entertain the possibility that social, political, and racial conflicts in schools provide valuable insights into the ways that systems need to change and may come to realize that bureaucratic rules do little more than maintain systems of the past. 

Return to the list of articles

 The self-inflicted irrelevance of American academics

AUTHOR(S): Wacquant,-Loic-J.-D

SOURCE: Academe v 82 July/Aug 1996. p. 18-23

ABSTRACT: The writer discusses the reasons behind the growing anti-intellectualism in American culture. The first reason is the unquestioned supremacy of economic over cultural capital in American society, which is arguably more pronounced now than at any time in the past 50 years. The second reason is the debilitation of the organizational vehicles that are likely to enable intellectuals to contribute to progressive social change and public debate. The third reason is competition from the policy institutes and foundations that have assigned themselves a preeminent role in the national debate over the past 20 years. The fourth and last reason is the self-absorption of the university microcosm. American intellectuals have never seemed so powerless as they are today, and their progressive wing has never been so unaware of this powerlessness and of its causes. 

Return to the list of articles

Facing the future

AUTHOR(S): Guskin,-Alan-Edward

SOURCE: Change v 28 July/Aug 1996. p. 26-37

ABSTRACT: Over 200 colleges and universities are taking part in programs to discuss the need for restructuring, which will be one of the major activities of many or most American universities in the next ten years. In a recent issue of the Pew Roundtable's Policy Perspectives, the authors argue that successful restructuring needs a partnership and common purpose between faculty and administrators in which universities are more responsive to students and the needs of society. At the same time, universities must maintain their commitment to academic freedom and the unhampered pursuit of knowledge, the authors assert. The writer presents a dynamic, strategic, political approach to restructuring that, among other things, accepts that human nature and human behavior in organizations, including colleges and universities, contain both positive and negative aspects. 

Return to the list of articles

 When corporate restructuring meets higher education

AUTHOR(S): Horn,-Robert-N; Jerome,-Robert-T

SOURCE: Academe v 82 May/June 1996. p. 34-6

ABSTRACT: An adaptation of a presentation given at a James Madison University American Association of University Professors forum. The writer discusses the application of corporate restructuring practices to the higher education field. In recent years, the focus of improvement and increased efficiency in higher education has shifted toward the organizational structure of institutions, with many campuses in the U.S. adopting corporate restructuring policies. However, many have failed to examine the origins of organizational restructuring, the effects that certain types of restructuring have had on corporate America, and the implications for higher education. In the early 1980s, advocates for corporate restructuring contended that management had become lax in its dealings with the labor force. However, many corporate restructurings did not result in either increased efficiency for a company or an increase in general economic welfare. Further discussion on restructuring in academe is provided. 

Return to the list of articles

Choosing our futures

OTHER TITLES: Augmented title: with discussion

AUTHOR(S): Stoffle,-Carla-J., 1943-; Renaud,-Robert; Veldof,-Jerilyn-R

SOURCE: College and Research Libraries v 57 May 1996. p. 213-33

ABSTRACT: The writers explore the view that academic libraries must undergo transformational change. One view of the future of academic libraries suggests that few or no organizational changes are needed. The countervailing view is that academic libraries must fundamentally and irreversibly transform what they do and how they do it and that these changes need to happen soon. Almost all academic librarians concede that academic libraries have to change if they are to respond successfully to the new realities of the higher education environment, the rapidly developing information and telecommunications technologies, and the crisis in scholarly communications. However, there is little consensus regarding what must change, how the changes will take place, how fast the changes must occur, and how much change is required. The writers describe why they believe academic libraries have to undergo radical organizational change, identify what academic libraries have to change, and suggest how academic librarians might approach the necessary changes. Three commentaries on this article are provided. 

Return to the list of articles

Strategies for hard times in higher education

AUTHOR(S): Desfosses,-Louis-R

SOURCE: CUPA Journal v 47 Spring 1996. p. 13-19

ABSTRACT: Part of a special section on strategic planning for universities and colleges. Strategic planning can help higher education institutions adapt to cope in times of crisis. The higher education sector is currently facing declining budgets, downsizing, and calls for an improvement in its services. Private companies, through their use of effective strategic planning and new management approaches, have been able to overcome similar problems. Some of the most promising strategies from the private sector that could be adapted to the higher education sector include organizational delayering, employee empowerment, boundless thinking, problem-solving teams, accelerated processes, quality management and improvement, and stretch goals. In order to accommodate these strategies, colleges and universities need to consider structural change. A matrix structure can increase an institution's efficiency by augmenting the flexibility of its resources while maintaining stability.

Return to the list of articles

 Helping institutions manage change

SOURCE: Educational Record v 77 Spring/Summer 1996. p. 90-1

ABSTRACT: A project has been launched, called "Leadership and Institutional Transformation," to help higher educational institutions manage changes caused by such factors as financial pressures, changing demographics, competing values, and technological changes. Findings from the project will be disseminated to a wider national audience. 

Return to the list of articles

Change@ucsc.edu: managing a comprehensive change effort

AUTHOR(S): Coate,-L.-Edwin, 1936-

PUBLISHER: National Assn. of College & Univ. Business Officers, 1995. 80 p.

 

Return to the list of articles

Annotated bibliography for the mini-series: organizational change and strategic planning

AUTHOR(S): Knoff,-Howard-M; Curtis,-Michael-J

SOURCE: The School Psychology Review v 25 no4 1996. p. 517-18

ABSTRACT: Part of a special section on organizational change and school reform. An annotated bibliography of resources related to organizational change and school reform is provided.

Return to the list of articles

Campus reorganization: a need for new voices

AUTHOR(S): Wresch,-William, 1947-

SOURCE: The Chronicle of Higher Education v 42 Dec 1 1995. p. B3

ABSTRACT: The writer discusses organizational change in colleges and universities. He describes how the University of Namibia, South Africa, and the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, tried to reorganize themselves and failed. Campuses that want to reorganize must involve parents, business leaders, alumni, and other people in the community; get expert help; build permanent ties; and progress with humility. 

Return to the list of articles

Public perceptions of higher education: on Main Street and in the boardroom

AUTHOR(S): Harvey,-James; Immerwahr,-John

SOURCE: Educational Record v 76 Fall 1995. p. 51-5

ABSTRACT: Part of a special section on organizational change in higher education. Three reports examined both general public opinion and the opinion of community leaders regarding higher education. Results revealed that the general public had low levels of knowledge of higher education, little support for academic goals, high levels of satisfaction with higher education and faculty, and little support for change. However, community leaders had detailed knowledge about higher education, broadly supported academic goals, showed significant dissatisfaction with higher education, held unfavorable attitudes toward faculty, and showed significant support for change. The general public believed that the national problem with higher education is more an issue of access than one of quality, whereas community leaders believed that the problem involves both access and quality. 

Return to the list of articles

What business needs from higher education

AUTHOR(S): Verville,-Anne-Lee

SOURCE: Educational Record v 76 Fall 1995. p. 46-50

ABSTRACT: Part of a special section on organizational change in higher education. The writer discusses what business needs from higher education. Recent changes in business require workers to use technology for effective and efficient learning, focus on client value, work effectively in teams, make their own decisions, execute commitments, and build and apply competencies. In order to prepare students to function in the new business world, higher education should stay in touch with business and industry requirements, emphasize learning rather than teaching, and redesign the delivery of education. The competencies determined by the secretary of the Department of Labor's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills are described. 

Return to the list of articles

 Considering tenure: it's not holy writ: can we talk?

AUTHOR(S): Greenberg,-Milton, 1927-

SOURCE: Educational Record v 76 Fall 1995. p. 35-7

ABSTRACT: Part of a special section on organizational change in higher education. The writer proposes alternatives to the current tenure system to avoid the rigidities that undermine current practices. He recommends that nontenured staff should no longer be treated as second-class citizens, a commission should be established to investigate alleged abuses of academic freedom, campus systems should be established to investigate grievances, rules for declaring financial exigency in eliminating faculty should be modified, an enforceable code of conduct should be established for faculty, tenure standards should be modified to make them consistent with institutional missions, and tenure should be linked to actual academic achievement.

Return to the list of articles

 

This Page Last Modified on: March 29, 2002

[Resources for Prospective Students] [Resources for Current Students] [Resources for Faculty and Staff] [Resources for Alumni] [Resources for Community and Visitors] [A to Z Index] [People Search] [Search MWC]
[MWC Home Page]

Office of the Institutional Self-Study
Mary Washington College
1301 College Avenue, (Chandler Hall, Room 316)
Fredericksburg, VA 22401
Tel. 540.654.1561 Fax 540.654.1462

This Web Page Maintained by
Larry W. Penwell, Ph.D.
Site Index
Comments or Questions?

To JMC Home Page

[James Monroe Center Home Page]