Is Your Campus Culture Fractured?
For one of my interim presidencies, I arrived following a “no confidence” vote in the president I had been called upon to replace. Faculty and staff cited poor communication, lack of respect, and loss of trust in the administration and Board of?Trustees. Changing this fractured campus climate was my immediate task.?
Before arriving on campus, I had studied information sent to me which didn’t include the fact that the university had a $7.5 million deficit and that enrollment had been declining for four consecutive years. We immediately had to ask the State Board of Higher Education for permission to consider furloughs. Having experienced that process, however, I had to find another way. We opted for a more informed and sensitive way to resolve this issue, beginning by identifying inefficiencies and overlap.?
We assembled a 22-member University Efficiency Analysis Advisory Committee (UEAAC). All three unions, administrative staff, and students were represented. The committee was charged to employ data-driven decision making, believing that those employees who work within the dysfunction were the experts in resolving such problems. After three intensive months they made 21 recommendations to me, addressing the structural deficit, campus organization, and numerous other significant conditions. I then sought and received Trustee ratification.?
The UEAAC group expanded to develop the implementation, with faculty and staff members working cooperatively with the administration and the Board. The solution took an entire university effort. Was it easy? No. Development of this inclusive, shared-governance model to study and seek solutions to university difficulties would not have been possible without first working to establish trust.?
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RAS Board Governance and Leadership team members, myself included, can help advise ways in which your institution can come together and work cooperatively to overcome the daunting challenges that face colleges and universities today.