Offers suggestions for a "campaign" approach to college/university organizational change. Emphasizes the ability of a campaign to mobilize people around a strategic theme. Discusses campaign planning and identifies four elements of a successful campaign. Reports five mini-case studies of campaigns, focusing themes such as changing how students…

Despite an enormous diversity of institutional types and our historic commitment to access, there is a numbing sameness across our campuses when it comes to the actual practice of teaching and learning. Different colleges recruit different students, serve different audiences, and teach different bodies of knowledge. But they do it all using the…

Nine higher education commission reports were examined as to quality of research and stated objectives in comparison with results. Surveyed assessment by 29 peer leaders indicated that only Carnegie Commission reports could be shown to have changed the law and others had limited effect. (LBH)

Speculation about the future is not knowledge, as it is often treated, and efforts to predict the future obscure the need to tend to the present. (MSE)

Cultural diversity is an urgent challenge to higher education institutions requiring a communitywide coordinated effort among community sectors. Pluralism is not an end in itself, but a means to the larger purpose of gaining intellectual growth and human insight. Diversity without community is anarchy; community without diversity is fantasy. (MSE)

An approach to analysis of educational reform on college campuses that focuses on movement toward, rather than organizational manifestations of, change is described. Four stages include (1) the decision to act consistently with principles; (2) establishment of internal organizational support; (3) going public with intentions; and (4) emergence of…

Report on a 10-year study of five European universities involved in major institutional change suggests five "pathways of transformation," including: (1) a strengthened steering core; (2) an enhanced developmental periphery; (3) a diversified funding base; (4) a stimulated academic heartland; and (5) an embracing entrepreneurial culture.…

It is argued, based on the experiences of 16 small, diverse independent colleges, that small institutions can reverse decline. The analysis looks at signs of problems, patterns of institutional blindness to the problems that lead to additional decline, and behavior characteristics of the institutions that survive. (MSE)

Multiculturalism is the best approach to helping higher education in the United States make the most of recent demographic changes. Multicultural curricular reform is the cornerstone to successful multicultural education. Isolationism by discipline, interest, or ethnic group, when temporary, is not intrinsically wrong but should be balanced with…

An interview with the University of Wisconsin at Madison's chancellor, Donna Shalala, covers such topics as her experiences at Hunter College, the woman administrator, the leadership role, minority group issues, institutional planning, and the politics of higher education. (MSE)

Asserts that weaving incremental changes into the existing stable system of undergraduate education cannot result in significant improvement because systems determine outcomes. Encourages higher education leaders to abolish the course-credit system, explaining that altering graduation requirements changes everything else: student motivation and…

"General Education Today: A Critical Analysis of Controversies, Practices, and Reforms" (A 248-page book by Jerry G. Gaff, published by Jossey-Bass in 1983) is reviewed here as an important contribution to the abundant literature on general education. America is currently undergoing a general education revival. Part I of Gaff's book…

Argues that how the university views its relationship with immigrant communities is central to the revitalization of civic values and practices in United States society. This perspective is based on the authors' experiences in establishing the Center for Immigrant & Refugee Community Leadership and Empowerment (CIRCLE) as a partnership among…

Flexible tenure contracts are proposed as an alternative to the current college faculty tenure system. Such a contract would make more explicit, and potentially more varied, the contributions expected of the candidate, but avoid the tenure-track/non-tenure-track distinction. It could also help resolve conflicts over the relative weights to be…

Experience in the corporate sector suggests that human resources practices that promote success in an environment of rapid change, complexity, and unpredictability support at least three values: flexibility; access to information by people at all levels; and risk-taking. While academic tenure is not necessarily inconsistent with these practices,…