Creating a Vital Campus in a Climate of Restricted Resources

1. Facing the Future: Creating a Vital Campus in a Climate of Restricted Resources Alan E. Guskin Distinguished University Professor, PhD Program in Leadership and Change; University President Emeritus Antioch University Please do not reproduce without permission Alan E. Guskin, Antioch University

2. State of Higher Education and the Future Reduced Financial Support Demographic Shifts • Need to Create • New Institutional Forms to Respond to Changing Societal Realities • New Student Learning Needs • Global Society • Civic Engagemt • Work Force • Realities External Accountability Demands New Technology and Demands for Use Mistrust of Professionals

3. My Perspective • Over this decade there will be significant decreases in real dollar resources for most universities • Solutions for Dealing with Fiscal Issues Must Focus on enhancing Student learning • Solutions for Dealing with Fiscal Issues Must Focus on maintaining and enhancing the Quality of Faculty and Staff Work-lives

4. Facing Economic Reality Findings from a Recent Study by The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education • States, and higher education in particular, are likely to face very tight budget conditions for the next decade. • All but a handful of states will find it impossible to maintain current levels of public services within their existing tax structure. • Just to maintain current services, state spending for higher education would have to increase faster than state spending in other areas. From “State Shortfalls Projected Throughout the Decade: Higher Ed Budgets Likely to Feel Continued Squeeze,” by Dennis Jones in Policy Alert, The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, February, 2003

5. One State University Statistics (PA) State Support 1989 --65% from state 2004 --37% from state Resources from HEPI Actual State Allocations (Higher Education resources (increase/decreases) Price Index ) (real dollars) 2001/2 +1.4% 4.9% -3.5% 2002/3 -4.3% 4.1% -8.4% 2003/4 -3.8% 2.9% -6.7% /5 +10.0% 4.6% +5.4% 2005/6 +2.75% 3.5% -.75% -13.95%

6. Institutional Responses to Severe Fiscal Problems: Muddling Through to Transforming the Institution

7. Institutional Responses to Severe Fiscal Problems: Muddling Through to Transforming the Institution

8. EducationalAssumptions in “Muddling Through” • Present Educational Delivery System (faculty teaching students in classes over set period of time) is effective and there is no viable alternative to assure quality teaching and learning. • Increasing diversity of students and recognition of diverse student learning modes, but no need to change how students are taught. • Technology can augment faculty teaching, should never replace it. • Present assessment system is OK; learning outcomes are very difficult to quantify as well as meet need for transferability • Limited resources and increasing expenses can be handled by non-personnel cuts in administrative areas and hiring of inexpensive faculty (P/T; F/T without tenure) • Recognition that there are not enough fiscal resources in non-academic areas to avoid cuts in academic area (in Muddling Through Ib only)

9. Problems with “Muddling Through” Strategy Over Time •Increases in fund raising cannot be annually ratcheted up—fund raising will not offset major continuing reductions in real dollar resources • Tuition levels cannot be significantly increased annually without changing nature of student body (and sometimes institutional mission) • Required increases in technology add significant costs to budget without any savings • Many budget reductions are often one-time only based on accumulated reserves: “You can stop washing the windows once. How do you stop washing them a second time?” • Quality of Faculty and staff work-lives will be undermined • Student Learning will deteriorate—decreasing availability of courses needed; increasing class size; decreasing access to faculty; decreasing quality of learning environment. • Continuing incremental changes may create an institution that we do not want to be part of.

10. “The world keeps changing. It is one of the paradoxes of success that the things and ways which got you where you are, are seldom those that keep you there. If you think they are, and that you know the way to the future because it’s a continuation of where you’ve come from, you may well end up somewhere you would rather not be… [This] is a hard lesson to learn.” Charles Handy The Age of Paradox

11. Transition from Muddling Through to Transforming Institution Transition requires a shift in thinking: • Need to challenge basic assumptions about how student learning can occur • Need to refocus from emphasis on faculty teaching to emphasis on student learning • Need to re-conceptualize institutional productivity--from faculty productivity to student learning productivity • To make such a transition, campus members must have a level of pain or “anticipatory pain” that induces them to realize that there is an urgency to undertake fundamental change. (People need a compelling reason to make fundamental changes in how they work.) • Campus members must believe that present fiscal realities are long term (5-10 years) not short term (1-2 years)

12. New Educational Assumptions for Transition to Transformed Institution • Recognition that student learning can occur in many different arenas inside and outside the classroom. • Need to develop new cost effective high quality teaching-learning processes based on new instructional and learning strategies • Recognition that technology can be effectively utilized in core of educational process while assuring quality and reducing cost per student • Recognition that assessment of student learning outcomes is key to development of new instructional and learning strategies while maintaining academic integrity within limited resources.

13. New Educational Assumptions for Transition to Transformed Institution (continued) • Recognition that faculty will need to have new roles in order to maintain reasonable workload and quality of faculty work-life while faculty maintain academic integrity and quality standards • Recognition that there will be fewer faculty members per students • Realization that a digitally-based library of the future can be a primary center for development and implementation of alternative instructional and learning strategies. • Need for new organizational systems to support new educational delivery system

14. How do we increase student learning and maintain the quality of faculty and staff work-life with fewer resources?

15. Creating a Vital Campus in a Climate of Reduced Resources: 3 Organizing Principles Organizing Principle I: Create a Clear and Coherent Vision of the Future Focused on Student Learning, Quality of Faculty Work- life and Reduced Costs/Student Organizing Principle II: Transform the Educational Delivery System Consistent with Vision of the Future Organizing Principle III: Transform the Organizational Systems Consistent with Vision of the Future

16. Organizing Principle I:Create a Clear and Coherent Vision of the Future Focused on Student Learning, Quality of Faculty Work-life and Reduced Costs per Student Basic Question: Given what we know and the likely fiscal, technological and societal realities of the future, if we were creating this college or university today focusing on student learning, what would it look like? • Align and transform all academic and organizational programs and structures of an institution around a coherent focus. • Without the creation of a clear,coherent and focused institutional vision, serious fundamental reform is not possible.

17. Organizing Principle II: Transform the Educational Delivery System Consistent with Vision of Future Relationship between Present and Future Educational Delivery System, Institutional Learning Productivity and Faculty Work Primary focus is on faculty productivity

18. Relationship between Present and Future Educational Delivery System,Institutional Learning Productivity and Faculty Work (cont.) multiple instructional strategies Future: Focus on Student Learning Increases in student learning or enrollment occur in many arenas without increasing total faculty instructional time with students. e.g., technology-based group and individual learning, learning comm, accelerated learning, intensive residencies, service learning, learning with peers; new instructional roles e.g., instructional role of other campus professionals (librarians, student affairs, community members), faculty mentoring, faculty led intensive discussion groups, and courses; Primary focus is on student learning productivity: based on assessment of student learning outcomes, irrespective of how, where or when learning occurs. assessment of student learning outcomes

19. Innovations Which Can Help Transform Educational Delivery System • Outcomes Based Assessment • When used as a replacement for rigid structure of credit hours and seat time to degree • Learning Communities • Links courses, students, and can involve instructors beyond faculty • Technology • When used as a replacement for faculty work, rather than an add-on • Out of Class Learning (service learning, co-curricular, work, et al) • When used with reflective practice as a means of achieving student learning outcomes • Curricular Audit • When used to focus and refine curriculum as outlined in Principle I

20. Outcomes Based Assessment • Outcomes based assessment is most effective when • It is based upon a clear set of faculty generated student learning outcomes for the institution • Is integrated throughout the campus • Has a feedback mechanism for understanding the effectiveness of the assessment • Outcomes based assessment enhances learning and saves money when • It is used to recognize student learning in and out of the classroom • It is used to replace traditional methods of gauging progress toward a degree (credit hours, seat time) • It provides ongoing feedback to students as they learn

21. Learning Communities • Effective Learning Communities • Link team taught courses with a common set of students across courses • Ensure peer learning happens in and out of class • Utilize other campus professionals (e.g., librarians and student affairs) in the teaching process • Learning Communities Can Enhance Learning and Save Money when • They use peer learning and professionals beyond faculty • They develop a strong student cohort that increases retention • They are used as a replacement for ineffective parts of the curriculum (gen ed, gateway courses), not as an add-on • They increase number of students per faculty member

22. Technology • Effective Uses of Technology • Creates interactive learning for the student • Transmits information without personal interaction with a faculty member • Is integrated into the core teaching and learning process • Technology can Enhance Learning and Save Money when • It is used as a replacement rather than an add-on to existing activities • It is used as an active intervention for problem courses • It frees up faculty and staff time for more personal interaction with students

23. Curricular Audits • Curricular Audits are most effective when • Strategic choices are made re: supporting programs essential to implement institution’s visionand student learning outcomes • They focus on eliminating duplication and proliferation of courses • Wherever feasible, programs and curricula offerings are redesigned to maximize student learning and minimize use of faculty time • Curricular Audits enhance learning and save money when • They reduce overall size of the curriculum by deletion of programs and curricula offerings not essential based on institution’s vision, strategic directions & learning outcomes • They reduce faculty time and costs per student and maintain or increase quality

24. Organizing Principle IIITransform the Organizational Systems Consistent with Vision of the Future • Organizational Systems are built to maintain the present operations through incremental adjustments • Organizational Systems include: • How we count (e.g., SCHs, faculty workload) • How we reward • How we allocate funds • Who and What we support • How we provide services

25. As long as the organization continues to face the same sorts of problems that its processes and values were designed to address, managing the organization can be straightforward. But because those factors also define what an organization cannot do, they constitute disabilities when the problems facing the [institution] change fundamentally. from “Meeting the Challenge of Disruptive Change,” by Christensen and Overdorf, Harvard Business Review, March-April, 2000

26. Organizing Principle III: Transform the Organizational Systems Use zero-based budgeting process to audit and redesign the budget allocation process while involving faculty and staff as responsible partners Zero-based budgeting focuses on making clear and consistent choices about expenditure of all available resources following strategic directions Annual budgets need to align an institution’s expenditures with the vision of the future

27. Organizing Principle III: Transform the Organizational Systems Audit and Restructure administrative and student services systems while using technology and integrated staffing arrangements to reduce costs • Audit essential and non-essential administrative and student services, and reduce or eliminate the non-essential • Redesign essential services around new technologies, thereby reducing costs and improving service • Many institutions have adopted integrated administrative software at great cost. Wherever feasible, it is important to redesign all administrative work around this technology • Critical part of redesign of essential functions will be cross-training of staff to offer more integrated, effective and efficient services

28. Organizing Principle III: Transform the Organizational Systems Audit and redesign technological and staff infrastructure to support transformational changes Transformative actions require investment in new technology and personnel: • Build a system of assessment for institution-wide learning outcomes • Restructure faculty and other campus roles around learning outcomes • Cross-train administrative staff • Provide sophisticated, up-to-date technology and staff support • Create a “library of the future”

29. Library of theFuture Library of the Future Quote from an article in Educause Review November/December, 2003 If you had told people ten years ago that card catalogues would virtually disappear over the next decade, to be replaced by systems we now enjoy, they would not have believed you. The real heroes of the digital revolution in higher education are the librarians: they are the people who have seen the farthest, accepted the hardest challenges, and demonstrated most clearly the benefits of digital information. In the process they have turned their own field upside down and have revolutionized their own professional training. “Why IT Has Not Paid Off As We Hoped (Yet)” by Edward L. Ayers and Charles M. Grisham, Educause Review, Nov./Dec., 2003

30. Library of the Future The transformed library of the future will be at the core of teaching, learning, and scholarship-- managing information, resources, and digital and learning objects and creating virtual and physical learning environments critical to these endeavors. *partnering with academic departments and other campus professionals to create learning activities and environments. *helping to build an infrastructure for learning incorporating technology and self-directed learning. *creating an intellectual commons for the community where people and ideas interact in real and virtual environments. Traditional library services such as reference can grow into one-stop shopping for students who can get help from librarians, computing center staff, and student services professionals, both in-person and virtually. From “Libraries Dealing with the Future Now” by Joseph Brewer, Sheril Hook, Janice Simmons-Welburn and Karen Williams, ARL Bimonthly Report on Research Library Issues #234

31. Role of Library in Educational Delivery System Present Educational Delivery System Faculty Role 75% presentation of knowledge/information; teach students in class setting Role of Library Management of Collection and Library Resources Student Role Access to knowledge/Information; Passive learning Transformed Educational Delivery System Role of Library Management and co-design of learning environments; Manage and provide access to all information resources on campus and beyond; Provide communityspaces for learning Faculty Role Design Learning Environments; Facilitate student learning; Assess learning outcomes Student Role Access; Active learning; Peer learning; multiple learning arenas on and off campus, on-line and face-to-face

32. We face a great paradox. We must re-create our institutions to deal with the fiscal and social realities of the 21st century. In order to do this we must rise above our own experiences. Yet, we are creatures of our experience. The key will be challenging our basic assumptions about how students learn and how our institutions are organized. By challenging and reflecting on these basic assumptions, we will have the opportunity to rise above our own experience and transform our institutions.