Learning Resources

Abstract: Higher education institutions are under pressure to make transformative changes aimed at improving key areas of performance: access, affordability, price, and productivity to name a few. Institutions have responded with budget cuts and efficiency gains with incremental success. Yet paradoxically the very success they have achieved has also impeded the transformative change their stakeholders seek.

Many theories exist to support adaptive change in higher education. A single foundational theory of organizational change in industrial enterprises explains the paradox and illustrates how incremental success slows transformative change. Structural contingency theory, introduced by Alfred Chandler in 1962, encapsulates a number of higher education change theories, further grounding practitioners as they assist institutions in adapting to changing conditions and informing their planning efforts.

To achieve transformative change requires a model of integrated planning to synthesize unit improvements into institutional change greater than the sum of its parts. This article presents structural contingency theory to explicate the change process and introduces institutional portfolio management as an operational model of integrated planning. It speaks to an audience of practitioners seeking pragmatic solutions to very real and present problems.

Abstract: Integrated planning is a key concept for higher education planners. But it is difficult to define and even harder to express through individual competencies. Questions remain: what are the key constructs of integrated planning, what skill sets compose integrated planning, and how can it be measured? We suggest that integrated planning cannot be fully examined at the level of the individual planner, but rather that integrated planning is an institutional manifestation—understood only through organizational observation. This article explores this concept and makes a case for integrated planning as an organizational competency. We explain why orienting from this perspective is critical to success.

Abstract: This article lays the groundwork for “the connected university” as the most desirable, most robust operational platform for both achieving institutionally coherent integrated planning and delivering on the mandate to grow, challenge, and inspire creative young minds. Beginning with Bateson’s prescription that we “learn to think as Nature thinks” and appreciating not only the connectivity and related mental processes embedded in large-scale natural systems but also the inherent connectivity and associated mental processes underlying our disparate branches of knowledge, the author argues for a more experimental and deliberate approach to manifesting this connectivity and the corresponding critically important mental processes across the structures, departments, pedagogical forms, and policies of our universities. Our universities too, he says, need to learn to think as Nature thinks. He points to the “connectivity imperative” voiced over the years by thought leaders in multiple fields, including Thomas Homer-Dixon, Franz Johansson, Albert Einstein, Vartan Gregorian, and Buckminster Fuller while at the same time acknowledging the obstacles to connectivity so deeply embedded in our university cultures, practices, politics, and reward systems. Turning to his own story, the author recounts how as a youngster, prompted by a unique gift of Chopin’s music and Einstein’s writings, he first began to think about the exciting hidden connections to be discovered by combining and savoring experiences from different disciplines. He underscores the tricky interplay of belief and perception as we endeavor to figure out how the world works—how what we believe informs perception and how new perceptions, mediated by learning and experience, can inform what we believe—charging our educational systems, and higher education in particular, with the responsibility of helping students form their world-defining “inner Eye,” that “eye” through which they perceive the world around them and conceive their worlds of the future. He concludes with a list of prototypes and “winning solutions” that have enhanced connectivity within several universities with which he has had personal involvement. His vision for the transformation of universities is ultimately pragmatic as well as idealistic, moving institutions toward greater connectivity through the proliferation of modestly scaled “pocket” connectivity programs as well as university-wide integrated planning initiatives where larger scale and more radical visions might be debated and strategized with unfettered imagination and a sense of urgency.

Abstract: This article combats traditional notions of higher education planning by emphasizing a “planning as playmaking” approach that stresses authentic, active, integrative, and ongoing planning that drives change. The results of a recent survey reveal the value of integrated planning across higher education—building relationships across boundaries, aligning planning practices, creating a sustainable culture of change—but sputtering attempts at implementing these concepts durably. Five essential strategies help institutions fill the gap: balancing creativity and discipline, connecting choices to underlying values, developing planners across the institution, celebrating the “expert-generalist,” and bridging pragmatism and ambition to foster sound implementation.

Abstract: Colleges across the United States have become greener, and efforts are underway to enhance their sustainability practices and reduce their carbon footprint. This article is not about the greening of our campuses. It is about planning and preparing for the effects of climate change. It concerns the need to adapt our campuses for the future. This article makes the case that life on our campuses will have to change. We will have no choice. We need to prepare for this change, adapt to it, and reengineer ourselves to be more resilient in the face of it. Moreover, it is our position that it would be fiduciarily and morally derelict not to do so. This article argues that one way to persuade boards of trustees and others within institutions of higher learning that the time to prepare is now is to present the science within the context of the coming effects on our own campuses. This article uses our own campus as a template and makes several suggestions for how to start both the conversation and the planning.

Abstract: State institutions of higher education in Connecticut are experiencing a dramatic and unprecedented period of change: the consolidation of four universities and 13 community colleges into Connecticut State Colleges & Universities (CSCU) and the creation of a new administrative structure. This article charts the early stages of this process, presenting events as they unfolded during Governor Dannel Malloy’s first term beginning in January 2011, through his November 2014 reelection, until his state budget was passed in June 2015.

Advocates of systemness in higher education are challenged to balance the promise of centralized leadership and localized prerogative in designing and implementing policy. Systemness offers the promise of synergy and innovation within and across the system guided by common purpose and vision.

This article discusses five specific implementation processes and challenges: a systemwide credit transfer articulation program; Southern Connecticut State University’s early Transform CSCU 2020 initiatives; an ongoing effort throughout CSCU to develop a systemwide identity; the potential impact of budget constraints on systemness; and difficulties selecting and developing administrators and leaders.

Abstract: Efforts to create a more sustainable campus need to address issues of transportation. While greater bike use provides environmental, economic, and social benefits, it still represents a small fraction of campus transportation. One way to increase the number of bike riders is through a bike-share system. This article reports on the potential demand for a bike-share system at Kent State University, a fairly large public university (28,000 students) in northeast Ohio. Like at many universities, Kent State students are not likely to use bikes for commuting purposes. Yet our survey indicates that while there is demand, there are also several impediments. An existing second-generation bike-share system has been very popular but has not quite addressed the issue of commuting. A new next-generation bike-share system—with station-to-station renting—may be just the program to promote the more practical use of bikes and help shift the dominant mode of transportation away from automobiles.

Abstract: American universities are engaging to a greater degree in experiential modes of learning—similar to Montessori education—to engage learners from the millennial generation. Faculty and staff at colleges and universities must adjust to new ways of offering active and hands-on elements in academic programs to help prepare students for knowledge acquisition and lifelong discovery.

Abstract: This article outlines the challenges faced and solutions developed by the project team to address resiliency in the systems and use of the Burrowes Building at Penn State University. The project is designed to transform the space for greater learning and scholarship by faculty and students, promote administrative efficiencies, ensure adaptability for future needs, preserve the central building’s historic appearance, and improve Burrowes’s face on The Mall.
The article is segmented into six sections that present a comprehensive discussion of this project’s planning process, funding, and design:
- Campus Context: The Iconic Mall
- Academic Purpose and Benefits
- Planning for Resiliency
- Programmatic Challenges
- The Planning Process
- Design Solutions
The article closes with a report on how a seemingly unremarkable project, a simple mechanical, electrical, and plumbing renovation, can transform a building from a serviceable, “make-do” space into one that encourages and inspires its users. Further, the conclusion discusses the many ways in which the renovation of the Burrowes Building demonstrates the university’s commitment to resiliency now and in the future.