Expert answer:Assignment 5
Solved by verified expert:For this assignment, you will develop a proposal to present to the (fictitious) governing board of Anytown University. As an administrator, you understand the importance of faculty collaboration and input; however, Anytown University has yet to establish policy and procedure relative to faculty governance. In the professional proposal to the governing board what policies and procedures would you include and why? Consider the importance of this task and what should be included as you draft the proposal. For more information about the structure of a professional proposal, see the links listed in the weekly introduction.Length: 5-7 pages, not including the title and reference pagesReferences: Include a minimum of five scholarly resources.Your proposal should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University’s Academic Integrity Policy. Review NCU’s Academic Integrity Tutorial to refresh your knowledge of how to achieve academic integrity.Attached is some literature to help guide in your search for references. These resources can be counted in your writing also the instructor added:How to Write an Informal Business Proposal – http://professionalwritingservices.net/informalpro…Planning and Organizing Proposals and Technical Reports – https://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/200806280…The Proposal Writer’s Guide – http://orsp.umich.edu/proposal-writers-guide-overv…Writing Academic Proposals: Conferences, Articles, and Books – https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/752/1/
governance_reconsidered_how_boards__presidents__ad…_______chapter_5_cautionary_tales_protests_of_presidential_actions_and_lesson…_.pdf
crtitical_assessment_in_faculty_governance.pdf
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5
Cautionary Tales: Protests of
Presidential Actions and Lessons
for Shared Governance
Copyright © 2014. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
A
lthough campuses often experience conflicts over governance, the major points of contention more often than not
occur when a substantial portion of the faculty believes that the
institution’s president has made decisions about what these faculty
members believe to be academic matters without involving them
adequately in the decision-making process. As this chapter will
describe, there are also ample examples of presidents who have
made decisions with only minimal consultation with the faculty
and sometimes unilaterally, with no consultation whatsoever.
These are the presidents who most often inspire faculty dissent
and even votes of no confidence.
On some campuses, conflicts arise over the pace of change.
Although presidents like the University of Virginia’s Teresa
Sullivan believe that the best decisions in the academy are made
incrementally, other presidents—often at the directive of their
boards—believe that change needs to be made quickly and all
at once.
These conflicts become the most intense when the president
and the trustees do not give great deference to the faculty on all
things academic. And in fact, it is no longer the case that academic programs are viewed either as being sacrosanct or as being
susceptible to change only with the concurrence of the faculty. It
is no longer the case that academic programs and faculty positions
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are protected when it comes to cost cutting. Or to put it another
way, although colleges and universities have often throughout their
history made decisions in nonacademic areas prompted by scarce
resources, the concerns about resources in recent years have led
presidents and boards at a number of institutions, even those among
the more affluent, to make decisions about academic matters based
mainly on financial considerations.
Copyright © 2014. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Chief Financial Officers Seek Academic
Cost Reductions
The 2012 Inside Higher Ed survey of chief financial officers (CFOs)
at both public and private institutions affirms that many of those
overseeing the budgets of their institution now look to the academic program for cost reductions. As several CFOs have explained
it to me, in their institutions, the academic program is often the
only area left where savings might be had.
The survey yielded the following results: 43 percent of business
officers said their institution should be considering teaching loads
even though it was not doing so. Forty-one percent wanted there
to be some consideration of underperforming academic programs,
and 41 percent said they would like tenure policies to be revised.
Other business officers reported more success in these areas,
with 51 percent of respondents saying that eliminating underperforming academic programs was under discussion on their campus.
Numbers were relatively consistent across sectors and institution
types, meaning that tackling that issue might have more to do
with institutional culture than with institution type.
In responding to the survey a year later, the business officers
expressed a good deal of pessimism about the future of higher education. Only 27 percent had confidence in the viability over the
coming five years of their institution’s financial model. Half that
number, 13 percent, had confidence in their financial model if they
were looking ten years out.
Pierce, S. R. (2014). Governance reconsidered : how boards, presidents, administrators, and faculty can help their colleges
thrive. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
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Cautionary Tales: Protests of Presidential Actions
Although the majority (57 percent) of the CFOs in the 2013
survey believed that they would need to reallocate resources within
their institution rather than to count on new revenues, slightly
fewer than half as many as the previous year (21 percent versus
43 percent) identified increasing teaching loads as a promising
cost-cutting strategy. In 2013, the CFOs surveyed did not include
“eliminating underperforming academic programs” in their list of
top five cost-cutting strategies even though, in 2012, 42 percent
thought that strategy “should be on the table.” Fifty-eight percent
now believed that developing and expanding online programs
would produce new revenues for them.
I can only wonder whether the conflicts that have been
occasioned when institutions have tried to make changes in the
academic program have discouraged some presidents and financial
officers from attempting to make changes on their own campuses.
This year’s survey of chief financial officers was notable in
another way. Ninety-two percent of the business officers now are
focused on “retaining current students” as a revenue-producing
strategy, seeing this as far more fruitful than “expanding online
programs.” Yet, as I argued in chapter 3, the increasing reliance of
college campuses on contingent faculty, the majority of whom are
part-time, through no fault of the adjuncts often runs counter to
this desire for improved retention.
Faculty Votes of No Confidence in the President
Although to my knowledge, no one has tracked the number of
faculty votes of no confidence in the president, it appears that such
votes are happening more often than in the past. Often these votes
are in protest of what faculty members judge to be a failure on the
part of the president to honor the practices of shared governance
when it comes to academic matters. In such situations, in addition
to protesting what they see as unilateral decision making, faculty
members also typically cite a failure of consultation or a process of
apparent consultation that in reality either limits or ignores faculty
Pierce, S. R. (2014). Governance reconsidered : how boards, presidents, administrators, and faculty can help their colleges
thrive. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
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input, flawed communication, and a lack of transparency on the
part of the administration in academic and nonacademic areas
alike. It is not uncommon for faculty members in such situations
to criticize the emergence on their campus of what they see as a
culture that is top-down and corporate rather than collaborative
in nature.
Presidents and other members of the administration particularly
come under attack when they do one or more of the following:
• Move too quickly in the view of the faculty and thereby
violate the faculty’s penchant for extended deliberations
• Eliminate academic programs that would once have been
considered sacred
• Introduce new academic programs without faculty
involvement
• Change how the academic programs are organized
Copyright © 2014. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
• Alter how funds for departmental budgets and faculty
lines are allocated
• Redefine the criteria for tenure and promotion
• Seek to create greater efficiencies and increase faculty
“productivity” as defined by the number of students
taught, class hours taught, or both
In my experience, most faculty members are reluctant to vote no
confidence in their president. In many of the instances I cite, faculty members had concerns for an extended period of time. Thus,
although I am sure that there are exceptions to what I’m about to
say, it is my sense that the cause of faculty discontent generally is
not a single presidential action or statement but rather an accumulation of actions or assertions that suggested presidential disregard
of or disrespect for the faculty. The catalyst for a formal vote of no
Pierce, S. R. (2014). Governance reconsidered : how boards, presidents, administrators, and faculty can help their colleges
thrive. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
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8:50 A.M.
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Cautionary Tales: Protests of Presidential Actions
confidence frequently is simply the equivalent of a lit match being
tossed into an already smoldering bush.
Moreover, not all votes of no confidence in a president are
warranted or even caused by presidential action. For example,
faculty members on some campuses have sought to undermine a
president, who by most accounts had been effective, for reasons
of personal animus, political differences, or simply an antipathy
to anyone in authority. In addition, some faculty members have
simply been unwilling to compromise; have been unwilling to let
go of past grievances; have genuinely misunderstood the various
responsibilities of the board, the president, and the faculty; or have
been overly zealous in their expectations about the role faculty
members should play in decision making of all sorts.
The examples that follow are not meant to be critical of any
particular institution or president but rather seek to describe
the kinds of significant problems that a failure of shared governance can create on college and university campuses. In this
chapter and subsequent chapters, I will focus on and also name
institutions whose stories have been widely reported in the
press. In this chapter and in subsequent chapters, in order to
preserve confidentiality for those colleges and universities that
have been fortunate enough to avoid public attention and as I
explained in the preface, I will try to disguise the identities of
both the institution and the people involved. Sometimes I will
change the location of the institution; sometimes I will assign the
president, the board chair, or a faculty leader a different gender;
and sometimes I will describe similar events that took place on
more than one campus as though they had occurred at the same
institution.
Highly publicized cases in the past few years at private universities like Gustavus Adolphus, St. Louis University, New York
University, and Emory University and at public universities such
as Florida Atlantic, SUNY-Albany, Marshall University, and
Kean all illustrate the impact that contentiousness over who
Pierce, S. R. (2014). Governance reconsidered : how boards, presidents, administrators, and faculty can help their colleges
thrive. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
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has responsibility for academic and related matters can have
on an institution’s students, its alumni, its faculty, and often its
reputation. Many of these cases also indicate the way that faculty,
students, and sometimes alumni have turned coverage of their
protests in the local and national press and via social media into a
powerful weapon.
Copyright © 2014. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Gustavus Adolphus
The ongoing conflict about governance between Gustavus Adolphus president Jack Ohle, who enjoyed the public support of his
board during his six-year tenure, and the Gustavus faculty and the
students is a particularly interesting case study because of the way
that the students created and maintained a website to garner attention and support for their efforts to oust Ohle. Specifically, the website, www.gustieleaks.com, made available, not only to the campus
and alumni of this Evangelical Lutheran college of approximately
2,500 students in St. Peter, Minnesota, but also to the general public, a running commentary complete with an array of documents
pertaining to Ohle’s leadership and to faculty and student discontent. Although the board and administration from time to time
attempted to provide a counter-narrative, most of their efforts were
soon criticized on the website. For example, the site contains a
February 2013 letter from Mark Bernhardson, the chair of the board
of trustees, to parents and friends expressing support for Ohle. That
was immediately followed by a letter to the same group from the faculty senate, denouncing Ohle. Other primary documents include
letters from Ohle to the faculty and faculty letters to Ohle and
to the board. Some documents are newspaper accounts, including
pieces from the student newspaper. Yet others are narratives written
by interested parties. The site also contains the results of an annual
survey of faculty opinion.
Ohle’s problems reportedly began early in his tenure in
2008–09 when the provost, then at the beginning of her second
year, resigned, according to multiple press accounts because
Pierce, S. R. (2014). Governance reconsidered : how boards, presidents, administrators, and faculty can help their colleges
thrive. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
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Cautionary Tales: Protests of Presidential Actions
Ohle had reduced her responsibilities. Two months later, the two
academic deans also resigned, citing lack of presidential support.
The vice president for student life then accepted a position at
another institution. At the end of the academic year, the faculty
asked the board of trustees to review Ohle’s performance, a request
that the board denied.
Over the next several years, the relationship between Ohle and
the faculty became even more contentious. In October 2012, the
faculty voted 88–7 with 14 abstentions to ask the board not to
renew Ohle’s contract and to end his presidency as soon as possible.
The board did not do so. A faculty group outlining what it called
A Narrative Guide for the GustieLeaks website explained that its
concerns about Ohle fell into three categories: “1) decisions that
deprioritize the academic program, 2) unilateral and uninformed
decision-making, 3) disregard for the traditions, values, policies,
and mission of Gustavus.”
The faculty had a long list of complaints. They argued that President Ohle ignored the faculty’s primary responsibility for hiring
their colleagues and that he made statements that he later contradicted. They criticized what they saw as a lack of transparency.
They argued that the faculty did not have an appropriate role in the
budget process. They were particularly angered that Ohle decided
without consultation with the faculty to change the accounting system so that departmental funds would not roll over at the end of
the year. Although most institutions that I know do not in fact roll
over unspent funds and although that decision would generally be
viewed as an administrative not an academic matter, Ohle’s decision represented a change in practice that had a direct impact on
academic departments. Gustavus faculty members were also critical that they were not given what they judged to be ample time to
review and respond to changes in the board’s by-laws, particularly
those that referred to the Faculty Manual. Faculty members argued
that there was no way for the faculty to communicate directly with
the trustees.
Pierce, S. R. (2014). Governance reconsidered : how boards, presidents, administrators, and faculty can help their colleges
thrive. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
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Throughout, the trustees expressed support for Ohle. For
example, in the February 3, 2013 letter to Gustavus alumni, the
board chair on behalf of the board wrote:
While we know there is work to be done, we are excited
about the progress under the President’s leadership. Be
assured that the Board and President Ohle are committed to continuing to work with all of the College’s
stakeholders.
Copyright © 2014. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
Our alma mater has experienced significant success over
the past few years. The College has realized an increase
in student enrollment as well as significant increases
in both the number of applicants and the academic
quality of those applicants. In addition, thanks to the
support of so many of you, there has been a substantial
increase in giving to the College, including . . . the
kick-off of a $150 million comprehensive fundraising
campaign of which over $100 million has already been
raised.
That same month, Ohle and the board laid out for the campus
an eight-step program to try to address campus concerns, including bringing in an external reviewer to assess Ohle’s performance,
allocating $500,000 for each of two years to the academic programs
to compensate for the funds transferred from departments in the
accounting shift, arranging for direct interactions between the faculty and the board, and initiating listening sessions that Ohle would
conduct with faculty, staff, and students. In other words, the president and the board tried to address the faculty’s expressed concerns
about both style and substance and to reassure them about shared
governance.
Jack Ohle announced in May 2013 his plans to retire at the
end of his current contract in June 2014, citing timing and his
years of serving higher education. The board chair praised Ohle
for presiding “over an ambitious agenda established by the Board,”
noting particularly successes in strategic planning, fundraising,
Pierce, S. R. (2014). Governance reconsidered : how boards, presidents, administrators, and faculty can help their colleges
thrive. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
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Cautionary Tales: Protests of Presidential Actions
alumni relations, the college’s relationship with Sweden, capital
projects, and enrollment. The board also noted that Ohle had
created six new endowed faculty chairs and established a Center
for Servant Leadership.
No one but Jack Ohle and perhaps members of the board know
what prompted his decision to retire. What is clear is that the ongoing matter of the conflict between the campus and the president was
serving as an unhealthy distraction for the institution.
Copyright © 2014. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.
New York University
Members of the New York University (NYU) faculty have for years
objected to President John Sexton’s NYU 2031 plan to add six million square feet to the campus in Manhattan, in Brooklyn, and
perhaps on Governor’s Island.
Although at most institutions, decisions about facilities would
be within the purview of the administration and board, the situation at NYU was complicated by the fact that the university
owns and rents to faculty, at a subsidized rate, 2,100 apartments
in the Washington Square neighborhood. Professor Jeff Goodwin
described faculty sentiment as he saw it in a March 20, 2013 op-ed
piece for the New York Times, “The War in Washington Square”:
Dr. Sexton has consistently refused to address concerns
about plans to expand N.Y.U. offices and dorms into the
part of Greenwich Village south of Manhattan’s Washington Square Park, where many of us live.
This expansion plan is known as N.Y.U. 2031, indicating the year in wh …
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