The Governance Battle In Higher Education

This article does a good job of highlighting the governance issues in higher education.  One of the issues, that uniquely affects state university systems, is that state legislatures have cut back on the funding of their state systems.  This is partially due to the recession and declining tax revenues, but it is also a symptom of a more generalized anti-government trend by movement conservatives.  They don't want to pay taxes to increase access to higher education.  They do not regard higher education as a public good.  Therefore, the consumption of education should be determined by the price system.  Many also believe that there is a liberal bias in university faculties that gets transmitted to the younger generation.

Universities also have a culture that is antithetical to many conservatives.  There is more participation between faculties and administrators in making academic decisions. For example, course syllabi  are usually proposed by faculty, and submitted for approval to curriculum committees that include faculty members as well as administrators. Academic policy committees are also used to set academic standards and grading policies. Faculty committees are also used to recommend promotions and the awarding of tenure. University Trustees and Boards have generally recognized and supported these traditions.  They serve a good purpose if the objective is to maintain the current system of higher education. On the other hand, those who want to cut public spending on higher education, or change the system in other ways,  also feel a need to change the traditional system of governance.  This is best done by placing change agents on university Boards, who assume a more active role in governance, and who also favor administrators that will work with them to achieve certain goals.  One of the goals is to cut costs, and to operate with less support from government funding.  They select administrators who can achieve those objectives.

The conflict that we see today in university governance is a reflection of broader changes in the external culture. It could not be otherwise when great nations attempt to navigate in a world that is rapidly changing, and when there is more polarization in society about future directions.