Wear Brown
Shoes

The function of the administration is solely to see that the funds are adequate for its purposes and not overspent, that the air is right, that the grounds are tidy – and then to stay out of its way . . . A good university doesn’t need to be headed as much as to be given its head, and it is the administrator’s task – not at all an easy one – to see that this happens. The temptations to intervene from the top, to reach in and try and change the way the place works, to arrive at one’s desk each morning with one’s mind filled with exhilarating ideas for revitalizing the whole institution, are temptations of the devil and need resisting with all the strength of the administrator’s character.
-- Lewis Thomas, 1983 (as cited in
Birnbaum’s How Colleges Work, 1988)

 Let’s talk about that quote.
 Why are you here?
 Are you trying to advance yourself?
 Do you supervise people who are trying to advance themselves?
 Did you walk into the wrong session?
 What is this presentation about?
 Not a faculty-bashing session, despite how it sounds.
 *Disclaimer!*

 “Confronting the Brutal Facts”
 Jim Collins – Good to Great
 Examine the environment
 Discuss limitations
 Faux pas of business acumen – threatening to faculty. For example:
 “Big picture”
 Flexible
 Financial literacy
 Good communication with stakeholders

 Earliest Examples of Higher Ed
 Greek Lyceum
 Examples of organizational permanence
 Universities of Paris (faculty model) and Bologna (student model)
 Harvard, 1890, appoints the very first
Dean of Men, LaBaron Russell Briggs
Raphael’s The School of Athens, 1511

 Entitled to have someone change their grades (you)
 Entitled to dictate their schedule and have someone else figure out how to make it work (you)
 Entitled to their room
 Entitled to have someone else deal with the students, the parents, the paperwork (you)
We are their button pushers, widget makers, floor sweepers.
We are the necessary evil.
All of the things too base for those focused on intellectual pursuits.

 They compete for us.
 They pay through the nose and go into debt for us.
 Higher Education in the U.S. is a $400 Billion industry
 Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory found that students list these as their top four challenges nation wide:
 #4 – Faculty are fair and unbiased in their treatment of individual students.
 #3 – Tuition paid is a worthwhile investment.
 #2 – The quality of instruction I receive in most of my classes is excellent.
 #1 – I am able to register for classes I need.

IS HIGHER
ED REALLY
FACULT Y-
CENTRIC?
The faculty are creating the positions for themselves.

A FINAL
ORG CHART

IS
 Do you have graduate teaching assistants doing your job?
 When was your last paid sabbatical?
 I assert entire jobs exist to make life easier for faculty:
 Dual Hire
 University of Minnesota has policies that permit the hiring of a spouse/partner without a search.
 Advisors!

 In the halls of academia, it’s all about who has the bigger degree.
 Most institutions have opportunities for continuing ed, such as policies for tuition waivers.
 3 reasons why a bachelors is not enough:
 Sometimes and advanced degree is required for a position – if not explicitly then implicitly.
 You can move up faster – often an advanced degree is accepted in lieu of experience.
 You’re now part of the club.

 If we agree that advanced degrees are important in higher ed, then what about hiring people with no degree?
 Over-qualified and high turnover vs. underqualified and long employment terms
 The glass ceiling – are we being fair?
 Remember – the employees that move on from your office are ambassadors for your office to the rest of the institution.

 Every interaction is an opportunity to distinguish yourself.
 Be the go-to person.
 If you’re the only one who knows how to work the copier, you’ve got it made!

 Cliché, but “It’s all about who you know.”
 When one of the few positions DO open, we’re all like piranhas fighting over it – so hope you managed to impress the right person along the way!

 My business card and resume is available at the door.
References upon request.

 Identify a position you aspire to.
 Network with the person who has that position
 They know the industry – the politics and campus dynamics that can take you years to learn and understand.
 Ask them questions – they will love to talk about their job and themselves!

 Birnbaum, Robert. How Colleges Word: the Cybernetics of Academic
Organization and Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey -Bass, 1988.
 Weingartner, Rudolph. Fitting Form to Function . Rowman and
Littlefield Publishers, 2011
 Collins, J. C. (2001). Good to great: Why some companies make the leap – and others don’t . New York, NY: HarperBusiness
 http://www.forbes.com/sites/baldwin/2013/01/15/the -scary economics-of-higher-education/
 http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/rap/spousepar tner /
 Noel-Levitz (2013). 2013 national student satisfaction and priorities repor t. Coralville, Iowa: Author. Retrieved from www.noellevitz.com/Benchmark .

You are considering implementing a policy requiring increased use of technology in the classroom.
Faculty opinion on the policy is split evenly as shown on the right.
Indifferent
In Favor
Opposed

Senior Technical Of ficer and Applications Engineer
Auburn University
Office of the Registrar
334.844.5362
joe@auburn.edu