Page 265 - Crisis in Higher Education

236 • Crisis in Higher Education

2. Decentralizing decision making: The primary operating units in a
university are its colleges such as arts and letters, business, edu-
cation, and engineering. These colleges and their faculty generate
most of the universities’ revenue through instruction and funded
research. Colleges often have limited autonomy and discretionary
funding, but they should have the freedom to be more entrepre-
neurial and pursue opportunities to generate revenue by offer-
ing innovative services that are consistent with the mission of the
institution.
3. Involving faculty: Consistency with the prior point and a need to cre-
ate buy-in means tenured faculty must be involved. Faculty should
be encouraged to apply for administrative positions and have a real
chance to be selected. Faculty should participate in planning and
budgeting.
4. Increasing productivity: Substantial and meaningful effort must be
made to improve the productivity of administrators and faculty, so
universities can accomplish more and spend less. Doing more with
less is the essence of productivity and has allowed developed coun-
tries to improve living standards and increase leisure time for their
residents.
5. Addressing skyrocketing administrative salaries: In addition to growth
in the number of administrators, which has outpaced enrollment
growth, administrative salaries have increased at a much faster pace
than faculty salaries and inflation.

11.5.1 Decentralizing Decision Making
As higher education grew after World War II, there was an unceasing and
increasing drum beat to centralize decision making. This has transformed
college deans into budget cutters, who plead their cases for another fac-
ulty position or student advisor, and academic department chairs into
clerks, who monitor faculty performance and ensure that it meets work-
load standards set by central administration. Although budgets, hiring,
and workload are legitimate issues, they should not be imposed. Deans
and academic department chairs tend to be very bright people who should
be involved in planning and managing the university. These profession-
als can improve the quality of instruction and research, lower costs, and
increase job placement rates if they have the discretion and resources to
pursue innovations.