Stamping Out Rubber-Stamp Collegiality

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Autor/in	Bugeja, Michael J.
Titel	Stamping Out Rubber-Stamp Collegiality
Quelle	In: Chronicle of Higher Education, (2012) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1931-1362
Schlagwörter	Higher Education; College Curriculum; Collegiality; College Planning; College Administration; Educational Policy; Policy Analysis; Intellectual Disciplines; Governance; Change Strategies; Educational Change; Program Termination; Teacher Administrator Relationship; Freedom of Speech + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Kollegialität; Studienplanung; College administrators; Hochschulverwaltung; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; Politikfeldanalyse; Geisteswissenschaften; Education; Educational policy; Financing; Steuerung; Bildung; Erziehung; Finanzierung; Lösungsstrategie; Bildungsreform; Redefreiheit
Abstract	In the past year, public colleges and universities across the country have been shrinking degree programs and terminating personnel--including tenured professors--in an effort to cope with budget cuts in higher education. The situation is not confined to a handful of mismanaged public institutions, as in the past. It is a national phenomenon and the inevitable outcome of three trends that have been incubating now for a decade: (1) expanding curricula; (2) reduced legislative support; and (3) increased student debt. Academe needs a new budget model. But a model alone will not resolve the crisis as long as professors maintain a rubber-stamp culture that blithely expands course catalogs and degree programs. When budgets are stable, pedagogical expansion is not a problem. When budgets are unstable, administrators and trustees are forced to eliminate or consolidate programs to maintain overall quality and all-important academic rankings. But that expansion is the end of a long process of professorial niceties involving the creation of curricula. Faculty members, in part, are at fault for their willingness to approve too many new courses and degree programs without realistically assessing: (1) demand for the course or program; (2) impact on other programs in the institution (i.e., duplication); (3) complications involving scheduling and staffing; (4) effect on degree progress (especially four-year graduation rates); and (5) cost involving workload and personnel concerns. Administrators at the provost and presidential levels have unintentionally exacerbated the rubber-stamp culture by instituting budget models based on so-called responsibility-centered management (RCM). Promoted by the corporate world, RCM essentially operates on one concept: Reward revenue-generating activities, such as student credit hours. This author states that it is time to stamp out "rubber-stamp collegiality," and a good way to start is at the individual level. Professors should incorporate innovative or timely content in an existing course, such as a seminar or workshop, rather than propose new courses. Also, they should pretest demand for the course and document the students' interest for the department and college curriculum committees. In the end, a budget model that recognizes programs with timely graduation rates and rewards departments for streamlining the curriculum rather than for expanding it is needed. Professors can require fewer credits to earn a particular degree and give faculty senates and curriculum committees more power to avoid curricular duplication and expansion. Meanwhile, administrators, working in partnership with the senates and committees, can require "program responsibility statements," detailing the pedagogical territory of each department. All of that would go a long way toward ending course duplication across departments, reducing time to earn a degree (and thus, student debt loads), and restoring public faith in administrators' ability to manage state dollars wisely. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Chronicle of Higher Education. 1255 23rd Street NW Suite 700, Washington, DC 20037. Tel: 800-728-2803; Tel: 202-466-1000; Fax: 202-452-1033; e-mail: circulation@chronicle.com; Web site: http://chronicle.com
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10