The Shifting Frontiers of Academic Decision Making

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The Shifting Frontiers of Academic Decision Making Responding to New Priorities, Following New Pathways

Edited by Peter D. Eckel

ISBN: 0-275-98792-2

ISBN-13: 978-0-275-98792-3

DOI:

168 pages, tables, figures

Praeger Publishers

Publication: 8/30/2006

List Price: $45.00 (UK Sterling Price: £25.95)

Availability:

Media Type: Hardcover

Also Available: Ebook

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

Subjects:

Education » Higher Education

Series Title: ACE/Praeger Series on Higher Education

Reviews:

This book serves as a very useful introduction to newcomers to university administration, and a fresh reminder to seasoned administrators that while some issues persist, others are continuously shifting. Recommended. Faculty and practitioners.
—Choice February 2007
This collection of eight essays focuses on changing ideas about academic decision making. Topics encompass challenges created by organizational structure, the changing environment of academe, the influence of research institutes and centers on an institution's decision making, the pursuit of revenue, using partnerships and alliances to create joint programs, and ad-hoc campus wide task forces. The roles of students, technology, and trustees are examined.
—Reference & Research Book News November 2006

Endorsement From Gordon Gee, Chancellor
Vanderbilt University: Peter Eckel and his colleague have confronted, boldly, serious issues facing the modern American university. Unfortunately, in many universities, academic decision making continues to follow a well-worn path. If truth be told, because of the changing environment in which American higher education now operates, a new approach to decision making must be developed, and the underpinnings ca using those new approaches must be understood. In Shifting Frontiers , the authors have clearly, unequivocally, and thoughtfully outlined the challenges surrounding academic decision making in our colleges and universities, as well as approaches that should be used to develop new ways of thinking and partnerships to ensure a constructive, modern decision making process for the times in our academic enterprise. This is a book about these times and for the time in which we presently live and work.
Endorsement From Stanley O. Ikenberry
Regent Professor & President Emeritus, University of Illinois and former President, the American Council on Education: Higher Education in the United States and around the world is changing. The very premises on which decisions are being made are shifting. This book explores the new Frontier of academic decision making that is being forged. Twenty years ago the shift might have been defined as an impatience with shared governance and a yearning for a more efficient corporate approach to decision making. Today the sweep is broader and more fundamental. One wonders: are we seeing a not-so-gradual shift from traditional academic values toward a more entrepreneurial, market driven form of academic capitalism? The implications for faculty members, boards of trustees, academic leaders and society are material. Shifting Frontiers deserves attention.
Endorsement From Richard Chait
Professor of Higher Education
Harvard University: From different angles of vision focused on different aspects of academe, the authors illuminate a core challenge for every college and university: Who decides what to decide and how to decide? Because the answers to those questions fundamentally shape the course of action that follows, anyone eager to influence what happens on campus would be well-advised to read this book.
Endorsement From William W. Destler
Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
University of Maryland, College Park: Academic administrators from department chairs to presidents quickly learn that the higher you go up the administrative ladder, the more people you work for. In that context, Peter Eckel's collection of essays on the changing boundary conditions and new administrative structures affecting academic decision makers should be required reading for any administrator wishing to navigate these changing waters and achieve positive change.
Endorsement From William G. Tierney
University Professor
Director, Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis
Wilbur-Kieffer Professor of Higher Education: Higher Education is undergoing unprecedented changes on several levels. Eckel and his colleagues provide a cornucopia of suggestions about how to manage those changes and at the same time hold on to particular academic values. The chapters cover various conundrums that are of central concern to administrators and explicate how the problems have arisen and what might be done to solve them. An easy read on hard solutions.
Endorsement From Brian L. Foster
Provost
University of Missouri- Columbia: This is a very timely book. It is widely known that higher education is undergoing dramatic changes. It is less widely known just how fundamental these changes are. What is even less well understood is how we might adapt to these changes.... Eckel and Kezar address the key question of how one can actually get anything done in the university setting. This is a question that often translates to a choice between 'the right thing' and 'to get things done,' given the 'various and competing motivations, understandings, preferences, and commitments of those involved in the decision process....' The issues are extremely complex, and it is no exaggeration to say that it is not an option to think about just tweaking how we've always done things. We need more of this kind of thinking.
Endorsement From Mark Heckler
Provost
University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center: This is a must-read for academic leaders and change agents, especially those who hope to keep their institutions not only afloat, but moving full steam ahead in these turbulent waters. When so little about the future direction of American higher education seems clear, this book clarifies both the competing demands and powerful and pervasive cultural forces at work in our institutions. Change agents ignore these forces at their peril.

Description: The ability of colleges and universities to implement strategic academic decisions is constantly challenged by a variable external environment, mounting public expectations, and evolving academic priorities. Although academic decision making is often dismissed by critics both inside and outside higher education as slow, parochial, and ineffective, institutions can and have developed processes to effectively address today's complex challenges. With the proper attention by administrative, faculty, and trustee leaders, academic decision making can comprise a robust set of processes essential to defining the mission, priorities, and activities of colleges and universities.
This book explores the intersection of academic decision making with contemporary, cutting-edge challenges for which no simple solution exists. It moves the issue of decision making outside the contested arena of stakeholder responsibilities, and presents a series of distinct and unique chapters that illustrate how colleges and universities are creating and sustaining dynamic and effective decision-making processes. Issues such as entrepreneurial and commercial strategies, changing research infrastructure, inter-institutional cooperation, evolving expectations for student involvement and campus community, and technology and its required investments create ongoing challenges that colleges and universities must address. To respond to these challenges, campus leaders often cannot draw upon their wealth of experience or time-tested processes. Instead, they must find new ways to create and use decision-making structures and processes. Furthermore, as the issues change, the people, their roles, and their interactions will be different. In some cases, new people will enter the decision-making arena: For instance, students may play stronger roles, as may trustees or outside stakeholders including faculty from other institutions involved in joint academic degree programs. Faculty roles may also change as institutions become more entrepreneurial, with faculty taking the lead as negotiators and marketers. Finally, the venues in which decision-makers come together may also change, as important strategic decisions are made in departments and institutes outside the traditional institutional core. All of these issues are addressed in this book.

LC Card Number: 2006015705

LCC Class: LB2341

Dewey Class: 378


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