The question of whether a new President of the University of North Carolina system should or should not have an academic is currently getting attention. A recent survey of faculty across the system ranked leadership experience in education/public higher education most highly, but also placed significant emphasis on holding the terminal degree and on the person selected having a personal history of teaching and scholarship as essential. Not unrelated, the faculty selected supporting academic freedom/open-minded inquiry as first in essential philosophies, and fostering shared governance second.
People outside of the academic world often do not understand why faculty desire such leadership. Universities, particularly large public ones, resemble to many eyes complex businesses and the trend in higher education seems to be moving toward hiring people with business experience and savvy to run them.
In many cases, such decisions prove successful. For example, there is no reason why a university system (or even a single university) should not leverage its buying power, work more comprehensively to develop and maintain donors, manage its endowment more effectively, and streamline some of its practices.
But universities differ from businesses in important ways that also should carry value for decision makers (often Boards of Trustees or Boards of Governors).
First, universities exist to create, maintain, and transmit knowledge. A person with experience in doing this work understands from the inside what it takes to generate the conditions to make such efforts possible. It is more than laboratories, classrooms, and research dollars. How do you, for instance, make it clear to someone with an eye on the bottom line that faculty need time away from their normal duties to read, to mull ideas, to interact with colleagues at conferences, to be in libraries or archives or the field (sometimes thousands of miles away) in order to perform at the highest level? How do you explain that the process of learning is not a constant chain of production in terms of writing or grants, but a journey that often moves in fits and starts and demands resources to support its blind avenues and seemingly unproductive outcomes? How can you make clear that packing more students in a section sometimes detracts from the ability of faculty to create an energized learning environment and that a lack of equipment and other resources can often detract from a student's education?
Second, a CEO may have to answer to a board and, at least in some cases, to stockholders and government regulators. At least on paper, the head of a university system or a university also reports primarily to a board. A public university, however, must also be accountable to the citizens its serves, the governments that fund it, the local communities where it sits, the students it enrolls, and the alumni it graduates, among others. Moreover, while a clear chain of command might appear to exist, shared governance means that there are complex and often complicated interactions with various entities on a campus to establish policies and procedures. Even though it might not be efficient, it does ideally promote the best possible outcome and get buy-in from the people most directly affected.
Finally, holding the terminal degree and having an employment history in higher education doing scholarship and teaching means that the person in the top job possesses experience in the "industry" where they do their work. It would be hard to run a computer software company if you did not know how to write code; it would be difficult to run a financial firm without any experience in the field. The assumption that anyone can do education trivializes the enterprise. Like any other area of expertise, higher education has its own ins and outs and a person who knows that world brings a wealth of experience and understanding to the task that cannot easily be replicated by someone from the outside.
The best candidate should prevail in any search. A preference for an "insider," however, says that at least one of the groups feeling the most direct impact of such a choice ideally wants a person in place with experience in the core mission of any university.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Faculty Assembly April Meeting
The Faculty Assembly met last Friday in Chapel Hill, preceded by the Executive Committee meeting on Thursday night. While the schedule can get exhausting, what I appreciate about that time together is the energy and commitment of people to the process. The issue is how to sustain that enthusiasm over the long summer months and then throughout an academic year where everyone has a thousand professional and personal issues impinging upon them.
One of the things we plan to do is get back on a regular meeting schedule. Five meetings a year of the full assembly is not a lot, but it does say that we place value on the face to face communication and the interaction with each other that these meetings provide. And the group was clear that interaction is the watchword for next year. We want to come to the meetings and work with each other. Receiving information is great, but planning and building and shaping our future is the most important thing we can do.
We also want to have active committees that produce real work product on a schedule. Fitting in time to get service done is always a challenge. But we recognize that the General Administration and the Board of Governors work is on-going and so must our own efforts be the same.
Nothing is more important than being prepared to greet a new President of the system as a partner whenever he or she arrives. To be a part of the team building, we are working hard on the Leadership Statement now. We will be working with the Board of Governors over the summer. And we will have a plan of action in place shortly after our summer retreat.
The legislature is gearing up and to work already. The governor announced her budget this week. We will be keeping a watchful eye on things and mobilizing our membership as necessary.
The new website will launch in early May with complete meeting information. Watch for more details.
Sandie
One of the things we plan to do is get back on a regular meeting schedule. Five meetings a year of the full assembly is not a lot, but it does say that we place value on the face to face communication and the interaction with each other that these meetings provide. And the group was clear that interaction is the watchword for next year. We want to come to the meetings and work with each other. Receiving information is great, but planning and building and shaping our future is the most important thing we can do.
We also want to have active committees that produce real work product on a schedule. Fitting in time to get service done is always a challenge. But we recognize that the General Administration and the Board of Governors work is on-going and so must our own efforts be the same.
Nothing is more important than being prepared to greet a new President of the system as a partner whenever he or she arrives. To be a part of the team building, we are working hard on the Leadership Statement now. We will be working with the Board of Governors over the summer. And we will have a plan of action in place shortly after our summer retreat.
The legislature is gearing up and to work already. The governor announced her budget this week. We will be keeping a watchful eye on things and mobilizing our membership as necessary.
The new website will launch in early May with complete meeting information. Watch for more details.
Sandie
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
A New Start
The approaching end of an academic year always feels hectic. Committee work usually lags behind as faculty become far more concerned with final projects, papers, and exams. The rhythms of semesters, however, frequently do not correspond to the rhythms of other influences determining the conditions of faculty life.
While I am ending my time as Chair-Elect in June and starting as Chair July 1, that transition feels well underway. And it matches two other important transitions in the university system that will shape the future of the UNC system.
1. President Erskine Bowles will step down once the Board of Governors determines his successor. The process now underway with the work of the Leadership Statement Committee started about a month ago and will conclude the first week in May. This group spent the last several weeks soliciting input from a variety of constituencies -- the public, faculty, staff, Chancellors, etc. -- to identify the central characteristics needed at this time in a leader. The report drafts will come next and then a final document will emerge. In late spring, the process of advertising the position, screening candidates, interviewing, and hiring begins.
Facultyoften do not understand how this position shapes their reality. But this person will play a fundamental role in determining how to represent the university to the legislature in order to obtain funding. During the current budget crisis, acquiring resources could not be more crucial. Additionally, this person shapes academic policies on key issues such as tenure, promotion, program development, redress procedures, and the like. Most centrally, the individual holding this position sets a tone. Shared governance and the encouragement for such cannot happen effectively locally if it does not happen at the top. Academic freedom must be respected here if campuses are to make it a priority.
Right now, faculty need to be involved and active participants in giving voice to what qualities we expect the Board of Governors to seek out in the next President. When the new President comes in, we must also stress our goals directly and make our expectations clear. We are partners in higher education and over 15,000 strong.
2. The General Assembly is about to begin its new session. Their work will be done before school begins again in the fall. As you may have read, budget projections anticipate a shortfall in revenue. Our schools have been asked to plan for such and have done so. We know, however, that cuts now challenge our ability to put forward the best possible education for our students. Class sizes and teaching loads have increased. Departments cannot always offer the courses students need to complete their degree requirements. Labs have been rendered practically non-functional on many campuses due to no money for equipment and supplies. Research is stymied here and by lack of travel funding.
We also know that we have stagnant salaries, lost money last year to furlough days, endured rising costs in healthcare for less benefits, and have seen our retirement funds shrink.
If the legislators do not hear from us, they cannot understand what is happening. We need to know our local representatives and to maintain regular contact with them so that they can hear what is happening in our classrooms and what further cutbacks will mean to our students and thus to the state of North Carolina.
This blog will be one way for faculty to keep up on key issues. I will blog at least once per week with updates on events, votes, actions, and information every informed faculty member should know.
Here, for instance, is the March 2010 General Fund Revenue Report & Economic Outlook:
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/fiscalresearch/generalfund_outlook/generalfund_outlook_pdfs/2010%20Outlooks/General_Fund_Revenue_Outlook_2010_03_11_March.pdf
And you can always let me know what you want to hear.
Thanks,
Sandie
While I am ending my time as Chair-Elect in June and starting as Chair July 1, that transition feels well underway. And it matches two other important transitions in the university system that will shape the future of the UNC system.
1. President Erskine Bowles will step down once the Board of Governors determines his successor. The process now underway with the work of the Leadership Statement Committee started about a month ago and will conclude the first week in May. This group spent the last several weeks soliciting input from a variety of constituencies -- the public, faculty, staff, Chancellors, etc. -- to identify the central characteristics needed at this time in a leader. The report drafts will come next and then a final document will emerge. In late spring, the process of advertising the position, screening candidates, interviewing, and hiring begins.
Facultyoften do not understand how this position shapes their reality. But this person will play a fundamental role in determining how to represent the university to the legislature in order to obtain funding. During the current budget crisis, acquiring resources could not be more crucial. Additionally, this person shapes academic policies on key issues such as tenure, promotion, program development, redress procedures, and the like. Most centrally, the individual holding this position sets a tone. Shared governance and the encouragement for such cannot happen effectively locally if it does not happen at the top. Academic freedom must be respected here if campuses are to make it a priority.
Right now, faculty need to be involved and active participants in giving voice to what qualities we expect the Board of Governors to seek out in the next President. When the new President comes in, we must also stress our goals directly and make our expectations clear. We are partners in higher education and over 15,000 strong.
2. The General Assembly is about to begin its new session. Their work will be done before school begins again in the fall. As you may have read, budget projections anticipate a shortfall in revenue. Our schools have been asked to plan for such and have done so. We know, however, that cuts now challenge our ability to put forward the best possible education for our students. Class sizes and teaching loads have increased. Departments cannot always offer the courses students need to complete their degree requirements. Labs have been rendered practically non-functional on many campuses due to no money for equipment and supplies. Research is stymied here and by lack of travel funding.
We also know that we have stagnant salaries, lost money last year to furlough days, endured rising costs in healthcare for less benefits, and have seen our retirement funds shrink.
If the legislators do not hear from us, they cannot understand what is happening. We need to know our local representatives and to maintain regular contact with them so that they can hear what is happening in our classrooms and what further cutbacks will mean to our students and thus to the state of North Carolina.
This blog will be one way for faculty to keep up on key issues. I will blog at least once per week with updates on events, votes, actions, and information every informed faculty member should know.
Here, for instance, is the March 2010 General Fund Revenue Report & Economic Outlook:
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/fiscalresearch/generalfund_outlook/generalfund_outlook_pdfs/2010%20Outlooks/General_Fund_Revenue_Outlook_2010_03_11_March.pdf
And you can always let me know what you want to hear.
Thanks,
Sandie
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