Learning Resources

Abstract: Mobile is quickly becoming the dominant computing and communications platform. Starting in 2013, it is projected that smartphone shipments will outpace those of PCs. With this shift comes a corresponding shift in expectations from higher education users. We cannot afford to sit back and do nothing. Instead, we need to embrace this critical evolution in technology and harness it to the best advantage of our students, faculty, and institutions. An undertaking of this complexity and criticality requires a deliberate plan, but the plan will need to be highly flexible and able to quickly adjust to this constantly evolving and shifting landscape.

Abstract: The study presented in this article investigated the state of the diversity budget at the nation’s flagship institutions during an economic recession. The sample included higher education administrators who oversaw a diversity budget at their respective institution and who were familiar with the state of budget cuts. Results indicate that 53 percent (17) of diversity units have experienced some type of cut in their operating budget. While many experienced some form of budget cut, when compared with other areas within the institution, the amount of the cut in diversity areas was not as significant as that in other areas.

Abstract: As an industry, information technology (IT) innovates constantly, and IT departments in higher education need to integrate new technologies into teaching, learning, research, and business practices in rapid succession while maintaining existing technologies without interruption. By pursuing complementary and interdependent processes for IT governance, strategic planning, and leadership development, a university or college can create foundational long-term IT planning capabilities that support the mission of the institution. This article describes a multifaceted approach to establishing long-term IT planning capabilities, explores the components of building long-range IT governance, identifies strategies for leadership development for IT professionals, and demonstrates how collaborative IT planning is a fundamental component of integrated planning for higher education.

Abstract: The management of change and the evaluation of performance outcomes in higher education are most successful when a set of reference institutions against which to benchmark is identified. This article discusses a method by which a focal institution can identify other institutions that are most similar to itself. This methodology identifies the nearest institutional neighbors using a balanced set of measures from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). A case study is used to demonstrate the methodology. Readers will find this methodology to be robust and flexible, as well as easy to understand and explain to others. It is a hybrid method that integrates judgment and analytical techniques.

Abstract: College and university leaders currently face the most challenging fiscal, monetary, and legislative climate in memory. Leaders must manage the academic and financial resources of the enterprise with far more deft than their predecessors. For many campuses, additional resources will need to be created from within the existing financial boundaries of the institution. The overhead coverage matrix presented in the article is positioned as a tool to assist in making decisions related to strategic resource management. To demonstrate the utility of the overhead coverage matrix, a hypothetical example of resource planning is presented as a walkthrough.

Abstract: In this article we discuss the organizational impact of an academic unit’s move from an old adapted structure to a new building constructed specifically to meet its needs. We emphasize the interaction of user agency and building influence as the faculty sought ways to enact group values and goals in a new space that promoted some and frustrated others. In conclusion we discuss specific examples of the interaction between agency and influence and propose steps that planners and users might take prior to and following a building transition to better promote congruence between the purposes of academic units and the spaces that support them.

Abstract: Management author and professor Peter Drucker is often quoted as saying that “culture eats strategy for lunch.” Given the extraordinary demands on higher education to adopt strategies that deliver better results with fewer resources and the common resistance of our institutions to strategic change, leaders and planners would do well to actively engage in processes of cultural change. This requires three things: a genuine understanding of the origins of institutional culture as expressed in the “deep architecture” of our colleges and universities; a systematic approach to initiating “courageous conversations” throughout the institution, leveraged by evidence that creates both hope and despair; and a willingness to reengineer the deep architecture around a new set of design principles, displacing the old culture with a new, intentional, emerging culture built on new working theories.