Strategic Governance 79
academic abilities of the study body. As a large and sophisticated institution,
the university uses a talented staff in its office of planning and budget to regu-
larly analyze important issues of this kind. Data from departing and continuing
students have been collected and analyzed, and a report has been sent to all the
relevant offices.
The report suggests that the new general education program has a negative
effect on student retention. Students believe the program repeats work from high
school, offers too many lecture classes, and forces students to meet requirements in
areas that do not interest them, chosen from too small a list. Because of the limited
number of sections in several fields, students often have to delay enrollment,
sometimes in courses that are prerequisites to a major or in areas where a delay
may cause them to lose skills, such as foreign languages. High attrition after the
first and second years seems to be correlated with a lack of personal involvement
in the academic program.
When the various vice presidents receive the report, they make sure that it is
put on the agenda for the weekly meeting of the president’s executive staff, and
that the president is briefed about it. The president and his senior colleagues
are quite concerned about the report’s findings, and the senior business officer
notes the loss of tuition revenue and the state subsidy. At the staff meeting, the
decision is made to ask the chairman of the faculty senate and of the senate’s
curriculum committee to read the report and consider its results. What ideas and
recommendations can they offer?
The vice president for student affairs notes several references in the report to
problems in life in the student residences, binge drinking, and complaints that
the fraternity and sorority pledging practices consume inordinate amounts of time
for first-year students, contributing to the high rate of attrition. He discusses the
issues with his staff and asks for ideas.
The report is on the agenda at the next meeting of the senate’s curriculum
committee. Several faculty members with background in statistics take issue with
the report’s methods and conclusions. Others show genuine concern but comment
on the political delicacy and complexity of the issue. The new general education
program reflects an exquisite political compromise that added a variety of new
courses to internationalize and diversify the offerings. It also achieved a good
balance in enrollment among many departments. To avoid delving into all these
issues again, the committee decides to refer the report to the dean of arts and
sciences. The committee expresses its concern that departments in the arts and
sciences are not receiving enough support to develop the new program as planned,
and they recommend to the president, provost, and dean of arts and sciences that
additional resources be found to remedy these deficiencies.
When the dean of arts and sciences receives the senate committee’s report,
she holds a series of meetings with department chairs and requests that key
departments discuss the issue. The results of these sessions are inconclusive
because the meetings raise many issues and problems that are not directly related
to the problem of high attrition. Many of the tensions within departments over