Prioritizing Academic Programs and Services

Robert C. Dickeson has revised and updated his well-respected book, Prioritizing Academic Programs and Services: Reallocating Resources to Achieve Strategic Balance. If you click here or on the image at left and purchase the book from Amazon, SCUP will receive a small percentage of the purchase price. Given the adjustments and realignments happening on campuses all around the world in the current economic recession, this is a timely update!

A bonus in this updated edition is the inclusion of what Dickeson calls a "step-by-step guide to getting started with academic priority-setting" that was created by John Ball for SCUP to use in prioritization workshops.

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 14–16: Baltimore, MD
• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA

Intellectual Entrepreneurship: An Authentic Foundation for Higher Education Reform

The "blurb" we wrote for this Planning for Higher Education article says "Our relationship with the traditions and purpose of a humanistic education, it appears, are at odds with the career environment most students inhabit after graduation." The authors, Gary D. Beckman and Richard A. Chewitz, provide case studies of innovative entrepreneurship initiatives at the University of Texas, Austin, as well as background and discussion of the concept of "entrepreneurship education" in academic programming. "From our perspective, entrepreneurship—broadly conceived—is an intrinsic human right to change the status quo, and intellectual entrepreneurship is a philosophy and pedagogy to exercise this act by educating citizen-scholars—agents of change who own, are accountable for, and put their knowledge to work for the betterment of themselves and society. As we collaborate in the development of campuswide efforts to bring entrepreneurial thinking to the arts and sciences, we have the opportunity to envision entrepreneurship education in an authentic manner that is sustainable across campus, relevant to communities, and, most importantly, empowering to stakeholders."

Cutting Academic Programs: The 'Road Too Little Traveled'?

Now SCUPers can connect on Facebook and on LinkedIn.

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In a "View" on Inside Higher Ed, Tim Mann notes that for many reasons, a "rigorous, objective review" of academic programs may be the hardest thin on campus to do. He provides an anonymous "case illustration" and then promotes the potential value of a "portfolio review process."

Even in the face of unprecedented financial challenge, are the traditions, political forces, mission arguments and ideological posturing within the academy trumping the ability to restructure the academic portfolio, and the decision making and resource allocation structures that currently exist? Or, alternatively, is the eye of the storm of such magnitude that this level of macro change will be deferred until stimulus funding evaporates and there is a public moratorium on tuition and fee increases?

Perhaps for some regions, major restructuring will occur only when the reality of large declines in the high school pipeline make their way into annual operating budgets, and community colleges begin cannibalizing enrollments from neighboring four-year institutions.

How Bad Can It Get For a Community College?

Scott Jaschik summarizes the choices campus leaders at Valencia Community College are having to make, with insights as to the varying constituencies and stakeholders:

How did it come to this? Last year, the college had to cut $8 million out of its $100 million budget due to state cuts, all while enrollment has been increasing steadily (total is now about 22,000). Those cuts were across the board, but Rodriguez said the new approach will be used for another $3.6 million that must be cut in the next few months. Rumors from Sacramento suggest that additional cuts are in the offing, and Rodriguez said he sees no sign of the kinds of political or economic changes in the state that might encourage him to wait for a recovery.

"I think it's going to get worse," he said.

Dead Programs Walking

Jack Stripling's done a nice job in Inside Higher Ed of covering many of the issues people on campus are grappling with regarding program prioritizing, "weeding," and so forth:

As colleges grapple with a veritable menu of Sophie’s choices, essential questions are being raised: What kind of institution are we? What do we truly value, and what are mere luxuries accumulated in headier days? And, in at least one instance of interstate sniping in the South, do we really want to be like Arkansas?

As might be expected, there’s no single answer to these difficult questions. Perhaps more importantly, there’s no agreed-upon strategy for finding the answers. Recent program reviews at Radford University and across the state of Louisiana, for instance, have sparked controversy largely over the process and metrics used for evaluation. Those concerns are heightened in the current economic climate, where pressure to get lean fast is mounting.

Renaming the 'English Department' the "Department of Word Science"

Well, that comment was actually not in this article, it was in the . . . comments to the article. A business coalition, known as the Service Research & Innovation Initiative is campaigning to get Customer Service taught as a science. The comments are fun: "We’ve just decided to rename our English Department the Department of Word Science. The donations are already pouring in!"

How to Build a Residential College

This page presents a summary of my recommendations for the establishment of residential colleges in large universities. The main links on the page will take you to more extended discussions of each of the major topics covered: (1) membership and administrative structure, (2) buildings and grounds, (3) college life and the annual cycle, (4) pastoral care, and (5) academic life. [The last two pages are not yet available. If you would like to be notified when new sections are added please join the Collegiate Way mailing list.] A supplementary page presents (6) a brief “generative sequence” in the style of the architect Christopher Alexander—an order in which the various collegiate components can be assembled and a new residential college opened in existing buildings with only one year of advance planning.

I have written this summary as a set of telegraphic instructions: do this, don’t do that, establish this, eliminate that. Every institution is different, of course, and the reader will determine when and how these recommendations will need to be adjusted to fit local conditions. All of these recommendations are, however, based on my direct experience or on the established practices of other residential colleges, and are known to be effective. For more general information about residential colleges please visit the main Collegiate Way page.