Some results from the Society for College and University Planning's (SCUP) ongoing environmental scan for resources relating to higher education planning.
Get the best result now and don’t worry about the day after tomorrow. Maximize stock value at the end of the quarter. That way you’ll get the biggest bonus package this year. Is there a way to take advantage of market movements and make a killing tomorrow, in the next hour, in the next 10 minutes?
It goes on. Get as many folks signed up for mortgages at the low introductory interest rate and don’t worry about what happens when the rate resets. Home buyers: Get that introductory rate. Don’t worry about resets or the possibility the economy may sour. Back to brokers and local banks: Take the commissions and sell the mortgages now. Bigger banks: Bundle those mortgages and take the profits by selling them. Get the risk off your books. Put it elsewhere. Don’t worry what happens once you resell the mortgage. Just jump that next hurdle.
The system we use to grade students doesn’t just mirror this scale of values. It blesses and promotes it.
'Public Purpose' Mag Looks at Important Research Issues
Public Purpose is the magazine of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). Its November–December 2008 issue presents several thoughtful reads on important issues regarding college and university research, from the perspective of top, decision-making leadership, including: The Ethical Imperative (PDF), subtitled "Nine Reminders for Presidents About Compliance and Ethics"; Innovation and Economic Development Spark New Collaborations on AASCU Campuses (PDF), "Because of the greater amounts of land required, as well as higher property costs and related expenses, many of the newer projects on AASCU campuses take the form of business incubators, accelerators or other spaces more modest than traditional research parks"; and Presidents and Chancellors Name Top Research Priorities (PDF), "One hundred and fifty of the chief executive officers at AASCU-member institutions completed the survey, a response that speaks to the importance of research development on the campuses."
Inside the Design of U. New Mexico's New School of Architecture
Architect Antoine Predock got to design his alma mater's new facility. This Architecture Week article describes the facility and his perspective on how the design came together:
the building is "an interpretation of what I think is wonderful about the area."
This interpretation is evident in the big concrete wall facing Central Avenue, which is part of historic Route 66. The wall signifies power and gravity to Predock; it is reminiscent of the towering sandstone cliffs of Canyon de Chelly. The monumental wall defines the building's relationship to the rest of the campus and establishes a strong presence on Central.
University design directives also required that the style and feel of the architecture building, named George Pearl Hall, integrate with other buildings on campus, which Predock says was achieved through the earthen color and stepped massing.
One goal was to facilitate intellectual sharing. "When you get inside the building, there are a lot of spatial dynamics where different levels visually connect with other levels," says Predock. "You have a real sense of students visually eavesdropping on each other's activities, and lots of cross-pollination. Ideas are constantly crossing over from one studio to the next."
By revealing infrastructure and environmental systems, the building constantly exposes students to its interior workings. Predock describes the building as being "turned inside out."
Integrity Based Budgeting for Management of Large Facility Portfolios
This excellent article from Facilities Manager (PDF) describes the experience of the U.S. Department of Defense with regard to the integration of data for support of capital budgeting of 800,000 facilities across various defense departments and agencies such as the Army, the Navy, and the Defense Logistics Agency.
Three important issues were critical to the evolution of a solution. First, what degree of accuracy was affordable? Second, with over 800,000 properties, how could this number be distilled to make a solution understandable to the user and still retain meaningfulness? And third, how would facilities requirements be defined? . . . Making all this work was somewhat like the famous Monty Python sketch teaching children how to play the flute on the children’s show, Blue Peter. The sketch taught the flute by saying you simply blow through here and move your fingers up and down, and “that’s how to play the flute.” While clearly an over-simplification, the next step for SRM was to build cost models for each of the FACs – these included sustainment (what should be spent), modernization (what should be designated for facilities renewal), and most recently operations models for each, covering utilities, fire and emergency services, pest control, pavement clearance, research reports, and state/local governments. The second source category is defined as costs obtained from DoD sources. The third source, representing only 3 percent of the total requirement, is developed by analogy to other FACs of similar complexity and durability. This category represents those very few unique facilities that typically only the military owns – for example, missile shelters or gunnery ranges.
What would happen, for example, if all of us came to the conclusion that it would make sense only to build residence halls that conform in design and purpose to the academic program of our respective college or university and to the pricing and construction standards of eco-friendly “low-income housing” that offer inhabitants perfectly livable, attractive space without extravagance? The initial cost may still be high (although not higher than luxury-hotel accommodations), but the long-term energy savings would be significant. What if we all agreed that students could, indeed, survive and even thrive in double rooms? What if we all scaled back our competition for student athletes? What if we pledged to reduce conference and meeting costs by relying more heavily on virtual technology? What stands in the way is not only antitrust laws but also our own attitudes and egos.
It is quite obvious that none of this radical change could be accomplished systemically by a single president or a small group of institutions; it would take a sea change across higher education. But even if we have the best of intentions and can overcome our reluctance to change, the antitrust laws stand squarely in our way. Right now, any discussion with the intent of disarmament cannot prudently be attempted.
Defeating Bedlam: How Do You Keep Track of 'Resources'?
Writing in her New York Times opinion series, "The Wild Side," Olivia Judson describes the chaos created in her research caused by the shift from paper/physical library to digital/Internet—and a couple of new ways she's found to keep track of things. Sound familiar?
The journal articles arrive with file names like 456330a.pdf or sd-article121.pdf. Keeping track of what these are, what I have, where I’ve put them, which other papers are related to them — hopeless. Attempting to replicate my old way of doing things, but on my computer — so, electronic versions of papers in electronic folders — didn’t work, I think because I couldn’t see what the papers actually were.
And so, absurdly, it became easier to re-research a subject each time I wanted to think about it, and to download the papers again. My hard drive has filled up with duplicates; my office, with stalagmites of paper. And it isn’t just that I have the organizational skills of a mosquito. Many of my colleagues have found the same thing. (Yes, we talk about it. Oh, they are lofty, the conversations in university common rooms.) In short, access to information is easier and faster than ever before (for a caveat, see the notes, below, but there’s been no obvious way to manage it once you’ve got it.
Universities traditionally have taken a two-fold approach to internationalism: foreign student recruitment and study-abroad programs. These efforts have yielded some success. . . . Another way to make our universities more international is to integrate global perspectives into the curriculum. This shouldn’t be confined to one “International Perspectives” course within a major. It is crucial that humanities, social sciences, arts, and business course content reflect variations across countries, cultures, and time periods. . . . Fluency in a foreign language is a key component of an international education. . . . while the model of a semester or year abroad is still effective, it is important to offer additional experiential options in the summer and over holiday breaks so more students can participate.
Higher Education Makes Its Case to Be Part of the Economic Stimulus Package
Led by the American Council on Education (ACE), a group of higher education organizations recently began introducing the concept that a portion of any Obama stimulus package should support higher education institutions. Read the full press release here.
Elements of the proposal include:
Increase in student aid funding to provide immediate financial relief to families struggling to pay tuition during the economic downturn. This request includes an immediate increase in the Pell Grant maximum award by $700 and retirement of the shortfall the program has amassed, as well as doubling the funding for the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG) Program.
Creation of Higher Education Infrastructure Block Grants (HEIBG) to support campus projects that provide jobs now and strengthen the academic capacity of colleges and universities. The grants would be available for “shovel ready” projects capable of starting within 180 days.
By changing our own attitudes and behaviors, administrators and faculty members can begin to alter the perception that two-year colleges are less rigorous and intellectually stimulating than four-year institutions. We can help students appreciate more fully the value of a community-college education, whether they plan to enter the work force or transfer. Most important, we can develop a sense of pride in ourselves and our institutions that will carry over to the communities we serve.
Because the fact is, we're not the 13th grade. Community colleges open the doors of higher education to students for whom those doors would otherwise be closed. And that's something no high school, and very few universities, can say.
Here are the key findings on the survey of experts by the Pew Internet & American Life Project that asked respondents to assess predictions about technology and its roles in the year 2020:
The mobile device will be the primary connection tool to the internet for most people in the world in 2020.
The transparency of people and organizations will increase, but that will not necessarily yield more personal integrity, social tolerance, or forgiveness.
Voice recognition and touch user-interfaces with the internet will be more prevalent and accepted by 2020.
Those working to enforce intellectual property law and copyright protection will remain in a continuing arms race, with the crackers who will find ways to copy and share content without payment.
The divisions between personal time and work time and between physical and virtual reality will be further erased for everyone who is connected, and the results will be mixed in their impact on basic social relations.
Next-generation engineering of the network to improve the current internet architecture is more likely than an effort to rebuild the architecture from scratch.
Constructing the Interdisciplinary Ivory Tower: The Planning of Interdisciplinary Spaces on University Campuses
This article from Planning for Higher Education is blurbed: "An analysis of strategic and campus plans at 21 research institutions reveals lessons learned regarding planning and nurturing interdisciplinary space." SCUP members can access the article online via the SCUP website. Others may purchase an immediately-downloadable PDF version here.
Full Citation: Michael S. Harris and Karri Holley. 2008. Constructing the Interdisciplinary Ivory Tower: The Planning of Interdisciplinary Spaces on University Campuses. Planning for Higher Education. 36(3): 34–43.
Full Abstract: The demand for interdisciplinary teaching and research suggests the need to understand how universities are undertaking and fostering interdisciplinarity. Through an examination of strategic and master plans at 21 research universities, this article explores how institutions plan and foster interdisciplinary engagement through the use of space on campus. The construction of such space acknowledges that the discrete functions of the university, frequently attributed to the disciplines and departments, are not generally conducive to interdisciplinary engagement. Physical space is a necessary component for successful interdisciplinary initiatives both functionally and symbolically.
Lifeboat: A Conversation About The Incredible Shrinking Budget
We think you may enjoy and learn from this post on the "Tenured Radical" blog, having to do with a small, private institution's budget crisis and faculty's perspective on attempts to cope with it. A bemusing, very short, YouTube clip is below the following quote:
I won't go into what was said at the meeting, as it is against my blogger ethic. But one of the things I would like to explore in future posts is the nature of community, and scholars' capacity for empathetic connection -- or lack thereof -- to other types of workers in and beyond our workplace. This becomes particularly apparent at a meeting like yesterday's, when it became clear how very tuition driven Zenith is (I have no idea how this compares to other institutions our size); how volatile we can expect our financial aid budget to be in the next few years (or maybe even starting tomorrow); how much the recession may drive other costs up (or down, in the case of fuel, for example); what the long term costs of certain kinds of temporary disinvestment are (Library, physical plant); and how few options a college has to generate immediate, extra cash to cover its expenses, assuming there is anyone to buy what we would offer.
That I can make this list in such a cogent way is some testimony to the presentation we saw yesterday, which was, I would say impressive and reassuring, to the extent that it addresses my basic problem: I don't want to run the university. I want to know that the people in charge are thoughtful, competent and doing the best they know how to do.
What do you think is Barack Obama's perception on quality and accountability issues in higher education? Who will influence his decision making? Judith S. Eaton, president of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), took part in an online discussion of these and other issues. You can read it on The Chronicle of Higher Education website:
Accreditation is a process of external review developed by colleges to ensure and improve quality on an institution-wide and program-wide basis. But the self-regulation of higher education through accreditation has been challenged in recent years, in part because of criticisms led by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings. The Council for Higher Education Accreditation, a leading advocate for accreditation and self-regulation, has begun a multiyear "CHEA Initiative" that aims to respond to public and governmental concerns about the process. As part of that process, and in preparation for the council's annual meeting next month, CHEA and the nation's accrediting agencies are examining matters that include the role of the federal government in accreditation and accountability, the use of student assessments in the accreditation process, and the expectations of the new Obama administration. Questions now facing colleges and the accreditation community include: Are accreditors likely to receive a warmer reception after January 20, or will they face renewed pressure for change from the new administration and Congress? Will the economic crisis put even greater pressure on accreditors to prove that colleges provide value to their students? What are the most important accreditation-related questions facing the new education secretary?
This excellent article, found by SCUP staffer Phyllis Grummon, is blurbed, "During hard times a structural break in the economy is an opportunity in disguise. To survive—and eventually, to flourish—companies must learn to exploit it." To read the full article requires site registration:
There is nothing like a crisis to clarify the mind. In suddenly volatile and different times, you must have a strategy. I don't mean most of the things people call strategy—mission statements, audacious goals, three- to five-year budget plans. I mean a real strategy. . . . For many managers, the word has become a verbal tic. Business lingo has transformed marketing into marketing strategy, data processing into IT strategy, acquisitions into growth strategy. Cut prices and you have a low-price strategy. Equating strategy with success, audacity, or ambition creates still more confusion. A lot of people label anything that bears the CEO's signature as strategic—a definition based on the decider's pay grade, not the decision. . . . By strategy, I mean a cohesive response to a challenge. A real strategy is neither a document nor a forecast but rather an overall approach based on a diagnosis of a challenge. The most important element of a strategy is a coherent viewpoint about the forces at work, not a plan.
Buying Low: Are the Proprietary Colleges Swooping' In?
Some of the best stuff being written in the higher ed world right is coming from bloggers. Here's a recent installment from the "Confessions of a Community College Dean" blog in Inside Higher Ed:
Apparently, the proprietary colleges are in the midst of another of their periodic booms, swooping in and grabbing students just when the public sector is reeling from yet another round of budget cuts.
I’ve seen this movie.
As regular readers know, I used to work for a proprietary. You’ve heard of it.
I’d be both more and less worried than the IHE story suggests.
The worrisome part of the return of the proprietaries is that, unlike the public sector, their income rises and falls with enrollments. This means they’re immune to the double-bind the public colleges routinely experience during recessions, when enrollments go up but funding goes down. This Fall my cc is experiencing the highest enrollments in its history, and applications for the Spring are even higher than that; at the exact same time, our operating funding is crashing. Say what you want about ‘administrators’ – I defy anybody to make that math work without pain. It’s one thing to do more with less, and another to perform alchemy.
For the DeVry’s and Phoenixes of the world, though, higher enrollments automatically equate to higher revenues. This means they can add capacity when it makes sense. In times like these, I envy them that.
The University in the Networked Economy and Society: Challenges and Opportunities
This book chapter is from The Tower and the Cloud by Richard N. Katz. The chapter itself is by Yochai Benkler, the Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Harvard Law School and is Faculty Co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society:
Throughout the period of the industrial information economy, the university maintained a stance apart from much of the rest of that economy. As we move to a networked information economy, the distinct values of the university—its relative freedom from the pressures of the market, polity, and popular fashion—are a major source of strength. Universities can become an even more significant force in the knowledge production system, one that distinctly pulls in the direction of professional values. Universities can provide an anchor “against” commercial incentives and build a strong complementary system with the amateur commons–based peer production system, as we have indeed seen in areas such as free and open source software.
University networks and technical platforms will have to focus on managing the increasingly permeable boundaries among universities, and between universities and the world outside them. University platform design should be focused on ensuring that faculty and students have the greatest degree possible of authority and capacity to act freely, innovate internally, and participate externally. And university systems should be attuned to the need to build platforms for cooperation, as the new practices of cooperation and sharing become more prevalent and more based in a broader shift from an image of hierarchical or market-oriented systems to systems based on individuals collaborating with each other in loose networks.
Many higher education institutions rely on external consultants not only for advice but also for help in diagnosing and developing strategies related to common and uncommon challenges in a whole host of areas—such as compensation, leadership development, enrollment, labor relations, strategic planning, technology, capital planning, and succession planning. . . . Ideally, a consultant brings a fresh perspective, best practices from other IHEs, problem-solving skills, and cost-effective ways of managing the college or university’s resources. That description paints a rosy picture. But unless institutional leaders assess their needs clearly and choose consultants wisely, the experience can be an exercise in futility. . . . These caveats and best practices form a strategic approach to the hiring of consultants. The approach begins with recognizing a clear need, problem, or opportunity; carefully selecting a consultant whose experience and style fit the institution and the issue; working proactively with the consultant to create change; and measuring success over time. Being methodical and strategic is far superior to the common hit-or-miss method of rushing into a consulting relationship. It will avoid painful experiences and optimize results.
Why become a real estate developer in the midst of a housing recession? Real estate markets are historically cyclical. It’s in the doldrums now, but the market will return to health. Planning and entitlements for real estate projects take time, often years, to complete. By preparing and positioning projects for development now, landowners will be in a position to capitalize on the value when the market returns.
Is the risk inherent in real estate appropriate for an academic institution? Value in real estate can be harvested at many points along the evolution of the property, from raw land to built product. An institution could sell surplus raw land. This, however, is typically the lowest value that might be achieved. It also leaves the use and quality of the development to the new owner, who may decide to use the land in a way that reflects poorly on the university. Value is added by creating an initial vision for the property through a master planning process, providing the university’s development partner and its stakeholders with a clear understanding of the institution’s desires and standards, which must be met in the development.
Some IHEs choose to sell the land once they have articulated their vision and the guidelines needed to ensure its implementation. Obtaining entitlements and approvals from a variety of state and local entities adds further value without committing funds to building roads, utilities, or buildings, and other institutions harvest value at this point in the process.
Still others choose to construct roads and utilities as the “master developer” of the property, leaving the construction and sale of homes and other buildings to private sector developers. As value is added, risk increases. By gaining a clearer understanding of the development process and weighing the potential risk against the gain, IHE leaders are maximizing the value of their real estate assets.
Effective strategies for reducing or eliminating resistance are essential to the process of implementing lasting and effective organizational change. While there are several strategies generally accepted as effective, they all have certain traits in common and are most effective when used in combination. Developing a positive climate for change is at the top of the list. The beliefs employees hold about the organization will affect their responses during times of change. Effective, honest, and transparent communication with employees will help to build a positive belief about the change leaders and in turn will facilitate dissipation of the related anxiety within the organization. . . . With few drawbacks, education is clearly one of the most desirable strategies. However, regardless of the format in which it is delivered, education can be time consuming and costly. . . . Participation is another strategy change leaders frequently rely on. Acting as a substantial contributor will instill a genuine sense of ownership within the participants and stakeholders alike. . . . Facilitation is yet another highly effective change strategy and is essential in situations where individual stress, anxiety and adjustment difficulties underlie the resistance. Several other strategies are defined and characterized within the process of overcoming resistance. Other strategies identified include manipulation, co-optation, and explicit/implicate. While these strategies are defined and accepted, they are not considered desired or even ethical. Most often these tactic lead to rapid inappropriate changes that are short lived. Additionally, these strategies certainly leave participants feeling as though they have been deceived and taken advantage of. Such emotions will only serve to diminish individual and group trust which is extremely destructive to an organization.
