Dancing with History: A Cautionary Tale

This is yet another, and very interesting take, on college and university trends - Technology, Demographics, Private-Sector Competition - with the author's exposition of consequences in areas like Research and Scholarship, Teaching and Learning, Community/Civic Engagement, and Management and Investment. It's by Brenda Gourley in EDUCAUSE Review. Near her conclusion she writes:

When I titled this article "Dancing with History," I was thinking of Louis Gerstner's book Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? In telling the story of IBM's "historic turnaround" in the 1990s, Gerstner recounts how a very large and hierarchical organization — staffed with highly intelligent people who basically thought that they knew more than their customers did about what those customers needed — almost ran aground.8 I see many parallels with universities — and many lessons. I subtitled this article "A Cautionary Tale" because I think universities are not paying sufficient attention to the massive trends and changes in their environment. I am not alone in thinking that the changes I have described have profound consequences for the role and function, and indeed the business model, of all universities, wherever they may be — consequences that will evidence themselves in some places more quickly than in others, for obvious reasons. I am also not alone in believing that embracing these unprecedented educational trends and changes, along with the opportunities they offer, is vital to addressing the complex issues that face us individually and collectively in the 21st century.

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