University Governance

LEADERSHIP, DIVERSITY AND SUCCESSION PLANNING IN ACADEMIA

Cristina González
2010

Although academia is becoming more like business in many respects - not all of them positive - it has not borrowed one of the best attributes of business culture: its tradition of developing leadership through succession planning. As a result, much talent is underutilized. This includes, most prominently, that of women and minorities, who tend not to be perceived as leadership material. This paper makes a distinction between two levels of academic administrators: deans and above, who are professional administrators, and department chairs and below, who could be characterized as...

American Universities in Trumpland​ ​-​ ​Financial​ ​Ruin​ ​Averted? by John​ ​Aubrey​ ​Douglass

John Aubrey Douglass
2017

The Trump administration has no significant plan or strategy related to higher education. The only major policy declarations -- to eliminate federal regulations on for-profit colleges and revisit federal guidelines on sexual assault on college campuses – both unravel policies developed under the Obama administration. Where the fate of higher education lies is in the innumerable initiatives bent on pleasing Trump’s base and in the search for some sort of major legislative victory. As of this writing, this now includes a Republican coalition that wants to cut the funding for most federal...

On the Apportionment of Administrative Governance Functions Within Multi-Campus Universities and University Systems, by C. Judson King

C. Judson King
2013

Most public universities in the United States are formed into systems, containing more than one university or campus. There are clear rationales for these systems, including overall planning and coordination, budgeting efficiency, and effectiveness of dealings with the state government. The distribution of internal governance functions between the system level and the individual-campus level has, however, been a source of continual tension for understandable reasons. Although there can be no hard and fast rules for the division of administrative functions between the system-wide...

A Cautionary Analysis of a Billion Dollar Athletic Expenditure by John Cummins

John Cummins
2017

This paper is a description and analysis of the history of the renovation of Memorial Stadium and the building of the Barclay Simpson Student Athlete High Performance Center (SAHPC) on the Berkeley campus, showing how incremental changes over time result in a much riskier and financially less viable project than originally anticipated. It describes the decision making process, the role of various constituent groups including senior administrators and the UC Regents, faculty, community members and local and state governmental officials, donors and protesters. It includes the legal...

Let's Not Railroad American Higher Education! By Henry Brady

Henry Brady
2013

Politics, economics, and technology have conspired to make this an exceptionally challenging time for American higher education. Some critics claim that costs are out of control in traditional public and private nonprofit higher education. They believe these institutions will soon go the way of the railroads as for-profit institutions displace them and the Internet replaces college campuses and classrooms. Other critics bemoan the privatization of higher education and the increasing role of market forces. Still others think higher education has lost its way and fails to focus on...

Yes, but can they earn a living? Methods for creating an effective system of Measuring Labor Market Outcomes in Higher Education, by Richard W. Moore, Kenneth Chapman, Bettina Huber, and Mark Shors

Richard W. Moore
Kenneth Chapman
Bettina Huber
Mark Shors
2013

A new federal initiative calls for a College Scorecard which will include a yet to be determined measure of graduate earnings. In this paper we examine the political context that drives this initiative and examine the nascent efforts of four states to develop statewide systems to measure the labor market outcomes of higher education. We propose five principles to support a system that would generate valid labor market measures that could cut across all segments of higher education in California, and disaggregate down to campuses, departments and programs. We present results from a...

Board Governance of Public University Systems: Stresses and Needs, by C. Judson King

C. Judson King
2012

Modes of board-level governance for public universities and especially public university systems should be re-examined in view of growing major forces that create both challenges and opportunities that are enormous for public higher education. To sustain the public mission and rise to the challenges and opportunities, there is a growing need to enhance funding from a variety of different sources, many of them private, and to map them onto new initiatives, partnerships, and directions of change. Boards of public universities need to develop new dimensions, including several of the...

Tales of University Devolution: Organizational Behavior in the Age of Markets, by John Aubrey Douglass

John Aubrey Douglass
2012

n the wake of the Cold War era, America’s research universities became increasingly characterized by a tribal mentality among schools and departments, and disciplines. The surge in research funding, and the tremendous growth rate among the major public universities in particular, fostered the idea of the “multiversity” was becoming less communal, and less aware of the collective purpose. These patterns have accelerated considerably over the past two decades in the US that reflect three relatively new realities or influences: a) within the public university sector, decreasing public...

Current Transformations In Norwegian Higher Education

Kim Gunnar Helsvig
2002

This article reviews the Norwegian higher education debate from the publication of a radical reform proposal made by a government committee in May 2000 until the closure of the reform process in the parliament in May 2001. It is argued that a great rhetorical divide between neo-liberal and Humboldtian concepts of higher education characterized the debate, and that this to some extent distorted the coherence of the final solutions. Nevertheless, it is maintained that the reform is quite likely to instigate a period of profound changes in the national higher education system.

Thoughts on the History of University Systems in the U.S., by Robert Berdahl

Robert Berdahl
2014

Beginning in earnest in the 1950s, most state governments began a process of creating public university systems with a governing board and intended to coordinate and manage usually a range of institutional types and including a major public flagship university. By the late 1980s, enthusiasm for more centralized structures and state-wide “superboards” began to wane, in part because of the opposition of flagship campuses fearful of the “leveling” result they had seen in Wisconsin. The two decades after 1990 were marked both by austerity and limited growth and...