Faculty – Page 3 – Reflections On Higher Education

Category Faculty

Intercollegiate Athletics

No matter the size of the university or college, its mission, its status as public or private, flagship or regional, intercollegiate athletics plays an important role in how the institution is perceived. For almost 150 years, intercollegiate athletics has created…

The Biggest Idea

Organizations flourish or perish based on big ideas that address issues of importance. Enterprises thrive through big ideas alone: their lack is toxic. Sony, Kodak, Apple, Disney, Walmart, and universities respond to big ideas shaping organizational culture. Snuffing out ideation…

Panhandle Pioneers

The passing of T. Boone Pickens, with his colorful relationship to West Texas A&M University, affords consideration of two great Panhandle pioneers. J. A. Hill became president of West Texas State Teachers College in 1918, having joined the campus in…

Regionalism Reinvented

Regional Universities are the core of educational opportunity for many students who choose lower-cost, locally-focused study opportunities. These same universities provide regional economies with a shot in the arm. They not only promote new businesses serving campus students, faculty and…

Changing Times

As we begin 2019 anyone involved in higher education, student or family member, spouse or friend, high school principal or daycare worker, instructor or president, knows things are changing at universities. Whether a public or private, for-profit or not-for-profit, online…

Teaching First

Originally published on November 30, 2015.  As we begin this season of reflection, “Teaching First” is worthy of another look as we focus on the first purpose of the university and the importance of staying true to our roots. Forward…

Purpose and Place

The roots of higher education in the United States are knotted into purpose and place.  From a functional standpoint, all universities, public and private, existed for producing ministers. At Harvard, three in four graduates in the seventeenth century became working…

The Squeeze

The birthrate in America has been on the decline. In 2016, with slightly less than 60 births per 1000 women, a historic low was realized. This marks universities. Those most affected by decreasing birthrates will be regional campuses like West…

You, You, You, not Me, Me, Me

An effective leader must do everything within his or her power to create a strong organizational culture. Teamwork, knowledge of process, values shared by all workers, a clear understanding of organizational purpose, and a shared goal of attaining that purpose…

Satisfied Students

Student satisfaction and customer satisfaction are not equal. Students are not customers except when they spend a night in their dorm room or buy a meal in the cafeteria, a book at the bookstore or a shirt with the school…

Travel and Education

Americans are becoming more insular. Universities value international exchanges and study experiences for the benefit to students. IES Abroad and other study-abroad organizations encourage learning abroad because of the many identified, positive outcomes. A lack of understanding between different people…

Micromanagement

  Originally published March 26, 2013.  Slightly updated and worth a second look. Real leadership liberates, never limits: it unleashes people to work with passion. Effective universities recognize that strength in academic programs exists on the ground, with engaged faculty,…

Online or On-Campus?

pinterest.com cdfd802216040079fc70c1e3cb899f3a–young-frankenstein-mad-scientists Every high school and college student, every working professional engaged in continuing education and every educational leader and faculty member will address this question every day: “What is the correct mix of face-to-face and online instruction?” According to…

Freedom for, or from, Ideas

Fourth in a series on why U.S. Universities are great Free expression, a concept woven into the muscle of America through constitutionally protected speech and rugged individualism remains the international benchmark made possible by a republican form of government. Freedom…

A Respite

I returned to teaching in SIU’s School of Architecture at the conclusion of a six-year contract as Chancellor on July 1, 2007.  I began writing columns and posting them to in November 2007.  The experience as chancellor prepared me…

A Job

Some colleges and universities show indifference to employment prospects for their graduates, almost callousness, as hoards of students receive degrees, accompanied by too many promissory notes and too few job prospects.  Students almost unanimously choose to pursue a particular career…

A Personal Reflection for the Season

This reflection was originally published on December 15, 2008.  It is worth a second look. Christmas memories are personal, deep and important for me. My family’s New York Christmases with the strong, first generational, influence of Western Europe; Cajun Christmases…

Study Value, Value Study

Sixth  in a series on university struggles Study value. In universities, all should speak the truth to one another in spite of political and university leadership relentlessly peddling the idea that any university degree has value. It is clear by…

Teaching First

Fifth in a series on university struggles Forward focus is essential.  Over the past four decades, many faculty and university leaders have begun to believe that research and scholarly activity are more important than teaching.  Graduate assistants, adjunct, and non-tenure-track…

Evolution in Purpose: Distinctiveness

  Third in a series on university struggles American universities are all different.  All, accordingly, struggle differently. For complex bureaucratic and political reasons, it becomes easy to treat all public universities similarly.   Apples to apples comparison is the only sensible…

Leading Learning Laboratory

Organizations train leaders, for better or worse. Various enterprises are hotbeds for positive leadership training: manufacturing, public service, retail, professional services, and universities provide examples. Effective leadership causes people to change their perspective, to do what they otherwise wouldn’t or…

Bend or Break

  Free community college, whether completely free or only low-cost, is a powerful way for students to reduce the price of a bachelor’s degree or expedite entry into the workforce. Governor Bill Haslam’s Tennessee Promise has created an enrollment surge…

Organized Crime

The strike and campus closure by faculty at Rock Valley College last week emphasizes the incongruous nature of faculty unions. A contract is a binding agreement between two people or organizations that, when signed, is enforceable by law according to…

University Performance and the State

Richard Wagner and Paul Lingenfelter are distinguished educational leaders, with a view towards better addressing the needs of higher education in Illinois. Recently they presented a case for a statewide model of higher education that is clear and rational. A…

Four Rough C’s

Student life on university campuses should be challenging and rewarding. The honing of the student mind into a unique and individually tailored instrument of thought is a noble aim. That result helps create educated human beings who enhance personal and…

The Big Puzzle

Clinton’s “New College Compact” a ten-year, $350 billion federal commitment to higher education is appealing to people in universities. It is a detailed plan with many moving parts. To Clinton’s credit it’s a big picture approach, to solve a big…

Process is not Leadership

  Leadership in any organization implies and requires transformation. Change in purposeful groups of people, large and small, creates discomfort. Organizational discomfort sometimes matures into a labyrinth of processes that stymie evolution in every corner of the hierarchy. Numerous excuses…

Senses of Urgency

McDonald’s is closing hundreds of restaurants this year, according to Fortune. Gallup claims America now ranks 12th on the planet in new businesses. Startups exceeded closures by 100,000 in 2008, and in 2014 closures exceeded startups by 70,000.   Cause for…

I Would Join a Faculty Union But…

  Tenth and final reflection in a series on public/private higher education Public universities are a reflection of the state in which they exist.  State Senator Brady’s idea for private non-profit university boards would influence the relationship between faculty unions…

To and Fro

Seventh in a series on public/private higher education Illinois Sen. Bill Brady’s SB 1565 proposes creating nonprofit boards to guide public universities.  It will impact transfer students. The 21 million students enrolled in post-secondary education in the United States are…

Variety and Vitality

  Sixth in a series on public/private higher education. A private nonprofit structure for higher education in Illinois as proposed by State Sen. Bill Brady, in SB1565, is appealing because it might provide more choices for students.  Vanilla offerings abound…

Fast and Furious

The German polytechnic universities of the 19th century were the model and the genesis for the power and explosion of the U.S. land-grant universities in the 20th. What’s required of universities in the 21st century will be as markedly different…

Student Leadership

Overwhelmingly, the 7400 state lawmakers nationwide attended and graduated from public universities. Again overwhelmingly, these elected officials attended schools in their home states. All but four of the 535 members of the United States Congress have a post-secondary education.   A…

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