This week, the nation’s leading higher education news and analysis outlet – The Chronicle of Higher Education – took a hard look at what it takes to help colleges face the challenges of a highly dynamic 21st century.
The recommendation: “To Change a Campus, Talk to the Dean”
Here’s how it opens …
When Kathryn J. Boor became a dean at Cornell University, change was at the center of her agenda from the very beginning.
She began leading the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences in 2010, when the Ivy League institution—like colleges everywhere at the time—was in the midst of streamlining operations and cutting costs. Just four months into Ms. Boor’s tenure, the college announced that its department of education would close. Cornell administrators said they didn’t have the money it would take to raise the small department’s national profile.
Since then, Ms. Boor has overseen a steady stream of change. In the spring, for example, she grouped five departments to create the new School of Integrative Plant Science, with the goal of showcasing the university’s strengths in plant and soil sciences and attracting federal grants, more students, and more top faculty.
“This took reorganizing people and getting people excited about a new structure and a new way of thinking,” says Ms. Boor, a food scientist. “This is a way to ensure our pre-eminence five and 10 years down the line.”
Put this at the top of the holiday recommended-reading list. You’ll find the full article here.
