Page 276 - Crisis in Higher Education

Reforming Administration and Management • 247

willing to promote from within. This includes hiring tenured faculty for
responsible administrative positions where they can grow and learn and
return to the faculty. This creates a deeper pool of viable candidates for all
universities.

11.6 CHANGING STRUCTURE
There are changes that universities may consider to lower administra-
tive costs and achieve economies of scale: executing mergers, eliminating
branch campuses, and outsourcing nonstrategic services.

11.6.1 Executing Mergers

Universities merge to lower facility and operating costs as well as to slash
bureaucracy. Care should be taken because mergers are always risky. There
are some cases where public universities are proximate, making this option
reasonable, but mergers make more sense for smaller, proximate, private, not-
for-profit institutions of which there are many. Enrollment at these institu-
tions is often less than 3,000 students with a significant number under 2,000.
In some cases, enrollment is declining so many of these institutions have to
rethink how they do business, including cutbacks, mergers, and closures. 29
Here are two examples of mergers between well-known, private univer-
sities. In 1967, Carnegie Institute of Technology and Mellon Institute of
Industrial Research, both located in Pittsburgh, merged to form Carnegie
30
Mellon University. Also in 1967, Case Institute of Technology and Western
Reserve University, both in Cleveland, merged to form Case Western
Reserve University (CWRU). At the time, these institutions were com-
31
plex with many programs and egos, yet the mergers were very successful.
The most difficult part of the CWRU merger may have been the football
programs, which did not combine until 1970. After the merger, the presi-
32
dent of CWRU was reported to have commented that the most difficult part
of the job was watching two football teams lose on the same weekend.

11.6.2 Eliminating Branch Campuses
Some public universities have branch campus where they offer a subset of
the courses and programs that are available on main campus. Most branch