Recently the Ohio State University’s president, Gordon Gee, announced his retirement in the face of criticism over some embarrassing statements he made. Rutgers University’s president, Robert Barchi, is facing a barrage of criticism over a number of issues, most saliently his handling of problems with Rutgers’ athletics programs. Gee and Barchi are both smart and…
Tag: leadership
Why Can’t Higher Education Be Ahead Of The Curve?
The flagship organization of higher education, AAC&U, publishes several themed periodicals. Key among them is Liberal Education. Focused on undergraduate education and liberal learning, the quarterly provides a national forum about teaching, learning, undergraduate issues and leadership. The Winter 2012 issues of Liberal Education focuses on the “completion agenda.” Carol Geary Schneider, president of the AAC&U,…
On Leadership and the Utility of Precepts
For several weeks have toted Michael Fullan’s Change Leader: Learning To Do What Matters Most, wondering what to make of it and what to do with it. It neither inspired nor engaged me. It is well-meaning and well-organized, written, one must surmise, from the best of intentions by an informed and intelligent man. It shares…
Organizational Culture and Higher Education
Edgar H. Schein’s Organizational Culture and Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 2010), now its fourth edition, is one of the most important works in explaining organizational culture as well as defining the field. The title is today much more than a course in an MBA; it rates a wikipedia site and can be its own degree program at…
Change and Trust in Higher Education
In recent years the need for change in higher education has become a recurrent refrain. Institutions need to change, faculty need to change, curricula need to change – and recognition of this is widely shared within and outside of the academy. The world and our students are changing at a rapid pace. Higher education, to…