Since the economic recession of 2008, colleges and universities have looked for ways to lower costs while increasing incomes. Not all have succeeded. Threatened closures and recent institutional mergers point to what might be a coming trend in higher education. The long-term economic weakness of colleges and universities means schools need to become more strategic about how they consider previously unthinkable options. This provocative book will be their indispensable guide to managing the crisis.
In Consolidating Colleges and Merging Universities, James Martin and James E. Samels bring together higher education leaders to talk about something that few want to discuss: how institutions might cooperate with their competitors to survive in this economic climate. Barring that, Martin and Samels argue, some will shutter their campuses. But closing, they emphasize, is a complex process that involves more than just sending the students home and turning off the lights.
The first one-volume resource for presidents, trustees, provosts, chief financial officers, and faculty leaders planning to partner, merge, or close a college or university, the book offers specific guidelines and action steps used successfully to create multiple forms of partnership between higher education institutions. The book includes contributions by twenty nationally recognized leaders in partnership and strategic planning, as well as an appendix detailing key college and university mergers and closures since 2000. Each chapter includes informative responses from practitioners who answer the question, "What is the single most important lesson you would share with a planning team designing a partnership or merger this year?" Responding to many daunting questions now being raised nationally about institutional fragility and sustainability, Consolidating Colleges and Merging Universities is an honest and practical guide to the possibilities and pitfalls of downsizing American higher education.
Preface James Martin and James E. Samels
Part I. The New Necessities to Partner
Chapter 1. The Consolidation of American Higher Education James Martin and James E. Samels
Chapter 2. Reader's Guide: The New Typology of Collaboration and Closure James E. Samels and James Martin
Part II. Strategic Alliance: A Model That Rarely Fails, and Why
Chapter 3. When Does Large Become Too Large? A View of Higher Education Partnerships and the Implications of Institutional Size R. Michael Tanner
Chapter 4. ""Systemness"": A New Way to Lead and Manage Higher Education Systems Nancy L. Zimpher
Chapter 5. Presidential Vision and Partnership Development: An Evolving View Pamela Eibeck
Chapter 6. ""We Never Thought This Way Ten Years Ago"": How Partnerships Are Reshaping Academic Leadership Expectations Vita Rabinowitz and James Stellar
Chapter 7. Why, and How, Elite Colleges and Universities are Joining Forces J. Matthew Hartley and Alan Ruby
Chapter 8. The Community College Option: How Co-ventures Can Leverage Student and Academic Resources Kenneth Ender and Charles Middleton
Chapter 9. Technology as a Driver of Strategic Alliances Philip Regier and Lynsi Freitag
Chapter 10. A Disruptive Opportunity: Competency-based Education as a Shaper of Successful Partnerships Paul LeBlanc and Kristine Clerkin
Chapter 11. International Objectives: The Benefits and Challenges in Developing Branch Campuses and Partnerships Abroad Michael Jackson and James Larimore
Chapter 12. Public-Private Partnerships: Models That Work John Ottenhoff
Part III. Consortium: New Benefits, Changing Purposes
Chapter 13. A New Way to Design and Deliver Higher Education Consortia Phillip DiChiara
Chapter 14. Where Partnerships Began: A Fresh Look at the Purpose and Outcomes of Liberal Arts College Consortia R. Owen Williams
Part IV. Merger: The Right Reasons to Consider One
Chapter 15. Why Mergers are (Quietly) Increasing Among Colleges and Universities: A Review of the Pros and Cons Susan Resneck Pierce
Part V. Closure: Hidden Costs and Complexities
Chapter 16. If That Moment Arrives: The Blueprint to Close a College Michael Hoyle
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Bibliography Index
""Martin, Samels, and associates explore multiple pathways toward increasing financial sustainability while promoting new forms of shared resource management, effective approaches to collaborative educational experiences across institutions and organizations, and perhaps provide a new form of responsiveness to the increasing public demand on the value of higher education.""
