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Copyright © 2009. Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Chen, Sheying. Academic Administration: A Quest for Better Management and Leadership in Higher Education : A Quest for Better Management and Leadership in Higher Education, Nova

Copyright © 2009. Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Chen, Sheying. Academic Administration: A Quest for Better Management and Leadership in Higher Education : A Quest for Better Management and Leadership in Higher Education, Nova

Education in a Competitive and Globalizing World Series

ACADEMIC ADMINISTRATION: A QUEST FOR BETTER MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP IN HIGHER EDUCATION

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Chen, Sheying. Academic Administration: A Quest for Better Management and Leadership in Higher Education : A Quest for Better Management and Leadership in Higher Education,

EDUCATION IN A COMPETITIVE AND GLOBALIZING WORLD SERIES Motivation in Education Desmond H. Elsworth (Editor) 2009. ISBN: 978-1-60692-234-7 The Reading Literacy of U.S. Fourth-Grade Students in an International Context Justin Baer, Stéphane Baldi, Kaylin Ayotte,Patricia J. Gree and Daniel McGrath 2009 ISBN: 978-1-60692-138-3 Teacher Qualifications and Kindergartners’ Achievements Cassandra M. Guarino, Laura S. Hamilton, J.R. Lockwood,Amy H. Rathbun and Elvira Germino Hausken 2009 ISBN: 978-1-60741-180-2

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Effects of Family Literacy Interventions on Children's Acquisition of Reading Ana Carolina Pena (Editor) 2009 ISBN: 978-1-60741-236-6 Nutrition Education and Change Beatra F. Realine (Editor) 2009. ISBN: 978-1-60692-983-4

Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America Rainer D. Ivanov 2009. ISBN: 978-1-60692-582-9 Evaluating Online Learning: Challenges and Strategies for Success Arthur T. Weston (Editor) 2009. ISBN: 978-1-60741-107-9 Learning in the Network Society and the Digitized School Rune Krumsvik (Editor) 2009. ISBN: 978-1-60741-172-7

Rural Education in the 21st Century Christine M.E. Frisiras (Editor) 2009 ISBN: 978-1-60692-966-7 IT- Based Project Change Management System Faisal Manzoor Arain 2009. ISBN: 978-1-60741-148-2 Reading: Assessment, Comprehension and Teaching Nancy H. Salas and Donna D. Peyton 2009 ISBN: 978-1-60692-615-4 Mentoring: Program Development, Relationships and Outcomes Michael I. Keel (Editor) 2009. ISBN: 978-1-60692-287-3 Enhancing Prospects of Longer-Term Sustainability of Cross-Cultural INSET Initiatives in China Chunmei Yan 2009. ISBN: 978-1-60741-615-9 Multimedia in Education and Special Education Onan Demir and Cari Celik 2009. ISBN 978-1-60741-073-7 PCK and Teaching Innovations Syh-Jong Jang 2009. ISBN: 978-1-60741-147-5 Academic Administration: A Quest for Better Management and Leadership in Higher Education Sheying Chen (Editor) 2009. ISBN: 978-1-60741-732-3

Chen, Sheying. Academic Administration: A Quest for Better Management and Leadership in Higher Education : A Quest for Better Management and Leadership in Higher Education,

Education in a Competitive and Globalizing World Series

ACADEMIC ADMINISTRATION: A QUEST FOR BETTER MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP IN HIGHER EDUCATION

SHEYING CHEN Copyright © 2009. Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated. All rights reserved.

EDITOR

Nova Science Publishers, Inc. New York

Chen, Sheying. Academic Administration: A Quest for Better Management and Leadership in Higher Education : A Quest for Better Management and Leadership in Higher Education,

Copyright © 2009 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, electrostatic, magnetic, tape, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the Publisher. For permission to use material from this book please contact us: Telephone 631-231-7269; Fax 631-231-8175 Web Site: http://www.novapublishers.com NOTICE TO THE READER The Publisher has taken reasonable care in the preparation of this book, but makes no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of information contained in this book. The Publisher shall not be liable for any special, consequential, or exemplary damages resulting, in whole or in part, from the readers’ use of, or reliance upon, this material.

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Independent verification should be sought for any data, advice or recommendations contained in this book. In addition, no responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property arising from any methods, products, instructions, ideas or otherwise contained in this publication. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered herein. It is sold with the clear understanding that the Publisher is not engaged in rendering legal or any other professional services. If legal or any other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent person should be sought. FROM A DECLARATION OF PARTICIPANTS JOINTLY ADOPTED BY A COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION AND A COMMITTEE OF PUBLISHERS. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Academic administration : a quest for better management and leadership in higher education / [edited by] Sheying Chen. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-1-61668-571-3 (E-Book) 1. Universities and colleges--Administration. I. Chen, Sheying. LB2341.A216 2009 378.1'01--dc22 2009024600

Published by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. Ô New York

Chen, Sheying. Academic Administration: A Quest for Better Management and Leadership in Higher Education : A Quest for Better Management and Leadership in Higher Education,

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CONTENTS

Preface

vii

List of Contributors

ix

Introduction:

Opportunities to Advance Higher Education Management

Chapter 1

The Pursuit of Excellence in Academic Administration Sheying Chen

Chapter 2

Higher Education Research: A Field of Study Adrift David X. Cheng

Part I:

Institutional Hierarchy and Academic Leadership

Chapter 3

Chief Executive in Academic Administration: High Expectations and Leadership Lessons Sandra R. Patterson-Randles

1 13

27

Chapter 4

Role of the Chief Academic Officer Gilbert W. Atnip

39

Chapter 5

The Associate Chief Academic Officer Kristi Lahr Pearce

53

Chapter 6

The Changing Role of the Dean in Higher Education in the UK Brian Longhurst

71

Chapter 7

Administration of Academic Units and Shared Governance Sheying Chen

83

Chapter 8

The Small and Visible Organizational Unit: A Symbolic-Interactionist Analysis of Restructuring Katherine Meyer and Timothy J. Curry

Part II:

Core Areas of Academic Affairs

Chapter 9

College Education and Student Success Sheying Chen, Donna J. Dahlgren and Xuejuan Chen

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117

vi Chapter 10

University Support of STEM Education: A Story of Competing Needs Michael A. Gealt

Chapter 11

Graduate and Professional Education Karen T. Carey and Yi Feng

Chapter 12

“Herding Cats”: Administering University Continuing Education in the UK Richard Taylor

133 143

155

Chapter 13

Challenges in Research Administration Walter F. Ryan

Part III:

Institutional Excellence and Academic Leadership

Chapter 14

Promoting Institutional Effectiveness: The Role of Institutional Research Aghajan Mohammadi

177

Assessment in the Competitive Market: Toward a Paradigmatic Shift David X. Cheng

195

Chapter 15

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Contents

165

Chapter 16

Academic Program Initiatives Honggang Yang

213

Chapter 17

Service Learning and Civic Education Cecilia L. W. Chan and Albert W. L. Chau

225

Chapter 18

Learning Resources and Library Administration Wilma L. Jones

243

Conclusion:

Reflection on Academic Administration and Leadership

Chapter 19

Meeting the Challenges of Management and Leadership Sheying Chen

261

Chapter 20

Expanding Leadership as a Discipline William M. White and Frank J. Hitt

281

Index

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299

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PREFACE Few academic administrators received systematic schooling on the administrative jobs they are assigned to do, while the institutional stakes and personal costs can be very high when things go wrong unexpectedly. In reality, academic administration is one of the most demanding jobs that require one to rise above the routines, or the “nuts and bolts” of daily work, to venture with good knowledge and understanding and to achieve highly creative and effective leadership. This book is aimed at addressing such tremendous gaps and needs as observed by many. Despite some successes, few existing guidebooks in this area are suited as masterful texts or handbooks for professional development workshops due to two major problems: lack of comprehensive coverage by any single volume, and lack of diverse viewpoints. This book overcomes the problems and combines practical wisdom with research and theoretical exploration by pooling the strengths of experts in diverse subfields. The book provides a comprehensive review of the administration of academic affairs and related areas in higher education as they pertain to a typical, threefold institutional mission of teaching, research, and service. It is a must-read for new academic administrators as well as an essential textbook for professional development workshops targeting aspiring academic administrators. It fills in a gap in required readings for higher education related majors and advanced degree programs. For the seasoned academic administrator in a senior rank, the book offers a systematic review of the big picture with sufficient depth and thoughtprovoking analysis of challenging issues to help make continued progress toward reflective practice, research undertaking, and theoretical breakthrough. The goal of the book is to be a most effective and efficient educational tool, not only to help shorten the learning curve of the new and aspiring academic administrators but also to help renew critical thinking and creative leadership in existing academic administration. The principal contributors to this volume are experienced higher education managers and executives who have gone through various kinds of professional development programs. Their diverse backgrounds and specialties ensure adequate and comprehensive coverage of the field with valuable insights into various subjects and topics, which is a unique strength to distinguish itself from other writings. Some of them belong to a select group of active pursuers of new knowledge and a higher level of understanding of higher education, with the Institutes for Higher Education at Harvard University providing an ideal forum/venue for the individual and group pursuit. For them, that was both a culminating and a starting point in their journey, with a lot to reflect on and to learn from one another. The momentum formed or reinforced at Harvard has become the motivation for them to make a contribution to the literature on academic administration as their now shared discipline or profession. The result

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Sheying Chen

is a rare intellectual product that anyone aspiring to be a more informed decision maker and an outstanding academic administrator cannot afford to miss. It is hoped that the book will help individuals and institutions alike in the quest for better management and leadership in higher education. The introductory portion of the book introduces academic administration as both a science and an art. Potential sources of useful knowledge for the advancement of academic administration are surveyed, and the artistic and humanistic nature of administrative work is explored. The study of creative and innovative leadership for higher education management in the changing higher education environment is discussed with a review of useful perspectives and analytical tools. The nature of academic administration as professional work distinct from most incumbents’ academic disciplines is indicated, followed by a critical review of higher education research in light of a fatal disconnect with the practice of academic administration. Part I examines academic leadership within a typical institutional hierarchy, from the chief executive (president or chancellor) and chief academic officer to middle management in central administration, and to various academic unit heads including the dean, the chair, and the director. Faculty leadership is included as a vital part of shared governance in academia, as well as the supportive role of administrative staff. Organizational issues including restructuring are highlighted, while basic administrative functions such as planning, budgeting, staffing, and decision-making are dealt with in various ways. Observations and reflections are provided within diverse institutional contexts. Part II of the book examines the core areas of academic affairs, including college/ undergraduate education, student success and support services, STEM initiatives, graduate and professional education, continuing education, and research administration. Part III extends the study of academic leadership in pursuit of academic excellence and institutional success. It covers such important topics as institutional research, outcomes assessment, program initiatives, learning resources and instructional support, and service learning and civic education. At the conclusion, the book reflects on academic administration and leadership competence in higher education in terms of what are usually sought in executive searches, and how to put what really count to good use to “fit in” and effect change. Implications to the general study of administration and management are discussed. With adequate coverage of the field, this text is suited for higher education related teaching (as required or optional reading), research, and professional reference (as personal handbooks and library collections). As a career guide, the book will help to prepare candidates for academic administrative job interviews and aid the aspiring academic leaders to avoid the many pitfalls awaiting the innocent/ignorant. It also informs research on academic administration with unique perspectives and insights. Target audiences for the book also include department chairs, school directors, deans, assistant or associate vice presidents, and chief academic officers. Faculty senate members and those aspiring to become academic leaders, as well as senior administrative staff, cabinet members, and chief executive officers will also find the book helpful. In addition, the book should be of interest to a wide range of readers in general administrative/managerial /leadership studies and practice. Sheying Chen, Ph.D. New Albany, IN, USA

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LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Sheying Chen is Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Professor of Sociology at Indiana University Southeast. David X. Cheng is Assistant Dean of Research and Planning in the Division of Student Affairs at Columbia University. Sandra R. Patterson-Randles is the Chancellor of Indiana University Southeast. Gilbert W. Atnip is Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Professor of Psychology at Indiana University Southeast. Kristi Lahr Pearce is Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Education at Black Hills State University. Brian Longhurst is Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Media and Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology at the University of Salford, UK. Katherine Meyer is Associate Provost for Academic Affairs and Professor of Sociology at Ohio State University. Timothy J. Curry is Associate Professor of Sociology at Ohio State University. Donna J. Dahlgren is Director of First Year Seminars at Indiana University Southeast. Xuejuan Chen is Head of Physics Education at Hunan University of Arts and Sciences, China. Michael A. Gealt is Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics and Professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Karen T. Carey is Dean of Graduate Studies and Professor of Psychology at California State University, Fresno. Yi Feng is Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Luther Lee Chair in Government at Claremont Graduate University. Richard Taylor is Director of Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning and Professor at Cambridge University, UK. Walter F. Ryan is Dean for Research at Indiana University Southeast. Aghajan Mohammadi is Director of Institutional Research and Assessment at York College, City University of New York. Honggang Yang is Dean of the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor at Nova Southeastern University. Cecilia L.W. Chan is Si Yuan Professor in Health and Social Work and former Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Hong Kong. Albert W.L. Chau is Dean of Student Affairs at the University of Hong Kong.

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Wilma L. Jones is Chief Librarian at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York. William M. White is Dean of the School of Leadership and Professional Development at Mountain State University. Frank J. Hitt is Director of Leadership Studies at Mountain State University.

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INTRODUCTION: OPPORTUNITIES TO ADVANCE HIGHER EDUCATION MANAGEMENT

Chen, Sheying. Academic Administration: A Quest for Better Management and Leadership in Higher Education : A Quest for Better Management and Leadership in Higher Education,

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In: Academic Administration: A Quest for Better Management.. ISBN 978-1-60741-732-3 Editor: Sheying Chen © 2009 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 1

THE PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE IN ACADEMIC ADMINISTRATION Sheying Chen Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, Indiana, USA

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ABSTRACT This introductory chapter begins with a personal journey in higher education and takes the pursuit of excellence in academic administration as a learning process. By recognizing administration as both an art and a science, multiple sources of knowledge as well as the creative and humanistic nature of administrative work are explored. The rationale for this book is discussed, and the need for academic administrators to actively pursue professional development and lifelong learning using an eclectic approach is highlighted.

INTRODUCTION The pursuit of excellence in academic administration is always (or firstly but not solely) a personal story for anyone interested in this topic. And the story may go a long way. A journey of more than two decades in the academia across various boundaries preceded my undertaking of this writing. Having been an academic in another country, I completed my (post)graduate studies in the United States and landed in a faculty position (again) in the mid1990s. Like most on the tenure-track, I concentrated on teaching and research, with a service record that was adequate for my rank but with little “administrative” responsibility. The situation changed in 2001 when I became chairman of my department, at an institution where chairpersons were particularly important in the administrative structure (more instrumental than the deans in tenure and promotion reviews and decisions, for example). The election of the chair was tensely contested, as well as any departmental affairs at the time, in one of the largest yet most troubled subdivisions of the institution. After a sudden resignation/retirement of my respected predecessor, who passed away a few months later with unbelievable

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lingering stress from the job, I assumed the mammoth responsibility as a newly tenured faculty member. Few had a clue how I would handle the issues that had left many feeling helpless. Subsequent changes turned out to be quite dramatic, and so positive that some of my colleagues (including the most senior faculty) called me an “administrative genius” (which I disagreed since I did rely on learned logical steps, instincts resulted from the experience of my whole life, and most importantly support from the team including my mentors). They encouraged me to consider going further into administration. After time became overdue for my sabbatical, I figured that to pursue a learning interest in academic administration by joining the ranks (somehow like the author of Street Corner Society) and actually doing it all as I believed, I could replicate my success at a higher level to significantly benefit the institution that might find my skills or talent helpful. Administrative job hunting on the outside market was by no means an easy and effortless process, which itself could be eye-opening for countless applicants who wish to move up this way. I was lucky enough to land in a position at another university, where three colleges had been combined into one with the creation of that “super dean” job. Without sufficient buy-in from the campus, emotions were running high while no one was in charge of the schools and units when I arrived, just weeks before the start of a new academic year. My prior experiences and insights were put to good use along with hard work in gathering and digesting information, meeting people and organizing teams, selecting and mentoring new leaders, and dealing with urgent course scheduling and staffing issues. The job became even more exciting after I set the schools in motion with the rebuilt teams and a new vision. The many tough challenges facing the institution required uncompromising commitment and leadership in resolving old issues and targeting fundamental and long-term needs, including recruitment of a large number of faculty, creation of unit plans for student enrollment and success, development of new academic programs, fostering community partnership and regional outreach, pursuit of quality assurance via accreditation, and building institutional capacity including instructional technology infrastructure. The changes were remarkable and results significant as they involved so many initiatives and so much team and personal effort which, according to some colleagues, would otherwise take many more years to accomplish. I took tremendous pride in my dedicated teams. And I did learn a great deal about academic administration, or “leading from the middle”. I also gained a good perspective on different institutional settings, though devoting myself to all the administrative work inexorably delayed the scholarly writing that I had desired. The end of my sabbatical/special leave was a time for fruition. With a mature team built into place, I had two choices: to return to my faculty tenure and wrap up the administrative “service learning”, or to continue the journey and further devote myself as an outstanding academic administrator. After weighing my interests and options, I chose the latter by accepting an offer to become the associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at my current campus. Unlike my previous posts, here I was not greeted with unavoidable battles with knotty issues but invaluable professional development opportunities generously offered to staff and administrators at one of the Big Ten universities. I was immediately sent to attend a systemwide, year-long fiscal officer development series, which covered many of the topics I needed to know about the challenges and rigor of becoming a qualified institutional leader: financial policies, accounting processes, chart of accounts, tax, treasury management, state budget process, budget development, administration and revenue projecting, sponsored research and

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The Pursuit of Excellence in Academic Administration

3

research administration, indirect cost recoveries, post-award contract and grant administration, foundation policies, public affairs and marketing—communicating institutional information, procurement, capital asset management, facilities organizations and operations, construction projects, technology systems and infrastructure, labor laws and university policies, payroll policies, benefits, travel management, legal issues, internal controls, ethics and risk assessment, and risk management. External development opportunities were also exceptional, including the metropolitan mayor’s leadership institute program focusing on the community, as well as rigorous training at the nation’s largest regional accreditation body (after which I became a certified evaluator-consultant for the Higher Learning Commission). Last but not least, I quickly learned from my new colleagues a different way of life in terms of work under a known local culture of modesty. People (at least those I’ve worked with) would appear low-key and relaxed (thanks to a preferred or prevailing mode of cooperation over confrontation), but they could get things done without too much distraction or sacrifice of personal life outside the normal work schedule. It took the sensitivity and some personality traits of my own to quickly get acquainted and become an integral part of an amicable team and meet the demands of the work that was cut out for me. Allowed to concentrate more on “thinking big” and taking initiatives, I was able to show measurable results in areas that needed major improvements. My colleagues soon believed that I had good potential and would like to help realize it. I was fortunate to learn and study while sharing the responsibility and working as a team in the campus central office, which has been more than “shadowing” top leaders as superb mentors. This helped me to gain a more comprehensive view of academic administration and leadership (lucky to not only find myself able to learn but also the institution is made a learning organization by such gifted leadership). This book is written with a desire to share what has been learned from real journeys in academic administration by individuals like me. An immediate (maybe selfish) reason could be a feeling that it’s time to systematically and critically summarize our own experiential learning, research, and reading to be truly ready for a “quantum leap” in academic leadership. However, such material, especially a much more powerful, collective product, should be useful for a wide range of interested readers, including students majoring in higher education and in other substantive fields of administrative studies.

LEARNING ADMINISTRATIVE KNOWLEDGE Administration is both an art and a science (Lepawsky, 1949). As art, it entails creativity; the administrator, like the artist, has to be a creative person, or “a person whose creative work shows sensitivity and imagination” (Cognitive Science Laboratory, 2006). As science, administration may be studied or learned like “systematized knowledge” (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2009), which emphasizes logical and analytical thought. Creativity and knowledge are related but different. Knowledge is typically obtained through research and education, while some scholars believe that the conventional system of schooling may “stifle” creativity (Robinson, 2001). While the main interest of this book is in the administration of academic affairs, academic administration often refers to the administration of entire academic institutions

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(e.g., schools, colleges, and universities), including the responsibilities of all administrative units. The system of knowledge and learning usually falls under the rubric of educational administration (and leadership, sometimes). There are programs specializing in higher education administration, designed for those students who wish to enter administrative roles in colleges and universities. Administrators of academic affairs, however, normally not only have advanced degrees but also are established scholars in disciplines other than higher education administration. With some exceptions (e.g., those who have taught and/or researched higher education as their discipline), a degree in higher education administration is not a required or even preferred qualification for the administration of academic affairs, at least at four-year colleges and research universities. This seems quite ironic; the next chapter will provide a critical analysis of the situation in terms of both achievements and problems facing higher education administration as a discipline. The seeming issue of relevance to the administration of academic affairs, however, does not devalue or dismiss the importance of a related knowledge system. Administrators’ not seeking or using such knowledge (Keller, 1985) is not necessarily the fault of those who created it. Academics (including those already in administration) sometimes misunderstand the nature of administrative work; some thought anyone could do it without special learning. When faculty suffer from perceived administrative missteps or faults (even just a lack of professionalism at a higher level), some tend to blame it on misfortune with the administration as a given rather than considering the issues as a need for professional development. For the administrators, some may not realize that either until they get into some serious troubles. In real terms, entering academic administration is like gaining entry into a new profession (no matter how long one intends to stay), where a special set of skills, knowledge, and values as well as a code of ethics are among the basics for success. In pursuit of excellence in academic administration, academics-turned-administrators may discover the specialized knowledge to be exactly what is needed to help them successfully make the transition into major administrative roles. On the other hand, since higher education administration as a discipline is not developed specifically for the needs of academic affairs, those narrowly conceived “academic administrators” may also turn to other fields of administrative studies for help to build the knowledge base of their new area of expertise. Schools of business and public administration have led administrative studies with different emphases, including the administration of nonprofit organizations and social enterprises that are also shared interests of schools of social administration and services. A survey of the “state of the art” in some of those domains would help us to clarify our direction with a roadmap and, hopefully, lead to an eclectic, dialectic, and effective approach to related scholarship to help guide our practice.

HIGHER EDUCATION ADMINISTRATION The first real-world case with high relevance identified in a random search is the Higher Education Administration and Policy Curriculum offered by the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. This Master’s Degree Program has the following objectives (see http://www.sesp.northwestern.edu/higher/curriculum/, last updated October 18, 2008): “While in the program, students learn to accomplish the following:

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1. Conceptualize higher education from a perspective rich in theoretical depth and grounded in active professional practice, including an understanding of the system of higher education and the values, policies and practices that inform its operation 2. Develop an understanding of the institutional context of professional practice and the intricate relationships among various contextual issues 3. Develop research skills for analyzing the problems, threats and opportunities that coexist within and around higher education institutions and the capacity to translate the results of analysis to purposeful action 4. Develop skills for engaging in productive dialogue and negotiation with multiple stakeholders 5. Appreciate the importance of ongoing study related to their professional life and master the conceptual framework and skills necessary to engage in such study”. In terms of course requirements, each track toward the master’s degree requires 15 units of credit, including core courses and electives, a master’s project and an internship field experience of at least one quarter (which may be waived if students have had significant work experience in a higher education setting). Core requirements include courses on social contexts of education, history and philosophy of higher education, higher education policy, law and ethics, budgeting and finance, higher education administration seminar, college student development, learning and teaching in higher and professional education, and research and analysis in teaching and learning. The 15 total courses required for the MSEd degree include two electives such as the following sample courses: the politics of public policy, economics of state and local governments, social opportunity and educational policy, sociology of organizations, group and organizational dynamics, management in nonprofit organizations, strategic change, education and the changing workplace, career psychology, knowledge management, learning and performance, adolescent development, early child and adolescent development, sport in the social context: core issues in sports administration, special topics in higher education, techniques and problems in survey research measurement, and statistics (ibid.). In terms of careers, “The Higher Education Administration and Policy Program’s broad scope distinguishes it from programs that focus solely on preparing students for careers in student personnel” (http://www.sesp.northwestern.edu/higher/careers/, last updated October 1, 2008). Placement data from 2002-2008 show that the program’s alumni were found in student affairs (29%), academic programming (22%), financial administration (13%), admissions (12%), development and change management (5%), non-academic organizations (12%), and further graduate education (7%). There were also cases working in institutional research, government and community relations, alumni relations and athletics administration (ibid.). It is evident that Northwestern’s approach has led to desired outcome, especially in terms of an impressive percentage of Higher Education Administration and Policy alumni in academic programming. This case thus demonstrates the discipline/profession’s possible contribution to the administration of academic affairs at junior levels (in staff positions). Since department chairs, middle managers, and senior executives/administrators in academic affairs are usually recruited from faculty, we need to examine a more advanced curriculum leading to terminal degrees that would meet the requirement for faculty tenure. The case identified in another random search is the Ed.D. Program in Higher Education Administration at the University of Massachusetts at Boston (UMass Boston), which houses

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the New England Resource Center for Higher Education. The doctoral curriculum covers social and historical foundations of education, public policy, organizational theory, governance and leadership, institutional strategy, finance and management, teaching and learning, diversity, and higher education access and equity. According to the program description, its students are full-time working professionals in higher education, and occupy roles in student affairs, academic affairs, enrollment management, financial aid, institutional research, human resources, and other administrative areas. “Faculty members, department chairs, and academic program directors have also entered the program to develop organizational leadership skills and perspectives” (http://www.umb.edu/academics/ departments/gce/programs/education/HigherEducationDoctoralProgram.html, accessed January 1, 2009). This speaks positively about the recognized value of the program to the administration of academic affairs, even though no specific numbers for the above categories were provided. Interested readers may further check out institutions with top-rated programs in higher education administration, such as the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, UCLA, Michigan State University at East Lansing, USC, University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State University at University Park, University of Maryland at College Park, University of Georgia-Athens, Harvard University, Vanderbilt University, and Indiana University Bloomington. Research on American college and university presidents done in the past few decades quantitatively showed their personal characteristics and career preparation. Ross, Green and Henderson (1993) provided comprehensive data profiling the chief executive officers of higher education institutions in the United States who were in office between 1986 (sample size 2,638) and 1990 (sample size 2,423). In addition to some interesting characteristics of the typical U.S. college or university president in 1990 (white, male, 54 years old, and married, which was nearly the same as in 1986), most presidents earned a doctorate, had taught full time, and had served previously as presidents or chief academic officers. It is notable that 43% of the presidents in 1990 had received their terminal degrees in the field of education, 17% in the humanities, 11% in social sciences, and only small percentages in other fields. However, most of the education degree holders worked at public two-year institutions, while only 11% at independent doctoral granting institutions (ibid.). The most recent study was conducted in 2006 and included data on 2,148 American college and university presidents. Highlights of the findings include (American Council on Education, 2007): The percentage of presidents who were women more than doubled, from 10% in 1986 to 23% of the total in 2006; the proportion of presidents who were racial or ethnic minorities increased from 8% in 1986 to 14% in 2006; and the average age of presidents increased from 52 years in 1986 to 60 years in 2006. Most notably, 31% of presidents served as provost or chief academic officer prior to becoming president, up from 23% in 1986 and making this a more typical route to the presidency. Since similar data were not made available for other academic administrators, the above information provides useful suggestion on the preparation for the most successful administrative career in academic settings, including the notable contribution of educational administration as a discipline and the significance of administrative experience in academic affairs.

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OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE/MANAGERIAL STUDIES Other branches of administrative and managerial studies are also valuable sources of knowledge with both obvious and potential contributions to higher education. In fact, administration or management is a common aspect for all modern bureaucracies. Although government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and business enterprises have different natures and features, they require certain shared knowledge (e.g., sociology, psychology, political science, economics, philosophy, and law) and understanding of fundamental administrative and managerial processes (e.g., organizational theory and decision-making models) (Bolman and Deal, 2008). The following are two major examples. Public administration studies government and is sometimes referred to as government management. Increasingly, it also studies non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with a primary purpose to contribute to public good (e.g., nonprofit organizations). Since education (both public and private) has a public purpose and has much to do with public funding, it has an important place in this branch of administrative and managerial studies. Particularly, administrators in state colleges and universities can benefit significantly from the knowledge of public administration. Take a look at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, which has one of the most regarded programs in public administration. A lot of the courses it offers in public administration are of potential interest to academic administrators, such as managerial leadership, ethics, public organizations and management, non-profit management and governance, policy analysis, political economy of policy reform, information management, financial management, public budgeting, managerial economics, human resources management, mediation and conflict resolution, environment and resource, science and technology, education, healthcare, international public and NGO management, program evaluation, and research methods (see http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/pa/, last updated November 21, 2008). Business administration as a course of studies offers instruction in general business principles and practices, particularly with regard to enterprises, markets, and the global economy. Since nonprofit organizations including higher education institutions involve similar business processes and activities (as shown by the publication of University Business: The Magazine for College and University Administrators), the knowledge of business administration is relevant and helpful to academic administrators in both public and private sectors. It is especially important to the management of an increasing number of for-profit colleges and universities. Take a look at one of the most established business schools, i.e., the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (the oldest of its kind). Its core curriculum covers leadership essentials, analytical foundations, and core business fundamentals (http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/mba/academics/curriculum/ core.cfm, retrieved January 11, 2009). Leadership essentials consist of course work on ethics and responsibility, foundations of leadership and teamwork, the governmental and legal environment of business, management communication, and management of people at work. Analytical foundations include decision models and uncertainty, managerial economics, and statistical analysis for management. Core business fundamentals contain several course sequences: strategy (competitive strategy, and global strategic management), finance (financial analysis, and macroeconomic analysis and public policy), accounting (financial accounting, and fundamentals of managerial accounting), operations (management of quality and productivity,

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and supply chain management), and marketing (marketing management strategy, and program design). For those interested in the differences between business and public administration, which also help to define the disciplines themselves, the following offer a few hints. Business administration is primarily concerned with profit, while public administration seeks to improve effectiveness and efficiency for equality, justice, and security. Public administration as a relatively new field of study was created out of a desire for a more “businesslike” operation of public officials’ daily activities separate from politics. Therefore, business administration is about business although applicable to public management to a certain extent. Public administration specializes in the latter, incorporating but not limited to applicable business administration knowledge. Both are now emphasizing ethical and social criteria, though the former traditionally have considered those secondary to that of profit. From one perspective, management is considered more technical and less strategic, and thus distinct from executive work. From other perspectives, management is a more businessdriven concept than administration, while administration may also refer to the performance of mundane, reactive rather than proactive office tasks. However, all share a basic foundation across the subfields, ranging from business and government to education and other aspects of social life. They are all concerned with goal-oriented organizations, for-profit or not-forprofit, governmental or nongovernmental. There are a common set of functions to meet the organization’s goals, including planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling. Administrative and managerial studies across the curricula provide diverse perspectives and analytical tools based on certain shared principles. Academic administrators as lifelong learners need to be aware of their particular learning needs, so they may actively pursue professional development opportunities offered by those various disciplines. For continuing education providers, an important task is to design an interdisciplinary and innovative curriculum that matches the existing knowledge structures and further study needs of individual academic administrators, new and experienced. This includes the consideration of each participant’s disciplinary background in order to play to his or her strengths while addressing his or her deficiencies in administrative preparation.

MASTERING ADMINISTRATIVE ART While expertise from various disciplines involved with administrative/managerial studies helps to build a powerful knowledge base for academic administration, it is still insufficient for the preparation for an excellent job in the new “profession”. One can hardly be prepared for regional and specialized accreditation, for instance, without learning on the job and attending special workshops offered by various accrediting bodies. In other words, there are still other sources of additional and in-depth knowledge beyond the curricula regularly provided by those academic disciplines. Also, the quality of administrative work does not necessarily (or directly) correspond to the amount of administrative knowledge beyond certain essentials; how to put the knowledge to good use is a question that should also be asked. Since people join academic administration, particularly the administration of academic affairs, with diverse disciplinary backgrounds, their professional development needs are also diverse. Aspiring administrators with a science or engineering background my find

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administrative knowledge particularly eye-opening, while social and behavioral scientists may find imagination and creativity a valuable asset in themselves. Humanists, on the other hand, may benefit tremendously from both substantive and methodological knowledge of social, behavioral, and scientific research channeled through administrative studies. Finally, the winner of an advanced position in academic affairs administration typically has a life experience that tends to be helpful, a work history that is usually rich, a disciplinary training that reaches a high bar, and a personality or disposition that has some virtue. Effective professional development should be able to utilize the relative strengths of each aspiring academic administrator in all these aspects and help him or her to foster an ability to deal with administrative issues with a masterful understanding, drawing on all those good things as resources. No one can exhaust administrative knowledge and be perfectly prepared for administrative work; yet one may excel and still produce extraordinary results with that imperfection. In practicing social and behavioral sciences with organizations and people where the “cutting edge” of knowledge is hardly simple, an artistic application of what is already known with sensitivity and imagination (including analogical and appropriate use of science and engineering knowledge) can make all the difference. That is why creativity and innovation are essential to success based on necessary knowledge about the educational institution as a human and social organization. Creativity and innovation are at the base of problem solving (Parnes, 1992) and have much to do with what we call leadership. Expecting an academic administrator to be like an artist, however, may be even harder than requiring everyone to be an applied social and behavioral scientist. There is a question as to whether creativity is learned or innate. The good news is that it is generally accepted that nurture plays an important part in fostering creativity, although nature such as gene also has a role in it (Andreasen, 2005). However, as indicated earlier, our conventional system of schooling is not always conducive to the development of creativity. An even tougher question is how to effectively develop creativity in highly educated but often overloaded (and thus less plastic) minds of adult academic administrators. There are many kinds of professional development workshops focusing on creativity; some are more general while others are more specific in using such creative work as art/drawing, creative writing, storytelling, and personal memoir. Whether those techniques as applied to academic administrators are effective or not is unknown, since a search of the literature has failed to find a conclusion based on reliable and valid data. This, however, does not mean that creativity is something that cannot be achieved or increased at this relatively late stage of our career. It may just require a lot more individual effort than merely attending some prescribed workshops. First, as many experts have advised, knowledge and information are both at the base of creativity (Knowledge Master Corporation, 2007). Without painstaking effort learning and exploring a particular subject, it is unrealistic to expect that innovation will happen in that area with a good chance. Learning and innovation, however, are intertwined, and one cannot wait until all learning is completed (which is impossible) before any innovation takes place. Second, creativity and innovation entail risk-taking (Byrd and Brown, 2002). Creative thinking must take pace beyond the known limits (out-of-the-box), running away from conventional ideas (Knowledge Master Corporation, 2007). In this regard, creativity is both a personal commitment and the result of a supportive organizational culture that allows mistakes. The individual and the organization, of course, need to manage the risks by forming a good and balanced approach to risk-taking.

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Third, brainstorming is a key to the creative process, and a number of useful techniques are recommended (e.g., divergent or convergent thinking, ideal solution from imagination, and multiple alternatives). Association of ideas, or the construction of new relations between concepts or events that seemed unconnected before, analogical thinking, and critical thinking (questioning assumptions) are a few other examples. Less structured intuitive techniques are also useful for hard-to-define problems or situations. There are also very specific suggestions, including taking a nap with a notebook handy for the refreshing moment to spark new ideas. Weddle (2009) suggests that human intelligence is flexible since we can do with it as we will, and it’s that diversity in the way we use our know-how that defines our “humaniqueness”. But why do people give up their “humaniqueness” and do not make better, broader, more unconstrained use of their talent on the job? He sees some organizational rules, group reaction, and personal fear as potential problems. People have to realize that they can (or should) contribute their special talent as broadly as they can, although doing more than what’s asked for can be hazardous to their career and they will have to work harder, smarter or both. However, Weddle believes adopting that course of action will empower one to realize one’s best self on-the-job. “It will take you beyond the organization’s definition of your talent to one you create on your own” (ibid.). This is very enlightening for administrators in academic affairs who are expected to be both followers and leaders. As leaders of the creative process, academic administrators should help to build trust as well as a stimulating environment, maintain communication, tolerate ambiguity, encourage participation and collaboration, find excitement but delay gratification, focus on objectives and reward creative ideas, allow sensible risks and mistakes, and guide experiments with new ideas. Here academic administrators’ ability to effect positive and long-lasting change is crucial for organizational innovation and institutional success (Kegan and Lahey, 2002). Moreover, academic administrators should not only be artistic (or creative) but also be broadly humanistic. A passion and a thorough understanding of human conditions will make it easier to connect with people’s gut feelings. Particularly, administration always functions on a certain value basis, which is not just a matter of ethics. An academic administrator needs to make sure that his or her administrative philosophy and leadership style is compatible with the institutional mission, culture, and need for change. To establish an appropriate leadership style with an administrative philosophy and be able to articulate them well, however, can be a real challenge, which should also be part of one’s pursuit of excellence in academic administration.

CONCLUSION Few faculty and administrators have had the opportunity to systematically study higher education as their own profession. Graduate teaching and research assistantships as well as faculty development opportunities have now become a priority in many institutions to help prospective and existing professors to excel in instruction and research. Yet, few of them have received training on university services, not to mention learning and practicing academic administration. There are now countless publications and workshops available, though not all faculty and administrators have had the luxury to spend a lot of time and other resources for this type of development. A concise guidebook would be a good starting point to help faculty

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going into administration and academic administrators moving into greater leadership roles. Such a book may integrate practice wisdom with research and theory but with no nonsense. It should be thorough, comprehensive, yet simple. In view of an aging trend in this country, the book should help rejuvenate our leadership by offering assistance to the newcomers in academic administration. Therefore, I invited a team of outstanding colleagues to supply such an essential reading for the development and success of aspiring academic administrators. It follows the normal, actual path of an academic leader building on academic credentials and making use of relevant work experience and life skills. It examines the faculty-administration interface as well as middle management at the decanal level. Central academic affairs administration is further analyzed. An expanding individual view from a reflective practitioner is displayed, and the institutional context is reflected. Taken as a whole, the book is based on numerous years of participant observation, as well as the use of other methods, drawing on existing literature and a heuristic paradigm of inquiry, to make a special contribution from an interdisciplinary perspective. Since the vast majority of higher education research literature has not been considered very useful by its critics (Kezar and Eckel, 2000), the approach taken by this volume with contributions from experienced, reflective academic administrators as active learners should set a good example and prove very helpful. Higher education is facing unprecedented challenges in a rapidly changing environment, with increasing scrutiny and demand from its constituencies and regulating bodies. Academic administration is no less demanding than public and business administration, for which administrative expertise has become highly valuable. Under the notion and the ideal of shared governance, a certain type of separate administrative structure exists at almost all academic institutions, and full-time academic administrators are fully charged even though some of them may have joint responsibilities or strive to keep up some teaching or research activity. It may be time to think more seriously about building professional standards for academic administrators, particularly for academic affairs including faculty leaders concerned with faculty governance. Although professionalization does not necessarily mean competent leadership, it does send out the message that administration matters in academic affairs. In that sense, the pursuit of excellence in academic administration not only has personal value but also has institutional significance. This chapter has considered academic administration as both an art and a science by illuminating potential sources of administrative knowledge and ways to develop creativity as administrative art. In Chapter 8, we shall further consider a value base and the skill sets for academic administration as a profession (or as part of the administrative profession). To make good use of the resources and approaches, however, academic administrators must be keenly aware of their learning needs in order to do a good professional job. An eclectic approach to the available scholarship can be very helpful to integrate the gains from diverse learning and guide academic administration with best practices. The ideal academic administrator should also be broadly humanistic, hard-working, experienced, and have a good brain. The next chapter will provide a critical review of higher education research in relation to the needs of academic administration and its advancement. It will help us to gain more general understanding with further exploration before a team of real academic administrators as reflective practitioners share their study and understanding of various subfields.

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REFERENCES American Council on Education (2007). The American College President. American Council on Education, Washington, DC. Andreasen, N. C. (2005). The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius. Washington, DC: Dana Press. Bolman, L. G., and Deal, T. E. (2008). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers. Byrd, J., and Brown, P. L. (2002). The Innovation Equation: Building Creativity and RiskTaking in Your Organization (The Practicing Organization Development Series). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer. Cognitive Science Laboratory (2006). Artist. Retrieved January 7, 2009 from Wordnet by Princeton University http://wordnet.princeton.edu. Kegan, R., and Lahey, L. L. (2002). How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work: Seven Languages for Transformation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers. Keller, G. (1985). Trees without fruit: The problem with research about higher education. Change, 17(1):7-10. Kezar, A., and Echel, P. (2000). Editor’s Notes. Moving Beyond the Gap between Research and Practice in Higher Education (New Direction for Higher Education No. 110). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Knowledge Master Corporation (2007). Knowledge Management, Creativity and Innovation. Retrieved January 11, 2009 from http://www.knowledgemanager.us/KM-Creativityeng.htm. Lepawsky, A.(1949). Administration: The Art and Science of Organization and Management. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (2009). Science. Retrieved January 7, 2009 from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/science. Parnes, S. J. (ed.). (1992). Source Book for Creative Problem Solving. Buffalo, New York: Creative Education Foundation Press. Robinson, K. (2001). Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative. Mankato, MN: Capstone. Ross, M., Green, M. F., and Henderson, C. (1993). The American College President: A 1993 Edition. American Council on Education, Washington, D.C. ERIC #: ED363171. Weddle, P. (2009). What gives you the edge? HigherEdJobs.com, email issue January 14.

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In: Academic Administration: A Quest for Better Management.. ISBN 978-1-60741-732-3 Editor: Sheying Chen © 2009 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 2

HIGHER EDUCATION RESEARCH: A FIELD OF STUDY ADRIFT David X. Cheng Columbia University, New York, New York, USA

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ABSTRACT This chapter provides a critical review of higher education research as a field of study or a discipline. It raises some important issues regarding its status, tracks their origins, examines diagnosis (and misdiagnosis) of the problem, points out a methodological crisis (and a related confidence crisis), and suggests a solution by emphasizing knowledge accumulation in the discipline and achieving a balance between theory and practice. A potentially critical role of higher education researchers is indicated by highlighting the benefits of collaboration between theorists, policy analysts, and institutional researchers.

INTRODUCTION There was a time, not so long ago, when a widespread saying claimed that university professors conduct research about everything except the university. Changes have been dramatic over the past four decades, with higher education research (HER) maturing toward a field of study. Given the clear need for scholarship to increase the newly established knowledge base and to provide guidance for practice, HER scholars have been engaged in immense research on a variety of higher education practices, while exploring suitable philosophical frameworks and methodological approaches to research at the same time. The road leading to the establishment of HER as a field of scholarly inquiry has not been smooth. Higher education scholarship has constantly become the target of criticisms not only from practitioners and policymakers but also within the academe. A national study shows that higher education literature “is not as significant or useful as it could or should be” (Kezar, 2000, p. 10). As a matter of fact, “98 percent of the articles and books in higher education are useful only to those who write them” (Kezar and Eckel, 2000, p.1). George Keller claimed

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that “college and university presidents do not consult the literature or use it. ...If the research in higher education ended, it would scarcely be missed” (Keller, 1985, p. 7). Despite four decades of intensive exploration by theorists, policy analysts, and institutional researchers, HER continues to bear complaints about its low utility and low esteem in the academic community.

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ORIGINS OF THE PROBLEM To question the value of HER as a field of study, one has to ask how higher education became a subject of research in the first place. The irony is, the academians who now complain about their peers’s work in the field of HER are the same people who have made HER indispensable in the academe. A brief review of higher education history in the United States shows that the early colleges were mostly based on the Oxbridge model, with tutors living in residential colleges with the students. In those days, college faculty took care of student affairs, academic advising, residential life, psychological counseling, institutional research, and many other jobs that are nowadays part of higher education administration. Had faculty continued to do these jobs while engaging in teaching and research, there would have not been any need for higher education administration to become a profession, nor much of the need for research in higher education. With the introduction of the German model of research university, research and scholarship have become the ultimate measures of faculty success as well as academic prestige of a university. In addition, the expansion of higher education has made classes in most institutions bigger and bigger, with more and more classes taught by graduate teaching assistants (TAs). These two factors have contributed to faculty’s decreasing contacts with students in and outside classrooms, let alone having them handle such administrative matters as student advising and residential life on the regular basis. Consequently, the professionalization of administrative functions in colleges and universities became inevitable, along with the research on how to run today’s “multiversity.” Moreover, the division of labor among various college administrative functions has further reinforced the need for specialized knowledge and guidance on how to develop effective education policies and good practices of higher education administration. The early development of HER as a field of study in the U.S. went through two stages. Stage one. The rise of HER coincided with the rapid expansion of higher education in terms of enrollment and number of institutions in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s. The first HER scholars were the ones from “the other disciplines who occasionally focus their research on higher education or those who have migrated from other field to higher education” (Peterson, 1986, p. 144). Meanwhile, many scholars who were respected in their own disciplines and played administrative or leadership roles in academe also joined the force and became active in research into higher education. While early HER scholars studied higher education to address emerging issues in the expansion of higher education system in the U.S., they could also easily hop back to the disciplinary areas where they had been trained. “This was clearly an era in which higher education faculty were well known to the presidents on their own campuses ..., and higher

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education executive officers were interested in the emerging scholarship that helped them understand their students and manage or govern their growing institutions” (Peterson, 2000, p. 25). Therefore, the appropriate balance between research and practical application of research was not a problem for the first generation of HER scholars. The diversity of academic backgrounds of first HER scholars had significant impact on the later development of research in the field. Given their academic training, the first HER scholars did not seem to worry too much about building theoretical bases for their research, since they could easily borrow theories from their “home” disciplines and apply directly to the policy issues and other education phenomena that they were studying. For example, psychological models were used to study college student development, sociological theories were behind many organizational studies on higher education administration, and anthropological methods were applied to studies on faculty teaching and student learning experiences. What is worth noting is the fact that, while researchers in many other fields strive to become interdisciplinary, for the sake of survival or breakthrough, HER has been interdisciplinary from day one. Stage Two. The period between the mid-1970s and early 1990s witnessed the rapid development of higher education as a field of study. New higher education degree programs emerged and expanded following the initial success of research in this area by the early generation of HER scholars. With the number of graduate programs increasing, experts to staff these academic programs were in high demand. Peterson (2000, p. 25) calls it “the cloning process,” which began immediately after graduates of HER doctoral programs were hired as faculty of higher education departments in many universities. For the growing community of higher education faculty, whose academic training becomes more and more concentrated in the field of higher education, there are no longer “home” disciplines for them to go back to, neither can they easily turn their back on practitioners who constantly call for a closer tie between HER and immediate practical concerns. As a HER scholar, life would be quite simple if he/she could focus on examining practical issues in policymaking and administration and aim at solving these problems. But the socialization force and academic culture on campus push HER scholars, especially the faculty in HER departments, toward the direction that emphasizes narrow disciplinary expertise filled with professional jargons. Here the outcomes of the “cloning” became intriguing. On one hand, the strong interdisciplinary tradition has continued in today’s HER, with many “good genes” of first generation researchers passed to the new generations. For instance, most HER scholars are sensitive to real practices, they are always ready to apply theories to practical situations, and they are extremely good at quickly adapting research tools from other disciplines to HER. On the other hand, today’s higher education researchers have also inherited not-so-great “genes” from the previous generation. For instance, the older generation did not bother to establish any solid theoretical bases for their research, thinking that they could always borrow theories and methodological tools from other disciplines liberally. This attitude and tradition seem to have continued, resulting in lack of coherent theoretical and methodological frameworks and fragmentation in HER scholarship (see Teichler, 2000, p.4). By the 1990s, HER as a field of study was well established, but with the professionalization of HER also came the process of isolation (Peterson, 2000, p. 25). HER scholars are not only less visible in other disciplines but also largely absent from professional administrative associations, where they were formerly active. In other words, HER as it

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stands today is no longer in line with the “practice of the profession,” at least not in the same way as it was when HER first started as a field of study four decades ago. This brief historical review should serve to confirm at least three important points: (1) Higher education administration as a profession is here to stay as an indispensable part of modern “multiversity;” so is research on and for the profession; (2) HER has become too important to be left unattended or to amateurs whose “real” disciplines are something other than higher education; and (3) despite the importance of HER, scholars in the field are not heading in the direction where their work will be valued by the practitioners and their expertise respected by their peers in the academe.

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DIAGNOSIS (AND MISDIAGNOSIS) OF THE PROBLEM Sensing the problems in higher education research, many have rushed to offer diagnoses. Intuitively, since higher education administration was the reason why higher education research had existed, it is quite tempting to make the latter serve immediate needs of the former. That is, “[k]ey actors in higher education often wish researcher to be closely tied to immediate practical concerns” (Teichler and Sadlak, 2000, p. xi). When falling short of meeting such a mandate, HER has become what George Keller (1985) called “trees without fruit,” a well-known metaphor depicting the impact of higher education scholarship to practice. Since then, the alleged gap between research and practice has become the final diagnosis of various problematic symptoms related to HER. Many HER scholars are convinced that the only way to make their work “matters” is to address the immediate needs of higher education administration and policymaking. Patrick T. Terenzini, a distinguished professor of higher education, expressed the view that the field is “not a discipline” but more a “professional area of study” that should focus on the “practice of the profession,” not theories about it (Lederman, 2008). While such a pragmatic approach has led to some high profile research that has resulted in important policy changes, most HER scholars do not really have the opportunities to engage in research at that level. On the contrary, when chasing the constantly changing scenes in higher education, they often encounter unexpected difficulties. For instance, driven to address real-world administrative and policy issues, HER scholars actually find themselves always running behind emerging issues in higher education. Using policy analysis as an example, Birnbaum (2000, p. 121) asks: “How can scholars focus on policy-relevant research if there is no way of predicting what future policy needs may be?” Those who argue for a certain level of detachment of research from practice consider knowledge creation a higher priority for the development and maturation of any academic field. “Scholars weigh the evidence, are sensitive to nuance, considers things first on one hand and then on the other, and view their conclusions as tentative and conditional ... [they] try to create knowledge that can be used in an infinite future” (Birnbaum, 2000, p. 125). Though not immediately applicable in daily operations and policymaking, this process of knowledge accumulation will lay the necessary foundation for young social science fields like HER, helping HER faculty gain legitimacy among the community of scholars. To a large extent, the relevance of research to policy and practice is a mixed blessing for the HER community. On one hand, relevance to practice was among the drivers of rapid

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development of HER from a collection of empirically based studies into a comprehensive scholarly field in four short decades. On the other hand, HER scholars seem to have become victims of their own success. The more their research agenda coincided with the needs of policymakers and administrators, and the more it aimed at addressing critical issues in higher education administration, the less likely it would be recognized in the academic circle as a discipline with sound theoretical and methodological framework. Moreover, as pointed out by Teichler (2000), “research on higher education suffers from the fact that the opinions of practitioners and politicians in this domain are brought out as if they were academic publications” (p. 9). As a result, studies addressing fundamental higher education issues at the macro, theoretical level are rare, if not completely absent. As such, the knowledge base for HER has become somewhat fragmented, to say the least. But given the academic culture, the only way for young HER scholars to achieve professional status and, at the pragmatic level, to obtain tenure is to become “certified members of the profession [who] have developed expertise in a body of knowledge” (Colbeck, 2000, p. 35). Since the reward system for HER professors, particularly those pre-tenure, is structured to reward only works published in a scholarly book or journal (Lederman, 2008), researchers are compelled to carve out their own unique, often narrow research territories.

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METHODOLOGICAL CRISIS Because the first generation of HER scholars was mostly authorities in their own field, they were rarely challenged when applying research methods of their “home” discipline to address higher education issues. Such methodological exemption no longer applies to the new generations of scholars whose “home” discipline is higher education. Compared to their European counterparts, HER scholars in the U.S. conduct most of their research activities following the interests of funding agencies (Maassen, 2000, p. 63), and this pattern includes institutional researchers who follow campus administrators and policy analysts, government and legislative leaders. This decentralized, mostly issue-oriented research agenda makes it very difficult for HER scholars to develop their own methodological framework and/or convention. Consequently, researchers take the “learn as you go” approach when it comes to research design: “the research question matters; the research design has to follow the question” (Shavelson and Towne, 2003). This explains the multiplicity of research methods in HER scholarship, which is also the reason why HER scholars are so vulnerable and even defenseless when attacked by their peers from other disciplines for lacking methodological coherence. The methodological vulnerability in HER does not seem to worry practitioners; they use research, but they “cannot be, and should not be, rational analysts who rely solely on intellectual arguments and data to make decisions” (Birnbaum, 2000, p. 125). HER scholarship is only one of the sources on which they base their policy and administrative decisions. But HER scholars, especially HER faculty, cannot afford to be so defenseless when faced by the academic community. To establish themselves in this young field of study, HER scholars, like their peers in other social sciences, have to build their scholarship on a solid “scientific foundation.” Therefore, they have shown a clear preference for quantitative

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studies, which mimics the scientific research. This tendency was further reinforced and encouraged by the National Research Council’s (NRC) Committee on Scientific Principles for Education Research, whose report, Scientific Research in Education (Shavelson and Towne, 2002), clearly indicates that the federal government would “legislate valid research as ‘scientific’ in increasingly narrow and normative ways, as evidenced by the NRC’s emphasis on experimental research” (Kezai and Talburt, 2004, p. 2). The purpose of conducting experimental research in higher education, as in any other social science research, is to identify causal effects, so that the conclusions derived from one study can be generalized to other settings and circumstances. Randomization allows the assignment of experimental units randomly across the treatment and control groups. This arrangement makes it possible to compares a new educational program, a new teaching method, or any other experimental treatment against a non-experimental group as a control. Armed with the results from studies of experimental design, researchers can conclude with a higher level of confidence about the degree of effectiveness of new treatment. As to policymakers and administrators, they will certainly welcome studies that are deemed “scientific” and can be used as the basis for making policies and administrative decisions. Unfortunately, randomization in most higher education research situations is difficult to achieve. For example, if a university funds and implements a new initiative to establish a living learning community, the causal effects of the initiative will be extremely difficult to establish through an evaluation study using experimental design. Administrators simply do not have the power, neither the will, to manipulate students such that random trials can be conducted. Without random assignment, how can researchers identify the effects of living learning community on student development while many other factors may also compound to produce certain results? Therefore, the HER community often faces a paradoxical situation: faculty researchers are savvy on experimental design and other “scientific” methods, but they do not always have the luxury of gathering data the way their experiments require; institutional researchers and policy analysts, on the other hand, normally have access to a large amount of data, but they simply do not have time to conduct experimental research. Taking their issue-focused studies to a theoretical level is just not part of their job descriptions. In addition, most “real-life” data are not collected in the randomized manner anyway.

FROM METHODOLOGICAL CRISIS TO CONFIDENCE CRISIS It is worth noting that the National Research Council’s committee was a federally funded working group, and their stance on experimental research reflects the federal government’s view on the state of education research, especially the way research is being done. It is true that HER scholars are not singled out for their methodological vulnerability; the entire area of education research has been placed under the microscope. But HER scholars have every reason to be alarmed, because theirs is the youngest field of study in education research with the most fragile methodological foundation. The problem is: why does the federal government want to meddle with such seemingly trivial issues as research methodology in education? The NRC probe into research methodology in education sends a very clear signal to the education research community,

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including HER scholars, that the government, along with policymakers and administrators in higher education, has lost the confidence in, and maybe patience with, the research in this area. What the government wants is that educational research be rigorous and scientific, though the NRC committee report is yet to define what constitutes rigorous scientific research in education. Nevertheless, given the close tie of their work to practice and policymaking, HER scholars have to understand that the issue is no longer how scientific or how practical their research should be; being scientific and being useful are equally important to the government and policymakers. Losing either side could lead to the loss of confidence in HER by policymakers and administrators and, ultimately, future funding for HER. As Professor Lincoln (2004) points out: “The National Research Council committee’s aim is to delineate what is science and what is not science.” It does not take much reasoning to understand what it means to HER scholars if their research is one day deemed as non-scientific due to the lack of methodological sophistication. To a certain extent, the methodological crisis in HER has already led to a confidence crisis, especially in the eyes of practitioners. Administrators and policymakers, out of frustration with the usefulness and trustworthiness of existing higher education literature, have chosen to ignore the entire academic research community in higher education and instead established research units of their own within federal and state agencies as well as institutional research functions on campuses. They have also contracted private research firms to conduct applied HER projects. In the HER community, institutional researchers are among the most active research professionals whose sole responsibilities are to support institutional planning, policy formation, and decision-making within colleges and universities. Although many of today’s institutional researchers are trained academically in HER or other fields of social sciences, their job offers few opportunities to apply theories to the projects that they conduct, let alone creating new theories or contributing to the HER knowledge base. While this setup seems to have complemented theory-oriented research done by HER faculty well, the division of labor between theoretical and applied researchers nonetheless perpetuates the research-practice gap and in fact does a disservice to the development of HER as a field of study. When researchers and practitioners begin to apply different sets of criteria for what makes HER literature significant and meaningful, the credibility, trustworthiness, and disciplinary integrity of HER suffer, which contributes to the low status of HER scholars in the eyes of the academic community.

ADDRESSING THE VOID: THEORY BUILDING IN HER As discussed before, while the critics of HER focus on its problem of immediacy and relevance, or the gap between theory and practice, HER scholars are caught in a host of methodological issues, which may undermine the quality and credibility of HER literature. Meanwhile, practitioners are busy setting up their own shops to address daily administrative and policy issues and thus ignoring the entire body of literature in HER accumulated over four decades. In a national study on the state of higher education research, Kezar (2000, p. 10) finds that both researchers and practitioners agree that memorable works are missing in higher

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education literature. But contrary to the conventional wisdom that practitioners only consult the literature that is “useful” to them, Kezar’s study shows that practitioners were actually “interested in philosophical works that examine underlying assumptions. Works were memorable to them because they could see that institutions were transformed as a result” (Kezar 2000, p. 11). This important piece of user feedback on higher education literature clearly indicates that tying research closer to practice does not always add to the credibility of HER literature, neither does it help HER scholars win more respect from their academic peers. But the question is, why hasn’t the theoretical approach to HER issues, as taken by many higher education faculty, helped much in establishing confidence in HER literature in the mind of its “users”? A quick review of what constitutes a good theory may help. Good theory building should reflect two important qualities: rigor and relevance, or what are also termed validity and utility (Lynham, 2002, p. 223).When practitioners ask for “philosophical works that examine underlying assumptions,” they are obviously not satisfied with most of existing studies that simply offer explanations of phenomena. They want to know what lies beneath the phenomena and what is likely to happen when the same situation appears next time. In other words, a good theory should not only have explanatory power but also the ability to make predictions. In fact, the paucity of rigorous, useful theories has long been felt by HER scholars. While “the majority of the researchers saw works that are wholly conceptual or theoretical as the most memorable” (Kezar, 2000, p. 11), they hardly ever found anything worth reading in major higher education research journals such as the Review of Higher Education and the Journal of Higher Education. Meanwhile, when conducting their own research, HER scholars, institutional researchers and policy analysts included, are scrambling for wellestablished theories, conceptual models, and/or any testable hypotheses to guide their research activities. Unfortunately, when empirical studies with increasingly sophisticated statistical techniques have been accumulating in the unprecedented speed in the HER literature, few researchers have taken extra miles to theorize or synthesize from a careful examination of all the available data. As a result, the few theories available in HER have been overtly used or misused to address a wide spectrum of higher education issues. For instance, because there are so few existing theories that offer conceptual frameworks for empirical testing of college impact, Tinto (1993) has become undeservingly popular among those who aim at explaining various factors that lead to any college outcomes. Initially meant to help explain a narrow phenomenon of student dropout, Tinto’s theorization of academic and social integration leading to persistence or attrition has later been used to explain all kinds of college outcomes from academic performance, remediation, involvement, to psychological development. However, when a regression yields an R square of less than 50 percent, one has to wonder why there is no other alternative theory available to explain the remaining half of the variance in student development or college outcomes. Nothing is more indicative that good theories are in high demand in HER, but the scholars in the field have not been able to produce theories good enough to guide practice in the rough terrain of higher education policymaking and management. In this aspect, the business management research community is several steps ahead of the HER community. Prominent scholars in the management research profession are very conscious of the need for theory building in the field. To them, a theory is a body of understanding that researchers build cumulatively over time, and good theories ought to be

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“intellectually rigorous, practically useful, and able to stand the tests of time and changing circumstances” (Carlile and Christensen, 2005). Carlile and Christensen (2005) further highlight the importance of theory building to both scholars and practitioners: “[I]f scholars and practitioners of management shared and utilized a sound understanding of the process by which theory is built, we could be much more productive in doing research that doesn’t just get published, but meets the standards of rigorous scholarship and helps managers know what actions will lead to the results they seek, given the circumstances in which they find themselves.”

While these are the same qualities pursued by HER scholars, the latter are just not as assertive as their peers in business management research, always fearing that theory-oriented research could become removed from practice. Seen from this perspective, the alleged gap between theory and practice is actually a misdiagnosis of the real problem for HER. Neither would the use of quantitative experimental design make much difference in increasing the confidence of “users” in HER literature. What is really needed in HER is rigorous pursuit of good theories that can reveal the meaning, nature, and challenges behind various higher education issues, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Once a theory is developed, it needs to be tested, retested, and refined, so that practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders of higher education can arm themselves with the explanatory and predictive power of the theory to act in more informed and effective ways. In this sense, “theory is good precisely because of its utility in practice” (Lynham, 2002, p. 236).

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CONCLUSION Almost from the very beginning, HER scholars have been constantly engaged in a hardto-achieve balancing act between theory and practice. Driven by the research needs of the profession they serve, HER scholars have made themselves available to address emerging policy issues and solve administrative problems by setting aside important work in theory building and knowledge accumulation. However, their eagerness to serve is not always appreciated by policymakers and practitioners. Study after study shows that the presumed users of HER won’t even care if HER disappears altogether someday, leaving many HER scholars frustrated and HER as an academic field adrift. By and large, the state of HER, with its undeserved low status in the academic community, can be attributed to a deep misunderstanding that theory building activities could lead to the removal of HER from practice. This misunderstanding was reinforced by sharp criticisms from well-known scholars like George Keller. It is true that theory may not necessarily reflect the full spectrum of reality, and theory building in some academic fields may simply involve the construction of a conjecture, an opinion, or a speculation. But in a professional field like business management research or HER, theory is a body of understanding that researchers build cumulatively as they work through each step in the descriptive and normative stages (Carlile and Christensen, 2005). Therefore, theory building in HER bears at least two important features. First, since the purpose of theory is to guide practice, theory building is necessarily linked to, and going along with, practice. Second, theory building is more of a process than a final product, and theories developed in HER have

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to be tested and retested using empirical data with scientific methods. In other words, theory building is the process through which research influences practice and researchers contribute to the knowledge base. To build a more solid scholarly foundation for HER, scholars will have to commit more firmly to theory building in their research and scholarly activities, in close collaboration with practitioners. Given that most policymakers and university administrators now have their own policy research centers and institutional research offices to support their immediate needs for data and analyses, they are not likely to consult the literature every time when they are about to make important decisions. However, when conducting applied research to support decision-making, policy analysts and institutional researchers often resort to the limited few existing theories that are intellectually rigorous and practically useful. This is where scholars from academic programs and research centers in universities can, and should, play a critical role. Meanwhile, since most policy analysts and institutional researchers have access to a large amount of empirical data, they should be part of theory building processes as well. Armed with sophisticated research methodologies and large data sets, they can test hypotheses, explore causalities, and validate and normalize theories as developed by their HER peers.

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REFERENCES Birnbaum, R. (2000). Policy scholars are from Venus; policy makers are from Mars. The Review of Higher Education 23(2), pp. 119-132. Carlile, P. R. and Christensen, C. M. (2005). The cycles of theory building in management research. HBS Working Paper Number: 05-057. Online version available at http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5422.html. Colbeck, C. (2000). Reshaping the forces that perpetrate the research-practice gap: Focus on new faculty. In A. Kezar and P. Echel (eds.) Moving Beyond the Gap between Research and Practice in Higher Education. New Direction for Higher Education no. 110. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, pp. 35-47. Keller, G. (1985). Trees without fruit: The problem with research about higher education. Change, 17(1), p. 7-10. Kezar, A. (2000). Understanding the research-to-practice gap: A national study of researchers’ and practitioners’ perspectives. Moving Beyond the Gap between Research and Practice in Higher Education. New Direction for Higher Education no. 110. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Kezar, A. and Echel, P. (2000). Editor’s Notes. Moving Beyond the Gap between Research and Practice in Higher Education. New Direction for Higher Education no. 110. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Kezar, A. and Talburt, S. (2004). Introduction: Questions of research and methodology. The Journal of Higher Education, 75(1), pp. 1-6. Lederman, D. (2008). Making Higher Ed Research Matter. Inside Higher Education. Available online at [http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/11/07/ashe]. Lincoln, Y. S. (2004). Scientific Research in Education/Evidence Matters: Randomized Trials in Education Research. Academe, Nov/Dec.

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Lynham, S. A. (2002). The general method of theory-building research in applied disciplines. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 4(3), pp. 221-241. Maassen, P. A. M. (2000). higher education research: The hourglass structure and its implications. In U. Teichler and J. Sadlak (eds.) Higher Education Research: Its Relationship to Policy and Practice. Oxford, England: Pergamon. Peterson, M. W. (1986). Critical choices: From adolescence to maturity in higher education research. The Review of Higher Education, 10, pp. 143-150. Peterson, M. W. (2000). The tyranny of success: The research-practice tension. In A. Kezar and P. Echel (eds.) Moving Beyond the Gap between Research and Practice in Higher Education. New Direction for Higher Education no. 110, pp. 21-34. Shavelson, R. J. and Towne, L. (Eds.) (2002). Scientific Research in Education. National Research Council Committee on Scientific Principles for Education Research. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Shavelson, R. J. and Towne, L. (2003). On scientific research in education: Questions, not methods, should drive the enterprise. Remarks given at a workshop of the National Research Council Committee on Research in Education. Teichler, U. (2000). The relationship between higher education research and higher education policy and practice: The researchers’ perspective. In U. Teichler and J. Sadlak (eds.) Higher Education Research: Its Relationship to Policy and Practice. Oxford, England: Pergamon. Teichler, U. and Sadlak, J. (eds.) (2000). Preface. Higher Education Research: Its Relationship to Policy and Practice. Oxford, England: Pergamon. Tinto, V. (1993). Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and Cures of Student Attrition, 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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PART I: INSTITUTIONAL HIERARCHY AND ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP

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In: Academic Administration: A Quest for Better Management... ISBN 978-1-60741-732-3 Editor: Sheying Chen © 2009 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 3

CHIEF EXECUTIVE IN ACADEMIC ADMINISTRATION: HIGH EXPECTATIONS AND LEADERSHIP LESSONS Sandra R. Patterson-Randles Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, Indiania, USA

ABSTRACT

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In this chapter, a 39-year veteran of academe whose experience covers a wide range of positions, institutions, and states reflects on the challenges of senior leadership. Major points include professional versatility, establishing a support base with key constituencies, knowledge of institutional issues, the administrative “honeymoon” period, faculty and staff networking, establishing a top-notch senior leadership team, core values, and the necessity of vision for effective leadership.

INTRODUCTION Thirty-nine years ago I made the critical career choice of becoming an educator. At the time I had no idea how many different roles, institutions, states, and communities would ultimately impact my development as a professional educator and as an individual. However, reflecting on the past from my current position as a university chancellor, I am convinced that wide variety in the places I worked and the jobs I did has strengthened my abilities and contributions in unique ways. My journey began as a high school teacher, progressed to teaching in four separate flagship university departments while pursuing three graduate degrees, and led to teaching or administrative appointments at seven collegiate institutions in five states. My thirty years of teaching experience has spanned multiple disciplines and programs ranging from honors to multi-disciplinary Great Books. Likewise, my work in administration has covered a broad array of positions, including writing program coordinator, curriculum developer, diversity associate, division chair, vice president for academic affairs, and, ultimately, CEO of a regional university. Although I came up through the ranks in a rather standard fashion, I do

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not believe the wide variety of my teaching and administrative appointments is at all typical, especially considering the schools where I have served: a public high school; a large, public research flagship; a small, public HBCU; two small, public liberal arts institutions; a large, private research institution; and a mid-sized, comprehensive regional university in a state system. An added benefit has always been a solid grounding in the business world by working my way through college with jobs ranging from sales to executive secretary to accounting clerk to summer resort management. Again, each time I have progressed to a new stage in my life and academic career, I have found the sheer variety of my professional experiences to be an unusual strength which ultimately has given me the groundwork to take on the unique challenges of a new position. When I mentor young, upcoming professionals, I encourage them to develop professional versatility – with both depth and breadth – by actively seeking out and learning from a wide variety of professional situations. I believe this fosters the sort of life-long learning which we, as educators, must encourage both for ourselves and our students. My real motivation for becoming an educator, however, was never administration but simply was my love for teaching, new learning, and seeing students prosper. Given this outlook, I have often been asked how I ever became involved in academic administration. Indeed, I was quite content spending my time teaching, advising, researching, developing curricula, and only occasionally taking on some programmatic administrative responsibilities. However, at one institution where I was teaching, our division was headed up by a lovely person who passionately wished to be an administrator because of a family history in academic leadership. As kind, organized, and professional as this individual was, the tough problems inherent in any leadership position simply were not being addressed. The downside of a leader who cheers the troops with a perpetually rosy – and often dismissive – outlook on difficult or downright ugly issues is that the mound of troubles swept under the carpet eventually becomes so large as to undercut unit integrity and reasonable progress. It was at this point that some senior faculty asked me to submit my candidacy for the position, because they believed I would be able to “clean things up.” As a team, we did. Even though that experience provided the platform for my progress to other leadership positions, still I have managed to do some teaching at every institution where I have been a full-time administrator. I firmly believe that maintaining direct contact with the real business of a college keeps one honest, well-informed, and appropriately focused on student welfare. That first experience in a significant leadership role really served to form a major part of my outlook on academic administration. I saw first-hand the damage that could be done by a basically nice person who was incapable of “biting the bullet” and tackling the tough issues. As a result, my own perspective on leadership and administration is very clear. I am neither a gloom-and-doom person nor an unrestrained Pollyanna; I am a hard-core realist who believes that in order to make progress and better everyone’s lot, we need to be honest about both the positives and negatives of any situation. Thus, after 39 years in academe at various levels of teaching and administration, I have come to realize just how great are the expectations of all parties whenever new leadership arises. Students seek an approachable and supportive “fixer” who quickly solves problems with inconvenient classes, inconvenient professors, too little parking, too few sports and campus activities, too high standards, too expensive tuition, too stringent admission requirements, and a perpetual inattention to the unique group to which any particular student

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belongs. Faculty desire an open, honest, collaborative administrator who consistently acts in accordance with the “recommendations” of faculty governance; assures that salaries are always above average; ensures support for research, release time, and travel; minimizes committee work; liberally adds courses and programs to meet “niche” interests; and shows no sign of having teleported to “the dark side.” Staff wish for a competent supervisor who raises salaries to market levels, appreciates the hard work of the staff in support of the institution, makes the faculty appreciate the hard work of the staff, ensures a sufficient number of staff positions, and champions job security. Community members want the friendly, outgoing CEO who ensures the institution is quickly responsive to community needs, is routinely participating in the full spectrum of community events from a slew of planning committees and boards to weekly fundraising initiatives, lends constant endorsement of the unusually high quality of the local schools and the hospitable environment, and deftly maneuvers the institution not just to deliver a quality collegiate education but also to spur economic development, remediate the problems with elementary and secondary school preparation of students, and position the campus as the community’s resource center in a vast array of fields – in short, someone who “pleases” the community. Senior system administrators and trustees demand a friendly, fully competent administrator who is a team player, raises the institution’s profile, influences legislators, and raises record amounts of money, all the while implementing meaningful assessment mechanisms on campus that assure business-like efficiency, high quality, affordability, timely student graduation, and a bolstered local workforce. The expectations regarding a new leader are indeed great; the list goes on and on. While the aforementioned descriptions may indeed sound like rather cynical exaggerations, be assured there is little tongue-in-cheek. For example, at one major national conference of senior leaders the aged, well-respected president who gave the keynote speech launched into a humorous definition of the college presidency and its challenges, ending with the observation, “and faculty morale has never been lower.” The hearty chuckles and wry smiles of several hundred presidents indicated just how broadly this somewhat flip observation resonated with the audience. I was both amused and somewhat surprised. In spite of immense differences in location, size, mission, governance, support, and culture, there are some striking commonalities in the challenges of academic leadership at a senior level. While there are many treatises, institutes, and workshops that focus on senior educational leadership in a more formal and academic manner, in this chapter I wish to approach the topic of senior leadership in academe in a much more down-to-earth and personally reflective way. Other presidents and chancellors undoubtedly will have had different experiences and situations from my own and hence differing opinions and advice. However, the diversity of my work in teaching and administration in institutions of varying sizes and missions across the country has taught me some valuable lessons which I hope will provide new leaders with some food for thought and guidance in challenging times.

BACK TO SCHOOL: LESSONS IN SENIOR LEADERSHIP First, we would all like to believe that we were the exceptionally preferred choice for a new leadership role, but I can think of no more humbling experience than to see the credentials of the many fine candidates who did not “get the job.” Search committees and

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search consultants are notoriously quirky, and I learned long ago not to judge my own worth as a professional by their actions and reactions. The calculated courting dance of the presidential search, in particular, seems to yield poor matches as often as good ones, perhaps because of a lack of clarity – and indeed honesty – on both sides. So in the heady moments of satisfaction at getting the desired position, the circumspect leader would do well to reflect on the candidates who did not succeed, especially if there were internal candidates, and also consider the various stakeholders who did not voice support, possibly because of the very nature of the search process or perhaps through a studied unwillingness to participate. All campuses I have experienced have had a “loyal opposition,” sometimes large and sometimes small, but always presenting difficulties. For the new president I pass on the sage advice of many experienced leaders serving before my time: spend the first two years cultivating a strong support base among key stakeholders, and, I would add, be committed to continuing this cultivation throughout the leadership tenure. The key is always to have more influential supporters than detractors before the inevitable “tough times” arrive. Although in all my administrative positions I have worked hard right from the beginning to develop a base of support with major constituencies, I soon discovered that some people simply are unwilling to be “won over.” For example, before I started one senior administrative position, I was rather ceremoniously taken to meet a prominent community leader. He let me know in no uncertain terms that he was upset that a woman, especially one who did not come from the area, had been appointed as the new leader. His often publicly voiced disparagement of my administration has remained unmitigated in spite of the fact that the campus is thriving and that my leadership team and I have been able to accomplish goals that had remained unachieved for over 20 years. Every leader will encounter such unreasonable and persistently negative people. While it would be unwise to underestimate the damage they can do, nevertheless, I have found the best course is to “take the high road” – remain polite and professional, do one’s job to the best of one’s ability, and move forward in spite of the distraction. Continue to extend the invitation to be reasonable and supportive, but do not expect that such detractors will have a change of heart anytime soon, if at all. While the first year of a new leadership role is the prime time for building constituency support, it also presents the best opportunity to find out the real truth about the institution. In the search process, both the institution and the candidate are on best behavior. I have found that in spite of intensive efforts to thoroughly check out an institution – its strengths, its weaknesses, its persistent problems, its environment, its potential for the future – I have never been told the full truth during the search process nor has my initial investigation uncovered the full range of issues that challenged my leadership. For instance, at one college I was told that the campus needed to revise its general education program and that the faculty was ready to move forward with this initiative. What I discovered was that the general education program had never been revised since the college had become a baccalaureate institution decades before and that in the ten years immediately preceding my arrival, four separate faculty review committees had failed to get the job done because of a vociferous group of naysayers and bitter infighting. Fortunately, I was able to lead the committee which accomplished this feat but only after ferreting out the real root of the problem, scoping out the “players,” inventing a strategic process that could not be stalled by the naysayers, and cultivating broad campus support. An in-depth understanding of the institution and the factors undermining progress was essential for me to provide effective leadership in a challenging situation.

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One technique I have used not only to make positive contact with key campus constituencies but also to learn about the real core issues of an institution has focused on small-group, face-to-face meetings. At my current institution, I began my chancellorship by scheduling two-hour meetings with the faculty in each separate discipline and staff members in classification and unit groupings. Supervisors were not present, and I used these meetings to have people introduce themselves, to learn about their jobs, to get a feel for their perceptions of our students, to hear about trouble areas, and to learn of their hopes and dreams for the institution. While these sessions were very time-consuming – covering 35 faculty groups and 15 staff groups over a year’s time – they were also very informative and gave me a good sense of the institution and its people. Moreover, I was struck by several points where there was considerable consensus. First, participants had told me that no chancellor had ever scheduled such meetings before, and the sessions were appreciated, even if considered “novel.” Second, members of each discussion group routinely expressed surprise at learning what others really were doing. It was not uncommon to hear someone say, “I’ve worked with you for over ten years, and I had no idea you did that!” Third, I was struck by the degree of agreement concerning institutional strengths, weaknesses, and challenges. I found that this sort of personal contact was invaluable for teaching me about the college’s true situation and thus provided an excellent platform for the comprehensive, long-range strategic planning effort which I initiated the following year. Over the years I have met and had serious conversations with many other presidents and chancellors, and I estimate that at least half of them have indicated that they began their tenure without having a full understanding of the real issues confronting the institution. Lest anyone think that the penalty for misunderstanding institutional context and priorities is simply a lack or delay of progress, consider the case of one of my colleagues. With great enthusiasm he assumed a presidency, and within two months the faculty was threatening a noconfidence vote. His mistake was to implement a committee recommendation to eliminate a program. Although he thought that the process was legitimate and that the issue and consequences of following the recommendation had been thoroughly vetted, there clearly was more to the issue than he understood. So highly charged was the situation that my colleague’s presidency was saved only by a fellow president in a sister institution agreeing to take over the program. The experience of my hapless colleague vividly undercuts the notion of new administrators, particularly at the presidential level, having a “honeymoon period.” While some leaders may indeed enjoy a significant period of time without major challenges, I have yet to experience such a luxury myself. In every administrative position I have had, some incredibly thorny problem has landed on my desk within the first few days of my tenure. Making wise decisions in such cases is complicated by not having an intimate knowledge of the institution, its true core realities, and its people. When presented with difficult circumstances while still a newcomer, I have simply trusted my own instincts, sought information and an understanding of context as appropriate, and listened. Indeed, in a world and profession that constantly demand action and results, listening – and continuing to listen – is critical. However, sometimes this simple action becomes incredibly difficult for a whole host of reasons – situations demanding immediate responses, lack of time to seek broad or astute information, confidentiality of personnel matters, and news media attention, to name only a few. In such circumstances, the new leader’s greatest strength will be in having a solid set of core values which, in turn, allow one to be crystal clear about “where the line is.” I

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firmly believe that the best policy is to demonstrate one’s integrity as a professional by constantly using one’s core values as a touchstone and being consistent in doing so. For example, one senior administrator to whom I reported at one point in my career jumped from job to job and finally was forced out of academe. Every institution that he left, he left in turmoil. The reason why was very simple: he played favorites and constantly shifted his value system. Campus constituencies never knew where they stood with him, because they could not determine his “priority of the day,” and at each campus where he worked, he would single out one or two departments for special preferential treatment. Ironically, at the very bottom of his seeming fickleness there was a real core value – whatever made him look good at the moment. I have, unfortunately, encountered presidents with this same propensity and have witnessed first-hand the instability caused by an administrator who acted upon the wishes of whomever was last in the office and yelled the loudest. Effective leadership requires a clear set of personal and professional values; a solid understanding of institutional core values, not just those proclaimed but those really in force; and finally, the courage to champion high standards in a consistent manner regardless of how volatile the circumstances may be. The imperative to be a good listener is complicated by the fact that no one can be everywhere and learn of everything that needs to be internalized for sound judgments and leadership. For example, I am reminded of a long-time colleague, who later became president of the institution where I began my administrative career. At a conference, I asked him what the faculty thought of the organizational changes going on, and his animated response was, “Who really knows what’s going on out there?” As the new administrator reaches out to key constituencies to create a strong base of support, establishing a good working relationship with faculty and staff leaders is essential to keeping lines of communication open and keeping informed about issues and concerns in the campus community. At every campus where I have served in an administrative capacity, I have been fortunate to have gained the trust of a cohort of faculty and staff members who have shared with me the campus gossip which they believed could be damaging to the institution and its people if left unaddressed. For example, at my current institution we have been able to build student housing after 30 years of talking and 20 years of frustrated attempts. To achieve this one-time dream required superbly detailed planning, sophisticated strategizing, and serious political maneuvering. Our administrative team was quite open about the hard work that went into the development of a successful proposal and the details of the project. Nevertheless, I was stunned and dismayed when faculty leaders informed me that some of their colleagues were spreading disturbing rumors, namely that the administration had not planned sufficiently for housing and that the units would not make their occupancy targets for the financial pro formas with the result that staff members would be laid off and all members of campus would get a pay cut in order to finance the buildings. I was grateful that our faculty leadership brought this issue to my attention, and as a consequence in various venues I immediately informed all members of our campus community that there was no truth to any of these rumors, a fact which was confirmed soon afterwards by opening our residence halls with 96% initial occupancy. I was appalled that such damaging rumors geared to scaring staff and disquieting all campus constituencies would be disseminated right on the eve of one of the greatest triumphs the campus had ever experienced. Nevertheless, this was a painful example of what fear and uncertainty in the face of significant change can reap, even in spite of topnotch planning and implementation.

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While I highly value the campus and local community members who let me know about challenging issues so that I can respond appropriately, I firmly believe that the most critical component for successful leadership is assembling a top-notch leadership team. In this respect, I am truly blessed, for my cabinet of vice chancellors is the finest group of leaders and colleagues with whom I have been privileged to serve. During the first months of my chancellorship, three of the five vice chancellor positions were vacant for various reasons, which presented me with a very challenging situation as a new CEO. The opportunity to build one’s own team from the ground up is very appealing. However, I strongly advise new leaders not to simply sweep out all incumbents and hire a sea of new faces, as I have seen some new CEO’s do, unless there is some compelling urgency for such drastic change. In my own particular situation, I found that the two senior leaders already in place had years of invaluable experience with the institution. They knew the university’s history, its people, its culture, the “players” both on and off campus, institutional priorities, its strengths, its weaknesses, and the skeletons still rattling in closets. The two new vice chancellors whom I hired came in with a wealth of fresh perspectives and experiences at other institutions. This blend of new leaders and 30-year veterans has provided our administrative team with a fine balance of insights and abilities. We are able to discuss and strategize about extremely difficult issues where we disagree with each other, but always we leave the room still colleagues and “on the same page.” I trust them and value them, and through their own campus and community networks, they keep me well-informed and on top of situations. When choosing an administrative team, I have relied upon several key guiding principles. First, I believe that sound decision-making is well served by multiple heads, eyes, ears, and voices. Consequently, I do not hire “yes” people. As a leader, I want the benefit of the insights, problem-solving, information-gathering, and judgment of sharp, experienced, and dedicated people – even if it means some disagreement. Second, good people are hard to come by, and so, as mentioned before, I have no bias against talented individuals already in place as long as they can work effectively with the new team dynamics. Third, I desire strong leaders who are capable of independent, well-considered action and who remain accountable for their decision-making. Because I have quite enough to do for my own job, I make every effort not to micromanage. Hire good people, trust them, and let them do their jobs. However, I also keep a watchful eye in case some situation becomes so egregious that I must become involved. For example, several years ago two of the vice chancellors on our wonderful team were having a rather lively disagreement about an aspect of student services. The only way I knew about this was that a staff leader mentioned the feud to me during a conversation about another topic. My response was not to intrude, because I trusted these two leaders to work out their differences. I merely kept an eye on the situation from afar. Some weeks later during a routine briefing with me, one of these administrators vaguely mentioned the situation to me and was completely surprised to learn that I already knew about it. They had resolved the problem quite well by themselves, as I trusted they would. Finally, as much as I want our senior administrators to be strong, successful leaders in their own right, they also must be collegial team players. Nothing destroys positive team dynamics faster than the “colleague” who bullies others behind the scenes; reinvents facts, discussions, and decisions; and tries to do “end runs” around team decision-making and agreed-upon procedures by coming to me for special consideration on a routine basis. A true team has no place for this sort of behavior, and I have fired direct reports who have threatened to compromise team dynamics by engaging in such activities.

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As the above comments indicate, I consider the integrity of senior administrative team relationships to be critical for a president’s or chancellor’s success. My insistence on this for my leadership team has been fuelled by two notable examples. During one of my early experiences as a mid-level administrator, I witnessed a president being consistently undermined by a hostile and personally ambitious vice president. Whenever the president gave a committee a formal charge for action, after he left the room, the vice president would reissue the charge in a manner which favored his own preferred outcome. Ultimately, the effect of these disloyal and publicly subversive actions by the vice president undermined the president’s position and his reputation in academe. He never recovered. Ironically, the vice president went on to his own presidency in another part of the country where he failed as a leader precisely because of the same sort of sabotage tactics. In another case, a very talented and ethical president was forced out of an institution because of a domino effect of disgruntled campus constituencies. The hard lesson learned was that campus cultures change slowly – and sometimes only with some notable casualties. The administrator in question was completely bewildered by the strange chain of events which resulted in dismissal and only perceived some of the deeper issues when a sage advisor asked, “And who is watching your back?” I know who is watching my back – and I, in turn, watch theirs. The very considerable rewards of working with a top-notch leadership team cannot, however, mitigate some very challenging aspects of a presidential position. Fair or not, the “buck stops” squarely on the president’s desk. As a chancellor, I have been blamed for all sorts of things concerning which I had no knowledge or involvement. For instance, just the past year my institution and I were castigated mercilessly by a mother who thought her son was unfairly denied honors status at graduation. The student, of course, had lied to his family about the quality of his performance in school, and we, of course, could say nothing. The most difficult cases to “stomach” invariably are those where student or personnel confidentiality issues are involved. For instance, at one institution I encountered a faculty senate president who demanded to know why a particular faculty member’s position was terminated mid-year – not once, but twice. Apparently, employment confidentiality in his mind took second seat to assuaging faculty curiosity. While the complaintants are free to spread their versions of their supposed mistreatment, the ethical administrator is not afforded the luxury of defending himself or setting the story straight for the record. Even when difficult decisions are made which can publicly be explained and justified with facts and figures, the mere presentation of such supportive evidence can be interpreted as “defensive.” No matter how strongly I endorse data-driven decision-making, I recognize that the human element in all of us too quickly discounts “facts” which clash with preconceived notions. For instance, I am reminded of one particularly vociferous faculty member who, against all reason, refused to believe five separate sets of salary benchmarks that demonstrated faculty compensation at the national average. The new president must simply realize that getting blamed for a whole array of things ranging from vending machine choices to tenure decisions is part of the territory, and often ethical, professional behavior prohibits any self-defense. Another particularly unique challenge at the presidential level is the daunting schedule of meetings and obligations which demand attention 24/7. All administrators feel such pressure, but when I assumed the chancellorship, I was amazed at the impact on my private life. My first taste of true “fish-bowl” living occurred even before I started the job. I decided to go shopping in a major department store for some suits, and as I was paying for my purchases, the saleslady squinted at me, wagged her finger, and announced, “I know who you are!” I had

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barely even been in town a week. Nowadays, no matter where I go I expect to meet at least a handful of people I know and to have appropriate conversations with all. A five-minute trip to the grocery often turns into a two-hour pilgrimage. In fact, just recently I negotiated a new contract with an organization while in the bread aisle of the local Kroger. Like other presidents and chancellors, I have attempted to establish some reasonable parameters for my private and professional lives. One that has consistently eluded control has been when my husband and I attend formal events purely on a personal basis. I have yet to experience an evening where someone did not use the occasion as an opportunity to complain about something related to campus. To truly enjoy ourselves with some reasonable privacy, my husband and I have resorted to leaving town. For a professional role which demands constant interaction with people of all sorts, presidents find themselves strangely alone. Even with a superb leadership team, there are deep issues and concerns which I simply cannot discuss with anyone on my campus or in my community. This is where professional presidential organizations play a key role. Through my membership in such associations I have developed a cadre of colleagues who understand the many challenges I face on a daily basis. This network of professional friends provides a sounding board for thorny problems, a sympathetic ear in troubling times, suggestions of best practices, solid advice, problem-solving strategies, and solid information on trends and issues in higher education. Many of the lessons I have learned as a chancellor have been shared with me or reinforced by the trials and triumphs of my presidential colleagues. In fact, in this chapter a number of the examples I have cited were gleaned from fellow CEO’s telling their stories of leadership challenges. I strongly advise new presidents and chancellors to become active in such professional organizations and benefit from so many “voices of experience.”

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CONCLUSION As I reflect back on my comments and examples in this chapter, I realize just how many caveats are imbedded in my descriptions of leadership challenges in academe. Concerning presidencies and chancellorships, one might well ask, “Why would anyone want to do this job?” The ready answer could be higher pay, higher prestige, higher visibility, higher opportunities – indeed, high expectations all around. My presidential colleagues no doubt have a wide variety of reasons for pursuing and maintaining their senior leadership positions, but for me the most compelling reason and the highest reward is simply an enhanced version of my rationale for teaching – bettering the future. This is the real reason I chose to become an educator so many years ago. Both personally and professionally I thrive upon creating the environment where the learned people who will, in turn, create our future can grow and blossom. Nothing pleases me more than to hear from former students, faculty, and staff how they are succeeding in life, and whatever I contributed to their learning and success gives me a deep sense of fulfillment. For example, I just received a Christmas card from two of my former students, who married, had three lovely children, completed master’s degrees, and are now pursuing successful careers as educators themselves. The tradition goes on, and I am so pleased to play a role in its vitality. Part of the appeal of being a chancellor, however, is the opportunity to impact education at a higher level with an essential characteristic of true leaders – vision. Without vision an

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administrator is merely a manager of endless details. Indeed, if any fault plagues higher education right from its medieval roots, it is its overreliance on classification and narrow disciplinary interests. Many young academics are educated so exclusively in specialties and tightly focused research. Yet, life and learning are interdisciplinary and holistic. The larger picture gets lost or, perhaps, is never even seen. This is, in fact, a major threat for anyone who has advanced to senior leadership. Seasoned administrators know the value of true vision, but they also realize how easy it is to get dragged into endless discussions of operations as opposed to strategic visioning. For this reason my vice chancellors and I enjoy a particular type of administrative retreat in order to discuss our shared vision for the future, the context in which we must strategize, and our high expectations. We do not go far physically, but we travel far mentally by meeting on the 35th floor of a skyscraper overlooking Louisville, Kentucky; the Ohio River; and our campus on the other side of the river. This dramatic change in environment and view encourages us to take a much broader perspective on the issues impacting our leadership of our institution. Somehow the breathtaking view of a wide river winding its way past a thriving city into the misty distances perfectly reflects the creative and critical work of visioning a better future for a university and its ever-changing campus community. In my office, I enjoy a collection of little gifts and mementos from colleagues and supporters, but two are particularly well-suited for senior leadership. One is a vivid photo of the jagged, snowy peaks of some of the “fourteener” mountains in Colorado. This picture was given to me by a division chair at a previous institution when we were experiencing tough times. He told me he wished to lift my spirits by leaving me with a visual representation of my leadership efforts at the college. The second one is again a striking picture of a lone eagle atop a pine tree, symbolizing the “essence of leadership” and given to me by folks on my own campus. Both of these pictures serve as a constant reminder of the necessity of vision for true leadership. As leaders, we are charged with the difficult task of envisioning the consequences of our decision-making, often long before any of our constituencies could possibly experience the effects, and of preparing our stakeholders for the change that inevitably will occur. The people in our care rightly have high expectations of their leaders, and we, likewise, of the future we are creating for their benefit.

ADDITIONAL READINGS Albright, B. N. (2006). Meaningful Measures. Business Officer Magazine, September Issue (http://www.nacubo.org/x8405.xml, checked January 21, 2009). Brown, David G. (2006). University Presidents as Moral Leaders. Westport, CN: Praeger Publishers. Miller, T. E., Bender, B., and Schuh, E. J. H. (2005). Promoting Reasonable Expectations: Aligning Student and Institutional Views of the College Experience. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Raelin, J. A. (2003). Should Faculty Be “Managed”? Academe Online, May-June Issue (http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2003/MJ/Feat/Rael.htm, checked January 21, 2009).

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Spain, E.S.P. (2006). Managing expectations when leading change. In: Crandall, D. (ed.), Leadership Lessons from West Point. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

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In: Academic Administration: A Quest for Better Management... ISBN 978-1-60741-732-3 Editor: Sheying Chen © 2009 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 4

ROLE OF THE CHIEF ACADEMIC OFFICER Gilbert W. Atnip Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, Indiana, USA

ABSTRACT

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This chapter describes the role of the chief academic officer (CAO) as the person primarily responsible for the overall academic quality of a college or university. It describes the background and preparation needed for service as a CAO and discusses some of the keys to success in that role. Relationships are the essential element of success and so there is detailed discussion of the nature of relationships with the CEO, deans, and faculty members. Finally, there is discussion of some of the major challenges facing higher education leaders in the current environment.

INTRODUCTION The chief academic officer (CAO) is the administrator with institution-wide responsibility for the core academic functions of a college or university. Typically all of the academic, degree-granting units (schools and colleges) report to the CAO, along with many of the academic support units such as the library, the teaching-learning center, and the registrar. On many campuses, additional units such as admissions and information technology also report to the CAO as academic support units. At smaller institutions, especially those which emphasize teaching, the office responsible for supporting faculty research and seeking grants also is part of the CAO’s portfolio. (At research universities, this function is now commonly assigned to a vice president for research.) The most common title for a CAO at one time was dean (often with a qualifier such as dean of the college or dean of the faculty). However, as the scope of responsibilities has grown and as many “colleges” have become “universities”, the more common titles now are vice president or vice chancellor for academic affairs, or especially in large institutions, provost.

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In view of the variety of institutions of higher education and the differences in the ways they are organized, it is difficult to sum up the role of the CAO succinctly. A reasonable attempt might be “leading and managing the institution’s academic enterprise in order to assure academic quality.” It is fashionable to go to some lengths to distinguish between leadership and management. The latter is often disparaged as the exercise of mere technical skills, while “leadership” is seen as something that transcends the everyday and mundane. However, Peter Drucker’s observation that “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things” captures the truth that both are important to an organization. A successful CAO must be adept at both leadership and management, although typically he or she will have been trained in neither. A modern college or university is a complex entity with a variety of goals, some of which are ill-defined and resistant to any kind of precise measurement. The most influential group of employees are the faculty, who may not welcome actions that are overtly either management or leadership, and who often have very strong guarantees of job security. The principal group that the institution nominally serves are its students, who, along with their parents, have became highly enamored of the notion that they are customers whose felt needs are to be satisfied on demand by virtue of the high tuition they are paying (regardless of how high it actually is). At the top of this entity sits the board of trustees, whose demands for greater accountability and efficiency stem from application of a “business” model to the university. In an environment such as this one, “management” that results in the effective delivery of education to students and the production of research that advances human knowledge is not to be taken lightly. Yes, leadership is also needed in order to insure that quality is maintained and that the future is taken into account, but my observation is that the typical CAO spends far more time on management than on leadership, and that a CAO who is effective at managing within the context of a modern college or university has mastered 85– 90% of his or her role. In addition, the “leadership” function of the CAO role is fraught with issues related to the role of the president or chancellor and the special nature of the academy. These complexities are discussed more fully below. What distinguishes the CAO’s role from that of other academic administrators such as department chairs and deans is that he or she must both lead and manage from an institutional, long-term perspective. An individual faculty member usually is focused on his or her particular classes and research projects and is concerned with departmental, school, or campus issues only insofar as they affect his or her individual interests (e.g., budget support for a project or his or her salary). A department chair works on issues that affect the whole department and needs to make decisions that maximize the good of that particular group. Similarly, a dean promotes the interests of his or her school or college and often views other deans as rivals in the pursuit of financial and other kinds of support needed to further those interests. It is the CAO who must weigh each decision in the light of how it will affect the overall quality and success of the institution and its academic efforts. In addition, the CAO must think about the long-term welfare of the institution and try to avoid decisions that promise short-term gains but carry the threat of long-term losses. This kind of long-term, institutional thinking is one of the major challenges that any CAO faces. The prediction of which choices will advance the institution most effectively often must be made on the basis of incomplete and ambiguous information. In addition, it is extremely difficult to balance shortterm and long-term interests when the two are in conflict, and it is all too easy to go for the

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quick fix, especially when a problem is acute. (See Logue, 1998, and Logue and Anderson, 2001, for research and discussion on this dilemma.) The CAO is typically a member of a leadership team on a campus, headed by the president or chancellor (the CEO). Other team members will often include chief student affairs officer, chief financial officer, and development officer. On most campuses, the CAO is recognized as the ranking member of this group after the CEO and serves as the CEO’s stand-in when he or she is off-campus. At many colleges and universities, CEOs spend significant amounts of their time dealing with external constituents and raising money. As a result, much of the responsibility for day-to-day operations of the campus falls on the cabinet and often, on the CAO. The title “provost” is often used to designate a CAO who is, in effect, an executive vice president and serves as the primary internal administrator of the institution.

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PREPARATION FOR SERVICE AS A CAO Virtually all CAOs begin their academic careers as faculty members with specialized, disciplinary teaching and research interests. Perhaps for this reason, there is little or no formal academic preparation or training for those who aspire to serve as academic administrators, including CAOs. Instead, one may be chosen to take a turn serving as a department chair (sometimes because no one else in the department wants the job). If there is interest and actual administrative talent demonstrated in that role, one can move on to become a dean. Serving in these administrative roles is the way that almost all academic administrators learn to handle key administrative functions such as hiring faculty and staff, reviewing faculty performance and promotion and tenure cases, managing budgets, and starting and implementing new programs and initiatives. Some aspirants to the CAO’s chair then go on to serve as an associate or assistant CAO as further preparation for the role. However, my view is that successful experience as a dean of a college or school is the essential background for service as a CAO. What are the qualities that institutions want in a CAO? A review of recent advertisements for CAO positions at the Chronicle of Higher Education’s website showed the following desired characteristics as recurring themes: a strong record as a faculty member, qualifying for appointment as a full professor; extensive administrative experience in higher education; appreciation for the mission of colleges similar to the one posting the ad; a collaborative leadership style; appreciation for diversity; creative problem-solving skills; commitment to academic quality; and strong interpersonal and communication skills. I would add to this list the ability to tolerate ambiguity and to make decisions in the face of incomplete information and uncertainty, and a good sense of humor. (It is important to keep in mind that attempts at humor in public are fraught with danger for a CAO. The only acceptable form of public humor is self-deprecating.) In view of the lack of formal training for the CAO role, it is important for CAOs and aspiring CAOs to seek professional development opportunities aggressively. For example, the American Council on Education offers an Institute for New Chief Academic Officers and the Council of Independent Colleges has an Institute for Chief Academic Officers. The American Association of State Colleges and Universities holds two meetings each year for CAOs of its member institutions. In addition, Harvard University offers summer workshops that focus on

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development of academic leadership skills. I highly recommend active participation in opportunities such as these, not only for new or aspiring CAOs, but for veterans as well. In addition, I recommend the books listed below by Birnbaum (1988), DePree (1997), and Kennedy (1997) as excellent background reading for any CAO. My observation is that service as a CAO derives from two primary motivations. Although both may be present to greater or lesser degree at the same time, one usually dominates. One motivation is the desire to serve as a college or university president, in order to put one’s own stamp on an institution. The traditional path to the CEO’s office in higher education leads through the CAO’s office. I believe that this fact is due largely to the belief of faculty who serve on search committees that an academic background insures that the CEO understands and is focused on the academic mission. The other primary motivation for CAOs is service to the academic mission of the campus. They do not (or no longer) aspire to head an institution, but enjoy and gain satisfaction from seeing the positive results of their efforts in the successes of the faculty and students of their institution. There is, of course, a third category of CAO, which consists of those people who take on the role and then abandon it after a short time to return to teaching and research. This can occur for any number of reasons, related either to the unsuitability of the person for the role or to the particularly difficult circumstances at the institution, or to some combination.

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KEYS TO SUCCESS I have been fortunate, as one of those people who ended up as a CAO without formal training, to have had some wonderful advisors, mentors, and role models in my life and in my career. I offer the following observations about some of the keys to successful academic administration, based on what I have learned from them as well as from my own experience. “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” (Lao Tzu) “True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not the enrichment of the leaders.” (Robert Townsend). Effective academic leadership is collaborative. The most effective leaders in academe are not primarily focused on themselves and what they want, or on whether they will get the credit for what they have accomplished. Instead, they are focused on what needs to be accomplished in the service of the institution and its stakeholders, and those goals must resonate with the people who must do the work to attain them. Successful academic leaders know what the goals of their key constituents are. They either work within those goals to help people achieve them, or they work to show their constituents how different goals would serve them better. That is, successful leaders do not simply do what the people in their environment want done, nor do they dismiss those hopes and aspirations as wrong-headed or irrelevant. They may realize that an institution needs to head in new directions in order to develop its potential but they also realize that they need to use the arts of persuasion to bring people around to embracing that new direction. They keep in mind that “If you get too far in front of your troops, you start looking like the enemy.” (Anonymous)

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(1) Accept the Fact That the One Thing Everyone Wants Is More The great strength of nonprofit organizations like colleges and universities is that they exist to do things that are valuable to society without respect to whether those things have tangible value in the commercial marketplace. One challenge for those who administer such organizations is that they are filled with people who are bright and whose ability to think of good things to do is unlimited. The implications of this fact for a CAO (and even more so for a CEO) are twofold: first, you will have to learn how to say no to many good ideas, without alienating the people who brought them to you; and second, no matter how many resources you devote to a program or department, you may well fail to satisfy them. A consultant once proposed to the chancellor’s cabinet at my campus that our job was to make the faculty, staff, and students happy. I took strong exception to this statement because my experience tells me that it is an impossibility given the unlimited capacity of faculty, staff, and students to want more.

(2) You Only Get One Chance to Make a Good First Impression

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The obvious importance of this truism is that when you go into a new situation, you must be thoughtful and deliberate about the way you approach it. Decide on the impression you want to make and how to convey it in a way that is natural for you. There is no right answer to the question of what impression to make—it depends on the situation. Nor is there a right way to create that impression (although there may be many wrong ways). Yogi Berra is credited with saying “Sincerity is so important that you have to be able to fake it.” But it will not take people long to detect phoniness, so whatever approach you take to impression management, it has to fit you and be genuine.

(3) You Catch More Flies with Honey Than You Do with Vinegar It is quite beyond me why so many people seem to think that the way to get what you want is to employ tactics that other people find aversive. It may be that some academics believe that to value “critical thinking” means that they should be relentlessly critical to everyone around them. Yes, sometimes you will have to be critical and even harsh. But that should be your last resort, not your first. A friend of mine once told me that if you do your job as a CAO, you will make an average of an enemy a month. Why increase that number by taking a negative approach to the people you must work with?

(4) Never Let Them See the Whites of Your Eyes This bit of advice is also a part of the art of impression management. It entails the notion that you should be in control of how and when you let your reactions to people, events, and ideas show. It is especially important when dealing with conflict or when there is a crisis. When you are in a leadership position, people are watching you carefully to see if they can

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determine what you think about particular issues, especially thorny or controversial ones. Some want to know so that they can curry favor with you. Others want to know so that they can anticipate your actions and be prepared to counteract them. It is most helpful if you can develop a “poker face” so that people can detect what you are thinking only when you want them to. In a crisis, it is especially important to maintain the appearance of being calm and in control of yourself. To see that the people who are supposed to be in charge are unnerved will only compound the difficulties that faculty members, staff, and students will experience in coping with whatever the crisis is. Of course, the physiology of strong emotions can make it very hard to control all of your reactions but you need to be mindful that people are looking at you to determine how they should react if there is a real crisis.

SUCCESSFUL RELATIONSHIPS All of the points above emphasize that relationships are ultimately the key to the success of an academic leader. A successful CAO enjoys working with people, is able to put ego aside and work on common goals, and tolerates give and take among those with different viewpoints. Here is brief look at the key relationships a CAO must cultivate.

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The CEO The fact that most CEOs come through the academic ranks and have served as a CAO presents both opportunities and challenges for both the CEO and the CAO. On the one hand, a CEO who has been an academic officer understands the academic world and the role of the CAO intimately, and so can provide effective advice, help, and support to his or her CAO. It is to be hoped (although see challenges below) that such a CEO will make academics the top priority at the institution. On the other hand, a CEO who is having difficulty with the transition to his or her new role may be tempted to fall back to what is known – to the role than now belongs to someone else, the CAO. I heard it once said of a former president of a large research university that he certainly knew how to be a good provost. This was clearly not meant as a compliment. The ideal relationship between the CEO and the CAO must be close and collaborative. It must be built on mutual professional respect and trust, so that each can express his or her views to the other with complete candor. Agreement on every issue that the college faces is by no means required. Indeed, there are times when disagreement is far more valuable than agreement, since it will lead to a more complete exploration of issues and alternatives. It is an important part of the CAO’s responsibility to the college and to the CEO to state clearly, respectfully, and privately when he or she believes that the CEO is wrong or is about to make a mistake. At the same, the CAO must recognize and respect the responsibility of the CEO to the board and the college’s stakeholders to make the best decisions he or she can, taking all points of view into account. Thus disagreements between the CAO and the CEO must be kept confidential, and once a decision is made, the CAO must be prepared to give it his or her full support in public and to take effective actions to carry it out. A CAO who lets it be known

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that he or she thinks that a decision by the CEO is mistaken has taken a big step down the road toward seeking other employment opportunities. As crucial as healthy disagreement can be, it is essential for the CEO and CAO to agree on the major goals that are to be pursued and the fundamental values that underlie administration. When they have very different views on such matters as the meaning of educational quality, what academic integrity is, or how leadership is exercised, the relationship is likely to falter. (See DiCiccio and Gross, 2008 for a case study on the development of a CEO-CAO relationship.) There are two other truisms that govern successful CEO-CAO relationships: no surprises, and bring solutions along with problems. There are CEOs who make it clear they don’t want bad news. They do not serve themselves or their institutions well. All the members of the cabinet must feel free to come to the CEO and let him or her know what is going on that can affect the functioning of the college. This approach is far better than letting the CEO find out about an issue from a casual conversation with a faculty member or dean at a campus event. At the same time, no one likes to have a problem dumped in his or her lap. Thus it is advisable to be prepared to suggest a solution at the time one is making the CEO aware of the problem. There should be very few times when a CAO “dumps” a problem on the CEO’s desk and heads for the exit. Indeed, one of my mentors once said that when you are an administrator, each person who comes to your office will be bringing you a monkey. Effective administrators are those who make sure that each person still has the monkey when he or she leaves the office.

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Deans Deans are crucial to the success of the academic enterprise. They are more closely in touch with the faculty and the students than the CAO or the CEO will generally be, even at relatively small campuses. Thus they are in position to “make or break” many of the initiatives which the campus administration may want to put into place. Therefore successful relationships with deans are essential to the success of CAOs in accomplishing their goals. These relationships are very much mutual, which is an advantage to an astute CAO. That is, the deans need to cultivate the good will of the CAO in order to accomplish their goals. Thus the CAO has means at his or her disposal for influencing the deans. The best working relationships between CAOs and deans are based on mutual respect and collegiality. In most ways, the ideals are the same as those for the relationship between the CAO and the CEO. There should be open discussion about goals, values, and initiatives, and agreement on what the major academic institutional goals are. The CAO should make his or her expectations clear regarding the dean’s responsibilities but should avoid second-guessing a dean’s decisions or micro-managing his or her actions. No CAO can afford to be in a position of having to manage the day-to-day operations of the academic units in his or her portfolio. At the same time, when a dean is failing to meet acceptable standards for managing his or her unit, the CAO must provide clear feedback and help establish a remedial action plan. Deans are critical communicators between the central administration and the faculty. Thus it is important for the CAO to pay attention to how he or she communicates to the deans and to coach them on how they should communicate with the faculty. I noted above that an

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essential part of the relationship with the CEO is that once a decision is made, the CAO needs to support that decision in all public forums, even if he or she disagrees with it. An essential element of that support is how the decision is communicated to the deans and the faculty. A statement that starts “The president has decided…” can be interpreted to include the unspoken message “but I think this is a bad idea.” Decisions should be communicated as the campus administration’s decisions: “We have decided…” or “It seems to us (or to me, which is even stronger) that the best course of action is…” Then the CAO must be prepared to explain the rationale for the decision in a clear and convincing way. Deans should be coached to communicate to their faculty in this same way. The challenge in getting them to function like this is significant as they will not want to be associated with unpopular decisions, but if the CAO becomes aware that a dean is communicating the campus administration’s decisions to his or her faculty in a way that makes it clear that the dean thinks those decisions are foolish, a serious discussion with that dean will be in order. The “no surprises” rule applies forcefully to the relationship between deans and the CAO. The CAO must be clear that he or she wants to hear the bad news first, not last. (Good news is nice, too.) Deans should be encouraged to bring solutions along with their problems and should be discouraged from believing that the CAO is prepared to relieve them of their difficult problems. Many times, a person, whether dean, faculty member, fellow cabinet member, or even CEO, needs to talk through his or problem with someone who can listen and help sort through the issues. They are not necessarily seeking an answer or a solution and can often find their own answer if given the right supportive atmosphere. Most faculty and administrators are too averse to taking risks and too resistant to new ideas. It is the fear of failing or looking inept that motivates “paralysis by analysis”- the seemingly endless discussions that ensue whenever a decision needs to be made in the university. I suggest candid discussions of this issue between the CAO and his or her deans. Something that is so ingrained in academic culture is not easily changed, but if there is no recognition of it, no progress can be made. I try to make the case that someone who has never failed has never tried anything worth doing, and to point out that baseball players have a good chance to be in the Hall of Fame if they have a lifetime batting average of .333, which means that they “fail” 2 out of every 3 times they come up to bat.

Faculty The CAO will generally not have working relations with faculty that are as close as those with deans. The extent and nature of the relationship depends on the size and complexity of the campus, with closer relationships more likely on smaller campuses. There are some general principles to keep in mind that are broadly applicable. CAOs should always remember that they were once faculty members and should take time to remind themselves of the faculty’s perspective. If possible, the CAO should teach a class occasionally, or least do some guest lectures. It is easy to lose sight of what the day-today reality of faculty members is like and to take for granted the perks of administration. On a large campus where the CAO is more remote from the faculty, a faculty advisory group that meets informally (feeding them is a good idea) should be considered. Encourage them to tell you about their realities and how they see their professional challenges, while discouraging them from grinding their personal axes.

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A CAO who acts as a colleague to persuade faculty to work toward the institution’s goals as partners in a shared enterprise will be much more successful than one who tries to operate by exercising authority or power. (See discussion of keys to success above.) Faculty generally do not like to be told what to do (who does?) and may, at least publicly, reject the notion that a dean or CAO has the authority to be their “boss”. The CAO must take care not to create the appearance of playing favorites among the faculty (even worse is to actually play favorites). Similarly, it is important to be aware of the “politics” that are play among the faculty, but it is equally important for the CAO not be drawn into that fray. Other advice may seem obvious but is easy to overlook given that CAO’s are human and thus come to prefer the company of some people over others. If you go to lunch in the faculty dining room, don’t always eat with the same group of people. If you socialize with faculty after hours, do so on as equal a basis as possible. The best relationships with faculty are at once professional, cordial, collegial, and somewhat distant. It is helpful to remember that some people will attempt to curry favor with you to get what they want and that you will almost certainly have to disappoint some, or perhaps many, faculty members in the course of your duties. The CAO should take active steps to insure that faculty are informed about important issues and decisions that may affect them. In effect, there is a “no surprises” principle at work here as well, albeit in a different direction. Effective deans can be keys to success in this area (see above), but CAOs may also want to communicate directly with faculty through periodic updates, newsletters, or even appearances at unit meetings. Indeed, for really important issues (e.g., budget crises, accreditation visits) direct communication with the faculty is essential. The CAO should ask the question, “How important is it that the message I want the faculty to hear is the one they are hearing?” The answer will dictate whether to go through intermediaries and to go directly to the faculty.

CHALLENGES FOR HIGHER EDUCATION LEADERS Higher education has been remarkably effective in making the case to the public and to national and state policymakers that it is essential to the success of both individuals and society. An unintended consequence is that we have convinced the powers that be that we are too important to be left to our own devices and so we now face heightened public scrutiny focused around the troublesome three A’s: affordability, accountability, and access. It is clear that addressing public concerns by saying, in essence: “We are the experts and you are not. Give us what we want and trust us to do great things” is no longer viable, if ever it was. Policy makers at the state and federal levels want higher education to produce more graduates, to demonstrate that graduates have the knowledge and skills demanded by 21st century employers, and to keep increases in our costs in line with increases in family incomes. They do not buy our arguments that we cannot increase access, improve quality, and hold down costs, all at the same time (Immerwahr et al., 2008).

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Accountability These demands pose significant challenges to the leadership of higher education, including CAOs. I believe that the root of the disconnect between academics and policy makers (including many trustees) is a fundamental difference in the meaning of “quality” that goes to the heart of academic culture. To academics, the primary indicators of quality are “inputs”. On this view, high quality colleges have students with high SAT scores, have the resources to spend large amounts of money per student, have alumni who are generous donors, and have faculty who are well-regarded by their disciplinary peers on the basis of their scholarly achievements. It is ironic that academics love to disparage popular rankings of colleges such as those in US News and World Report, since those rankings are almost exclusively based on input measures. (It is interesting that many in both higher education and the public also view cost as surrogate measure of quality – the more expensive a college, the better it must be. This view is clearly based on an input-based notion of what quality is.) Policy makers are challenging this view of quality in favor of an outcome-based view. That is, quality is gauged by what students know and can do when they graduate. What kinds of jobs do they get? What’s their income and what’s the tangible return on the investment made in their education? How do they score on standardized tests and licensure exams? Thus for more than twenty years, policy makers have been trying to get higher education to adopt accountability measures that would communicate such information to the public. They wish to apply to higher education the same principles that underlie the federal No Child Left Behind program and numerous K-12 testing programs in the states. Chief academic officers face a significant challenge in implementing accountability programs on their campuses that will meet these external demands in the face of an academic culture that stubbornly resists the definition of quality that they entail. The problem is further complicated by the conflation of two goals of the assessment movement– accountability and improvement. Accrediting bodies typically have promoted assessment of student learning as a means of improving academic programs and thus enhancing future student learning. But an assessment program that measures learning with the goal of identifying weaknesses in need of improvement will look very different than one that measures learning with the goal of convincing the public that the college is doing a good job with its graduates.

Cost Concerns about cost containment pose significant challenges for academic administrators. There is much debate about why the costs of higher education have risen so much more rapidly than the general rate of inflation or the growth in family incomes. Some of the purported causes are clearly related to the academic missions of teaching and research—for example, the growth and increased sophistication of information technology and the increased cost of developing and maintaining a competitive research infrastructure. Other causes are not academic in nature, such as the competition to provide state of the art facilities for student life, which are viewed as necessary in the competition among institutions for top students. Whatever the causes of increased costs, it is clear that efforts to restrain further growth in costs will challenge academic leadership, for the simple reason that higher education is a labor intensive industry. More than two-thirds of most college’s costs are in personnel, and

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the majority of those costs are on the academic side of the house. Pressure to contain or even reduce faculty personnel costs though measures such as leaving vacant lines open, hiring parttime or non-tenure track faculty, and increasing faculty teaching loads will continue to mount and it will be the CAO who has to manage the response to such pressures. Cost containment pressures which reduce the resources that are available to the institution also make it increasingly difficult to find funds to enhance the academic mission. As noted, it is characteristic of universities that they are places intended to do “good”, and that there is no limit to the “good” that can be imagined by creative faculty and administrators. Even after culling the ideas that do not fit within the context of the institution, academic leaders will be left with far more worthy projects than they can fund. At least part of the answer to this challenge will increasingly be to reallocate funds internally from less successful programs to the programs that are needed to advance the institution. Such decisions inevitably involve pain and controversy and much of the ire is directed at the CAO.

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Alternative Models A significant challenge to the traditional academic model that is embodied in many institutions is coming from the rise of providers who emphasize responsiveness to the needs of students as consumers. These providers, some of which are proprietary colleges and some of which are essentially branch operations of traditional, non-profit institutions, offer courses and degrees in formats that are designed to be convenient for working adult students— distance learning, short, intense courses, weekend courses, etc. They often employ few, if any, full-time faculty but rather rely on part-time “practitioners” to teach courses from standardized syllabi. The University of Phoenix, with more than 200,000 students nationwide, is the primary example of this kind of provider. The focus on working adult students means that these providers are a challenge to a wide range of public and private institutions, such as community colleges and regionally focused four-year universities, which have service to adult, non-traditional learners as part of their mission. The challenge to CAOs and deans at such institutions is to lead an appropriate response to these competitors while maintaining the institution’s academic quality and integrity. Indeed, at many institutions, the first conversation that the CAO may need to facilitate is about the degree to which the institution should change its practices to compete with the Phoenixes of the higher education world.

Changing Values in the Academy Several recent writers have noted the declining importance of the academic mission within the university (see Paradise, 2004, and Martin and Samuels, et al., 1997). What was once the central function has become one of many functions competing for resources. One reason is that the creation of external rankings has made the pursuit of higher rankings an end in itself. That is, the ranking of an institution has become an important consideration in institutional decision-making. As a result, institutions have spent considerable time and resources figuring out how to “game” the rankings system. One common tactic is to entice as many students to apply for admission as possible through sophisticated marketing campaigns that begin when students are in the 9th and 10th grades. The purpose of seeking more

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applicants is not to gain more good students for the institution, but rather to lower the acceptance rate and get a boost in the rankings. One suspects that it is pursuit of U.S. News rankings that has driven much of the race for better and better non-academic student amenities that was noted above. Advertising the virtues of the institution to the CEOs and CAOs who provide the peer evaluations that make up a significant part of the U. S. News rankings can also be an expensive proposition. I receive glossy, four-color publications from both public and private colleges throughout the Midwest, many of which I never knew existed, and I am convinced that the reason is that as a CAO, I have a vote in the U.S. News rankings. The pursuit of students with high SAT scores and class ranks requires well-funded and sophisticated admissions, marketing, and financial aid programs. However, even institutions that are not competing for spots in the rankings have increased their emphasis on these functions in order to recruit students, whose tuition dollars have become increasingly important resources. I am old enough to remember when no university had an office called “marketing”, with a large staff devoted to public relations and advertising. Now such offices are commonplace and there is no lack of “enrollment management” consultants to hire. The costs associated with chasing prestige and students, along with a reduction in the share of state resources that have been going to public colleges, has made the pursuit of resources a much more central function in the university than it once was. In particular, development offices have risen to prominence within both public and private colleges. As CEO’s are required to spend more and more of their time working closely with the external relations and development officers in order to cultivate resources, they must inevitably spend less time on academic matters, even though they typically came from the academic side of the house.

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CONCLUSION Max DePree said that, “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.” Chief academic officers are called upon to answer the challenges that face higher education by acting as educators and helping their key stakeholders to understand and respond to the current realities. They must educate the faculty about the expectations of policy makers and the public, and must work with faculty to respond to those expectations in ways that preserve academic values and institutional integrity. They must speak eloquently and effectively to CEOs and boards about the vital importance of teaching, learning, and research, and convince them that assuring the quality of the academic mission must be the first and not the last investment that a college should make. The capacity of higher education to continue to meet the needs of its students and the larger society that supports it depends in large measure on how well CAOs carry out these educational responsibilities.

REFERENCES Birnbaum, R. (1988). How Colleges Work: The Cybernetics of Academic Organization and Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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De Pree, M. (1997). Leading without Power. San Franciso: Jossey-Bass. DiCiccio, A. and Gross, K. (2008). Welcoming a new provost, in 3 months or less. Inside Higher Ed, August 12, 2008. Immerwahr, J., Johnson, J., and Gasbarra, P. (2008). The iron triangle: College presidents talk about costs, access, and quality. Report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education and Public Agenda. Kennedy, D. (1997). Academic Duty. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Logue, A. W. (1998). Laboratory research on self-control: Applications to administration. Review of General Psychology, 2, 221-238. Logue, A. W., and Anderson, Y.D.(2001). Higher-education administrators: When the future does not make a difference. Psychological Science, 12, 276-281. Martin, J., and Samuels, J. (1997). First among Equals: The Role of the Chief Academic Officer. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Paradise, L. (2004). The perils of provosting. Chronicle of Higher Education, 50(19), C1-C4.

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In: Academic Administration: A Quest for Better Management... ISBN 978-1-60741-732-3 Editor: Sheying Chen © 2009 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 5

THE ASSOCIATE CHIEF ACADEMIC OFFICER Kristi Lahr Pearce Black Hills State University, Spearfish, South Dakota, USA

ABSTRACT

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This chapter presents an overview of the literature related to “leading from the middle” to frame the role that the Associate Chief Academic Officer plays in higher education. It is organized around seven areas common to this position: leadership roles and responsibilities; strategic planning and execution; relationships with students and stakeholders; the well-being of faculty and staff; sustaining the focus on learning; measurement, analysis, and knowledge management; and results across student learning and organizational outcomes. To breathe real life into the professional literature, reflective thoughts based on experiential wisdom of middle level leaders in higher education are interwoven with lessons learned from those on the ground.

INTRODUCTION The purpose of this chapter is to provide a common understanding of the work that exemplifies Associate Chief Academic Officer (ACAO). The specific title for such a position varies across institutions and depends on specific job descriptions, such as associate or assistant vice president/chancellor for academic affairs. Weinstein, Paul, and Williams (2007) describe a framework for evaluating organizational excellence in higher education which provides a natural foundation for structuring this chapter to characterize everyday responsibilities of the position. This framework identifies key areas in which the ACAO is involved: leadership; strategic planning; student/stakeholder relationships; the well-being of faculty and staff; learning centeredness; measurement, analysis, and knowledge management; and university results in the form of student learning and organizational outcomes. Furthermore, Noonan (2007) recommends that “leaders tell stories about struggle and accomplishment to motivate [others] to achieve ambitious goals despite the difficulties

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encountered. When shared, stories about how others solved intractable problems, used alternative approaches, or warned against a truly bad decision offer strategies for leadership” (p. 3). So, woven into these various areas of responsibility, real life middle level leaders share stories and offer advice based upon their experiences serving as Associate Chief Academic Officer.

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LEADERSHIP The role of Associate Chief Academic Officer in the administrative structure is best illustrated in the title Barclay and Bell (2007) selected, Good Practice Guide: Leading from the Middle. To recognize this distinct position of leadership, Bohlman (2008) chose the “leading from the middle” phrase as the title of his presentation at the Harvard Professional Development Institute, Management and Leadership in Education (June 15-27, 2008). Likewise, Maxwell (2005) refers to this role within an organization as “the 360 degree leader” and defines how the position needs to “lead up, lead across and lead down” (p. 2). Barclay and Bell (2007) present the difference between leadership and management in their training manual to enhance skills for life and work. They view management as “maintaining the existing organization by doing things right. . . while leadership is about facilitating change by doing the right thing” (p.2). They apply Kotter’s (1999) perspective when they take the position that management is concerned with maintaining the status quo whereas leadership is about thriving in change:”Managers set targets, and leaders set direction and vision” (p.2). While managers are expected to execute the plan, leaders champion the vision. As a result, managers are required “to control and monitor progress” and leaders are expected to “engage in motivating and inspiring” creative, collaborative problem-solving (p. 2). Heifetz, Kania, and Kramer (2004) present a model of adaptive leadership to consider when serving as an Associate Chief Academic Officer. Their perspective views the primary responsibility as problem-solving. Once a problem is identified as technical and common, or challenging and new, the ACAO then must engage all stakeholders in framing the issues within the context of a bigger picture to secure ownership and ensure that everyone shares the responsibility for problem solving. This adaptive leadership model recognizes the importance that the ACAO practice effective conflict resolution skills to manage stress and lift all stakeholders to a higher purpose to stay on task. Most importantly, the adaptive leadership model acknowledges the significance of establishing trusting relationships to be successful when leading from the middle. Furthermore, the following key skills for leading from the middle are identified by Barclay and Bell (2007) when they conclude that leadership complements management; it does not replace it: • •

Communicate and provide support for the university’s vision; Inspire faculty to trust the administration’s lead and celebrate short-term as well as long-term accomplishments;

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•

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Identify those who would commit early to become university ‘champions’ to mobilize a team who will provide high profile vision and direction as changes roll out; Show infectious commitment to project(s) and spend time providing different types of support to colleagues while establishing a sense of urgency and modeling collaborative, caring leadership; and Acknowledge that many people will feel threatened and that working with them will make it very challenging at times to proactively lead, rather than reactively manage.

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Tracy Schoolcraft serves as the Associate Provost at Shippensburg University and shares the following about her on the ground experiences (personal communication; 11-03-08): Because I often reflect on my communication, I’m choosing communication as the theme of effective middle level leadership. While this is a large topic, I will focus on four points: messages, time, respect, and culture. Messages: Being in the middle means that I am an important link in many communication chains, and thus I need to be aware of the messages of those above me so that I can reinforce those on each side of me in the chain. Specifically, I keep abreast of the messages of my Provost, President and state system Chancellor. If people hear different messages from me than are communicated from these people, they may lose confidence in the leadership of the university, or I may lose credibility as a leader. I also need to be aware of the messages from the deans, the department chairs, and the faculty. Are their messages in alignment with the messages from the Provost, President, and Chancellor? If not, is it because the messages are not being received by one of the parties, or because there is a philosophical disagreement? Communication also means listening and making sure others are listening. To lead from the middle, it is important to make sure that messages are being heard and responses are given as to why there is a disconnect. Most people can accept that their position is not adopted by the university leadership if they are given a reason why. And sometimes, part of the job of being in the middle is to help those involved realize that we can agree to disagree. Time: There are not enough hours in the day to communicate every message in person or on the phone. The natural reaction is to try to be efficient with time and to rely too much on email. When I find myself falling into this trap, I am reminded of a message in Stephen Covey’s book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: “You can’t be efficient with people.” To correct, I purposefully schedule lunches and coffee breaks, and also walking around time. If it does not get scheduled, it does not get done. I remind myself that a large part of communication is nonverbal and that we need to periodically meet with people so that we and they learn the intent that accompanies the words we typically use to communicate. Thus, when I later get emails from that person, I already have an idea as to the intent even if the words can be interpreted in different ways. This helps because the people who know me can help with communication. They can say things like “gee, that doesn’t sound like her, I encourage you to talk to her to make sure there isn’t a miscommunication.” I also feel that it is my job to make time for others to communicate. For example, I like to bring people together over lunch who may need a reason to get together, and just haven’t done so on their own, such as different graduate coordinators and the admissions office dean and associate dean. Respect: Treat people better than the way I wish to be treated. Here it really helps to “know thyself.” I know that by the end of the week when I’m tired, I am more likely to be reactive than earlier in the week, and thus I need to pause and think before reaction. One of the advantages that I have in my job is that I have been at Shippensburg for fifteen years. I have had the opportunity to develop relationships with many of the faculty in leadership

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Kristi Lahr Pearce positions. I have an appreciation for the diversity of their personalities and an appreciation for how each personality communicates and feel that I do a good job. Recently, I learned more about different communication styles and how I can adjust mine to ensure even better communication. According to “Manager Tools” at www.manager-tools.com, I am a high conscientious type and therefore I tend to be diplomatic. I also tend to be frustrated by people who communicate using vague words. Now that I am more aware of my behavior characteristics, I have the ability to change my communication style in a more thoughtful way. It is also respectful to have difficult conversations, which can take courage. When I keep the concept of respect foremost in my mind, I feel that I have better conversations. Here I think of situations when there have been misunderstandings of the people involved, and thus it is important to start with what I respect.”This relationship is important to me and I want us to have a good discussion. We may be able to resolve the problem, or we may come to an agreement to disagree, but I hope that we both learn each other’s points of view.” What to remember to include in a communication: Three things come to mind when communicating with others: intent, confidentiality, and action plan. I find that it is good to remind myself to specify the intent in a communication. For example, if the intent of a new policy is not explained, the intent of the policy may be perceived as being punitive rather than being protective of a faculty member. I make sure that I include information about confidentiality in a conversation as well. When someone starts to tell me something that should probably be confidential with the phrase, “I’m sure you have heard that . . .”, I let them know that I have not. By virtue of my position as Associate Provost, it is natural for people to think that the Provost shares confidential information with me, but this is not true at my university. Therefore I feel that it is important for people to understand that we value confidentiality and just because one administrator knows something, does not mean that the information has been or will be shared with other administrators. It is important for people to know that information shared in a confidential setting is just that, confidential. (So it is important to say “no, I did not hear anything” when a faculty member says “I’m sure you know that . . .”) People may be making assumptions about the culture of the institution that are inaccurate, and to not dispute these assumptions would create an environment of distrust. If you have heard because of a need to know, then remember to say, “Yes, because the Provost has asked me to be the point person on this situation, I do know.” The last item that I remember to establish in a conversation is an action plan. I make sure I have clarity in what the next steps are. Was I told something just to help with the brainstorming, or am I now being asked to act? Choose the medium for communication carefully: Depending on the message, I may choose to state the message in a meeting, or to wait to talk to someone privately. There are times when I need to talk to someone face-to-face, or make a phone call and not deliver the message via email. Not only does it depend on the message being delivered and the person(s) receiving the message, but also if I have the ability to deliver that particular message to that particular person in a particular medium. When to communicate: Even if I had the time to answer every email or phone call right away, sometimes I need to wait before responding. Do I need more information? Am I up to having this conversation right now? Are there other issues weighing on my mind that may affect my ability to communicate effectively? Which will do less harm, communicating now or later? Sometimes the respectful way to communicate is to wait before responding. The most important lessons I have learned to effectively lead from the middle are: know thyself, be thyself (authentic), improve thyself, and bring unique talents to the position.

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STRATEGIC PLANNING Since ACAOs are actively involved in strategic planning and execution as primary responsibilities, they assist in “ensuring that institutional environments are transformative through a process of organizational reinvigoration and strategic realignment” (Keeling, Underhile, and Wall, 2007; p. 30). For the most part, the ACAO role involves facilitating and participating in a process to engage all levels of the organization in self-reflection to assess “current practices, cultural expectations, and existing communication and collaborative pathways” across the institution when developing a strategic plan that grows from inclusive discussions concerning the institution’s vital purpose (Maxwell, 2005; p. 70). Consequently, “sharing the vision” of the president and the provost is especially critical for the ACAO when assisting with strategic planning and execution. When implementing a strategic plan, Randall and Coakley (2007) suggest that effective problem-solving requires innovation and input from all stakeholders. With this perspective in mind, the role of the ACAO then is to mobilize people to tackle tough problems with creative solutions. Having a framework to know when and how to be accountable, foster sustainability, and promote relationships across the university and its various stakeholders is imperative. As the ACAO participates in this type of process to develop, institute, and assess outcomes, the university is continuously reviewed at every level to naturally reallocate resources to sustain a dynamic organization. Senge (1990) revolutionized the business world when he introduced his theory of learning organizations. This work presents the importance of human relationships in creating a shared vision. In addition, his perspective outlines the critical nature of team learning and viewing organizations as communities to achieve superior performance in the world of work. To accomplish this, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook (2000) applies systems theory to organizational learning and recommends that leaders must focus their attention on systemic structures to generate the patterns of organizational action while deciding which activities and results are possible. This model is highly adaptable to administrating higher education. An effective ACAO understands how restructuring offers the greatest hope for increasing organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Furthermore, the successful ACAO appreciates how structure is the concrete representation of the principles of the administrative style and can help the organization execute the strategic plan (Senge, 1990).

STUDENT/STAKEHOLDER RELATIONSHIPS The importance of building relationships when leading from the middle is well established in the leadership literature (Maldonado, Lacey, and Thompson, 2007; Maxwell, 2005). In fact, this particular skill is critical for policy makers in educational administration where collaborative, caring leadership is valued. Likewise, establishing relationships with students, parents, and the larger community is essential for the ACAO to be effective. And when the ACAO has an understanding of learning theories, s/he can assist the organization in recognizing that “education” refers to change that is transformative (Mayer, 2007). Social Learning Theory presents that learning occurs as the result of a relationship with behavior models (Bandura, 1986) and builds the foundation for Barr and Tagg’s (1995)

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notion of being learning-centered. The ACAO who appreciates the significance of human relationships will support such contemporary practices of social learning theory in higher education as: peer tutoring, faculty and student mentoring, and self-monitoring systems for students to regulate their own learning. Likewise, s/he will promote the learning-centered philosophy to facilitate the student’s relationship with the content through experiential learning, including: use of inquiry-based learning and/or case studies to engage students in social interaction with the teacher and fellow students, simulations of complex systems for the learner to actively experience learning, and the utilization of authentic assessment methods (e.g., essay exams, written reports, projects, and portfolios to demonstrate the student’s conceptual understanding). In addition, the learning-centered perspective could be applied when developing an innovative leadership development program coordinated by the ACAO to intentionally prepare leaders from across the campus learning community. Given that “leadership development is a process, not a single event,” an ACAO can structure the experience of department, college, and university committee members to promote leadership development including training in leadership skills for all committee members (Bisbee, 2007; p. 86). Assigning committee leadership, delegating tasks for group members, recognizing committee members’ leadership skills, and rewarding committee accomplishments for progress towards leadership development objectives could make the committee work far more meaningful and much more productive. Bisbee suggests that recognizing all committee assignments as opportunities for formal and informal leadership training activities is a cost-effective way to improve committee work and increase committee member motivation to establish strong partnerships across the campus and with the community. The use of peer mentoring utilizes leadership skills to support committee members’ professional growth in becoming effective and efficient leaders (Bisbee, 2007). Using committee work to encourage, support, and reward leadership activities sustains student, faculty, and staff interest in acquiring and maintaining critical leadership skills. Likewise, campus vitality is sparked and productivity increases. Finally, Cole (2002) presents clear guidelines for the ACAO to establish and sustain meaningful relationships. These include: listen and learn from students and stakeholders; engage and encourage students and stakeholder involvement in collaborative problemsolving; always model behavior you expect of others; believe in and inspire positive change; insure a healthy dose of humility and good humor; and serve others, not oneself.

WELL-BEING OF FACULTY AND STAFF Rowley and Sherman (2003) discuss the special challenges of academic leadership when faculty and staff evolve into “permanent managers” (p. 1059). This perspective reminds ACAO’s to be mindful of pre-existing relationships with faculty and staff when one moves into administration. Their careful explanation of the “fine line between meeting organizational needs and being respectful of the needs and desires of staff and faculty” provides food for thought when “reality challenges managerial precepts with more practical political behaviors” (p.1059). Additionally, this work suggests how to use this inter-personal knowledge to match organizational needs with human resource capabilities when the ACAO

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is honest, fair, and open. In addition, Rowley and Sherman highlight the importance of the ACAO to “own mistakes, respect others, and listen to differences in order to establish common ground and encourage shared governance” (p. 1059). Furthermore, in this world of virtual networking, where students are viewed as consumers, the demand for accountability grows, and the costs of education constantly multiply, academic leadership is even more complicated and multidimensional (Bisbee, 2007). Bisbee explains how this heightened emphasis on responsibility for student learning, inter- and intra-organizational change, and high-performance solidarity intensifies the role of mid-level leaders in higher education. Addressing the well-being of faculty and staff is best exemplified in stories from another ACAO on the ground. Donald Boomgaarden serves as the Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs at Loyola College in Maryland. He offers the following five rules for being successful in this position (personal communication, 10-30-2008):

1. Everyone We Work with Is Important Having a good relationship with a person in ‘that other office’ is critical. How do you do this? Talk to everyone, find time to make friends, open yourself up to others and show them who you are, listen carefully to what they say to you. When you have even the slightest opportunity to show kindness, perform a small favor, or just listen to a complaint with understanding, seize upon it. Faculty members live in a hectic environment and often receive precious little recognition for their hard work – be someone who supports and enjoys their successes. But don’t limit this to just faculty members; include everyone on campus in your list of potential friends and go the extra mile to ensure that you have connected with them.

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2. Be on a Mission Every day you have to make decisions about small and large matters – you may not always have all the facts you need. But what you can have with you at all times is a vision of what you hold most dear and how that links up with your institution’s goals and plans for the future. Do not forget that there is a higher mission in what you do. It can be easy to forget this higher mission when confronted by the day-to-day events which challenge our abilities and patience. But remembering that higher mission, and keeping it a part of our daily interactions with others, is crucial. It gives life and joy to our work, and makes coming in on those especially tough days much, much easier.

3. Stop, Look, and Listen I know we all learned this in 3rd grade, but a day in the life of a middle manager is not that different from trying to cross a busy street with a heavy back pack filled with books on one’s back and an oily paper bag with a peanut-butter sandwich in hand. Before reacting to a problem, stop and think about where this falls on the priority list. Is this a really serious problem, or is it just a temporary flare-up that will take care of itself, or which one can return

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to later when passions have cooled? We are all familiar with the mass e-mailings from administrators or faculty members which spin out of control with every angry forwarding message. Don’t participate! Stop and look at what is really going on, and then speak to one of the participants and listen carefully. Then try to defuse the situation as best you can, without bothering those further up on the chain of command. Your superiors will thank you, and you will also gain the trust of those who were previously embroiled in a seemingly endless cycle of increasingly catty messages. The added benefit to following this rule is that it can help us avoid making false assumptions, or working with bad information – two things which destroy our credibility with others.

4. It’s Not about You Because I am also a performing church musician, I have often been a part of large events. One Christmas, before the children’s mass, I was feeling especially concerned. There were hundreds of parents and children in the church and I had a choir loft filled with middle-school musicians more interested in text-messaging than performing, and a musical program which was quite demanding. As I wearily started to ascend the stairs into the choir loft, a Jesuit who was saying mass noticed my worried expression.”Don,” he said, “remember – it’s not about you or me.” For some reason that wry comment from an old, experienced priest made the rest of the day easy – I’d completely forgotten that the children and parents were there for Christmas, not for my music program! I remember this story every time I lead the faculty into the arena for commencement, or give an address in a room crammed with parents and prospective students. We are a part of something much larger, and this simple truth can help to put what we do in perspective.

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5. Be Courageous Courage is a funny thing – we often forget that in our lives as middle managers courage is essential. It is easy to become anxious and afraid, particularly since we do not have control over all aspects of a situation. We often must lead others over whom we actually have no real authority, and who are actually skeptical about the worth of the ultimate task at hand. Sometimes the obstacles seem insurmountable. But timidity, fear, and anxiety undermine what little authority we do have, and we must overcome our worries if we are to be successful. When those moments arrive (and sometimes they arrive regularly!) middle managers must be intentional and realize that others are looking to us to be the calm in the storm. We have the courage within us, but we must remind ourselves in times of stress that it is there. Be intentional about your courage, summon it and it will come. Forget you have it, and you are lost.

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LEARNING CENTEREDNESS From the classroom to accreditation, the focus on learning and improving student learning is the core of restructuring, reengineering, and reinventing higher education. Given this responsibility, the ACAO needs to help lead the organization to embrace a learningcentered philosophy and set the stage for implementing strategies and tools to build a vibrant learning organization. Cole (1992) proposed that Constructivism offers such a theoretical foundation for higher education because it guides the organization to continually ask itself: What is knowledge? What is learning? What is the purpose of instruction? Who should determine the goals of learning? What is the relationship between the teacher and the learner? What should be evaluated? How? Why? An early educational philosopher, John Dewey, argued from a Constructivist stance, emphasizing the necessary relationship between experience and education (Garrison, 1995). Constructivism focuses on the individual as an active constructor of meaning and acknowledges the importance of understanding that the learner brings to new learning. Thus, “learning is viewed as a complex process involving the interaction of past experience, personal intentions and new experience [while] social context is recognized as a crucial element in this meaning-making process” (McKay, 1993, p. 47). As importantly, learning from this perspective is viewed as a self-regulatory process of integrating new and sometimes conflicting information with existing personal perceptions of the world (Fosnot, 1996). It suggests that effective teaching provides learners with the opportunity for real, contextually meaningful experiences through which they can invent their own ideas, identify patterns, formulate individual questions, and create personal models, concepts, and strategies rather than simply absorbing ideas spoken to them by teachers, or somehow internalizing them through rote memorization (Schifter, 1996). As a result, the “learner is expected to construct new representations and models of reality as a human being on a meaning-making venture with culturally developed tools and symbols, and to further negotiate such meanings through social activity, discourse, and debate” (Fosnot, 1996, preface). Constructivism has led to the discovery that powerful gains are made when learners work together (Strommen and Lincoln, 1992). The advantage of collective effort is that learners are able to reflect on and elaborate not just on their own ideas but the ideas of others. Such mutual teaching and learning from each other provides a sense of shared progress and shared goals. This experience of teamwork is the natural outcome of collaborative problem-solving and has been shown to produce substantial advances in learning. Wood, Cobb, and Yachel (1991) present seven underlying assumptions of Constructivism that focus the organization on learning. These include: 1. Knowledge is actively constructed by individuals and is not passively received. 2. Individuals create new knowledge by reflecting on past thoughts, feelings, and actions. 3. When expressing these reflections, the learner demonstrates his/her current level of understanding.

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4. Significant learning occurs when the student experiences conflict and the challenge to solve a problem or apply the constructed knowledge. 5. Learning is a social process in which individuals grow as a member of a learning community. 6. Ideas and concepts are collaboratively established by members of the learning culture. 7. Opportunities for learning occur during collaborative dialogue. It is imperative that the ACAO fully understand the Constructivist perspective when guiding the paradigm shift for college teaching and the subsequent assessment processes to enhance student learning. Because “as the term becomes more familiar in educational circles and as Contructivist teaching practices are adopted, adapted, and re-invented from preschool through higher education, there is growing potential for oversimplification, and misunderstanding of the principles and practices” (Fyfe, 1997, p. 2-3). Dolk, Uittenbogaard, and Fosnot (1996) suggest Constructivist teaching practices in higher education must integrate the use of collaborative learning, simulations, real world contexts, and inquiry-based learning for students to fully benefit. When the organization believes learning is experiential and occurs in and out of the classroom, Constructivism serves as the overarching philosophy and management approach to guide the individual institution to place learning at the center. Furthermore, this view is supported by Bohlman and Deal (2001) who propose that “leaders are seekers . . . on a personal quest for spirit and heart . . . with commitment to share their learning with others” (p. 174). Their view also reflects how learning is at the core of all leadership. This concept is further affirmed when they explain that “a leader nurtures soul and spirit in an organization and its workers through giving them space within boundaries (authorship) so they can grow satisfaction from their work, the ability to influence others (power) and a coherent sense of importance and meaning in work, faith in themselves, confidence in the value of their lives and hope for the future” (p. 105). Applying learning centeredness to higher education ought to be simple! Yet, many institutions attempt to administer the academy as a business and view learning as a product to be sold to consumers. Although The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Education (Senge, Cambron-McCabe, Lucas, Smith, Dutton and Kleiner, 2000) was originally designed for K12 schools, it is natural to generalize systems thinking to higher education. This work offers the ACAO a step-by-step process to assist the institution in taking a learning orientation. Likewise, Bolman and Deal (2003) advocate that when teams use systems thinking to frame and reframe, they will see an issue from a different perspective, define a problem differently, and yield a larger array of potential solutions.

MEASUREMENT, ANALYSIS, AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Because the Associate Chief Academic Officer is involved with ensuring institutional effectiveness, the role s/he plays in measurement, analysis and knowledge management is crucial. Hollowell, Middaugh and Sibolski (2006) suggest that “quantitative and qualitative information about all facets of a college or university’s operations—and how they relate to

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the institutional mission—is essential” to effective middle level leadership (p. 69). Their work describes how each regional accrediting body in the United States is committed to assessment of institutional effectiveness and requires a continuous assessment process that evaluates an institution’s overall effectiveness in achieving its mission and goals in compliance with accreditation standards. Specifically, institutional effectiveness is determined by assessing the following: [The] extent to which an institution is achieving its mission and goals; implementing planning, resource allocation, and institutional renewal processes; using institutional resources effectively; providing leadership and governance; providing administrative structures and services; demonstrating institutional integrity; and assuring that institutional processes and resources support appropriate learning and other outcomes for its students and graduates. (Hollowell, Middaugh, and Sibolski, 2006, p. 71)

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Most ACAOs are responsible for facilitating academic program reviews designed to evaluate the quality, productivity, and role of each academic unit and program to fulfill the institution’s mission, strategic goals, and related financial planning decisions. Hollowell, Middaugh and Sibolski (2006) offer the following series of questions for discussing organizational budgets: 1. Are the financial resources of the institution sufficient to support its mission? Is the institution clearly financially healthy or not as of the balance sheet date? Is the reporting institution financially better off or not at the end of the year than it was at the beginning? Did the institution live within its financial means during the year? 2. What financial resources are available to support the institution’s mission? Which resources are internally generated to support the mission? Which resources are externally generated to support the mission? How does the use of debt support the mission? 3. How are financial resources used to support the institution’s mission? How are resources used to conduct core educational services? How are resources used to conduct educational support services? How are resources used to conduct general support services? 4. Are financial resources applied efficiently and effectively to support the institution’s mission? (p. 80) Although knowing numbers of potential and actual students is the first step in assessing student success and satisfaction, standardized surveys of students currently enrolled that gather information to improve student learning at the individual class level are essential to assessing quality. Hollowell, Middaugh, and Sibolski (2006) argue that high-quality academic programs have carefully reasoned and well-planned strategies for implementing multiple measures of student learning. And, equally important, the results from these multiple measures are used as feedback for further academic planning, including curriculum redesign or enhancement and refinement of teaching workloads as well as administrative decisions with respect to resource allocation and, as appropriate, facilities design and/or renovation. (p. 91)

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Kristi Lahr Pearce They suggest asking the following questions: [How does] the college or university experience change the student with respect to intellectual, social, and cultural measures? [How does] the organization empirically demonstrate that students have actually learned in meaningful ways in the academic disciplines in which they elected to study? (p. 92)

The responses to these essential questions then should include: •

• • •

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•

clearly articulated statements of expected student learning outcomes . . . at all levels (institution, degree program, course) and for all programs that aim to foster student learning and development; a documented, organized, and sustained assessment process to evaluate and improve student learning; assessment results that provide sufficient, convincing evidence that students are achieving key institutional and program learning outcomes; evidence that student learning assessment information is shared and discussed with appropriate constituents and is used to improve teaching and learning; and documented use of student learning assessment information as part of institutional assessment. (p. 92)

Many times, the ACAO is charged with bringing reluctant faculty into the assessment process; facilitating the development of measurable learning objectives at the institutional, college, department, and course level to ensure that each is consistent with mission; assisting the organization in determining how to measure those objectives; and directing how the measurements will be reported at each organizational level to ensure that they are used to improve institutional effectiveness, instruction, and student learning. As a result, most campuses agree that student outcomes are directly related to faculty development and charge the ACAO with connecting assessment to learning enhancement initiatives. Keeling, Underhile, and Wall (2007) focus faculty development on strategies for supporting not only student engagement with content, but also the more comprehensive effort to create a purposeful learning environment. They describe how this sort of learning results in learners who know more than facts; learners who understand why, and appreciate how content knowledge is related to other disciplines and everyday life. Learning here refers not to the regurgitation of facts on a final exam. It refers to enhanced quantitative and verbal skills as well as the ability to reason critically, to synthesize complex ideas, and to demonstrate in measurable ways cognitive gains and related changes in behavior. Hollowell, Middaugh and Sibolski’s guide illustrates how middle level leaders can integrate measurement, analysis, and knowledge management by focusing on how successful learning reflects the university’s overall mission, goals, and objectives. By examining the organizational units, programs, and services, the ACAO focuses on data-driven decisionmaking and resource allocations that support the mission and its related learning outcomes. In the final analysis, if a university is to truly measure success, it must do so in terms of student learning. Ironically, asking whether students actually learn as the result of their college or university experience is a recent expectation!

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Shupe (2007) identified the following concepts for the ACAO to consider when helping the organization with measurement, analysis and knowledge management: 1. Focus on work and activities that students are already doing as a regular part of their courses and co-curricular activities. This places the emphasis on the integral work of the organization, where the educational richness resides and where most would wish student attention be directed. 2. Carefully analyze the distinction between student work/activity and the outcome(s) for which that work/activity can stand as evidence. This distinction is crucial for clarity, consistency and versatility. One activity (say, preparing a business plan in a course) may indeed be evidence for one outcome (preparing a business plan as an expected student outcome in a program), but more often a single activity (like writing a paper) can be evaluated simultaneously as evidence for a student’s comprehension of the topic, critical thinking, and ability to write. 3. Critically evaluate student work/activity using explicit criteria of quality. A decade or more of assessment practice has shown that the best way to express those judgments is through the use of well-defined qualitative criteria, i.e. rubrics, in which the evaluator selects from a spectrum of defined levels of quality the one that most clearly characterizes the evidence. This approach is a careful middle ground between assessment approaches that disregard faculty judgment, on the one hand, and the customary approach to “grading” (in which an evaluator uses implicit criteria to assign earned points) on the other. 4. Use collaborative decision-making for defining the expected outcomes and the related criteria of quality to be drawn on in evaluations across academic programs and across institutions. Faculty committees (whether within or across departments) work together to determine both the expected outcomes for an academic program and for the institution as a whole. They also cooperate on defining the rubrics to be used in evaluating those outcomes. 5. Recognize that student learning outcomes are as much attributes of individual students as they are organizational attributes. This key distinction is often overlooked. Indeed, it is common to consider outcomes assessment to be about a catalog course offered multiple times, in which students come and go and anonymously contribute outcomes data. Equally important, though, is the view in which named students progressively develop knowledge and skills, as the courses come and go. Both of these perspectives provide valuable information about outcomes. 6. Create an electronic system or structure that knits these elements together as steps in a single and simple process, with information on all of the necessary new elements of information flowing through the process. This structure focuses on expected and actual outcomes with the same systematic precision that the enrollment-based systems keep track of student enrollment (expected completion of courses) and course grades (actual completion of courses). An instructor’s specific judgments about student outcomes and rubric scores are reported directly to a shared database in ways that previously did not exist. Thus the structure pulls the five other essential elements together, balances them, and makes each easier to accomplish. (p. 49)

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RESULTS Knowing when to lead and how to follow is vital for the ACAO to facilitate the examination of current practices and develop desired outcomes and programs associated with such outcomes that share a strong common ground (Keeling, Underhile, and Wall, 2007). When this occurs, desired outcomes flow smoothly from and through administration, faculty, staff, and student involvement. When learning outcomes are derived from the institution’s mission, vision, and values, they are realized through its commitment to student learning. Kucia (2004) recommends “blending the use of data with good judgment, intuition, and wisdom to skillfully balance the forces of competition (bottom line driven) with collaboration (purpose driven), teaching (knowing and challenging) with learning (curious and reflecting), and the hierarchy (dependence) with the network (interdependence) to meet challenges (complex or linear) and changes (transformational or incremental) needed to accomplish the mission and goals of the organization” (p. 72). To accomplish this balance, the ACAO must: • • •

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• • • •

Be respected by students, staff, and faculty as a teacher, designer, steward; Be a sincere listener; Be able to say things to people with kindness and gentleness so that criticism is not crushing; Be highly organized; Be calm and capable of hearing bad news; Be engaged in trusting relationships to build community; and Be committed to collective action to create a culture of collaboration that encourages individual learning.

Huba and Freed (2000) recommend concentrating on improvement rather than accountability when using a results-driven approach to leadership. Likewise, their work highlights how the Associate Chief Academic Officer can support “shifting the focus from teaching to learning” (p.3). This change in perception for the academy moves the organization to take ownership of an “integrated and transformative assessment process” and carry it out in a sensitive and sensible manner (Wehlburg, 2008, p.12).

CONCLUSION Noonan (2007) discusses the need for leaders to stay abreast of change through continuous lifelong learning. Her work charges leaders with the responsibility to “champion individual and organizational learning to support growth and continuous improvement” (p. 44). As importantly, Bolman and Deal (2003) suggest that people find great meaning and purpose (spirit and soul) in their lives through their work, and conclude that when a leader can connect life and livelihood, passion, loyalty, creativity and fulfillment will grow through the collective accomplishments of the organization. Shedding additional light on this meta-cognitive development of leadership skills, Noonan articulates how stories help leaders stay on course, support persistence, and reflect on the results. When looking back over the landscape of one’s work, “stories help to interpret the

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experience and mark the changes that have occurred . . . stories explain not only who we are but also what we are willing to do” (p. 3). A final story from an ACAO on the ground portrays how leading from the middle summarizes the position’s role and function. Cynthia Edwards is Associate Vice President for Academic Programs at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina. She shares the following thoughts (personal communication, 10-26-2008): My ten-year-old looked up from his homework to where I sat, busily typing on my laptop, and asked “Mom, what do you do?” I briefly recounted the activities of my day attending lots of meetings, answering email, answering more email.”No, I mean, what do you do?” The inadequacy of my reply now driven home, I began to reflect – what do I do? Well, this week, there were meetings with warring factions in one of our departments, there were meetings with each of my program heads, a long term strategy session with our senior management team, a couple of frustrating budget meetings, and a really lovely conversation over coffee with a student preparing her graduate school applications. Somehow, a catalogue of all of this activity did not seem likely to satisfy the ten-year-old in front of me. In fact, I do attend a lot of meetings, but to what purpose? And the endless email – what of that? Certainly, the institution would not have fallen down without my presence last week. What if I had not attended all of those meetings? What was accomplished? What would have been different? Much of what I do is reactionary – fighting fires, solving the next minor crisis in line. I can comfort myself a bit by knowing I successfully resolved a few of those crises and perhaps diverted a few more. This is what keeps me busy. But is this what I do? As I mused over the tenuous accomplishments of the week, I realized that the most important work I do is rarely grand, or even visible, but still crucial. When I sit in those endless meetings, I collect, share, and translate information among constituencies who do not often (if ever) sit down and talk directly with one another. Because I am at the nexus, I have the opportunity to shape the institutional conversation from both ends. This is a non-obvious place from which to lead, but it can be an influential one. To the ten-year-old, I finally replied, “I try to get the junk out of the way so other people can do their jobs better, and I help people understand each other so that they can make better decisions.” Still not quite satisfactory, but closer to answering what I do, and perhaps also why I do it.

REFERENCES Bandura, A. (1986). Social Foundations of Thought and Action. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc. Barclay, N., and Bell, S. (2007). Good Practice Guide: Leading from the Middle. London, England: Learning and Skills Network. Barr, R.B., and Tagg, J., (November/December, 1995). From Teaching to Learning - A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Education. Available: http://critical.tamucc.edu/ ~blalock/readings/tch2learn.htm. Bisbee, D.C. (2007). Looking for leaders: Current practices in leadership identification in higher education. Planning and Changing, 38, 77- 88. Bohlman, L.G. (2008). Lecture at Harvard Professional Development Institute: Management and Leadership in Higher Education. Cambridge, MA; June 15 - 27, 2008.

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Bolman, L. G., and Deal, T.E. (2003/2001/1997) Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice and Leadership (3rd Edition). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Bolman, L. G., and Deal, T.E. (2001) Leading with Soul: An Uncommon Journey of Spirit (2nd Edition). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Boomgaarten, D. (2008). Moving up . . . managing from the middle. Personal Communication; 10-30-08. Published in The Chronicle of Higher Education, LV, A31. Cole, J.B. (2002). 6 steps to effective leadership. Black Issues in Higher Education, 19, D-4. Cole, P. (1992). Constructivism revisited: A search for common ground. Educational Technology, 33. Dolk, M., Uittengogaard, W., and Fosnot, C. T. (1996). Teaching to facilitate progressive schematization. The Constructivist, 11, 10-14. Edwards, C. (10-26-2008). Personal communication. Fosnot, C.T. (1996). Constructivism: Theory, Perspectives, and Practice. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University. Fyfe, B. (1997). A letter from the President of the Association for Constructivist Teaching. The Constructivist, 12, 2-3. Garrison, J. (1995). Deweyan pragmatisim and the epistemology of contemporary social constructionism. American Educational Research Journal, 32, 716-740. Heifetz, R.A., Kania, J.V., and Kramer, M.R. (2004). Leading boldly. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2, 20-32. Hollowell, D., Middaugh, M., and Sibolski, E. (2006). Integrating Higher Education Planning and Assessment: A Practical Guide. Michigan: Society for College and University Planning. 69-95. Huba, M. E., and Freed, J. E. (2000). Learner-Centered Assessment on College Campuses. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon. Keeling, R. P., Underhile, R., and Wall, A. F. (2007). The dynamics of organization in higher education. Liberal Education, 93, 22-31. Kotter, J.P. (1999). What Leaders Really Do. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Review Books. Kucia, J.F. (2004) Leadership in balance: The role of collaboration for leading change in a living organization. Dissertation in Higher Education Management, University of Pennsylvania. Maldonado, N., Lacey, C.H., and Thompson, S.D. (2007). Ethical learning and the university: Listening to the voices of leaders. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL. April 9-13. Maxwell, J. C. (2005). The 360˚ Leader. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc. Mayer, R. E. (2007). Learning and Instruction (2nd ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: PrenticeHall. [First edition published in 2003.] McKay, R. (1993). Constructivism …. Defining our beliefs, examining our practices. Canadian Social Studies, 27, 47. Noonan, S.J. (2007). Leadership through Story. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. Randall, L.M., and Coakley, L.A. (2007). Applying adaptive leadership to successful change Initiatives in Academia. Leadership and Organizational Development Journal, 28, 325335.

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Rowley, D. J., and Sherman, H. (2003). The special challenges of academic leadership. Management Decision, 41, 1058-1064. Schoolcraft, T. (11-03-2008). Personal Communication. Senge, P. (1990). The Fifth Discipline. New York: Doubleday-Currency. Senge, P., Cambron-McCabe, N., Lucas, T., Smith, B., Dutton, J., and Kleiner, A. (2000). Schools That Learn. New York: Doubleday Dell Publishing. Senge, P., Kleiner, A., Roberts, C., Ross, R., and Smith, B. (1994). The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook. New York: Doubleday-Currency. Schifter, D. (March, 1996). A constructivist perspective on teaching and learning mathematics. Phi Delta Kappan, 492-499. Shupe, D. (2007). Significantly better: The benefits for an academic institution focused on student learning outcomes. On the Horizon, 15, 48-57. Strommen, E., and Lincoln, B. (1992). Constructivism, technology, and the future of classroom learning. Education and Urban Society, 24, 468-469. Wehlburg, C.M. (2008). Promoting Integrated and Transformative Assessment. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Weinstein, L. , Paul R., and Williams, S. (2007). Use of Boldridge Assessment Techniques in strategic planning and assessment for arts administration in higher education. International journal of arts management, 9, 34-51. Wood, T., Cobb, P., and Yachel, E. (Fall, 1991). Change in teaching mathematics: A case study. American Educational Research Journal, 587-616.

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In: Academic Administration: A Quest for Better Management... ISBN 978-1-60741-732-3 Editor: Sheying Chen © 2009 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 6

THE CHANGING ROLE OF THE DEAN IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE UK Brian Longhurst University of Salford, Salford, Greater Manchester, M5 4WT, United Kingdom UK

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ABSTRACT The chapter considers the way in which the role of the dean in the UK higher education system is changing. Locating the analysis in the different models of governance in UK universities as elucidated by Shattock, the chapter identifies some key tensions in the governance and management systems of UK universities. In particular it is argued that in response to external and internal changes and the increased influence of the Higher Education Corporation model, the role of the dean is shifting. In addition to the representational and quality assurance dimensions, corporate, managerial and external aspects of the role are increasing in importance. These changes are in turn reproducing but also exacerbating some tensions between different roles in the management of UK universities.

INTRODUCTION This chapter explores a number of different aspects of Executive Deanship in the UK Higher Education (HE) system. I argue that due to significant internal and external pressures in UK HE, new governance, management, leadership processes and structures are being evolved. This is leading to a changing role for deans (and indeed other academic leaders), which in some ways reproduces tensions and fault lines that have been in UK HE for many years, but in others is forcing a number of other issues to the forefront. It is useful to take stock of these issues and changes, and also to compare structures and processes internationally, as the ongoing success of many universities and indeed the individuals who perform the roles like dean, will increasing depend on the construction of new processes and learning from best practice.

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The chapter is organized as follows. I begin with a short introduction to the different models of governance and leadership in UK HE. This sets both an historical and organizational context for the arguments and comments that follow. Having set this context, I explore some of the general issues that are raised by the UK system models. I argue that the push to more consistent lines of accountability and management has led to the re-definition of the role of the dean (and indeed other roles). I identify what these changes are and also in the subsequent section further consider the issues that this changing role itself produces. My argument is of course, informed by my own experience as an academic manager (currently as a dean, but with now over ten years experience in a variety of roles) and by my own academic background (as a sociologist who has worked in the main where the sociology of knowledge and the sociology of culture, meet cultural and media studies).

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THE UK TRADITION IN THE GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION Shattock (2006) identifies four broad models of university governance in the UK: the Oxbridge model; the Scottish model; the civic governance model and the Higher Education Corporation model. The Oxbridge model, followed fairly obviously by the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge was very influenced by developments in Paris and to summarize very concisely had a large degree of ‘academic self-governance’ (Shattock, 2006: 5) at its heart. This has continued to cause debate, especially around the involvement of ‘lay’ members in the governance of these universities. However, it is clear that academic members of staff of these universities have been very resistant to the introduction of reforms that could affect their influence. Another issue is the wider influence of these Oxbridge debates, as this mode of governance is very much a minority form in UK HE. However, when such debates do arise at these universities they tend to achieve a high media profile (perhaps one could speculate because of the number of graduates of these universities who work in the media). Moreover, most senior politicians in the UK are Oxbridge graduates and their understanding of the UK HE system is affected by their own experiences. The Scottish model is also longstanding and is represented by the oldest established Scottish Universities (Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and St. Andrews). While there are important differences between these universities they all have significantly more external accountability build into their governance than is the case in the Oxbridge model. Each university has a court and the introduction of this body (following a decision of 1848) ‘represented a radical shift of power away from the academic community’ (Shattock, 2006: 7). Another key aspect of this model is the separation of the responsibilities of the court and the senate, which Shattock argues is clearer than is the case in the English Civic Universities. The civic governance model is also longstanding though a more recent innovation than the two models discussed so far. It was also for a significant period the dominant model for English universities. In particular it was adopted by the ‘new’ universities that were set up in the 1960s (including my own university, the University of Salford). The key originating institution for this model was Owens College, Manchester (University of Manchester) though the constitution for the University of Birmingham was also highly influential. These constitutions set up three bodies: a court as the ‘overall governing body’; a council ‘as the

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executive governing body (and operating like the court of a Scottish university) and an academic senate (Shattock, 2006: 8-9). The precise membership of these bodies differs between institutions. In general, the court would have some membership from the senate and senates, while dominated by the academic community, could also involve representation from other groups of staff and students. In practice, there was a drift of power towards senates and forms of academic self-governance. Shattock (2006: 11) argues that:

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Just as councils took over the operational governing powers of university courts in the early twentieth century, because courts were too big and met too infrequently and because university business was becoming too technical for them to be effective, so in the later twentieth century and particularly in the post-war era, senates tended to take over the effective running of universities from councils leaving the latter the formal powers of governance in legal and financial matters.

However, under increased financial stringency and ideological attack from the Conservative ‘Thatcher’ governments from 1979 on, the role of councils was again boosted and some joint Council/Senate Committees were set up. Moreover increased attention was drawn to the nature and efficiency of management processes in the universities, in the context of public sector governance and management reform. An emphasis on management was a key aspect of the final model. The Higher Education Corporation model was developed when the polytechnics, which were HE institutions set up under local authority (local government) control in the 1960s were set up as independent bodies in 1988. They (and the Scottish central institutions) were allowed to use the title of university from 1992. In this model the governing body was itself a corporation and the institutions were ‘unicameral’ with a strong governing body. The powers of an academic board were relatively restricted. This means that there is a much greater role for external members than the internal academic community. As Shattock argues, this model as become more influential and the UK government has found it to be attractive. Two aspects may explain this, first the greater external accountability and second the increased managerialism that the model entails. I will pick up on both of these issues below. As Shattock suggests, the Corporation model has much in common with the US university governance model. Having introduced these models, I now move to a consideration of some of the general issues that they imply.

ISSUES FOR THE UK MODELS It can be seen the two dominant models of governance in the UK are the civic governance model and the Higher Education Corporation model. As also already stated the Higher Education Corporation model has increased in influence. However, both of these models share a number of common dilemmas that are throwing up fault lines for them. While there may be a number of these, I focus on four: the relationship between governance and management; increased internal and external competition in a number of ways; speed of decision-making; and consistency and accountability of actions and decisions. In my discussion so far, following Shattock, I have mainly focused on overall governance structures and systems in the UK HE sector. However, this has also raised by implication at

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least the relationship between governance and management. It is important that these different processes are defined and the issues raised by their interaction (and perhaps confusions) are considered. Shattock (2006:1) defines governance in universities as follows: ‘the constitutional forms and processes through which universities govern their affairs’. Governance is not just concerned with the activities of the governing body but percolates down through the university to departmental level (and indeed perhaps even below) (see for example Shattock, 2003: 97-108) and is a constitutional activity involving bodies and processes. There are many definitions of management but a clear encapsulation of this in HE can be found in the following discussion.

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The word [manager] gradually came to be applied to anyone who had a responsibility for organising activities and controlling their administration. And the activities or functions associated with it, planning, staffing, budgeting, coordinating, decision-making and so on, came to be the guiding principles (and organisational theory) on which the classic business was later formed (McCaffery, 2004: 58-9).

So while it can be seen that these processes of governance and management have things in common, it is important that they be kept relatively separate. This is the case not least because the governance processes should be a way in which managers are held to constitutional account for the activities that they engage in. Furthermore, over the recent period UK HE has become a more regulated activity and more subject to external reviews. Thus, while teaching and learning in UK HE was subject to a form of peer review in the form of an external examiner system, where the standards of a university’s awards of degrees were scrutinized and validated by peer academics from other institutions, it is now assessed and monitored by an external body and subject to audit. In addition, research is evaluated by the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), which periodically (the latest review in 2008, with the previous in 2001) grades the standards of the research performed in universities. This has a direct impact on the funding that is subsequently allocated to universities, through the funding stream for quality of research (QR). In such an environment, and I have only given a very brief consideration of some key mechanisms of accountability and regulation, it is important that universities are very clear about their forms and processes of governance and that there also have clear lines of management accountability. This need is reinforced by the fact that universities are operating in an increasingly competitive environment. I have already pointed to the fact that success (or otherwise) in the Research Assessment Exercise has a direct link to funding. While this will be of differential importance to universities depending on the proportion of funding that is derived from this source, even small changes to this funding model can affect institutions which are not highly research ranked quite profoundly. Moreover, funding for teaching and learning is increasingly competitive for UK universities. Funding for this realm comes in two broad ways: grant and fees. For example each university in England is allocated a teaching grant (from the Higher Education Funding Council – HEFCE) according to a complex formula, which changes annually. In addition, each student is charged a fee by the university in which they study. In England there is a maximum fee for home (including the EU) undergraduates of £3000 per annum. While this is a maximum, and was set at this limit in 2006, universities are free to fix the fee at a lower level. In practice, very few universities decided to charge less than this. The future of this fee and the extent to which the home undergraduate sector will become a market

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driven by price is still the subject of political debate. For overseas students and postgraduate students such a marketplace already exists. The competition for home students in the UK is taking place in the context of demographic changes which decrease the number of 18 year olds that will be available to enter HE (see for example Bekhradnia and Bailey, 2008). Moreover, the market for overseas students is becoming increasingly competitive for UK HE. While the UK has always had a strong position in this respect, due at least in part to the esteem in which its HE sector has been held internationally, this position has been eroded by increased competition from other countries and the desire on the part of some states for their students to be educated at home rather than abroad. In addition, competition between institutions is reinforced by a league table culture, where the ‘quality’ newspapers (predominantly The Times, The Sunday Times and The Guardian though there are others) and the Higher Education media sector (predominantly The Higher) construct league tables based on for example Research ratings and published performance indicators, but also including rankings based on student views as gleaned through the National Student Survey (NSS) which is now carried out annually across the sector. In this environment of increased external regulation of HE and competition the clear articulation of governance and management processes is becoming increasingly important. Moreover, especially the increasingly competitive environment means that it is important for universities to be able to respond to opportunities and challenges that face them quickly. This is a key factor behind what can be termed the increased managerialism of UK HE where managerial decisions can be made quickly without long-term resort to committee based decisions. While this is actually quite a complex issue, as no manager would wish to operate without discussion with colleagues and team-working, it does mean that old established models of academic consultation are looking increasingly under threat. I have already introduced issues concerned with accountability above in discussing briefly the regulatory regimes for teaching and learning and research. However, the further development of other forms of accountability is also forcing universities to look closely at the consistency of decision-making and processes. Thus, on the basis of the development of what can be called an increased consumer voice in HE, students are becoming more likely to raise complaints and appeals against academic processes. Universities have their own internal processes, but the exhaustion of these could involve the case being taken to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) to which universities subscribe. I have also already mentioned the increased consumerist voice that is offered to students through the NSS. In addition, of course, universities are subject to health and safety legislation, and employment legislation. The latter in particular appears to be impacting increasingly on universities in the UK. As the sector becomes more competitive, it is likely that ‘labor’ relations will become more problematic and potentially confrontational. Moreover, the potential increase in the number of individual disputes that reach the serious stages of an Employment Tribunal is likely to place even more attention on the nature of management processes within UK HE. All these processes, and indeed others, are producing a greater emphasis on management within the HE sector in the UK and are producing changes that can be seen as shifting the sector more towards the Higher Education Corporation model and away from the civic governance one. However, as I have already argued these tensions/issues also run through the civic governance model. These general changes are affecting the specific role of the Dean. As

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Shattock (2006: 25) argues, the role of Dean is moving away from a limited term office to a permanent substantive post. Moreover, what is also happening is A much greater investment in an institutional executive and in vertical line management through the institution. In governance terms this has the effect of emphasizing the role of the body to which the executive is responsible. (Shattock, 2006: 26)

I will explore these changes and others related to them in the next section.

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THE CHANGING ROLE OF THE DEAN I have suggested that the appeals of the Corporation model, especially in an increasingly regulated and competitive HE sector are tending to erode the civic governance model. However, this is happening in differential ways across the sector. My suggestion is that it is particularly affecting those universities who would have been seen as in the lower realms of a ‘league’ table of the established universities, i.e. that sort of table that would have been constructed before the ex-polytechnics became universities in 1992. While certain changes appear to be happening across the ‘civic governance’ sector as a whole, such as a move to larger schools rather than having a large number of small departments in universities, others I suggest are more likely to be occurring at those universities (in the middle range of the overall ranking) that feel that their performance has to be improved on a number of dimensions due to competitive pressures. My own university is very much in this position. The University of Salford became a university in 1967, though its history dates back to the 19th century. It had until relatively recently, a strong identity as a university for science and technology. Through mergers with other colleges in the 1990s the university significantly changed its size and disciplinary mix. It is now made up of four faculties, with the largest being that for Health and Social Care. The University of Salford operates in a competitive regional environment in the North-West of England, where there are a large number of universities. The university has never been one the research elite universities, though it has significant research of international standing (as measured by successive Research Assessment Exercises). Research is an important part of our portfolio. However, the largest part of our income comes from teaching under the models identified above (with additional significant funding for health professional education). This means that we are increasingly competing with universities that define themselves more clearly as teaching oriented institutions. In 1981 the university suffered a large cut in funding, to which it responded in an entrepreneurial way by working with industry and commerce in developing new programs and activities (see Brandon, 1999). This enterprising aspect of the university has been developed further to ‘brand’ it. So the university seeks significantly to interact with business and the community in new and innovative ways and to use these activities to underpin its teaching and its research. Over the last few years the University of Salford has sought to build on this history, but to recognise that its governance and management structures were not serving it well in the environment described above. This has involved implementing a series of changes to the university constitution, its governance and management structures, its managerial approach and its organization of the professional and administrative services. While some of these

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changes are specific to Salford, as I have argued above they are but specific manifestations of wider and more general changes that are happening across the sector as a whole. In the rest of this section, I wish to focus on the role of Dean in this context and use this discussion to address several issues that get to some of the fault lines in contemporary university management in the UK (in the context of the governance structures described above). It can be suggested that the role of Dean is changing in UK HE. Thus, while this is a role that is recognizable as having a particular administrative and managerial remit in the US system, the position in the UK has been rather different. Where universities have been organized in faculties (using the term ‘faculty’ to describe a grouping of academic and administrative units, rather than as a collective noun for academic staff), they have been headed by a Dean. This would normally have been a position taken on by a senior member of academic staff (often a Professor – i.e. full Professor in US terms), with consequently many years experience of HE. As mentioned above, the term of office (like that for many other administrative or managerial jobs) was usually time limited to anything between three and five years. The role therefore would have been seen as one for which no specific training was required, could be filled on the basis of experience and which was essentially representational and concerned with what would now be seen as ‘quality assurance’ or ‘quality enhancement’ matters’ rather than management per se. Both of these latter dimensions were (and remain) important. Thus, the Dean would have been seen as the person who could represent the academic units, which fell within his or her faculty, in the wider university and would have been expected to defend the interests of the faculty within that wider context. Moreover, the Dean normally as Chair of a body such as a Faculty Council or Board would play an important governance and quality assurance role in the oversight of the documentation developing a new program of study or the partnership with another university to take just two examples. Once endorsed at Faculty level these developments would have been subject to final ratification in a cross university committee. In some universities, these remain the core functions of the Dean. They can be summarized as involving representation and governance. The former, is based in the fact that in some way the Deans was ‘elected’ (if not through a ballot) through a process that saw him or her as the representative of a group of academic staff. This further entailed the idea that the Dean could represent the interests of these individuals, groups or disciplines to the wider university. This entails a particular form of politics that could be seen as deriving from such a ‘representational’ concept of the role of the Dean. My suggestion is that this is likely to be potentially adversarial and relatively inward looking to the interests of the faculty (which are to be defended against other organizational units in the university or indeed against the university itself). The second dimension, involved attention to the governance processes and the oversight of the committee structure at the faculty level. This might also have included a significant role in issues to do with serious student complaints and related matters. I have suggested that in my view both of these aspects of being a Dean remain an important part of the job (they still remain as part of the role description of my current post for instance). However, the role has been widened to include at least three other important dimensions, which are captured in the relatively new terminology of Executive Dean. I will call these the corporate, managerial and external aspects of the role of Dean and will discuss each briefly in turn. Increasingly, the Dean is expected to play a corporate role. This can itself include at least two dimensions. First, the Executive Dean is often in charge or leading an aspect of the

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university policy, or at least involved in corporate groups that are leading such policy. The Dean has to take a wider view of the university, than simply his or her own faculty units. Second, Deans are increasingly a member of the senior management team of the university. This means that as well as representing their faculty on the senior management team, they have to take a broader view of the university. This further means that in realizing the wider interests of the university the dean could have to make serious compromises in how he or she represents the interests of the faculty. Obviously, I am not suggesting that such compromise is new; it is of course part of ordinary political life. However, I do argue that there is a shift happening here, crudely from a more representational role to a more corporate role. This can cause tensions, especially if the members of the organizational units represented by the Dean feel that that they are not been represented strongly enough by their Dean. It may be though that she/he is making too many compromises to the ‘university’ or to other interests in it, rather than seeking to deliver and serve the interests of his or her own faculty. Essentially, the position involves a balancing act between the narrower and wider representational aspects of the role. To repeat, in some ways it was ever thus, but the current shifts are I am suggesting tilting the balance more towards the corporate direction and perhaps therefore making the position feel rather more precarious in political terms than it did before. Certainly, I suggest that it makes the role inherently political and politically complex. The managerial role of the Dean is also shifting. It is now more common for the Dean to be the ‘line manager’ of staff. The Dean his or herself will be expected to be line manager perhaps by the Vice-Chancellor or by another role holder that is becoming increasingly prevalent in the UK HE, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor. The broad equivalents in US HE would be the President for the former role and the Provost for the latter, though there are limitations on these sorts of simple comparisons. In connection with the increased corporate role, the Dean will expect to be managed in the context of the overall vision and strategy of the university. He or she will responsible for a number of areas of performance in the faculty. These could include overall financial performance, student recruitment, student retention, academic and non-academic staffing both in terms of balance between different types of staff and overall numbers and so on. The Dean is likely to have overall responsibility for the strategic direction of the faculty, again within the context of the overall strategy and vision for the university. In addition to being managed the Dean is also likely to have line management responsibility. As with all aspects that I have been discussing this will vary between different institutions. In my own case, the key line management responsibility is for the Heads of the Schools within the faculty. As pointed out above, it has been increasingly common in UK HE for what were previously departments of varying size, but with a tendency to be monodisciplinary, to become part of larger multidisciplinary units, often called schools (though again the precise terminology will vary across the sector). The Heads of School are often themselves responsible for relatively large groupings of academic and non-academic staff. Moreover, the issues about the changing role of the Dean identified in my discussion, also apply to the Heads of School. They are themselves becoming permanent substantive roles rather than temporary roles assumed (by a version of election) by a senior academic. In previous times it would have been far more common for Heads of Department to deal with a Vice-Chancellor or Pro-Vice-Chancellor (see further below) direct, rather than seeing themselves as managed by the Dean, who would have been an authority figure, rather than a management one.

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The role of Executive Dean then involves a far greater degree of management responsibility than was the case in the past. While I have defined management in general terms above, the precise nature and form of management that is appropriate to Higher Education is still hotly disputed. There is a clear tendency for many members of academic staff to dispute the need for management at all. Whatever the ideological beliefs held there is a sense that being managed implies being controlled, or being subject to managerial power. This is on occasion mixed in with beliefs about the nature of academic freedom as involving absence of control and direction, rather than in my view the appropriate definition of freedom of academic inquiry. In some sense these changing roles of the Executive Dean and the Head of School and increased managerial direction and accountability is a storm centre of ‘debate’ around the changing nature of academic life. A third important shift in the role of the Dean is towards a greater degree of external representation of the faculty (as administrative activity) and the university to a range of external bodies and stakeholders. Again, this is not in itself a new role for a senior academic to perform, but it is increasing in importance and more likely to stem from the role of Dean itself, rather than, for example, from the disciplinary background of the academic his/herself. Again, in some important aspects there is some continuity here from other representational aspects of the role; however there is a move to this being a further enhancement of the role. This is also a further addition to the corporate aspect of the Dean’s role. In this fairly brisk discussion, I have tried to capture some of the different aspects of the evolving role of the Executive Dean. In additional to the more ‘traditional’ aspects involving representation and governance, I have argued that corporate, managerial and external aspects of the job have significantly increased in importance. This is all part of more general changes that moving academic leadership from an amateur (and even part-time) basis to a professionalized and managerial form. An important aspect that follows from this is the extent to which a previous academic career builds up the portfolio of skills needed. It is now clear that the diverse nature of the post of Executive Dean requires new modes of professional training. These are now developing and appear to be both popular and over-subscribed. As I have suggested the evolving new role of Executive Dean involves managerial relationships with those at other points of a hierarchal chain of management. As is fairly obvious the post will also involve working relationships with at least two other broad types of post-holder at university level (as well as that with Heads of School and other officers within the faculty). These are Pro-Vice-Chancellors and Heads of Professional and Administrative Services. As these relationships are of wider significance I will now move to a brief consideration of them. Like the other roles that I been discussing, that of Pro-Vice-Chancellor (PVC) is not exactly the same in all universities. In some the PVC may have line management responsibility for an academic or non-academic functional area. In the case of the former the role overlaps with or incorporates key aspects of the role of Executive Dean that have been considered in this chapter. In the case of the later, it takes responsibility for that which is the responsibility of an Executive Director of a Professional or Administrative Service, such as Estates and Property, Information and Learning Services and so on. Finance will be the responsibility of a Finance Director. In other universities, the title of Dean and PVC are run together to signal that the post-holder will have responsibility for a functional area as well as strategic and operational policy area or portfolio. In a third variation the PVC will have

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responsibility for a particular area such as Teaching and Learning or Research. In all cases the PVC is carrying a responsibility that is devolved from the VC. One of the issues that this poses is the relationship between PVC with strategic responsibility for the progression of a particular strategic area such as Research, and an Executive Dean who may have the ultimate line management responsibility for those academic staff who are carrying out research as part of their overall portfolio of activity. Indeed in some respects the situation is even more complicated that this, as the Executive Dean will have responsibility for the strategic direction of research within his or her faculty. While this does not produce inherent conflict, as it may be suggested that all these role holders should be working within a common corporate framework and university strategy, there is obvious potential here for conflict between strategic and operational dimensions. It can be suggested that certain universities have tried to resolve these tensions by combining the roles in the way identified above. Another relationship that requires management is that between the Executive Dean and the head of a Professional Service. Again it is important that these post-holders work together to ensure the progress of corporate academic aims. There is perhaps less potential structural conflict here, but perhaps more tension over an academic/non-academic divide. Finally, there is a broader issue that concerns the potential proliferation of a number of different managerial roles. This has certainly been an ongoing topic of consideration in my own university. It is obviously important that clear lines of demarcation exist between the responsibilities of for example, Executive Deans and Heads of School. But there is a clear danger of duplication of activity at a number of different points of a managerial hierarchy.

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GENERAL ISSUES OF MANAGEMENT In the course of the discussion in this chapter I have already drawn out a number of issues that need to be confronted in the progress of academic management and governance in the UK. In moving towards a conclusion to this chapter, I want briefly to identify some of the most important dimensions that continue to demand further attention or consideration. I have already identified that there are structural lines of fault within the development of management and practices of governance in the UK. Broadly many of these lines of fault can be traced back to the discussed shift from a civic governance model to a Corporation model and the tensions that this introduces. However, a second dimension to this that I have briefly alluded to is that there is a cultural change occurring here, in the sense that the ways of academic life are themselves shifting in ways in which the participants in the process are not always fully aware. This is leading to debate on the roles of professional academic managers and or example the extent that these can be combined with the ongoing role as an academic, who might wish to continue to teach of research at the same time as being a manager. In addition to this being a cultural issue or one of consideration of career advancement, it is also a significant one of identity. I have argued in recent work (Longhurst, 2007) that in contemporary times identity is becoming diffused, in that a number of different aspects are brought together in an increasingly complex mix. It is not just that different dimensions can be added to out sense of self and indeed subtracted when we want to shift direction, in the socalled prosthetic version of identity, but that in as well as this kind of additional and

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subtractive dimensions, various aspects co-exist. Furthermore, they co-exist in modes of identity and culture that increasingly require the performance of a diversity of different aspects of roles at almost the same time. I have tried to argue that the contemporary role of the Executive Dean is rather like this in discussion of the five dimensions in the previous section. The performance takes place in front of an increasingly diverse set of audiences. I have also suggested that there are shifting patterns of political engagement and forms of authority that are happening at present. There is a shift from a representational form of politics to one that is more complex and shifting. To be bold this can be seen as a move from a more top-down/bottom up form of political activity to the more diffuse and everyday operation of power that was so successfully theorized by Foucault in many of his publications (see, for example Foucault 1978). This also raises issues of constitution and the governance arrangements that I began this paper with. These remain of profound importance, as is their relationship to the management issues that I have focused on in the later parts of this paper.

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CONCLUSION In this chapter, I have characterized, following the work of Shattock, the important models of governance in UK Higher Education. Further drawing on this work and my own understanding of the shifting nature of the UK Higher Education system I have characterized the way in which the system is changing. Such changes are by no means uniform; indeed they are uneven and depend very much on where the institution is starting from. However, the influence of a more corporate and managerial approach is clear. This is leading to the introduction of new roles and the significant modification of already existing ones. In exploring these issues, I have focused on the role of Executive Dean. I have sought to characterize the changing nature of this role, but also to use this discussion to tease out some more general issues of structural, cultural and micro political change. In this discussion, I have to some extent drawn upon my own experience. However, I am convinced not least through my own wider reading but also through numerous conversations with colleagues across the sector that these sorts of experiences are generalzable. However, as always these are matters for interpretation and this chapter represents in the main, my take on these important developments. It is unlikely that the system will remain static, as the processes of competition that I have described above are likely to intensify in the context of a HE system that looks likely to come under increased financial pressure. I suggest that this will speed up the processes of change towards the HE corporation model, as more institutions are forced by necessity to examine their management and governance practices.

REFERENCES Bekhradnia, B and Bailey, N. (2008). Demand for Higher Education to 2029, London: HEPI. Brandon, P. (1999). Salford University: an Historical Industrial Partnership in H. Gray (ed.) Universities and the Creation of Wealth, pp 123-140, Maidenhead: Society for Research into Higher Education and the Open University.

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Foucault, M. (1978). The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction, Harmondsworth: Penguin. Longhurst, B. (2007). Cultural Change and Ordinary Life, Maidenhead: Open University Press. McCaffery, P. (2004). The Higher Education Manager’s Handbook, London and New York: RoutledgeFalmer. Shattock, M. (2003). Managing Successful Universities, Maidenhead: Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press. Shattock, M. (2006). Managing Good Governance in Higher Education, Maidenhead: Open University Press.

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In: Academic Administration: A Quest for Better Management... ISBN 978-1-60741-732-3 Editor: Sheying Chen © 2009 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 7

ADMINISTRATION OF ACADEMIC UNITS AND SHARED GOVERNANCE Sheying Chen Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, Indiana, USA

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ABSTRACT This chapter takes a comprehensive approach to academic administration below the campus/central academic affairs office. The organization of academic units is surveyed, and potential structural issues are indicated with a further look at reorganization pitfalls and approaches. The duties of mainstream unit heads are examined at various levels and in relation to each other. The role of the faculty is emphasized along with an overview of shared governance. The often overlooked part of support staff, as well as that of students, is also noted. Leadership competence for the administration of academic units is explored in terms of the expectations for related skills and expertise. Implications to deaning, chairing, directing, and coordinating are discussed.

INTRODUCTION Our institutions of higher learning exhibit levels of diversity that are without parallel (Birnbaum, 1991). The paradox that American colleges and universities are least businesslike (Keller, 1983) but highly effective has led to a study focus on governance in higher education (Birnbaum, 1991). My (participant) observation over the years has been that such uniqueness is largely attributable to the functioning of highly autonomous but well coordinated academic units that are at the forefront of carrying out the educational mission of an institution. Therefore, it is of great interest to see how leaders of various academic units, who typically hold academic ranks as highly educated educators but may or may not be counted as administrators, share responsibility among themselves (so-called “leading from the middle”) and with the campus central administration (as indicated in Chapters 4 and 5).

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ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND ACADEMIC ADMINISTRATION Academic administration, specifically the administration of academic affairs, tends to be a complex system organized into various academic units reporting to and coordinated by the academic affairs office. Depending on the size, type, and history of an institution, its organization of academic units will always have some unique features. (Historically) smaller colleges may only have one or a couple of academic deans overseeing all kinds of academic programs (with or without larger divisions), resembling the structures of some colleges within large universities. Universities (and some large colleges) typically contain a number of academic schools and/or colleges headed by deans. Schools may also be headed by directors, especially when they are units within larger colleges. Colleges, schools, and divisions are often organized by departments although this is not always the case. At some institutions, the departmental structure is very strong, such as the City University of New York (where I used to hold tenure as a chairperson). While the faculty union there fought for the rights of department chairs as a part of the faculty, the administration relied heavily on them for administrative decision-making including supervision of academic programs and review of faculty tenure and promotion cases (at my former campus, the deans neither cast those votes nor wrote faculty evaluations as the chairpersons did). Therefore, the department chairs were an important, indispensable administration-faculty interface within that type of administrative structure. At some other institutions, in contrast, the department may not even be recognized as a formal academic unit (even if some programs would like to be called that way). And faculty (not administrative) chairs/coordinators might not be allowed to evaluate other faculty, like at the University of Guam (a U.S. land-grant institution where I served as a college dean). Since there is so much diversity in the structuring of institutions of higher learning and the organization of their academic units, almost every university or college has an organizational chart to help its constituencies to understand and navigate a complex administrative system needed to run the institution. In analyzing an organizational administrative structure and comparing it with some others, the academic administrator who tends to be a critical thinker but new to the institution may quickly come up with some sharp questions. For instance, the reporting lines may look absurd. Some parts of the organization may seem to contain too much “fat” (or redundancy) while some others may appear to be too lean and overstressed. And some people in the institution (possibly including some above you) may be complaining and asking for help with the organizational issues they are facing. Should you immediately push for changes to the existing structure to address the problems you have heard, or maybe not? There is no straightforward answer to this question, though it is generally advisable to wait (if you have a choice) until you have gained a fairly thorough understanding of the situation. Organizational structures do hinder or facilitate decision-making and implementation, which may be puffed up by some folks who hold the offices in question. On the other hand, organizations are founded with certain prescribed parameters, and most of them have had a history that needs to be respected (or at least considered). In this regard, the rational (choice) model of decision-making emphasizing logical thinking or design (which, unfortunately, is not a hard science here) may be too idealistic to follow. In addition to the

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possibility of hurting some people’s interests and thus incurring potential political wrestling in an attempt to reorganize, resistance may also come from some others even if their reaction may not speak for anyone’s real interest including their own (per an “irrational model” I have proposed for decision/policy analysis: Chen, 2003). The time must also be right, with an opportunity window open/opening up for you to push for a favorable solution successfully (as suggested by a revised “garbage can” model for agenda setting: Kingdon, 2003; Cohen, March and Olsen, 1972). Few other topics in management are more thorny/knotty than reorganization in academic administration. Given the potential costs, there is always a question as to whether it is necessary and/or wise to spend the time, energy, and other resources on reorganization rather than on other substantive tasks during a particular period of time. It is also a question about how it should be done. Consensus-building seems to be the most favored approach, though sometimes it may be the hardest to achieve. If some entrenched and/or insecure interests treat the possibility to reorganize as a taboo, then any scientific inquiry, professional concern, or pure curiosity could be made unwelcome. Generally speaking, a change agent should recognize the role of organizational inertia (Hannan and Freeman, 1989), or “immunity to change” (Kegan and Lahey, 2009), and know how to overcome it when necessary. Some institutional cultures are more conducive to change than others, of course. However, it may backfire when a perfect reorganization plan is introduced in a hurry, without sufficient buy-in from all major constituencies. Ambitious academic administrators may end up finding their efforts counterproductive or, in the worst scenario, be shocked by no-confidence votes from their faculty. Students may also weigh in as stakeholders (as one of the first doctoral graduates from UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research, I still remember vividly those protests including an unrelenting hunger strike in front of the administrative building when Chancellor Charles Young, one of the most respected and longest-serving higher education leaders in the U.S., implemented a reorganization plan to create that new School by eliminating/restructuring three existing ones). Sometimes no one fell and the reorganization deal went through, but it could be so painful that one might not want to do it again, or at least wish to be more prepared for a smoother process. The game could be much more dangerous for a newcomer. If you are hired as a “heavy hammer” for a reorganization plan already made, you need to carefully assess the conditions before accepting the job, or you might be set to failure. My own experience (as mentioned in Chapter 1), however, has convinced me that the job could be done successfully no matter how long an institution had been plagued by organizational issues. The next chapter will continue on this topic with a different story but the same positive tone in lesson-drawing using some theoretical perspectives.

ACADEMIC UNIT HEADS Because of the diversity in organizational structures and institutional contexts, it is impossible to examine every leadership position for all kinds of academic units. Among those, the most frequently seen unit heads in the mainstream of academic affairs are likely to be the dean, the chairperson, and/or the coordinator, whose roles should help to exemplify academic administration at the college/school, the department, and the program levels.

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The Dean Perhaps no other unit head title has more varied and confusing use than the dean. First, a dean may be a part of the academic affairs office and not the head of a unit below the campus/central administration, such as the dean for undergraduate or graduate studies, international education, research, or faculty affairs (sometimes an assistant or associate vice president/chancellor may be given the charge in some of these areas). The title may also be used outside academic affairs, such as a dean of student affairs or campus life. The chief executive officer for a branch campus may also be called a campus dean. Second, a dean may have several other deans reporting to him or her. For instance, the deans of the divisions of sciences, social sciences, and humanities may all report to the dean of the college of arts and sciences (see, for example, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University,http://www.fas.harvard.edu/home/about-fas/administrative-directory.shtml, checked February 22, 2009). Third, the scope of work of a dean varies across units and institutions. The dean of arts and sciences at one institution may serve several hundred faculty members and thousands of students, while the dean of a professional school at the same or another institution may have a faculty size smaller than that of a department elsewhere. Fourth, deans are paid at considerably varied levels (see Table 1). Statistical data from recent years suggest that unit deans (not including those in charge of graduate, undergraduate, honors, or other campus-wide programs) were often paid higher than campus associate chief academic officers in the United States. Some deans (particularly of schools of medicine, dentistry, public health, and law) might even be better compensated on average than campus chief academic officers by virtue of their professional status. As such, they were also expected to take major responsibilities as chief academic and administrative officers for their colleges, schools, or divisions, which may have a degree of autonomy hardly imaginable by people outside the academic world. While the dean’s position may be filled via internal search or election at some institutions under certain circumstances, most often it involves an external search. The position is often combined with a tenured faculty appointment. The following is an example of the duties prescribed for a college dean (University of South Florida at St. Petersburg, 2009, randomly taken from recent job advertisement posted on the Chronicle of Higher Education in the category of Deans): Table 1. Median Salaries of Deans by Discipline and Type of Institution, 2004-5

Dean, arts and sciences Dean, music Dean, humanities Dean, social sciences Dean, mathematics Dean, sciences Dean, engineering Dean, business

Doctoral

Master’s

Baccalaur.

2-year

$162,370 $135,850 $163,991 $175,000 $133,250 $166,037 $194,000 $190,215

$108,000 $97,400 $97,719 $99,442 $84,829 $106,662 $136,553 $121,867

$86,460 $52,830 $68,445 $70,657 $57,255 $77,105 $99,358 $81,137

$74,571 -$71,620 $73,162 $71,554 $79,112 $69,599 $74,725

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Dean, law Dean, education

Doctoral $226,961 $145,002

Master’s $198,729 $101,000

Baccalaur. -$70,318

2-year -$76,500

Dean, social work

$150,299

$93,719

$57,194

--

Dean, health-related professions Dean, nursing Dean, public health Dean, dentistry Dean, medicine Dean, graduate programs Dean, undergraduate programs Dean, honors program Dean, continuing education

$143,470 $152,854 $231,960 $247,042 $350,000 $136,583 $121,325 $105,232 $132,600

$107,495 $95,000 ---$96,477 $92,000 $79,861 $90,029

$82,784 $72,965 ---$83,611 $77,253 $64,098 $71,762

$77,580 $71,716 -$80,000 ---$104,468 $79,309

Source: CUPA-HR March 4, 2005, http://chronicle.com, Volume 51, Issue 26, Page A30.

The Dean is the chief academic and administrative officer of the College and reports directly to the Regional Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs as a key member of the senior academic management team. The successful candidate will be charged with: • •

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• • • • • • •

Taking full responsibility and accountability for all budget planning and management within the College; Building community, regional and national relationships with an eye toward increasing both the level and diversity of sources of funding as well as enhancing an already-robust internship program for students; Taking the lead role in future strategic planning for the College and in overseeing the implementation of the current strategic plan; Leading the development, implementation, and assessment of academic programs in the College; Forging new opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations both within the College and across campus; Fostering the environment for excellence in faculty scholarship, and developing a coherent and sustained research agenda for the College; Representing the College to internal and external constituencies and working collegially with decanal colleagues, faculty, staff and students; Demonstrating a commitment to diversity and shared governance; Expanding educational delivery options to meet the demands of an increasingly technology-driven, asynchronous workplace.

Another recent job ad summarizes the duties of a divisional dean as follows (City College of New York, 2009), with highlighted a function apparently associated with the current tough financial times: The Dean assumes leadership in the management and administration of the Division, curriculum development, program planning, budgeting, and the acquisition of external

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Sheying Chen funding, including intensive fundraising, and maintains liaisons with other administrators of the College, Federal and State and City agencies, related organizations and associations and community leaders. The Dean is appointed by the President and reports to the Provost/Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs.

The concluding chapter of this volume will revisit the subject by summarizing what makes an outstanding academic administrator (such as the dean) and how to determine candidates’ potential to meet articulated position requirements and broader institutional needs.

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The Department Chair While a “standard” department is not a universal layer in the organizational structure of higher education institutions, it plays an important role in the administration of academic affairs where it does exit (Chu, 2006). It removes the dean more or less from micro management to enhance administrative leadership for such “large picture” needs as strategic budgeting and fundraising, public relations and community partnerships, diversity and international outreach, enrollment management, student persistence and success, faculty recruitment and development, academic program initiatives, alternative course delivery, infrastructure and capacity building, and accreditation and assessment. Under such an organizational structure, the dean functions more like a part of the senior or central administrative team, presumably more receptive to campus-wide priorities. Department chairpersons ideally will partner with the dean and share responsibilities for many of those adventures while functioning as advocates for the programs they supervise. Such involvement benefits the institution by building a stronger base for academic administration at the grassroots level. It also provides an opportunity as a stepping stone for those who aspire to become full-time academic administrators eventually. The department chairperson may be chosen from faculty via departmental election and/or administrative appointment pursuant to the bylaws of different institutions. In relatively few cases, an external search process may be employed to fill a faculty position with a service term as department chair. Here is an excerpt from a randomly chosen job advertisement posted on the Chronicle of Higher Education in the category of Academic Administration (George Washington University, 2009): The Department seeks a leader and committed scholar with an interdisciplinary perspective who will work to advance a diverse curriculum and innovative programs. ... Area of interest is open but must complement existing areas of faculty strength. Preferred Qualifications: A research scholar with teaching experience in a college or university at undergraduate, masters, and doctoral levels, experience of obtaining extramural research funding, experience or potential of leading an academic unit, and experience in mentoring and developing faculty are highly desirable.

Another example gives a little more detailed job description for a professor and chair as follows (Northeastern University, 2009):

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We are searching for a scholar who will lead the continued development of our department and complement and expand our research programs both intramurally and externally… List of responsibilities: The chair will provide effective oversight of a dynamic department with major potential for growth and development; leadership in expansion of research and teaching activities including interdisciplinary programs; mentoring of faculty; an active role in University development efforts; and effective advocacy for the Department at the highest levels of the University. Qualifications: … Nationally recognized scientific leader who has an on-going record of competitive research funding. Candidates must have excellent leadership skills.

From those position descriptions, we can see not only the duties of the department chairs are similar to one another but also they overlap with those of the deans considerably. This speaks well for potential collaboration among the chairs and between them and their deans. The downside of adding such a layer to the organizational structure includes associated administrative costs and complexity of the bureaucracy, which will depend on the performance of the chairperson and collaboration/support of others on the academic/administrative teams. Delegated all kinds of administrative tasks along with a high expectation for their faculty roles (in terms of scholarship, teaching, etc.), chairpersons have reasons to take great pride but also face special challenges. One of the top issues I have seen is the role conflict with competing demands for their time: to perform administrative chores or to engage in scholarly activities. There are chairpersons who have managed to excel in both, though few would show such achievements without extra sacrifice (of personal and family time, etc.). Undercompensation could be another issue since department chairs live on their faculty salaries rather than executive compensation plans. This could be particularly problematic during summer time when they are supposed to be off per their faculty contract. Most (if not all) of them do enjoy release time to help make ends meet (not in financial terms but in terms of competing demands) during the academic year. Yet few of them are fully trained before assuming their departmental leadership positions.

The Program Coordinator While there is certain ambiguity regarding the administrative role of the department chair, the program coordinator (or program director/chair as sometimes called) is clearly a faculty leader rather than a member of the administration. However, they both play an important part in academic administration in terms of shared governance. Both are “bought” into administration with limited release time plus their titles (with certain rights attached thereto and recognition of their services), to form the “end links” of the academic administrative chain at grassroots levels. Like the department chair, the role of the program coordinator may also vary widely, depending on the size of a program and its organizational context, e.g., whether or not there is co-existence of the department chair within the institution. Sometimes there is clear distinction in the roles and responsibilities between the program coordinator and the department chair; sometimes a program coordinator functions

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like a deputy department chair; sometimes they are just one using either title. If the title of a program coordinator is chosen in the last scenario, the dean may have to take over some of the responsibilities that otherwise would belong to the chair. Unlike the department chair, a program coordinator is usually given less release time and less administrative duty, although as the bottom line they carry out such basic functions as offering courses, dealing with students, conducting program reviews, developing curricula, maintaining professional associations, and meeting accreditation requirements by working with their faculty colleagues. In addition to the incentives and challenges mentioned above, the reward for an aspiring faculty member to undertake the program coordinator role is the valuable experience gained in program administration. It may make the next step to become a department chair or another administrative role easier. Like the department chair, the program coordinator is usually appointed or elected from program faculty, though an external search process may also be used to fill a faculty position with a service term as program coordinator/director. We can take a look at an excerpt randomly picked from the recent job advertisement for program coordinators posted on the Chronicle of Higher Education in one of the faculty position categories (Illinois State University, 2009): The department seeks a colleague with strong teaching, leadership, and research skills to join its growing faculty. The candidate’s primary teaching responsibility would be one of our honors courses. Other potential courses include general education courses in the Elementary Education Program, with opportunities to teach masters and doctoral level courses in curriculum and instruction. Along with teaching and research responsibilities, this individual would be responsible for coordinating (i.e. assist Chair with faculty load assignments, plan/conduct program meetings, guide course development/revisions, etc.) the Elementary Education Program. The candidate should be able to develop and maintain collaborative partnerships with public school professionals, providing them with professional development and support. Other expectations include university and community service and active participation in state, national, and/or international professional organizations.

ADMINISTRATIVE COOPERATION AND SHARED GOVERNANCE Collegiality and shared governance is one of the core academic values that sustain regional accreditation of institutions of higher learning in the United States (Eaton, 2000). In organizational practice, cooperation and shared governance are crucial to the functioning of colleges and universities, particularly in view of the high degrees of autonomy of their academic units and the important role of the faculty.

Administrative Teamwork We have looked at case examples of the duties of academic unit heads on an individual basis, but we have not treated them as a team which requires good cooperation. Cooperation, however, entails a good and shared understanding of the division of labor between different offices. Therefore, when I served as the dean of a complex, multi-school college, my team

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made a special effort to delineate the roles and responsibilities of each office/level in order to facilitate cooperation, enhance accountability, and avoid misunderstanding. Table 2 contains the results of extensive discussions, which was only a draft but helped to guide our team work by sharing responsibilities and improving administration of academic units.

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Faculty Governance Faculty leadership is a vital part of shared governance in academia, which is sometimes referred to as faculty governance. The faculty of an institution may be represented by two separate bodies: one deals with issues related to collective bargaining on salary, benefits, workload, tenure and promotion, and other matters concerning faculty rights and work conditions; the other is more concerned with academic issues, such as curriculum and various academic policies. The former is commonly referred to as a faculty union, while the latter is mostly organized as a faculty senate. When both exist in the same institution, there is usually a clear division of labor between the two. If one is missing, then the other may go beyond its usual scope of duty to have faculty voice heard on all major issues affecting them. When major university procedures are shaped by collective bargaining, the universityfaculty union agreement is the most important document for administrators (and faculty) to follow. Even if there is no union in existence, the institution’s regulations and operations manuals normally still contain faculty input (or agreement in some form) and should not be changed by the administration at will without necessary consultation. For a new academic administrator, finding and consulting “the book” is normally the best way to get started, even though it will not resolve everything for you without your good judgment. Maintaining good communication with faculty representatives is also very important to gaining faculty support. Academic initiatives of various units based on shared governance are instrumental to consensus building in academic administration. They exemplify higher education’s core values of academic freedom, collaboration, etc. and provide a unique basis for institutional success distinct from that of other organizations and businesses. There are numerous publications available on the role of faculty in shared governance (e.g., American Association of University Professors, 1966; Tierney and Lechuga, 2004). For those faculty members interested in shared governance, participating in the faculty senate and/or collective bargaining teams would be a good alternative to getting elected/ appointed as a program coordinator or department chair. Even if there is no special personal interest in academic administration, an adequate record of university or college service in terms of various committee work and other types of involvement will help to fulfill one’s obligation as a faculty member. Faculty release time for the purpose of administrative services is not limited to that for department chairs and program coordinators. And the total amount may add up to a considerable number of full time equivalents (FTEs), indicating the commitment of institutional resources to support faculty governance. On my campus, for instance, one (incomplete) way to count faculty release time would yield 15.75 FTEs, which was important given a very lean academic administrative structure in which there were no department chairs, the dean for research was just a half time position, and I was the only associate vice chancellor in campus central administration.

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Program Coordinators (elected by faculty)

Coordinates curriculum review, revision and development of requests for changes. Coordinates faculty review and development of requests for new or changes in existing policy. Coordinates ongoing program review and assessment

Program Curriculum

Academic Policy

Program Review/Assess -ment

ACADEMIC AFFAIRS Spokesperson Spokesperson for program Professional Contributes to Accreditation accreditation and reaccreditation efforts, as appropriate.

Major Areas of Responsibility

Leads the faculty in ongoing program review and assessment

Leads program faculty review and development of requests for new or changes in existing policy; ensures compliance with academic program policies.

Provides faculty leadership in writing self-study and periodic reports; serves as ‘chief administrator’ of the program (e.g. as proscribed by CSWE Accreditation Standard 3.0.3 and NLNAC Standard on Mission and Governance, I.3) Develops, approves, recommends and implements with program faculty

Spokesperson for department or division

Department or Division Chairs (nominated by faculty and appointed by Dean)

Monitors program review cycle and supports assessment activities

Coordinates faculty review and development of requests for new or changes in existing policy; ensures compliance with College and University academic policies

Spokesperson for school and administrative units Provides administrative leadership at school level; coordinates and supports submission of accreditation reports and serves as liaison to accreditation commission, as appropriate Coordinates curricula review and development within school and in relation to other programs within/outside the college

School Directors (recommended by search committee and Dean and appointed by SVPASA)

Approves self-study; makes recommendations; ensures administrative action on recommendations.

Acts on curricular requests with the AcadAffairsCmte (AAC); provides resources and strategic leadership; and approves at the college level. Acts on requests with AAC on academic policy; provides leadership in college wide academic policy issues; and ensures compliance with University academic policies.

Spokesperson for college and for each school Provides administrative leadership at college level and seeks necessary resources for maintenance of accreditation

College Dean (recommended by search committee and SVP and appointed by President)

Table 2. Sample Work on Delineation of Administrative & Academic Roles and Responsibilities by Unit Level

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Advisement

Makes sure that all majors have an assigned advisor

Coordinates faculty review and adoption of required textbooks at the program level UOG Catalog Reviews draft catalog for accuracy of program and course descriptions ACADEMIC GOVERNANCE Unit Faculty Attends unit meetings; submits items for Meeting discussion as needed Programmatic/ Develops agenda, Departmental/ convenes and chairs School program meeting Consultation Meeting College AAC May attend Meeting

Participates in development of new program proposals, as appropriate.

New Programs

Textbooks

Program Coordinators (elected by faculty)

Major Areas of Responsibility

Develops agenda, convenes and invites all or groups of faculty and chairs school meeting on departmental progress reports etc. Attends and provides report to AAC; provides agenda items; may chair meeting at the decision of the AAC.

Develops agenda, convenes and chairs department /division meetings on program progress reports etc.

May attend; Unit Rep represents unit in AAC and submits agenda items to AAC

Ensures adherence of program advisement policies and practices with University policies

May attend and provide reports or consultation, as needed

Attends unit meetings; submits items for discussion as needed

Serves as the lead program advisor and ensures adherence to program advisement policy

Reviews draft catalog for accuracy of school programs, course descriptions and faculty

School Directors (recommended by search committee and Dean and appointed by SVPASA) Coordinates needs assessments; ensures completeness of proposal; assesses feasibility and fit with College master plan; submits to AAC Signs and submits textbook orders

Reviews draft catalog for accuracy of program and course descriptions

Coordinates faculty review and adoption of required textbooks

Identifies need, prepares and submits proposal to Associate Dean

Department or Division Chairs (nominated by faculty and appointed by Dean)

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Oversees all advisement policies

Chairs meeting and provides regular reports; non-voting member except to break a tie

May attend

May attend at the invitation of faculty

Reviews draft catalog for accuracy of overall descriptions of college.

College Dean (recommended by search committee and SVP and appointed by President) Acts on requests from AAC and provides resources, if approved; provides leadership and strategic direction (particularly collegewide initiatives) Authorizes purchase of instructor copy on emergency basis

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None

As needed

Registrar’s Forms

Regional Consultation and Tech. assistance Professional Organizations

NA

Local and Regional Professional Regulatory Bodies School Learning Resources Center (LRC) Coordinates identification of needs of program faculty and students

NA

Advisory Board/Council/ Committee

As needed

Program Coordinators (elected by faculty)

Major Areas of Responsibility

Facilitates advice from stakeholder groups in community via advisory committees or other arrangements Provides input in development, amendments to regulations; writes and submits reports to regulatory bodies; provides input on amendments to regulations. Coordinates identification of needs of program faculty and students; (for Nursing) ensures adequacy of program supplies and equipment in nursing skills lab; monitors and evaluates LRC utilization policies

Approves by signing form (to insure academic integrity of program). Initiates/recommends faculty assignments and monitors delivery Maintains individual or institutional membership in selected professional organizations

Supervises LRC staff; monitors and evaluates utilization policies regarding computer lab and AV equipment

Convenes and represents the school and its administrative units at these meetings, particularly focused consultation sessions Provides resources and administrative assistance, as needed.

Coordinates budgets request to maintain memberships necessary for accreditation and professional development

Coordinates opportunities and provides administrative support

School Directors (recommended by search committee and Dean and appointed by SVPASA) Approves and signs all forms that do not require the Dean’s approval

Table 2. (Continued) Department or Division Chairs (nominated by faculty and appointed by Dean)

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Supervises coordination of all technical staff work at the college level and across schools

Attends school-wide advisory meetings for general planning and reporting; represents the college and the school at these meetings Provides administrative coordination in meeting the regulations

Acts on budget requests and provides administrative support

Approves, as needed

[Under discussion; may not need to sign]

College Dean (recommended by search committee and SVP and appointed by President)

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Program Coordinators (elected by faculty)

Full-time Faculty Recruitment and Search

Student Organization/ Governance

Student Grievance

Student and Alumni Relations

Student Recruitment

Collaborates with Director to develop and implement plan Maintains student and alumni directory for the purpose of communication and assessment Facilitates problem resolution on program level and ensures compliance with University student academic appeals and grievance procedures Ensures necessary faculty support to student organizations and compliance with governance policies Identifies program needs

STUDENT AND FACULTY AFFAIRS MOAs & NA MOUS

Major Areas of Responsibility

Identifies program needs and assists with all phases of the search process; may serve as Search Committee Chair, if faculty.

Ensures necessary faculty support to student organizations and compliance with governance policies

Facilitates problem resolution on program/unit level and ensures compliance with University student academic appeals and grievance procedures

Maintains student and alumni directory for the purpose of communication and assessment

Ensures that all agreements are current and seeks opportunities for new agreements Collaborates with Director to develop and implement plan

Department or Division Chairs (nominated by faculty and appointed by Dean)

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Coordinates needs at the school level; monitors compliance with search procedures; and facilitates recruitment and hiring.

Ensures necessary administrative support to student organizations and compliance with governance policies.

Reviews case and provides recommendations to the Dean

Expedites processing of renewals and new agreements in collaboration with the University Legal Counsel Monitors and coordinates student recruitment; represents school on college wide recruitment initiatives Supports student governance and cocurricular activities and alumni relations

School Directors (recommended by search committee and Dean and appointed by SVP-ASA)

Convenes search committees and submits recommendations for hire to the SVP; approves hire of part-time faculty.

Ensures necessary administrative support at the college level

Oversees student governance process and delegates authority to Associate Deans

Signs MOAs and MOUs with college, schools or programs; seeks presidential approval and support as needed. Coordinates student recruitment opportunities and resources at college level May participate in events, as invited

College Dean (recommended by search committee and SVP and appointed by President)

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Identifies needs, recruits candidates and facilitates review/ recommendation by program faculty Provides consultation to faculty to resolve problem and to prevent grievance

Participates in peer evaluation

Coordinates and recommends to Associate Dean Identifies needs and schedules activities on program level

Part-Time Faculty Recruitment and Hire

Comprehensive Faculty Evaluation System (CFES)

Faculty Course Schedules and Workload

Faculty Development

Faculty Grievance

Program Coordinators (elected by faculty)

Major Areas of Responsibility

Identifies needs and schedules activities on department or division level

[For Nursing, the Chair assumes supervisory responsibility, as required by accreditation regulation and delegated by the Dean.] Coordinates and recommends to Associate Dean

Facilitates peer review and support of annual plans and CFES reports.

Provides consultation to faculty to resolve problem and to prevent grievance

Coordinates, proofreads; and finalizes school schedule; makes recommendations for workload assignments Coordinates activities at the school level

Provides consultation to division or department chairs; helps to resolve problems to avoid the initiation of a grievance; maintain documentation and ensures compliance with Univ. policy. Monitors schedule for CFES; provides feedback to faculty on annual CFES plans; prepares draft faculty evaluation reports.

School Directors (recommended by search committee and Dean and appointed by SVP-ASA) Maintains list of approved part-time faculty and coordinates their review and evaluation.

Table 2. (Continued) Department or Division Chairs (nominated by faculty and appointed by Dean) Identifies needs, recruits candidates and facilitates review/ recommendation by program faculty

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Provides support and coordinates activities at the college level.

Provides consultation on course schedule, as needed; negotiates and approves workload assignments

Approves CFES plans; meets with individual faculty and finalizes evaluation reports.

Provides consultation and guidance to Associate Deans in resolving the issue and ensures compliance with University policy

College Dean (recommended by search committee and SVP and appointed by President) Approves part-time hires and full-time overload assignments.

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Program Coordinators (elected by faculty)

Department or Division Chairs (nominated by faculty and appointed by Dean) Reviews and recommends

Writes and assists grant writing

Identifies needs and problems

Grants

Physical Resources Identifies needs and problems

Writes and assists grant writing; facilitates grant development and administration

Develops and submits Dept./Div. budget to the Associate Dean

May assist faculty to write and submit grant applications; coordinates and supports grant activities within the college Coordinates academic master plans with facilities master plan

Develops, consolidates, and submits college budget; oversees all accounts within the college.

Develops, consolidates, and submits school budget to Dean; may oversee special contracts and discretionary accounts

Assists faculty to write and submit grant applications; coordinates and supports grant activities within the school and across the college Ensures adequacy and accessibility; facilitates development and utilization of master plans

College Dean (recommended by search committee and SVP and appointed by President) Approves all requests

School Directors (recommended by search committee and Dean and appointed by SVP-ASA) Approves requests, as appropriate

Note: This draft was a collective effort of my former team at the University of Guam; special credits go to Dr. Vivian Dames and Dr. Gerhard Schwab for initiating the proposal.

Identifies program needs and makes requests to Dept./Div. Chair

Budget

Faculty Leave None Requests FINANCIAL AND FACILITIES RESOURCES

Major Areas of Responsibility

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Faculty participation in faculty senate and administrative committees is of particular importance to the realization of shared governance and the academic authority of faculty. The following list of faculty senate committees on my campus would provide a sense of its scope of work: a) general faculty governance: Executive Council, Nominating Committee, etc.; b) institutional planning: Budgetary Affairs, Information Technology, etc.; c) academic affairs: Faculty Affairs, Faculty Board of Review, Conduct, Student Recruitment and Retention, Academic Policies, Academic Assessment, Improvement of Learning, Improvement of Writing, General Education, and Research and Grants; and d) academic programs and units: General Studies, Honors Council, Arts and Sciences, Women and Gender Studies, International Programs, Library, and Academic Success Center. The following administrative committees also involve faculty members along with administrators, staff, and sometimes students: Campus Budgetary Advisory Committee, Campus Facilities and Environment Committee, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, Diversity Council, Enrollment Management Committee, Classification Appeals Committee, Student Computing Technology Fee Advisory Committee, and Student Life Committee. In addition, major academic initiatives, such as the First Year Seminars, Alternative Course Delivery, and Institute of Learning and Teaching Excellence, tend to have groups of faculty and some other members of the campus community functioning as advisory bodies. Last but not least, the role of support staff as well as students should also be noted in academic administration and shared governance. A new administrator often benefits from a knowledgeable support staff that is already familiar with the ways and means of office routines. While they generally have no or little say in such academic matters as curriculum and faculty promotion/tenure, they may share a great deal with academic administrators and faculty in strategic planning, budgeting and fundraising, public relations and community partnerships, diversity and international education, recruitment and retention, instructional technology, and regional accreditation. The degree of staff involvement, of course, varies tremendously across different functional areas. On the other hand, students as the supposedly central purpose or focus of an institution of higher learning require academic administrators to be truly committed to creating a student-centered learning environment. Student unrest nowadays is rare on college and university campuses; however, institutional attention to students tends to be driven by enrollment and other student-related performance indicators, which may eventually affect the budget. Academic administrators who remain true to their educational mission will find student participation in academic administration beneficial to both students and themselves. Therefore, student input is often sought in academic administrative decision-making in the form of various kinds of student data and comments, including teaching evaluations. Many academic administrative committees (including some search committees) now tend to include both staff and student representatives.

ADMINISTRATIVE COMPETENCE Academic units run by academics may appear to be parts of an awesome ivory tower in an institution of higher learning. The image and the success of their undertaking would make one feel good compared to working in business and other settings. Yet, the academe is also notorious for such tough things as vicious politics and academic stress. Whether one views

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the place through rosy or nasty lenses, what is required for academic administrators to excel in higher education? Particularly, what makes an outstanding academic unit head in the shared governance environment? Holding advanced degrees and professorial ranks does not necessarily/automatically translate into good academic administrators (as leaders and team members). Earlier in Chapter 1, I indicated that engaging in academic administration may well be like entering a new profession. As such a professional, acquiring the core knowledge of higher education administration (shared with other administrative and managerial sciences) is a prerequisite for competence. The application of such knowledge entails an artistic and creative process that constitutes important professional skills. The professional must also practice under an ethical framework that is based on a set of professional core values (American Association of University Professors, 2007). These elements may be taught at professional development workshops, though self education and lifelong learning will determine how quickly and thoroughly one will master them in the accumulation of experience and reflection on practice. While academic unit heads at different levels have different responsibilities, they share many basic functions which require similar sets of skills. As the analysis in Table 2 shows, academic unit heads must be able to deal with the following matters/tasks (to various degrees in different areas): academic program and curriculum, including development and renovation, review and assessment, and approval and accreditation; academic policy and governance, including academic procedures, manuals and other documentation, committees and meetings, faculty and professional staff representation and consultation, and advisory and regulatory bodies; faculty affairs, including faculty recruitment and development, workload and course schedule, research support, faculty evaluation and grievances, tenure and promotion, and other personnel matter; student services, including enrollment management, academic advisement and student success, and student needs and grievances; community services and partnership, including alumni and public relations, regional consultation and technical assistance, and MOAs/MOUs (memos of agreement or understanding); and resource acquisition and management, including strategic planning, budget preparation and hearing, grants application and administration, fundraising, instructional technology, learning resources, and other infrastructure. Such a list of administrative tasks, though more or less shared, can be daunting to an academic unit head not only in terms of time commitment and energy required but also administrative skills necessary for survival and success in that role. Then, what are the essential skills for an academic unit head to deal with those numerous challenges? Let’s take a look at some scholarly suggestions along with some practical samples at different levels.

Requirements for Deaning First of all, the dean must be a learned person and a continuing learner in such core knowledge areas as: knowledge of the mission, philosophy, and history of the institution; student-centered orientation; instructional leadership; information and educational technologies; assessment and accountability; and administrative preparation (Bragg, 2000). As a student of the subject points out,

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Sheying Chen Deans are expected to find solutions to the difficult and varied situations that arise each day. They need to keep current with the world of higher education and the changes that are occurring not only at their own institution but at other colleges and universities as well. ...Some of the best skills a college dean can possess are the constant thirst for knowledge, commitment to lifelong learning, and the courage to embrace change in the ever-evolving world of higher education. (DiFronzo, 2002)

The dean cannot know everything very well, of course, but s/he must know where to dig into or look it up. A problem-solving approach and timely consultation with institutional documents, research literature, experts, and stakeholders are among the fundamental skills the dean must have. Bragg (2000) also points out that democratic leadership, creative management, and finely tuned human relation skills as some of the skills needed to fulfill the role of the dean. In practice, the dean is expected to be multi-skilled. Below are some examples of the essential skills and qualifications listed in recent job ads. In seeking nominations and applications for a new Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy at its Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, the University of Michigan (2007) articulates the following expectations:

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Candidates must have an earned doctorate or equivalent terminal degree and qualifications appropriate for appointment as a tenured full professor at the University of Michigan, including a distinguished record of rigorous scholarship and teaching and/or mentoring. Effective and demonstrated administrative and budgetary expertise and the capacity for fundraising are required. The successful candidate will also possess outstanding skills of leadership and collaboration in a setting that balances social science and public policy research with professional education. S/he will be creative, flexible, and will excel at communicating with diverse audiences and fostering an inclusive and open intellectual and professional culture.

Another case randomly found from the website of Montclair State University in New Jersey gives more detailed requirements for a new Dean of its School of Business: The new Dean must be an outstanding, creative leader who has the academic credibility, based on his/her academic credentials and achievements, and the personal skills to inspire the faculty, ensure high standards in the School’s programs, be creative in addressing the needs of a changing, globally oriented business community, and exercise leadership which will increase the competitive prominence of the School in the region. The Dean must be familiar with the policies and procedures of AACSB and be committed to meeting its standards. Because external and private funding will be important to the School’s growth, the Dean must have the ability to relate effectively to leaders in the business community not only to cultivate gifts, but to develop mutually beneficial partnerships as well. The Dean must be able to inspire a strong sense of collaborative community and common academic vision within the School and know how to exercise his/her intellectual leadership in the School, across the University, and within the external community. For the School to function efficiently and effectively, the Dean must also possess superb managerial and fiscal skills, based on significant administrative experience. She/he must also have strong communication skills; experience with instruction utilizing information technology and electronic access to information; and a commitment to maintaining and extending student and faculty diversity. (Montclair State University, 2008)

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Expectations for Chairing There have been a lot of writings on chairing with useful tips and guides, particularly for chairing meetings in the non-academic world (e.g., Rees and Porter, 2003; Community Housing, n.d.). Scholarly work on chairing academic department is also available (e.g., Gmelch and Miskin, 1995). In a critical review of literature related to the department chair position a decade ago, Dyer and Miller (1999) concluded that research had provided a clear picture of who is involved in the chair position but had not clarified ways to improve the effectiveness of the position. Since then, with the support of Lumina Foundation for Education, the American Council on Education (ACE) has developed a Department Chair Online Resource Center (http://www.acenet.edu/resources/chairs/), which offers good advice and resource materials on the Chair as Leader, the Chair and Faculty, Resource Management, Legal Issues, etc. Graham and Benoit (2004) wrote that the chair’s role requires individuals to fulfill diverse responsibilities, while fulfilling these responsibilities requires a different skill set from the one that originally attracted them to the independent life of the scholar. In “constructing the role [set] of department chair”, they listed a number of roles under four categories: Administrative (fiscal overseer, schedule coordinator, report generator, and staff supervisor), Interpersonal (counselor, coach, mediator, and climate regulator), Leadership (visionary, internal advocate, internal intermediary, external liaison, curriculum leader, and role model), and Resource Development (faculty recruiter, faculty mentor, faculty evaluator, and resource warrior). Graham and Benoit (2004) further analyze the skills that are helpful to fulfilling each role. For example, interpersonal conflict negotiation and problem-solving skills are useful in performing the role as a mediator, while being a “climate regulator” will benefit from the skill to create an environment that will encourage faculty productivity. As the administration-faculty interface, chairpersons are subject to less administrative check than deans. Deans are normally picked from national searches, who serve at the pleasure of campus or system chief executives. In contrast, departments largely depend on the willingness of the faculty from within to serve as chairpersons. While formal outside searches are rarely conducted, another example (in addition to the ones used earlier to illustrate the duties and responsibilities of academic unit heads) will help to illustrate the skills and qualifications expected for department chairs. In its recent advertisement placed on the Chronicle of Higher Education, the University of Houston-Downtown (2009) specifies some basic requirements for a new Chair of its Department of Arts and Humanities as follows: − −

−

Applicants must hold a terminal degree in one of the department’s disciplines, and have a record of achievement suitable for appointment as a tenured faculty member. The Chair is selected on the basis of an established record of administrative effectiveness, academic achievement, leadership skills, and commitment to working with students, faculty, other university personnel and external constituencies. The successful applicant will show evidence of being an excellent communicator, consensus builder, and of having a commitment to carrying out the mission of the University of Houston-Downtown.

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Qualifications for Academic Program Coordination An academic program coordinator is normally a faculty member. Any academically qualified faculty member may be appointed to coordinate or direct at the academic program level. For example, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACS-COC) (2008) has the following provisions in its Comprehensive Standards for accreditation: 3.4.10 The institution places primary responsibility for the content, quality, and effectiveness of the curriculum with its faculty. (Responsibility for curriculum) 3.4.11 For each major in a degree program, the institution assigns responsibility for program coordination, as well as for curriculum development and review, to persons academically qualified in the field. In those degree programs for which the institution does not identify a major, this requirement applies to a curricular area or concentration. (Academic program coordination)

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In contrast to deaning and chairing that have both attracted wide interest, there is less writing on program coordination as a part of academic administration and as a subject for professional development. Academic qualifications tend to be of the primary concern, especially within specialized, professional fields. For instance, Middle Tennessee State University (2008) used the following advertisement for a job entitled “Social Work Faculty MSW Program Coordinator”: The position is open rank, tenure track… Qualifications include: (1) MSW degree; (2) Doctorate in social work or related field by begin date; (3) 2 years post-MSW practice experience; (4) graduate teaching experience in a CSWE accredited program; (5) program administration and leadership experience preferred; (6) CSWE accreditation experience preferred; and (7) experience with integrative teaching technologies preferred. Excellence in teaching, research/creative activity and service is expected for all positions. MTSU seeks candidates committed to using integrative technologies in teaching.

CONCLUSION There is tremendous diversity in the organizational structure of academic units and their institutional contexts. Reorganization is at times necessary to achieve institutional efficiency or reaffirm organizational effectiveness. However, academic administrators as change agents must be aware of potential pitfalls and obstacles to any reform aimed at positive changes. Knowledge of organizational theory and research will help. In addition to rational thinking and logical design, alternative paradigms such as the political, the “irrational”, and the “garbage can” models for policy analysis and agenda setting can also be very beneficial. This chapter takes a comprehensive approach to academic administration below the campus/central academic affairs office. Academic unit heads including deans, department chairs, and program coordinators have different duties at different levels of the academic enterprise. Yet, they share many administrative responsibilities and must work as a team to ensure smooth cooperation. This collaborative approach departs from the idea of “leading from middle” in terms of a “dean’s squeeze” (Gallos, 2002). In this sense, “leading from the

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middle” may best be understood as influencing others from within a group, rather than from above, below, or in front of it (Robinson, 2002). A clear understanding of the division of labor and a positive attitude toward collaboration can be the result of organizational study and administrative learning. Faculty governance is also crucial to shared governance that distinguishes institutions of higher learning from other business and organizations. The role of support staff as well as student participation is also important to academic administration. Leadership competence for the administration of academic units is of critical importance in terms of required skills and expertise. Significant overlapping at different levels bodes well for professional collaboration and career advancement from coordinating, chairing, to deaning. Possible ways to improve the administration of academic units should be continuously explored in terms of pursuing organizational effectiveness and competence for leading from the middle (Naylor, Gkolia and Brundrett, 2006).

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REFERENCES American Association of University Professors. (1966). Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities. http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/policydocs/contents/ governancestatement.htm, retrieved February 22, 2009. American Association of University Professors (2007). What makes a professional? Academe Online, January-February. http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/ 2007/JF/Feat/ sb1.htm (accessed February 25, 2009). Bragg, D. D. (2000). Preparing community college deans to lead change. In: Robillard, D. (ed.), New Directions for Community Colleges. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Chen, S. (2003). The context of social policy reform in China: Theoretical, comparative, and historical perspectives. In: Finer, C.J. (ed.), Social Policy Reform in China: Views from Home and Abroad. Aldershot: Ashgate. Chu, D. (2006). The Department Chair Primer: Leading and Managing Academic Departments. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing. City College of New York (2009). Job advertisement for Dean of the Division of Social Sciences. Chronicle of Higher Education, February 9. Cohen, M. D., March, J. G., and Olsen, J. P. (1972). A garbage can model of organizational choice, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 17, No. 1., pp. 1-25. Community Housing (n.d.). Being an excellent chair: Developing your chairing skills. www.chcymru.org.uk/6261.file.dld (accessed February 27, 2009). DiFronzo, N. C. (2002). The academic dean, http://www.newfoundations.com/ OrgTheory/DiFronzo721b.html (accessed February 26, 2009). Dyer, B. G., and Miller, M. (1999). A critical review of literature related to the department chair position. ERIC #: ED432193. Eaton, J. S. (2000). Core academic values, quality, and regional accreditation: The challenge of distance learning. ERIC# ED446534 (Council for Higher Education Accreditation). Gallos, J. V. (2002). The dean’s squeeze: The myths and realities of academic leadership in the middle. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 1: 174-184. Gmelch, W. H., and Miskin, V. D. (1995). Chairing an academic department: Survival skills for scholars (Volume 15). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

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George Washington University (2009). Job advertisement for Chair, Department of Organizational Sciences and Communication. Chronicle of Higher Education, February 16. Graham, S., and Benoit, P. (2004). Constructing the role of department chair. ACE Department Chair Online Resource Center (http://www.acenet.edu/resources/chairs/, accessed January 2, 2005). Hannan, M. T., and Freeman, J. H. (1989). Organizational Ecology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Illinois State University (2009). Job advertisement for Assosciate Professor in Elementary Education and Program Coordinator. Chronicle of Higher Education, February 16. Kegan, R., and Lahey, L. L. (2009). Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Press. Kingdon, J. W. (2003). Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies. 2nd ed. NY: AddisonWesley. Middle Tennessee State University (2008). Job description for Social Work Faculty - MSW Program Coordinator. HigherEdJobs.com, http://www.higheredjobs.com/search/ details.cfm?JobCode=175340702 (accessed March 1, 2009). Montclair State University (2008). Position announcement for Dean of School of Business, http://sbus.montclair.edu/dean-search/position-announcement.html (accessed Feb. 27, 2009) Naylor, P., Gkolia, C., Brundrett, M. (2006). “Leading from the middle”: An initial study of impact. Management in Education, v20 n1 p11-16. Northeastern University (2009). Job advertisement for Professor and Chair, Department of Biology. Chronicle of Higher Education, February 9. Rees, W. D., and Porter, C. (2003). Chairing – developing a key skill. Industrial and Commercial Training, 35(2): 56-59. Robinson, W. P. (2002). Leading People from the MIddle: The Universal Mission of Heart and Mind. Provo, UT: Executive Excellence Publishing. Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACS-COC) (2008). Principles of Accreditation: Foundations for Quality Enhancement. http://www.sacscoc.org/pdf/2008PrinciplesofAccreditation.pdf (retrieved March 1, 2009). Tierney, W. G., and Lechuga, V. M. (eds.) (2004). Restructuring Shared Governance in Higher Education: New Directions for Higher Education. San Francisco, CA: JosseyBass. University of Houston-Downtown (2009). Job advertisement for Chair, Department of Arts and Humanities. Chronicle of Higher Education, February 27. University of Michigan (2007). Position description for Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy, http://www.fordschool.umich.edu/news/search_announcement.php (accessed Feb. 27, 2009). University of South Florida at St. Petersburg (2009). Job advertisement for Dean, College of Business. Chronicle of Higher Education, February 10.

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In: Academic Administration: A Quest for Better Management.. ISBN 978-1-60741-732-3 Editor: Sheying Chen © 2009 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 8

THE SMALL AND VISIBLE ORGANIZATIONAL UNIT: A SYMBOLIC-INTERACTIONIST ANALYSIS OF RESTRUCTURING Katherine Meyer and Timothy J. Curry The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

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ABSTRACT Small, mission-critical and highly visible organizational units are extremely important to the successful operation of a large university but they are often overlooked in organizational analysis. When they function marginally well or poorly, they implicate the mission and integrity of the university. Utilizing Bolman and Deal’s organizational frames (2008) as well as insights from theories of complex organizations and symbolic interactionism, we examine such a unit undergoing restructuring. Bolman and Deal’s symbolic frame proved most useful to restructuring. As a newly appointed administrator or director addressed the need for change in the symbolic nature of the unit, those changes brought in their wake changes in the physical and organizational structure, attention to human relations issues of staff, and improvements in the political relations of the unit.

INTRODUCTION The administration of academic affairs at large state universities involves a sizeable and complex structure. Situated within the purview of the university provost, the structure includes academic and professional colleges; centers, institutes and schools; enrollmentrelated units for both graduate and undergraduate students; and often extended campuses. In addition, central support units often report to offices of academic affairs and include entities such as university libraries, offices of research, human resources and numerous others. Such central reporting units appear to receive less attention from researchers and scholars than colleges, graduate and undergraduates programs, and centers and institutes. Yet, in terms of organizational policy and functions, they are key to managing a university. Further, when

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they are considered in the literature on the academic administration of higher education, such units are often treated as similar entities. In fact, they vary enormously along numerous dimensions which are essential to organizational analysis. Here, we focus on three dimensions which we think are significant for examination and decision-making; namely, the size of the offices, their centrality to maintaining specific university goals, and the consequences for the university if performance is good, poor, or somewhere in-between. Although offices or units may look comparable when placed within organizational charts, they can differ a great deal. For example, some are two to three person enterprises, such as an office of disability administration, while others are large organizations which have complex structures themselves, such as an office of human resources. Recently at our university, we have identified the importance of developing various kinds of training and management for the “small office.” By blending insights from sociological research on complex organizations and research on small groups, we aim to provide leaders of the small office with readily available toolkits which pertain to their needs. Offices of academic administration simultaneously provide leadership and support for broad missions of universities which include research and the production of knowledge, education of current and future generations, development of inclusive communities, and networks with both global and local constituencies. In addition, they address important norms and values of scholarship, such as academic integrity, and all kinds of technological and personnel support. Offices of academic administration create organizational charts which make visible what they value and how they achieve specific parts of their broad overall mission. The consequences of what happens when things go right and what happens when things go wrong are hidden in organizational charts which portray the structure of offices of academic affairs. For example, when the graduate school is placed boldly in a reporting line to the office of academic affairs, the impact of its successes and failures on the operation of other units is not always clear. Nor is it immediately obvious that some organizational units have impacts far beyond the internal workings of the university itself, for example, offices of international affairs whose networks are worldwide. If we take these dimensions one at a time, the size of offices, their centrality to maintaining specific university goals, and the consequences for the university if performance is good, poor or somewhere in-between are important elements in analyzing academic administration. However, the intersection of these variables seems even more critical. Although academic administrators generally expect that large offices with missions central to university goals can generate difficult outcomes when they function poorly, administrators can underestimate the importance of small offices which carry university ideals or goals which are critical to the overall functioning and reputation of a university. In this chapter, we draw from methods of organizational analysis popular in the literature on management and leadership in higher education (e.g., Bohlman and Deal, 2008) and from sociological theories of ritual and emotion (Collins, 2004) and we include insights from symbolic interaction theory advanced by Erving Goffman (Goffman, 1967) and his colleagues and students. We apply these analytical tools to a small central support unit which reports to an office of academic affairs and is charged with maintaining the academic integrity of scholarly work by graduate and undergraduate students. We illustrate how a small unit which manages key institutional values can have enormous consequences for a university. In so doing, we aim to underscore the significance of leading and managing units, such as central

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support ones, whose size and goals when taken alone, may not accurately reflect the critical importance of their management and policies, and the subsequent consequences of their visibility and decisions.

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THEORY: ORGANIZATIONAL FRAMES Although small units may not require the budget and staff of much larger units, they often serve as custodians of important symbols and values to the university. When searching for relevant theories of management and administration to apply to the case of small units with important roles in managing symbols, rituals and values, a natural place to start is Reframing Organizations. Bohlman and Deal (2008) argue that managers would benefit from having multiple frameworks for understanding organizations. They describe four frameworks: the structural, symbolic, human relations, and political. All of these frames are appropriate for examining an organization, and application of one or more frameworks simultaneously can be the most effective way to bring about change. Accordingly, all four frames will be described briefly as background before we begin the case study. Bohlman and Deal describe these frames as general perspectives which managers and leaders in the organization might use in diagnosing problems in their work units. Managers who use the structural frame focus on the structure of the work itself. What is the task at hand? How is the work coordinated? Is the work flow logical and efficient? When managers employing a structural frame consider how their superiors and the public evaluate the performance of a unit, they quantify their work in terms of units of “output” which can be compiled and then charted or graphed. In other words, managers who use the structural frame are focused on the “bottom line” and inclined to promote those strategies which produce an easily quantifiable result. In contrast, the managers who use a symbolic frame focus on the meaning and emotions involved in the work. They want to know if the organization has a compelling mission and if the leadership has provided a vision for the unit. As Bohlman and Deal (2008, p. 213) state, “what is most important is not what happens but what it means.” Do employees find meaning in their work? Are there dramatic stories, local heroes and heroines, and institutional practices that give the unit a personality? Managers who use a symbolic frame consider the culture and rituals of an organization as central. Such leaders are intent upon discovering the history and traditions of a unit before they take action. When they consider how their superiors or the public view their unit, they focus on the impressions which their unit makes. Emotions are key byproducts of the unit, and managers want to know if the unit is creating appropriate emotional responses from the people and stakeholders with whom it deals. The human relations frame considers the skills and motivations of the people who work for the unit. Leaders employing a human resource frame consequently aim to hire and keep the right people for the job. They focus on rewarding good performance, empowering employees and fostering teamwork where appropriate. Employees who need additional skills will be retrained at the unit’s expense, and tasks are often designed to accommodate employee diversity and skill levels. Managers who employ this frame also seek feedback through surveys on how they are viewed by employees in their unit. They believe that a unit will be productive if management focuses on people and relationships. When evaluated by the

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public or their superiors, human relations managers believe it important to include employee satisfaction and morale as important dimensions to consider. The political frame recognizes that organizations are inherently political. As Bohlman and Deal note, administrators operating within this frame will know how to “…fashion an agenda, map the political terrain, create a network of support, and negotiate with both allies and adversaries” (2008, p. 228). A leader using the political frame will assess the political landscape, and determine what political fences need mending, and what other units might serve as potential coalition members. Within university settings, units vie for attention and resources, and managers who hope to prosper over the long term must develop political skills. Space and resource concerns also have political dimensions, and the leader of a small unit, in particular, needs to consider how to acquire or defend the unit’s space against claims from larger and more powerful units. Since the political climate is inherently unpredictable, particularly when organizations are engaged in controversial and potential conflictful interactions, leaders might well consider how to identity and respond to the ever-changing needs and demands of the public and superiors. Bohlman and Deal claim that all four of these frameworks are appropriate, although typical managers are more likely to think in terms of the structural and human relations frames. The symbolic frame is less familiar but is akin to and draws from an extensive literature in the social sciences, particularly anthropology and sociology (cf. Collins, 2004; Durkheim, 1995/1912; Goffman, 1967). In this case study, all four frames were used, with the symbolic frame proving the master frame. The symbolic frame proved most effective because it held the key to some central problems of the unit.

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A CASE STUDY We present the analysis as a case study of restructuring. The issue that led to the restructuring was the failure of communication between the small unit and the larger structure of academic administration. The problems of communication were slow to develop but became increasingly important as central administration realized that the smaller unit was pursuing a course which was misaligned with broader goals. The misalignment concerned the relative important of two goals of the unit which was charged with maintaining academic integrity; namely, education and punishment. The consequences of the misalignment were evident in the complaints received from students (and their parents) about excessive punishments received from what they saw as minor infractions. Education was a concern for instructors as well as students regarding such issues as plagiarism, particularly how to define it and how to train students in the proper use and citations of Internet sources. Since international graduate training plays an increasing important role in the university in a global world, the graduate school was concerned that graduate students from foreign nations may have special needs for education about American customs regarding academic misconduct. The unit in this case study is charged with administering those portions of the Code of Student Conduct (CODE) that deal with academic misconduct. We refer to the unit here with a pseudonym – the Office of Academic Integrity (OAI). It is defined and empowered within the Code itself with considerable authority to conduct inquiries as well as to determine

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sanctions. These sanctions range in severity from a mere warning to permanent dismissal of a student. OAI operates with considerable independence, and while its decisions may be appealed, it has complete authority in determining charges to be brought forth and the resolution of cases. The issue of realigning the unit with fundamental university values involved several concerns. Could the small unit concerned with implementing university policy regarding academic integrity manage the educational aspects as well as the punishment aspects? Was the unit motivated to do so? Over time, central administration assessed that the unit had developed a culture oriented to punishment and was unlikely to change. A new administrator was brought in to begin a process of change and encouraged to maintain appropriate levels of punishment while increasing the educational mission of the unit. The new administrator was an experienced field worker in sociology and, upon analysis, largely perceived the organizational problems of the unit through the symbolic frame. After identifying the problems as primarily symbolic, he employed the other frames as well to help restructure the unit.

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Employing the Symbolic Frame - Symbols, Rituals, and Values The new administrator believed that the symbolic frame was central, because the unit in question played such an important role in maintaining academic integrity. Academic integrity is, after all, central to the mission of the university, and there are numerous challenges to it. For instance, the list of charges that could be applied in a typical case brought before OAI include charges related to attempting to copy or copying the work of another student, submitting plagiarized work, altering or resubmitting course materials, acting as a substitute (“ringer”) for another student during an examination, forging a physician’s signature on a medical form, and submitting work not actually performed in a course for credit. In general, any failure to comply with course/program policies and/or requirements is actionable (Curry, 2008). On the symbolic level then, the unit charged with maintaining academic integrity preserves the most sacred elements of the university process. Sacred in this sense is used in the context of sociological theory and stems from the work of Emile Durkheim (1995/1912) and subsequent generations of scholars. Fundamentally, academic integrity represents the moral standards of the university community. Therefore, responses to cheating represent a defense of group morality, and the unit charged with maintaining academic integrity must have an appropriate symbolic weight. The office must also handle the emotional side of the cases with appropriate attention. Since students are facing formal hearings, with outcomes which could damage their academic reputations, their personal identity is at stake. Administrators must handle interactions with students and at times, their parents, with sensitivity to the emotional outcomes.

Identifying the Symbolic Elements of a Tool Kit Administrators of small units with correspondingly small budgets might be thought to have small tool kits. Structurally, that is probably so. In the case of OAI, the budget was

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sufficient for a three person staff, some supplies, telephones and computer equipment, minimum travel—in dollar terms hardly enough to compete with a large department with many faculty or a unit with major equipment to maintain, such as a physical plant. However, because a small unit such as OAI connects to important values of the university, the tool kit is enhanced at the symbolic level. Symbols are uniquely important to a university. The university does not produce durable goods or raw materials – one of its purposes is to produce scholarship and degrees which certify that its graduates are competent and skillful in areas which are central to the society’s scientific and cultural base. Hence, a small unit that is deemed as part of the core symbolic mission of the university will have an importance much greater than its budget or size suggests. Thus, the new administrator of OAI tackled its symbolic frame. Does OAI present a coherent, consistent, symbolic message to its public about how seriously it takes its mission and how capably it discharges its obligations? Is OAI perceived to be treating cases brought before it with the care needed to insure due process to the students? Do faculty believe that OAI is vigilant in fostering and protecting core missions of teaching, learning, research? Are the judgments handed down at OAI hearings sufficiently punitive to act as a deterrent to students who might be tempted to cheat? Does OAI serve an educational mission of creating a sense of civic responsibility among students at all levels? Viewed with an eye on symbolic messages, the tools which respond to these questions and create a consistent message include: • •

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•

•

•

•

•

Letters sent to students and instructors informing them of their hearings—are they sent in a timely manner to emphasize the importance of the misconduct charges? Décor of the office—important that the office appear to be well-organized and business-like. Does the office convey the right impression to the public? Telephone and email communications—important that these are conducted professionally with appropriate record-keeping. Does the unit acknowledge receipt of materials from instructors wishing to bring forth charges of academic misconduct and provide similar kinds of follow-up? Interviews with students about the charges – important because students need to feel that their situation is understood, that the process is fair, and that the university takes these matters seriously. Are students given enough time to explain their point of view? Are their emotional needs being met? Discussions with senior administrators—important that the dual missions of the unit are understood. Do senior administrators “buy into” the educational mission of the office as well as the punishment mission? On-site visits to classrooms and laboratories to examine procedures taken to control cheating –it is important that instructors believe that the unit is interested in what goes on “in the field” and is willing to help. A web site including forms for reporting academic misconduct, frequently asked questions etc. – it is important that the unit adapt current technology in its efforts to communicate with students and stakeholders. Is this web site being used by the public?

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Examining the Unit through the Symbolic Frame When the newly appointed administrator first viewed the hearing room and records area, it was clear that record keeping and security measures were well articulated; however, the actual storage of the records did not convey that. The records of academic misconduct cases were kept in a separate room, adjacent to the reception area. Although they were secure, the records area sometimes served as a spare reception area. Faculty and other visitors to the office could see the location of open files, not a desirable situation. Also, even though records of resolved cases were supposed to be kept in locked file cases in a separate room, the number of cases had grown too large, the cases had not been archived, and some files were being kept in cardboard boxes. The room which held the records was cluttered with old furniture that seemed out of place for a records’ area; there was a sofa, an overstuffed chair, and wrinkled and poorly framed art work that served no particular purpose. All of this gave the impression that record-keeping was somewhat haphazard. The emotional tone surrounding the treatment of individual cases was problematic. The office had established a very efficient bureaucratic flow of letters to students notifying them that they were being charged with academic misconduct and requesting their presence at a pre-hearing. Other letters followed up, including letters to the students notifying them of the date of the hearing and results of the hearing. Similar letters were sent to instructors. Students were also instructed how to file an appeal, and if a case were successfully appealed, additional letters would be generated to the student and instructor. The content of the letters was keyed to the access merge file, so that each student would receive more or less the same information. The problem was that the merge file depersonalizes what is at its core a very personal problem. From a symbolic frame, the key question that emerged is how to maintain the proper demeanor toward a student, respecting the presumption of innocence, when the bureaucratic structure is geared toward treating each case the same? The answer requires balancing the needs of bureaucratic efficiency with the needs of students to tell their side of the story. The student, rather than his or her alleged offense, needed to be seen as the focus of OAI. The culture of OAI was punishment oriented and the office had developed a reputation for “giving the axe” to students who were found in violation of the student code. To illustrate, students copying answers on a quiz in a course worth less that 5% of the grade might be punished with failing grade in the course. Such punishments were routinely appealed on the basis that the disciplinary sanction imposed was “grossly disproportionate to the violation committed.” The newly appointed administrator researched possible solutions to this problem by studying the culture and history of the unit and interviewing at length a former administrator of the unit. The former administrator was well respected for her ability to treat students with compassion. During the interview, the former administrator provided guidelines as to how to conduct an interview with a student that would be emotionally satisfying to the student, and help get out the student’s side of the story. Often as not, the student’s side of the story would reveal personal life situations that were complicated and difficult to discuss, but that were fundamental to the question of why the student was being accused of cheating. While the student’s story might not serve as justification for the cheating, it needed to be told so that the student could maintain a sense of personal composure and identity. The symbolic frame draws attention to the meaning of the activities, and the meaning of academic misconduct

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charge to the student must be allowed to come forward if the case is to be resolved satisfactorily. The newly appointed administrator thus understood the problem in terms of its human dimensions. The culture and rituals of the office had joint purposes which could easily be at odds with each other. Achieving bureaucratic efficiency might well trump the emotional needs of students to be understood and treated compassionately. In return, students who believed they were not understood and not treated fairly might well complain and file appeals that would only increase to the work load of senior administrators. What was needed was a restructuring of the office to insure that communication with the students was more through and personal. Such communication needed to begin when first contact was made with the student, and be followed through to the final resolution of the case. The existing personnel structure of the Office of Academic Integrity was not designed with such communication in mind.

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Employing the Structural, Human Relations and Political Frames The three positions in the office were the Director and two office associates, both of whom had the same work description and both of whom shared the same workspace. OAI did handle its hearing procedures well and was very efficient in its official correspondence to students, instructors, and administrators. However, OAI did not handle its inter-personnel communication well. Conversations with students about their cases tended to be pro-forma, and the pre-hearing interviews with students were held to a strict 30 minute limit. Cases could be dispensed with efficiently given that schedule, but at a cost of impersonality. The educational mission of OAI was of less priority than simply getting the hearing scheduled. Some cases which would have been more appropriately scheduled for decisions by the Director alone were scheduled as formal hearings requiring more time from the faculty and student members of a hearings committee. The Director’s position suffered as a result of the lack of differentiation of the staff as the Director became involved in copying case material and attending to entering cases in the database—clerical work that could be handled by the office associates. Even more telling, the Director did not attend to the need for conversations with senior administrators about the mission of OAI and did not encourage long conversations with students about their cases. As a result, some students and their parents became concerned that the Director really did not understand or care about these cases which had such potential to damage the reputation of the student.

Structural Change The restructuring of the office was designed to heighten OAI’s ability to communicate with students and instructors together with senior administrators. At the same time, the restructuring addressed the problem of the management of the records—creating a more professional treatment and maintenance of the records. The two staff members were given different job descriptions. One was designated as a Records Office Associate, the other as the Communications Office Associate. Important

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functions followed from these changes — the Communications Associate began immediately to respond to email requests for information, initiate more detailed contact with instructors who needed to schedule orientations, and organized a file of handouts that could be used to help education graduate students and faculty. The Communications Associate also became the receptionist for the office and prepared materials to handle smoothly the flow of students and faculty to OAI. The Records Office Associate was moved into a distinct records office, and new equipment was ordered for that office. It included file cabinets, a new workstation, and enhancements to the telephone system. Old furniture was removed, mismatched chairs and tables were discarded, and office décor was modified to give a more professional appearance to the OAI. The Records Office Associate was relieved of duties involving walk-in students and other dealing with the public, which became the domain of the Communications Associate. The Records Office Associate assumed responsibility for the database of cases and worked with the Communications Associate to get the cases assembled, copied, and delivered to students and instructors efficiently. Some cross-training was allowed, since the work flow in the office might occasionally involve everyone in handling records and correspondence. In making these changes, the newly appointed administrator (the new Director) engaged the human relations frame, requesting the assistance of the university’s Office of Human Relations to rewrite job descriptions and to help with the transition. The employees were interviewed about the transition, and their skills were matched to the positions. The transition involved reassignment of tasks, learning new procedures, and reframing the mission of OAI to be more student-centered. As expected, the transition was a tense period in the office, as staff members coped with many uncertainties about the new assignments. Senior administrators were advised of the changes, and additional funds were provided to the office for the equipment needed to make the changes. The staff began to adjust to the changes after approximately two months, and was particularly encouraged by the flow of positive e-mails from students complimenting them on the way they had been treated. Better communication and more personal attention to each student resulted in a more positive emotional tone to the office and made the office a more pleasant place to work. The new Director, freed from the chore of copying and assembling case material, could focus on the more appropriate and higher level work of creating a mission statement for the office, spending more time in conversations with students, and implementing educational programs for the university. Part of this educational mission involved designing new flow charts of the work of OAI, so that senior administrators could be informed as to the technical workings of the office. The new Director also had the time to conduct interviews with stakeholders to the OAI, including administrators in Student Judicial Affairs. These tasks had been neglected, and political fence mending was begun.

CONCLUSION Like many small offices, the smooth running of OAI has important consequences for the university’s mission. In this case, the small office addresses important norms and values of scholarship, such as academic integrity. Its size, interacting with the centrality of its mission

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and the consequences to the university when performance is good or not, created particular challenges for restructuring, a restructuring which called mostly on the symbolic frame with structural and human relations, then political frames following in that order. Through attention to the importance of symbols, rituals emotions, and educational values, the newly appointed administrator tackled reorganization of office personnel and their job descriptions, the physical appearance of the office, and content of communications to students and to the larger university. Attention to symbolic and structural frames was accompanied by better human relations and better political relationships, almost as a by-product of improved symbols and structures.

REFERENCES

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Bolman, L.G., and Deal, T.E. (2008). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership. Fourth Edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Collins, R. (2004). Interaction Ritual Chains. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Curry, T.J. (2008). “Charges” Memo. Unpublished document, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. Durkheim, E. (1995; orig. 1912). Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (translated by Karen E. Fields). New York: The Free Press. Goffman, E. (1967). Interaction Ritual. New York: Doubleday.

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PART II: CORE AREAS OF ACADEMIC AFFAIRS

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In: Academic Administration: A Quest for Better Management.. ISBN 978-1-60741-732-3 Editor: Sheying Chen © 2009 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 9

COLLEGE EDUCATION AND STUDENT SUCCESS Sheying Chen1, Donna J. Dahlgren2 and Xuejuan Chen3 1,2

Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, Indiana, USA 3 Hunan University of Arts and Sciences, China

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ABSTRACT This chapter provides an overview of critical issues facing higher education, particularly at the undergraduate level, and addresses them with a focus on how to help students to succeed. A literature review highlights the challenges to undergraduate education as well as a recent shift of policy emphasis from enrollment (head counts and credit hours) to student persistence and success. Degree completion and time to degree are becoming the most important performance indicators of many institutions linked with their public funding allocations. Research findings on potential factors affecting student success are summarized, including academic preparation, motivation, instruction, out-ofclassroom experience, and the ability to pay with financial aid (especially working on campus). Intervention strategies via academic support and student engagement are discussed, as well as specific tips to help administrators in implementing the efforts. The need for a broader and dynamic perspective about student success as well as deeper and global inquiry into student learning behaviors and beliefs is also indicated.

INTRODUCTION In 1994, the Commission on Undergraduate Education at Stanford University issued a report after the most thorough review of its kind in a quarter century, proposing stiffer academic requirements for students and calling for increased faculty involvement with undergraduates (Stanford University News Service, 1994). Articulating a concern over the distribution of teaching responsibilities, the commission also criticized a “widespread indifference” of faculty members toward general advising of undergraduates. Embraced by the administration as a sharp departure from the University’s existing approach, the report recommended: strengthening the writing and language requirements; developing a new science course for non-science majors; redefining the Cultures, Ideas and Values courses;

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streamlining the social science and humanities breadth requirements; adding new optional courses in oral communication; strengthening the advising system; and underscoring the importance of teaching in faculty selection and compensation (ibid.). As a result, Stanford created a vice provost position for undergraduate education. Dr. Condoleezza Rice, then the new Provost of the University, praised the report as having “really gotten this campus talking about the undergraduate teaching mission, about the experience of our undergraduates, about what a college education should be” (ibid.). It is noticeable that time to degree was also a major concern, which received the most national attention among the commission’s charges. After analyzing data on three cohorts of graduates, which showed that about 85 percent took four years, 13 percent took five years or more, and less than 2 percent graduated in three years, the commission concluded that Stanford should not push students to graduate in less than four years (ibid.). Stanford’s case was typical of an elite institution that usually draws exceptional students with high motivation and extraordinary capability to complete a challenging baccalaureate degree in four years or even less. The majority of students in most four-year colleges and universities, however, struggle or strive to finish their first degree in six years or even much longer. Retention and timely completion could be a much bigger issue at those institutions. Many other issues revealed in the review of undergraduate education at Stanford, however, might apply to all institutions of higher learning. Therefore, let’s take a broader view of the state of the art concerning college education and student success in the United States.

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CHALLENGES TO UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION In 1998, and again in 2001, the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACandU) launched a series of publications addressing policy and research issues of importance to undergraduate education. They were also designed to generate dialogue among institutions about key issues in undergraduate education by analyzing changes taking place and providing “road maps” about the directions and destinations of the changing academy. The series has covered such important topics as (AACandU, 2009): liberal education (e.g., Rothblatt, 2003), general education (e.g., Gaff, 1999), learning assessment (e.g., Shavelson, 2007), integrative learning (e.g., Huber and Hutchings, 2005), interdisciplinary studies (e.g., Klein, 1999), and globalization (e.g., Cornwell and Stoddard, 1999). The first few years in the 21st century were marked by the reform attempts of the U.S. Congress and the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education. In response, a document entitled Addressing the Challenges Facing American Undergraduate Education—A Letter to Our Members: Next Steps, was issued on September 21, 2006 jointly by the American Council on Education (ACE), American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), Association of American Universities (AAU), National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), and National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC). The challenges primarily affecting undergraduate education were identified. Acknowledging that there is always a need for change, these associations of colleges and universities argued that some fundamental aspects of higher education do not and should not change: “The most basic goals of an undergraduate education remain the

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ability to think, write, and speak clearly; to reason critically; to solve problems; to work collaboratively; to acquire field-specific knowledge; and to acquire the judgment, analytic capacity, and independence of thought to support continued, self-driven, lifelong learning and engaged citizenship” (American Council on Education et al., 2006). The associations offered their member institutions assistance in addressing the following issues and actions in response to the challenges (American Council on Education et al., 2006):

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(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

Expanding college access to low-income and minority students; Keeping college affordable; Improving learning by utilizing new knowledge and instructional techniques; Preparing secondary students for higher education; Increasing accountability for educational outcomes; Internationalizing the student experience; and Increasing opportunities for lifelong education and workforce training.

In summing up, the letter cites The Economist, a respected British newsweekly, that America’s system of higher education is the best in the world because “there is no [centralized] system”. It concludes that we must take advantage of our diverse and flexible [autonomous] “system” to meet our current challenges (ibid.). While there have been other issues with colleges and universities (e.g., Ehrlich and Colby, 2004) as well as various reports addressing different aspects of undergraduate education (e.g., The Boyer Commission on Educating Undergraduates in the Research University, 2001; Committee on Undergraduate Biology Education to Prepare Research Scientists for the 21st Century, 2004), funding or finance seems to be constantly the biggest issue. Ehrenberg (2004) points out that during the last quarter of a century, undergraduate tuition and fees have risen at annual rates exceeding the rate of inflation by an average of 2.5 to 3.5 percentage points. As a result, more and more students from lower-income families are being forced, for financial reasons, to enter higher education through public two-year colleges. On the other hand, increasing institutional costs have led both public and private institutions to increase student/faculty ratios and substitute part-time and full-time non tenuretrack faculty for tenure-track faculty. Many institutions are enrollment-driven in order to generate tuition revenue and, for those in the public sector of higher education, to keep their share of public funding that is usually also tied with enrollment. The picture has started changing in recent years, however. In the state of Indiana, for example, there has been a shift of emphasis from head counts and credit hours to student retention and graduation rates. These are being factored in the budget formula of state funding for the campuses of public institutions. Under a “Degrees of Excellence” initiative (http://www.indiana.edu/~upira/projects/excellence/index.shtml), each Indiana University campus is directed to reallocate five percent of its existing non-academic budget over a fiveyear period toward student financial aid or other programs that would improve degree completion rates. From short-term budget reallocation to long-term base funding formula change, there is clearly a new focus on student success in terms of timely completion of an academic degree. In other words, campuses will be rewarded by the degrees they confer each year, which will require them to work diligently and tirelessly on student persistence and progress toward degree completion.

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RESEARCH ON PERSISTENCE AND SUCCESS Research findings show some consistency but also variations regarding potential factors affecting college student success as defined in those terms (i.e., persistence and timely degree completion). In one study, DesJardins, Kim, and Rzonca (2003) examined three stages of University of Iowa students’ progress to graduation: dropout versus persistence in the first year, graduation versus failure to graduate among first-year persisters, and graduation in four years or less versus graduation in five years or more. They found that college academic performance, pre-matriculation academic achievement, and college major were the most important variables in explaining success. In another study that followed up with a high school sophomore cohort of 1980 all the way through their college years, Cabrera, La Nasa, and Burkum (2001) drew a similar conclusion in terms of their academic preparation, yet with an emphasis on aspiration for college as well as the role of financial aid (especially working on campus). They found that positive experiences with the academic and social domains of the post-secondary institutions contributed to the students’ chances of earning a four-year degree. Student satisfied with the quality of instruction were 8 percent more likely to persiste to graduation; students satisfied with their out-of-classroom experiences felt the same level of benefit. Lau (2003) stresses student motivation, faculty role in the classroom, and effective management of multiculturalism and diversity on campus. Presumably, alternative course delivery aimed at greater access for more diverse student populations should be an important part of diversity management. Dooris and Guidos (2006) further confirm the importance of ability to pay compared with academic ability in affecting degree completion using four different approaches to explore a detailed source of objective data for nearly 12,000 students in a selective public university. When other factors were taken into account, differences in ability to pay related substantively and significantly to the likelihood that students would graduate in six years. This suggests an outstanding impact of student financial conditions as well as the role of college financial aid offices. The State of Illinois Board of Higher Education (2002) issued an information item summarizing important research findings and intervention strategies to help achieve the state’s goal for improved rates of persistence, reduced time-to-degree, and increased degree completion. In terms of student-related factors that impact persistence and degree completion, four categories were identified (ibid.): • • • •

Personal/demographic characteristics; Academic readiness; Financial conditions; and Attendance patterns and academic performance.

In terms of institutional policies and practices that impact persistence and degree completion, those considered to positively affect persistence and degree completion include: • •

Providing summer “bridge” programs for academically at-risk new freshmen to smooth their transitions to college; Advising students on recommended credit loads, course sequences, and time commitments;

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Enabling automated “degree audit” systems for students to monitor remaining course requirements for graduation; Providing a sufficient number of required course sections (i.e., “gateway” courses) offered at a convenient times each semester for popular degree programs; and Developing articulation agreements with “feeder” institutions and assuring transfer for students who leave.

Based on all these findings, the State of Illinois Board of Higher Education (2002) recommended the following list of institutional strategies for colleges and universities in Ilinois, in addition to state-level actions: advising and mentoring, financial assistance for parttime students, writing centers/English language programs, support units for targeted groups, administrative actions, assistance to undecided majors, use of technology, dual admission programs (with community colleges), summer bridge/transition programs, and four-year graduation and cost guarantee programs. The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) based at Indiana University is the most ambitious data collection project of its kind in the nation. It documents dimensions of quality in undergraduate education to help colleges, universities, and other organizations to improve student learning using a specially-developed survey of good practices entitled College Student Report. The NSSE was conceived in early 1998, with a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts, and successfully piloted in 1999 with more than 75 selected colleges and universities. About 275 colleges and universities participated in the inaugural launch in the spring of 2000; the number grew to 774 participant institutions in the spring 2008 administration (http://nsse.iub.edu/html/quick_facts.cfm, checked March 4, 2009). The initiative is designed to query undergraduates directly about their educational experiences, based on an extensive research literature that suggests the degree to which students are engaged in their studies impacts directly on the quality of student learning and their overall educational experience. Given the effects of student engagement on undergraduate education, particularly on first-year college grades and persistence (Kuh et al., 2008), we would like to focus on how academic administrators can help to promote student engagement with enhanced connectedness on a college campus.

WORKING TOWARDS STUDENT SUCCESS Our interactions and relationships with colleagues form a network that supports us, makes our lives meaningful, and ultimately enables us to thrive. The term that best describes this concept is connectedness. An academic environment that creates connectedness among its students, faculty, professional staff and administration creates conditions enabling students to thrive and goals to be achieved. However, this is one of the hardest things to get faculty commitment. This section, therefore, will devote some space to some best practice ideas that will help to enhance connectedness on a college campus to ensure that desired goals are achieved to support student success. So, here is some general advice for leaders who are interacting with professionals in an academic context in order to help engage and support students. The core principles discussed might well extend to other business contexts as well.

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To begin, in professional academic environments, people are selected for leadership positions because they already have a certain level of skill in the ability to manage other people. Thus, any person placed in a position of leadership must have the base social skills to influence and persuade others when necessary. This is particularly important when dealing with a population of well educated faculty and professional staff who need to follow the guidance of a leader with no real power over that particular population. That is, in academia, faculty tend to consider themselves as their own bosses, and they direct their energies in the direction and causes for which they believe will do the most good for their career. Each individual decides what ratio of time and effort to spend with their students, their research and on different campus initiatives. Thus, part of the task of a good leader is in identifying those faculty and staff who will devote time and energy to the particular cause that has been selected to be implemented. If the administration gives the entire university a mandate or goal, it may or may not help to motivate the particular faculty and staff who will be involved. For instance, the administration may be pushed to improve student persistence and graduation rates but the faculty may not perceive it as their job.

Obtaining Faculty and Staff Support for Your Initiative Given observations of effective leadership in academia, a set of strategies have been identified as being successful. Success occurs for leaders who use the following strategies:

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(1) (2) (3) (4)

Obtaining and maintaining individual investment Acknowledging individual contributions Creating unity Measuring impact

Obtaining and Maintaining Individual Investment The goal of this strategy is to get the individual interested and involved. This strategy requires two dimensions. First, there is an information component and second one must take action to maintain the motivation of those involved. The information component begins by gathering information about the opinions of those who will be involved. This is done to ensure that you hear the voices of the faculty and staff who will needed to implement the program or initiative. It is important that the leader (the director, chair, or vice chancellor) personally speaks to each branch of the university or group of members that will be involved in the initiative. What method of communication would be most effective depends on the number and breadth of people involved. For example, if implementing a first year experience program, you should discuss the needs of first year with all components of the campus to understand their perspectives and concerns about the issue (e.g., campus life staff, orientation staff, first year advisors, librarians, career services, and faculty teaching first year students, etc.). This allows each unit to provide their perspective on what first year students might need and what each is willing to contribute to thus aiding the planning of an initiative. Please note that this type of input needs to be obtained throughout the implementation of an initiative to ensure continued growth as new demands and challenges arise (e.g., informal assessment

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feedback loop). Very little damages the inertia of an initiative more than a leader who does not first listen to the voices of the people most directly involved with the population of interest. It should also be noted that simply asking for faculty staff and student opinions and then not giving any weight to the information obtained will also slow the inertia of an initiative. Given this, that does not mean one must implement every suggestion given by every faculty, staff, or student that is consulted; simply that you provide evidence that the information obtained was considered and based on the priorities involved at the time, the following suggestions were the ones selected to be implemented first. The most efficient way to convey this information to the parties involved is to be open about your decision-making process and share this information with those involved at update meetings regarding the targeted initiative or program. After one has collaborated and discussed the leader must then decide and implement the best course of action.

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Acknowledging Individual Contributions As a leader, one must always remember that without the support and allegiance of the faculty and staff involved, very little will get done. Dependent upon the extent of individual involvement, the manner in which their effort can be acknowledged should vary. In many cases simply thanking the person for their time and information is adequate. However, considering the amount of effort expended and the quality of their contribution, larger contributions should receive a larger acknowledgement. In the case of faculty there are multiple incentives that are effective: personal acknowledgements in public forums, monetary stipends for research or travel, course release time, and credit towards promotion or merit applications are the most common. Often overlooked are the staff contributions since often implementing the program may simply be considered a part of their jobs. For most professional staff, opportunities to attend training and present information to the faculty is highly valued to them and in fact giving this reward leads to a trickle down effect of information to students via faculty. Much effort is expended informing students about availability of services on campus, however, a personal recommendation from a faculty member often has more impact on whether the student will try the service or not. Unfortunately, on many campuses, faculty are simply not well informed about the variety and existence of services available. Sending out mass emails about information available for students for faulty to share has the same minimal impact on faculty as it does students. Thus, teaching workshops where professional staff is given the opportunity to highlight on of their services reminds and educates the faculty about the current services offered. Increasing communication across campus and ensuring the information reaches the students through multiple forums contributes to a more successful implementation of an intiative. This exchange of information is also important because sometimes on a campus one hand does not know what the other is doing. That is, the faculty may not be aware of services and the professional staff may not know this. Increased rapport also ensures a deeper respect for the work of the professional staff by the faculty, thus contributing to the unity or connectiveness that is a desired goal on any campus. Increasing the morale of both professional staff and faulty while helping the students get the services they need also creates an environment more conducive to learning. It should also be noted that impromptu discussions with faculty about their perspective of different services available

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on campus also provides the chair or director with information that can remedy miscommunication or provide feedback to the professional staff indicating the need for that noted issue.

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Creating Unity Olson (2008) succinctly noted the importance of creating a culture of respect and unity. He notes that all members of an academic community are important and finding ways to ensure they are treated as fellow professionals is critical. Any initiative that is spread across campus and throughout departments is touched by all the people working in the various offices, departments and areas on campus. Faculty members and administrators are just two sets of people who have a hand in the success of an initiative. Creating a campus environment that values the contributions of all, not just the ones who have a Ph.D. are going to be more effective. How can you ensure that the environment is one which encourages unity? Lead by example. Show respect to all you encounter on campus: from staff professionals who organize your schedules, to the administrator who controls your budget, all will contribute to the success of your initiative through their particular area of expertise. Never underestimate the power of basic civility and a kind word for work well done and an environment of unity is created. Penner, Dovidio and Schroeder (2004) refer to this type of behavior as citizenship performance, and while they emphasize the importance of it for untenured faculty looking to earn tenure, as a leader, the two citizenship skill they identify will also serve you well. The first is altruism. That is, helping others and treating others with courtesy and respect. The second is conscientiousness. As a leader, do more that what is simply required of you to ensure a smooth process for your initiative. You should also note that asking the advice of professional staff should not be avoided if it is the professional staff who have the most direct knowledge of the problem. For example, a recent issue regarding maintaining the list of students who must take a course at a university arose where it was clear that several parties involved in the process were all doing different things. Staff from the registrar’s office, the advisers on campus and secretarial staff all needed to be brought together to ensure that the list of students is maintained and accurate so that the initiative could be successfully maintained. If a problem crops up and it is clear that the process is not working smoothly, all members get together to brainstorm a solution to the problem. Each independent member has a role in the process and gets to voice their limitations. In the end, a solution is developed that all agree with and then each of us better understands the needs and limitations of each person’s role. The role of unity and respect across campus for the different professional staff cannot be emphasized enough. Having attended several conferences on a specific initiative, the first year expererience, I have found that those conferences which have multiple levels of participants (professional staff, faculty, deans and administrators) have provided the most useful information. It is also through these exchanges that I have discovered that university that encourage unity have far more effective programs than university who have sent one department to the conference to learn how that one department can “fix” the freshman experience for the campus. The primary lament across professional staff is how are they supposed to get faculty to buy into their program when the administration at their school has

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so clearly indicated that it is only that one department or office’s responsibility. Few campus initiatives can be successfully implemented within one department, however without an atmosphere that encourages respect and collaboration across staff, professional staff and faculty, it is often what may occur.

Measuring Impact

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A variety of personal factors, such the lack of familiarity, lack of financial support, inadequate preparation for college, stressful family situations, percentage students who work while attending college pose individual challenges for students and depending on the exact mixture present on your campus, your challenge becomes how to best address the needs of your population. Thus, as any initiative begins, so too should the process of designing an assessment system that can be used to measure the success of your initiative. Identifying what success would mean and then finding or designing a system to assess that success is important. The information you collect at the beginning may be formal or informal through the strategy outlined in step 1 of these strategies, but as the initiative becomes more developed someone involved deeply with the project should collect data and maintain the analysis as abstract goals before more refined and specific as relating to academic success achievements within the initiative. The results of the measured impact can then be shared with all the people involved with the initiative to highlight those aspects which work and solicit discussion on those that are not working. This information gives everyone involved the data so that decisions regarding the future of an initiative can be further shaped to be more effective or its resources reallocated to a more effective initiative if all goals have been achieved.

EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ACADEMIC SUCCESS PROGRAMS There are several alternatives to measuring the effectiveness of an initiative. One way to measure success is to compare retention rates of students who complete a particular initiative versus those who do not. For example, consider the following models of assessing a First Year Seminar (FYS) program. Using real data from a campus, Table 1 clearly indicates that students are more likely to return the following and consequent semesters if they take an FYS Course. Another measures commonly collected on university campuses are student evaluation of teaching data. Table 2 provides an example of how historical data can be used to assess faculty effectiveness and document how First Year Seminar instructors perform across time during the course of a program. Table 2 illustrates assessment data from student teaching evaluations across several years. This could be used to document the effectiveness of the training and demonstrate that the FYS instructors are gaining skills. No individual instructors are identified and group percentages can indicate the effectiveness of a program. Most important for this type of design to work is prior planning to ensure the assessment plan is in place so that this type of data can be tracked and analyzed over time to critique and analyze

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the progress of the program. This particular set of evidence demonstrates that FYS instructors are becoming more effective in meeting targeted FYS objectives represented. This can be seen by the increasing number of students who agree or strongly agree that they are gaining skills in areas targeted by the FYS objectives. Table 1. FYS Impact on Retention Fall 2008 Cohort (N=1001) Retention to Spring 2009 Fall 2007 Cohort (N= 1303) Retention to Spring 2008 Retention to Fall 2008 Fall 2006 Cohort (N= 1064) Retention to Spring 2007 Retention to Fall 2007 Retention to Fall 2008

FYS 85.9% FYS 85.8% 73.5% FYS 83.3% 61.9% 50.0%

Did not take a FYS 78.5% Did not take a FYS 67.9% 51.3% Did not take a FYS 73.5% 48.8% 25.7%

Table 2. Omnibus SETs of FYS Survey Data for Assessment

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Strongly Agree or Agree

Neutral

I learned about different study skills in this FYS course. Fall 2005 44.5% 28.3% Fall 2006 63.4% 23.9% Fall 2007 75.7% 17.6% Fall 2008 77.2% 15.4% I got to know my FYS classmates well. Fall 2005 64.8% 23.1% Fall 2006 75.3% 19.5% Fall 2007 74.1% 20.2% Fall 2008 76.0% 17.2% I learned about time management in this course. Fall 2005 37.0% 30.8% Fall 2006 56.6% 26.1% Fall 2007 71.1% 19.6% Fall 2008 72.7% 20.0%

Strongly Disagree or Disagree

23.1% 12.6% 6.6% 7.5% 9.0% 5.2% 5.8% 6.8% 28.3% 17.2% 9.3% 7.3%

A third commonly selected measure that can be used to assess student success is students’ GPA as it may be affected by participation in a particular program. Table 3 presents data collected on one campus from a beginning freshmen cohort (including full and part time, and transfer students with less than 27 credit hours who did not withdraw) as a means of assessing the impact of a FYS program. The examples above provide three illustrations on how commonly collected academic data can be used to assess a program that is being implemented on a particular campus. At Indiana University Southeast, we also collect data on supplemental instruction, academic

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advising, alternative delivery, diversity, etc. for evidence-based strategic planning, budgeting, and review for accreditation. Table 3. Student GPA Data Used to Evaluate FYS Program FYS Fall 2005 end GPA Men Women

2.80 2.53 2.94

N 446 155 291

2.54 2.48 2.58

No FYS N 221 84 137

In addition to these examples, there are a multitude of public surveys that can be used for a price to target specific types of assessment needed (e.g.,College Student Inventory, College Adjustment Scale, NESSI to name just a few examples). The type of assessment put in place depends on the budget and creativity of those involved but often creative use of already collected data can provide the type of assessment necessary to monitor the effectiveness of a program or intervention.

UNDERSTANDING THE DIVERSITY OF LEARNING THROUGH RESEARCH

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Diversity has become a core value for higher education. Academic administrators must keep in mind the diverse and changing needs of students in defining student success. Arnold (2006) speaks on behalf of those who end up in two-year colleges: When “the boys came home” in the 1940s, the GI Bill helped to change the college model to include men of modest means, many of whom had served in the military after high school and who helped establish the model of returning adult students who juggle family and school obligations. In the 1960s and 1970s, we changed the college model to include women, blacks, Asians, and others traditionally not entitled to an education. In the 1980s and 1990s we changed the college model again to include people who need ramps and elevators and special testing accommodations to gain access to and complete their college educations. Now it’s time to change the model again. A community college is open to all people who want to learn. Success means students achieve what they came for: one class, one semester, or a degree that takes ten years. Perhaps after we’ve redefined success for community colleges, we can share our new model with students now “failing” in four-year colleges.

Global diversity is also increasingly important. Nations in different parts of the wrld share concerns over undergraduate education for the 21st century (Markwell, 2002; Sirat and Kaur, 2008). Below we give an example to focus on understanding the diverse patterns of beliefs and behaviors of students in order to provide them with better services. An inclusive and broader perspective requires both deeper and broader inquiry into those things underlying student learning. Research conducted by Dweck and Leggett (1988) examined student beliefs about intelligence and ability. The results demonstrate that some believe that intelligence is a fixed unchangeable entity; whereas others think of intelligence and ability as a malleable quality

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that can be developed. To understand the basic dichotomy, consider which of the two statements you are more likely to agree with: “You have a certain amount of intelligence and there is nothing you can do to change it” or “Good preparation for a task is a way to develop your intelligence.” Assessing which statement better represents your beliefs can assess whether you hold an entity or incremental view of intelligence. This becomes very important in an academic environment because studies have shown that even when student show equal intellectual ability, their beliefs about intelligence (entity or incremental) have a large impact on their actual behavior when facing an academic challenge (Blackwell and Trzesniewski, Dweck, 2007). For example, those who fail a test and believe in the entity view of intelligence will likely drop the class, whereas, those who fail a test and believe they simply did not work hard enough will possibly change some behaviors and persist in a class. This illustrates the importance of understanding the types of beliefs students may hold about intelligence and abilities as these beliefs may be preventing them from taking steps that could enable them to have a successful college career. A cross-cultural study of student beliefs about intelligence and ability will provide important empirical evidence regarding the above assumptions. Some theorists propose that the entity theory of intelligence is more likely to be associated with western culture while the incremental view is more likely to be advocated by the culturally Chinese view of learning. Culturally western versus culturally Chinese has been used to describe the difference in learning environments which influences students as they craft their beliefs and develop their behavior patterns. Specifically ideals for learning that are culturally more Chinese tend to follow the teaching of Confucian philosophies; while ideals for learning that are culturally western tend to follow the teachings of Socrates (Tweed and Lehman, 2002). Both learning approaches have their advantages, and disadvantages, but determining which approach leads to the highest achievement is not the focus of this research. Past research asking this question has brought mixed results. This may be due to the fact that the analysis has been done at many different levels (elementary, high school and college). To help understand the diversity of student populations better, we have designed a study to examine differences and similarities between the educational beliefs and behaviors of first year college students in the United States in comparison to their counterpart in China. To see how cultural beliefs may affect students’ learning behavior, we made the following working hypothesese: Background in Confucian philosophy leads to an emphasis in practice and hard work or effort, to learn from your elders, to understand fully before you critique, to learn from the past, and to practice diligence. In contrast, Socratic learning emphasized in western culture focuses on the questioning of authority from the onset, to teach is to encourage students to question the truth so they may discover new ideas, to doubt is good, to emphasize the seeking or evaluating of knowledge rather than the belief of knowledge. Thus, we can compare the beliefs and behaviors of students who are immersed in a culture that is primarily culturally Chinese to the beliefs and behaviors of students who grow up in an environment that is primarily western. The study compares at the college level and will see if a consistent pattern emerges. Knowledge about similarities and differences between the two groups can help to enhance learning in both types of groups by understanding their predispositions and helping them to develop skills which may not have been previously endorsed by the culture they were raised in. The method used was a questionnaire survey to gain a student perspective. A sample of Chinese college students were asked if they’d wish to participate in the research study by

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completing a questionnaire. The questionnaire was in Chinese with no individual identification (names or student IDs) collected. Paper copies of the questionnaires were completed by the students. First year seminar students at Indiana University Southeast are used as the United States sample. The same questions asked of the Chinese sample are currently being asked of the FYS students, thus they will be used for a comparison to the Chinese sample. The American sample completes the survey in English via a computer system as part of an assessment for the FYS course. Working on this research project has helped us to learn more about diverse student populations even though the final results have not yet been completed.

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CONCLUSION Higher education faces the challenges of keeping college affordable and accessible to low-income and minority students, increasing opportunities for lifelong education and workforce training, internationalizing the student experience, improving learning by utilizing new knowledge and instructional techniques, and increasing accountability for educational outcomes.There is a shift of emphasis from enrollment (head counts and credit hours) to student success (retention and graduation rates). On the other hand, internal problems may include undervalue of teaching and “indifference” of faculty members toward general advising of undergraduates. Actions are required to achieve the basic goals of an undergraduate education, i.e., the ability to think, write, and speak clearly; to reason critically; to solve problems; to work collaboratively; to acquire field-specific knowledge; and to acquire the judgment, analytic capacity, and independence of thought to support continued, self-driven, lifelong learning and engaged citizenship. Research and practice wisdom has helped to strengthen the effort to increase student persistence and success by drawing attention to such personal factors as academic preparation and motivation/aspiration, and such institutional factors as quality of instruction, out-ofclassroom experiences, and especially the role of financial aid (including working on campus). The effects of student engagement on undergraduate education, particularly on firstyear college grades and persistence, are also reconfirmed. Commonly recommended intervention strategies to increase student success rates include: • • • • •

Exploring dual admission programs with community colleges; Providing summer “bridge” or transition programs for academically at-risk new freshmen to smooth their transitions to college; Developing articulation agreements with “feeder” institutions and assuring transfer for students who leave; Advising and mentoring students on choosing majors, recommended credit loads, course sequences, and time commitments; Enhancing general education and providing a sufficient number of required course sections (i.e., “gateway” courses) offered at convenient times each semester for popular degree programs;

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Enabling automated “degree audit” systems for students to monitor remaining course requirements for graduation; Providing academic support services including writing centers/English language programs, math help, use of technology; Providing financial assistance for full- and part-time students and four-year graduation and cost guarantee programs; Establishing support units for targeted groups with other affirmative actions; and Underscoring the importance of teaching in faculty selection and compensation.

To help implement initiatives towards student success, this chapter offers the following steps in obtaining faculty and staff support:

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1. 2. 3. 4.

Obtaining and maintaining individual investment Acknowledging individual contributions Creating unity Measuring impact

Determining the effectiveness of academic success programs is of great importance in strategic planning and budgeting, and this chapter gives a few examples to show that there are several alternatives to measuring the effectiveness of an initiative (such as the FYS). Our understanding of student success, however, must be broad and dynamic taking into consideration the diverse needs and cultural backgrounds of our students. A final note is that general education requirements in math and the sciences often post a special challenge to American college students. The National Science Foundation and a number of other government agencies and nongovernmental organizations have been devoting considerable resources to help improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education for both majors and nonmajors (e.g., Directorate for Education and Human Resources Division of Undergraduate Education, http://www. ncgia.ucsb.edu/other/ucgis/grants/summary.html; Cabrera, La Nasa and Burkum, 2001). The next chapter will be devoted to further discussion of the STEM initiatives to help the readers to gain a better understanding of related issues. This chapter only gives an example of a specific research project aimed at a better understanding of STEM education through the lense of global diversity in learning such a subject.

REFERENCES American Council on Education (ACE), American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), Association of American Universities (AAU), National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), and National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) (2006). Addressing the Challenges Facing American Undergraduate Education—A Letter to Our Members: Next Steps. http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=HomeandCONTENTID=18299andT EMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm (retrieved March 3, 2009).

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Arnold, J. (2006). Changing the measure of success. Inside Higher Ed, December 1. Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACandU) (2009). Publications: The Academy in Transition. http://www.aacu.org/publications/AcademyinTransition.cfm (retrieved March 3, 2009). Blackwell, L. S., Trzesniewski, K. H. and Dweck, C. S. (2007). Implicit theories of intelligence predict achievement across an adolescent transition: A longitudinal study and an intervention. Child Development, 78, 246-263. Cabrera, A. F., La Nasa, S. M., and Burkum, K. R. (2001). Pathways to a Four-Year Degree: The Higher Education Story of One Generation. Research Report, Center for the Study of Higher Education at Pennsylvania State University (http://www.wiscape. wisc.edu/calendar/edpolicies/pathways.pdf, checked March 4, 2009). Committee on Undergraduate Biology Education to Prepare Research Scientists for the 21st Century (2004). BIO2010: Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists. Washington, DC: National Research Council. Cornwell, G., and Stoddard, E. (1999). Globalizing Knowledge: Connecting International and Intercultural Studies. Washington, DC: AACandU. DesJardins, S. L., Kim, D. O., Rzonca, C. S. (2003). A nested analysis of factors affecting bachelor’s degree completion. Journal of College Student Retention, v4 n4 pp. 407-35. Dooris, M. J., and Guidos, M. (2006). A thumb on the scale? Ability, income, and degree completion in a public university. Paper presented at the North East Association for Institutional Research Annual Conference Philadelphia, PA, November. Dweck, C. S. and Leggett, E. L. (1988). A social cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review, 95, 256-273. Ehrenberg, R. G. (2004). Key issues currently facing American higher education. http://jdi.econ.queensu.ca/Files/Conferences/PSEconferencepapers/Ehrenberg%20revised .pdf (retrieved March 3, 2009). Ehrlich, T., and Colby, A. (2004). Political bias in undergraduate education. Liberal Education, Summer Issue (http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/perspectives/sub. asp?key=245andsubkey=1135, retrieved March 3, 2009). Gaff, J. G. (1999). General Education: The Changing Agenda. Washington, DC: AACandU. Huber, M. T., and Hutchings, P. (2005). Integrative Learning: Mapping the Terrain. Washington, DC: AACandU. Klein, J. T. (1999). Mapping Interdisciplinary Studies. Washington, DC: AACandU. Kuh, G. D., Cruce, T. M., Shoup, R., Kinzie, J., and Gonyea, R. M. (2008). Unmasking the effects of student engagement on first-year college grades and persistence. Journal of Higher Education, v79 n5 pp.540-563. Lau, L. K. (2003). Institutional factors affecting student retention. Education, 124(1):127136. Markwell, D. (2002). Undergraduate education for the 21st century: Australia at the crossroads. A speech to the Oxford Society in Victoria, Melbourne, September 5 (http://www.backingaustraliasfuture.gov.au/submissions/issues_sub/pdf/i350.pdf). Olson, G. A. (2008). Heads up: Creating a culture of respect. Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 12. http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2008/11/2008111201c.htm (retrieved March 2, 2009). Penner, L. A., Dovidio, J. F., and Schroeder, D. A. (2003). Managing the department chair and navigating the department power structure. In: Darley, J. M., Zanna, M. P., and

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Roediger III, H. L. (eds.), The Compleat Academic: A Career Guide. 2nd edition. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Shavelson, R. J. (2007). A Brief History of Student Learning Assessment: How We Got Where We Are and a Proposal for Where to Go Next. Washington, DC: AACandU. Sheldon Rothblatt (2003). The Living Arts: Comparative and Historical Reflections on Liberal Education. Washington, DC: AACandU. Sirat, M., and Kaur, S. (2008). Undergraduate curriculum issues: Considerations for Developing countries. http://www.usm.my/ipptn/fileup/6Updates%20on%20Global %20HE_6-30%20april%2020071.pdf (retrieved March 2, 2009). Stanford University News Service (1994). Commission on Undergraduate Education issues final report. News Release, October 12. http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news /pr/94/941012Arc4101.html (accessed March 3, 2009). State of Illinois Board of Higher Education (2002). Focus on Student Success: Issues Underlying Persistence and Degree Completion and Related Improvement Strategies. http://gov.alaska.edu/faculty/StudentSuccess/IllinoisStudentSuccesswhitepaper.pdf (retrieved March 3, 2009). The Boyer Commission on Educating Undergraduates in the Research University (2001). Reinventing Undergraduate Education: Three Years After the Boyer Report. http://www.sunysb.edu/pres/pdfs/0210066-Boyer%20Report%20Final.pdf (accessed March 3, 2009). Tweed, R. G. and, Lehman, D. R. (2002). Learning considered within a cultural context: Confucian and Socratic Approaches. American Psychologist, 89-99.

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Chapter 10

UNIVERSITY SUPPORT OF STEM EDUCATION: A STORY OF COMPETING NEEDS Michael A. Gealt University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

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ABSTRACT The need for a workforce with STEM skills has been well documented. The difficulty of producing the workforce is bifurcated with a need for graduates steeped in a STEM discipline and a general workforce with sufficient knowledge to advance in the knowledge-based economy. The immediate problem of an administrator is to meet both the needs of majors in the discipline and the needs of students in other colleges, all at a time of limited budgets. An attempt must be made to allocate appropriately to departments so they can grow the expertise of their majors and graduate students while not neglecting the needs of non-majors. At the same time we must try to alleviate the long-term issue of insufficient high school students interested in pursuing a STEM education.

INTRODUCTION There have been several recent reports indicating the need for additional college graduates with skills in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) areas, such as: Raising Above the Gathering Storm (Committee on Prospering in the National Economy, 2007) and Measuring Up 2008: The National Report Card on Higher Education (The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 2008). These reports have received a large amount of press coverage, but the amount of funding that has become available to support the efforts at the university level has not increased at a rate equal to the growing demand. The need for STEM knowledge in the workplace requires not only graduates with highly specialized expertise associated with masters and doctoral degrees, but also sufficient accomplishment among the non-STEM discipline graduates that enables them to participate in an increasingly important knowledge-based job market.

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In the State of Arkansas, several groups have released reports (Task Force for the 21st Century, 2008; Arkansas Task Force on Higher Education Remediation, Retention, and Graduation Rates, 2008) and Governor Mike Beebe has held a conference on the interaction of education, corporations, and government (Arkansas Works 2008: The Governor’s Summit on Education and Economic Development, held October 16, 2008, which drew approximately 1,400 representatives from all 75 counties in the state). These efforts may lead to enhanced funding to support STEM educational initiatives in the next biennial legislative session (2009-2011). Various organizations, from those dedicated to STEM education (STEM Coalitions are found nationally and in many states) to learned and professional societies have spoken to the need for additional STEM graduates.

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THE PROBLEMS Despite the published need for graduates, STEM education is still a problem. In general, we are not attracting sufficient numbers of qualified students to meet the needs of the workplace. It must be noted that there is not a single STEM problem causing this insufficiency, but rather there are many STEM problems that together yield the perceived result. Therefore, it is not possible to remediate with a single change in any one system. At the university level, in order to have sufficient students in STEM disciplines at graduation there must be sufficient students in the pipeline. Over the years there has been a decrease in high school graduates with interest in STEM disciplines. The decrease in university applicants in the physical sciences, engineering, computer science over the years is well known. The picture is complicated by a general decrease in the skill level of many applicants as evidenced by the large number of students that require remedial work when they enter college. The decrease in the quality of high school graduates noted in many studies is now complicated by the increases in interest in engineering and science as a result of the national attention, new program availability, and the perceived need within specific disciplines (for example, see Long, 2008). This has led to instructional difficulties as additional material must now be covered in introductory math for the engineering and science students. However, this is not generally viewed as a major problem by faculty and administrators. It is certainly one that we hope to work on in the future by improving PK-12 education output through faculty professional development and enhancements to teacher education. From an administrative point of view, we are adding new sections to calculus and physics, while decreasing sections of more general-purpose math and science courses. The majority of the decreased student quality in STEM knowledge we have observed is in those students who want to major in non-STEM disciplines, from the humanities through business. Although they are not the major “product” of departments with STEM programs, they represent a very large number of credit hours generated by these departments. At the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) they constitute the vast majority of the credit hours faculty teach. Therefore, they are a component that we need to balance in the resource analysis. With the non-STEM major student we need to make sure we have sufficient resources for these students to succeed. This is sometimes not a faculty thrust because the emphasis and major interest has been on department majors and graduate students (Sperber,

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2005). In the past additional faculty may have been added as adjuncts to teach a course for the non-majors. Courses today, however, frequently have needs in addition to adjunct faculty, e.g., staff and hardware for laboratory components, specific software for computer exercises, and the need for additional mentoring components. All of this adds additional cost to the course. And, currently when budgets are decreasing instead of increasing, the choice is often between assigning an uninterested faculty person to the course, or hiring less expensive labor that may not be able to give high quality instruction to a student population that is more difficult to reach (as evidenced by their inability to learn the material in middle and secondary school). While it is possible for a student with math deficiencies to complete a degree in a STEM discipline, the need for remedial courses adds years to the time needed to obtain STEM degree. Some other issues that are being discussed by university STEM faculty and for which we are beginning to develop some actions to address are: •

•

•

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•

High school teachers w/o sufficient training (we are doing more professional development for in-service teachers, and finding funding for this through the Arkansas Department of Education). Lack of specialists in science, math at primary and middle school levels (we are working to develop these specialties as well as a requirement for school districts to hire them) Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) reports in 1999, 2003 and 2007 (http://nces.ed.gov/timss/) and other studies that suggest great variability by different socioeconomic groups on the need for STEM education as a means to improving their quality of life (we are developing outreach to communities to explain how STEM education can raise economic status) Changing demographics -- increase in Hispanic students that traditionally are less likely to go into STEM disciplines and traditionally have insufficient pre-college training in STEM disciplines are a major concern.

There are cases, however, where increases are seen locally. At the UALR, we have seen major increases in the number of students in engineering disciplines. This is a result of introduction of these programs at UALR less than a decade ago. Increases in programs, however, cause as many problems for an administrator as decreases.

CURRENT STATUS As a dean of a college of science and mathematics a major function of my position is, of course, the support of and resources for instruction in STEM disciplines. There are really three aspects of this support that are involved. First is the support of courses for students for whom STEM is not a major discipline, frequently referred to as the “non-majors.” The second function is to support the “majors” in STEM disciplines, including both the undergraduate and graduate programs. The third area of concern is the support of scholarship in STEM

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disciplines. Scholarship includes the output of undergraduate, graduate, and faculty research. Support must be allocated among: • • •

•

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•

Remedial courses (non-credit) taken by a large number of entering freshman, especially those in Arts, Humanities, Undeclared majors, etc. Terminal courses for non-majors, e.g., College Math and College Algebra Professional preparatory courses, e.g., chemistry, microbiology, and anatomy and physiology courses for nursing; engineering calculus and engineering physics for engineering. Upper level courses for majors, e.g., tissue engineering, metabolic pathways, or complex analysis, even if they have small enrollments. Graduate courses in the STEM disciplines (some of these are a service, e.g., Statistics courses, but must feed directly to an M.S. or Ph.D. degree program

In addition, at UALR we recently have been discussing the concept of “Quantitative Literacy” as a component of materials as evidence for university accreditation (from Higher Learning Committee of the North Central Association). Quantitative literacy (see http://www.stolaf.edu/other/extend/Numeracy/defns.html) is simply the level of mathematical knowledge and the skills required by everyone to productively add to economic development. It includes not only content knowledge, but also, and maybe more importantly, the ability to critically apply mathematics to understand, predict, and control circumstances in a person’s own life. The needs of all these functions are very different and need to be considered separately, although there are, of course, interdependencies. In the College of Science and Mathematics at UALR we generate the most tuition dollars with the non-majors courses, but the instruction of majors and the research produced by faculty are critical for the growth of the university as a research university. UALR is a metropolitan university located in the only major metropolitan area of Arkansas. We have a total student population of ~12,000. Approximately 40% of these students are part-time and fewer than 10% live on campus. As a researchintensive university in an urban setting, we face the pressures of a growing population of students with quite divergent needs and expectations, as well as a mission that supports service to the community. We have a large number of undergraduates that require remedial courses. Approximately 40% of all new students require developmental math, but this is down from ~50% a few years ago. The decrease coincided with an increase in admission standards. In addition to just the normal pressure of teaching students in the classroom, the other administrative pressure points are the requirements to increase both majors and credit hours generated so that our budget increases according to the funding formula used in Arkansas. While the increase in FTE/SCH is critical, it is not an easy metric to control. Rather I find it better approach to try to optimize the offerings to the three categories above in a manner that supports programs and students. This will attract students because we are meeting the need of our major audiences. This requires interaction on a routine basis with the deans of other colleges at UALR (especially the College of Engineering and Information Technology and the College of Business) and their relevant department chairs to make sure that our courses

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and the faculty we place in those courses meet the needs of the students. These discussions are not always easy, but I think they have added goodwill and student credit hours. .

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DEVELOPMENTAL MATHEMATICS The need for developmental (remedial) mathematics courses varies with the university. Some universities offer no developmental because a state mandate requires students to attend community colleges. In other states, e.g., Arkansas, the mandate is that any student with ACT