New Plan for '21st Century Maricopa'

In an article titled Efficiency from Incompetence, David Moltz, writing in Inside Higher Ed, examines tensions in and around the Maricopa Community College District. Maricopa's board of directors hired external consultants for $1.4M and has asked its chancellor to review for implementation the many changes in the resulting plan, which is titled "21st Century Maricopa." There are many interesting dimensions to the circumstances. SCUPers will be interested in looking at the plan and its supporting documents. According to Molz, tensions are so high that many thought the consultants would be hired for the plan's implementation, but the board has charged the chancellor with the redesign of the entire district. From Moltz's report:

Months after it was chastised by an independent panel for displaying “a consistent lack of civility” and creating “a climate of fear and mistrust,” the governing board of the Maricopa County Community College District has asked its chancellor to review and possibly implement a sweeping series of recommendations to improve the “efficiency” of the Arizona system.

The plan to redesign the district, marketed under the moniker “21st Century Maricopa,” is the result of $1.4 million worth of Alvarez & Marsal consulting work requested by the governing board last summer. The request, however, was made before the college district’s accreditor, the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, encouraged an independent panel to examine an anonymous complaint it received alleging that the Maricopa board had put the district’s accreditation at risk by severely micromanaging educators.

The board’s hiring of outside consultants to weed out redundancies in the district and find further ways to save money is viewed by many local observers as a slight against Maricopa's leadership.

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