For most of my professional career, I have believed that institutions, more or less, happen upon a seminal moment in their evolution. Indeed, when approached about consulting or management opportunities I typically first begin by looking at some combination of ethos, culture, board and management leadership, and cold, hard numbers to determine the possible. It all very much depends, of course, on whether pledges made about system change are kept by the parties who made them.
Recently, my attitude has shifted. I have come to recognize that seminal moments fall more ordinarily into two fairly distinctive categories.
The first is that which is foisted upon an institution. It may be crisis precipitated by a regional accreditation review, a change in leadership, admission or advancement numbers that tank, or public relations disasters, large and sometimes small. Every action causes a reaction and from bad institutional moments good policy can emerge. In the end, it’s an outcome likely from recent debacles at fine institutions like Penn State and the University of Virginia. The right leadership in shared governance and a sense of common purpose create a will of the committed to produce positive change. Or, at least, we hope so.
The second category is more nuanced. In this example, much of the preliminary work occurs behind the scenes. It also builds across leadership changes and relies heavily upon the work of dedicated middle management, faculty, and a progressive, prudent, action and outcomes-oriented board of trustees who view themselves as stewards whose job it is to create defined inflection points in institutional history. They understand the history and tradition, the level of competition, the centrality of the academic program, and the technology tsunami sweeping over higher education.
Most important, perhaps, is that boards of trustees appreciate what they do not know.
