If I were asked to help a new academic leader, a curious person who knew little about higher education and sought to ground themselves in their new position, I would assign (not recommend) Academic Leadership and Governance in Higher Education. This is a tome, a bible for higher education leadership. The full title includes further explication: “A Guide for Trustees, Leaders, and Aspiring Leaders of Two- and Four-Year Institutions.” More than four-hundred pages and written by an experienced and wise team, it is a comprehensive volume that stays at 10,000 feet. The authors include Robert M. Hendrickson (emeritus professor higher education at Pennsylvania State University, Jason E. Lane (currently special advisor to the president of the University of Illinois system), James T. Harris (president emeritus of Widener University), and Richard H. Dorma (former president of Westminster College). It is one of the best big picture studies of higher education, designed for the practitioner, that I have ever encountered.
The book is organized into five sections: History, Politics, Globalization and Organizational Theory in Higher Education; External Constituencies; Boundary Spanners; Academic Core; and Implementing the Mission. Each section contains several chapters. The authors reference robustly and the tone is authoritative. This volume can serve as a reference book and as a guide to further study. Balancing the authors’ omniscience, the book knows that it is very much the product of a particular time in higher education history. Moreover, the very structure of work regularly asserts that as things have changed in the past, they will, too, in the future.
That sense of big picture context is most helpful while perusing the chapters. We learn how things have evolved and shifted over the decades. The authors do not emphasize political conflict as a driver of change. Instead, they see higher education as responding to broader shifts in economics, politics and society. Were the volume to be written in the early 2020s, the authors might give greater attention to partisan issues.
What stands out to me are the issues where the prose is relatively thin and where the authors go deeper. They are closely attuned to major court cases, for example, while the influence of technology or for-profit higher education is mostly absent. So, too, is the greater training revolution in our contemporary economy, in which businesses assume the burden and opportunity of training. On the other hand, there is good history on the emergence and development of accreditation.
The book explicitly calls out higher education’s relationship with democracy. Stating the authors’ core principles, the book affirms that “higher education’s civic purpose, societal role, and extraordinary possibility for promoting the common good provide it with a unique opportunity to contribute powerfully to meaningful change in a global society.” They further attest that “institutional leaders seek to create and foster democratic partnerships with myriad constituents.” Civic and democratic support figure prominently.
Towards that end, the chapter entitled “The Engaged College or University” is worthy of close attention. More than a summary, this section makes arguments that rest at the heart of academia’s role as a public good. For example, “to our nation’s founders, higher education was necessary to produce the next generation of citizens who would lead and be engaged in society.” It is an admirable claim, but one that might not be as widely accepted today.
The authors believe that three educational imperatives shape the discussion of an engaged institution of higher education in the 21st century. Educating responsible citizens is the first of these, as institutions struggled with a conflict of personal economic development versus an affirmation of the public good. The book affirms that civic education carried the day, possibly as evidenced by the 1980s popularity of Campus Compact. As much as one would like to believe that, a more rigorous study looking at where dollars were allocated might see a very different picture of academic priorities. Similarly, the book’s attention to the 1990s Wingspan Group’s attention to higher education and the nation’s health is referenced, as is Putnam’s theories of social isolationism. Important concepts, to be sure, yet their influence on higher education pales in comparison to the decline in state funding dollars, the growth of federal research dollars, and the rise in student debt.
All those criticisms notwithstanding, the chapter goes deeper into the growth of service learning and civic education. Community-based education, Project Pericles and other initiatives are examined. The authors emphasize the consequential and essential goodness of this work. When implemented, they make for greater student success, healthier colleges and healthier communities. The authors further assert a trend in this, but hard numbers are lacking. This section clearly reflects authorial priorities, not higher education’s.
The book is thin on operational issues, the nuts and bolts of running an institution, and especially finances. As much as we have to think about our institutions of higher education as special organizations, in today’s climate they must also operate as businesses. “No margin, no mission” as a former colleague of mine regularly opined. I would send my fledgling academic leader to other sources for these and other key issues.
A key takeaway, perhaps the most important lesson, from Academic Leadership and Governance is the sheer complexity of modern institutions of higher education. One can read and study many works like this and never really know enough, particularly in our rapidly changing times. Let’s wish our incoming leader knowledge, patience, humility and good luck in their new role – they made need it!
David Potash