ERIC ED371665: American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) Bulletin, 1993-94.

196 Pages·1994·7.6 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
HE 027 506
ED 371 665
AUTHOR
Marchese, Theodore J., Ed.
TITLE
American Association for Higher Education (AAHE)
Bulletin, 1993-94.
INSTITUTION
American Association for Higher Education,
Washington, D.C.
REPORT NO
ISSN-0162-7910
PUB DATE
94
FOTE
197p.; Published 10 times a year, coinciding with
academic year. For volume 45, see ED 360 898.
AVAILABLE FROM
American Association for Higher Education, One Dupont
Circle, Suite 360, Washington, DC 20036-1110 ($35,
annual subscription; $5, single issue).
PUB TYPE
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JOURNAL CIT
AAHE Bulletin; v46 n1-10 Sep 1993-Jun 1994
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DESCRIPTORS
*College Administration; *College Faculty; *College
Instruction; College Students; Educational Change;
Educational Quality; Higher Education; Instructional
Improvement; *Productivity; *Quality of Working Life;
Total Quality Management
IDENTIFIERS
American Association for Higher Education; G I Bill;
Internet
ABSTRACT
The 10 issues of this organizational bulletin for the
1993/94 school year present articles, panel discussions, interviews,
and essays on issues concerning the advancement of higher education.
Included are: an interview with Charles Handy on the 21st century
academic workplace; an article titled "Certifying Teaching
Excellence: An Alternative Paradigm to the Teaching Award" (Hoke L.
Smith and Barbara E. Walvoord); a special issue on the quality of
faculty worklife; an article titled "Enhancing the Productivity of
Learning" (D. Bruce Johnstone) with six replies from leaders in
higher education; a special issue dedicated to the American
Association for Higher Education's annual conference on the 21st
century academic workplace; an article titled "The Contract
Alternative: An Experiment in Teaching and Assessment in
Undergraduate Science" (She;.la Tobias); an article titled
"Collaborative Faculty Writing" (Thomas B. Jones and Chet Meyers); a
special issue on the Internet and higher education; an article titled
"On Complaining About Students" (John Bennett and Elizabeth Dreyer);
an article titled "Benchmarking for Efficiency in Learning" (Morris
Keeton and Barbara Mayo-Wells); several articles on the total quality
management movement's future in higher education; an article titled
"Remembering the G.I. Bill: A 50th Anniversary Project" (Brent
Breedin); and an issue offering a sampling of presentations from the
1994 national conference. (JE)
***********************************************************************
Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
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AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION (AAHE) BULLETIN
1993-94
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
alicootEoumwaiftsearchanctimmvemm
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
"PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS
CENTER (ERIC)
MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY
This document has been reproduced as
received from the person or organization
American Association
WM.:1mating it.
r changes have been made to
improve reproduction quality
for Higher Education
(AAHE)
Points of view or opinions stated in this
document do not necessarily represent
TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
of lima! PERI position or policy
INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)"
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
2
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421-
'1994
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21
t
4-,
UT,
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coching
ring
teaching awards
departmental incryitives
tenure
contract work
taking attendance
logging on
Istribution requirements
connected learning
credit-hours
performance standards
competing
collaborating
multiple-choice
portfolio assessment
library collections
network connections
passive learning
active learning
departments
centers
10 pound textbook
customized materials
micromanaging
steering
private office
working club
study carrels
telecomputing
0141,11;ti
vq.mr
-
tolerating conflict
- -
celebrating difference
'r.,,...f.,...V.,.
add-on programs
systemic reform-
.
y
In this issue:
think in new ways about how higher education
iou're invited" is the theme of this first Bul-
works now, and how it might work in the next cen-
. to become
letin of the academic year. .
.
tury. On the cover we offered a few possibilities
nvolved in AAHE's 25th Anniversary,
(from Handy and others) that seem intriguing: 'Ten-
either in the activities we've planned or
ure will be out, contract work in" . . . "departments
via projects of your own (see Carol Cartwright's
will be out, centers in." Radical ideas? Perhaps. Will
"Celebrating Academic Citizenship" beginning on
they come to pass? That's harder to answer. But
invited to submit a proposal
. and you're
page 11) .
.
whether "working clubs' actually replace private
to AAHE's 1994 National Conference on Higher Edu-
offices on campus by the year 2000 is less hnportaut
. and more.
cation .
.
than the creative thinking that making such sug-
To get in a National Conference frame of mind,
gestions provokes. And so, on page 10, we invite you
start with "Upside-Down Thinking," opposite, in
to imagine what the next century might bring and
which British author Charles Handy tries to think
let us know what you come up with. As Charles
just that way in relation to our conference theme,
Handy writes in his book The Age of Unreason: 'New
'The 21st Century Academic Workplace." Once
ways of thinking about familiar things can release
you're intellectually revved up, take a look at the
neW energies and make all manner of things pos-
Call for Proposals, which follows the Handy
sible." So we hope.
interview.
BP
This year's Call is specifically an invitation to
"TIM 21ST CENTURY ACADEMIC WORKPLACE"
1994 NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
"Upside-Down" Thinking About the 21st Century Academic Vibrkplace/a
3
conversation with author Charles Handy/by Russell Edgerton
Call for Proposals
8
"Celebrating Academic Citizenship"/an invitation to participate in a year-long
11
celebration of AAHE's 25th Anniversary/by Carol Cartwright
Departments
AAHE News
14
Bulletin Board/by Ted Marchese
15
=MI
AAHE BULLETIN
September 1993/Volume 46/Number 1
Editor: Theodore J. Marchese
Managing Editor Bry Pollack
Assistant Editor: Gail N. Hubbard
Published by the American Association for Higher Education, One Dupont Circle, Suite 360, Washington, DC 20036-1110; ph. 202/
293-6440; fax [phone]. President Ru.ssell Edgerton. Vice Presidents: Theodore J. Marchese and Louis S. Albert. Unsolicited manuscripts
may be submitted by readers. All are subject to editorial review. Guidelines for authors are available from the Managing Editor.
AAHE Bulletin (ISSN 0162-7910) is published as a membership service of the American Association for Higher Education, a nonprofit
organisation incorporated in the District of Columbia. Second class postage paid at Washington, DC. Annual domestic membership
dues: $80, of which $45 Is for publications. Subscription price for AARE Bulletin without membership: $35 per year, $43 per year
outside the United States. AMIE Bulletin is published ten times per year, monthly except July and August. Back issues: $5.00 each
for up to ten copies; $4.00 each for eleven or more copies. AAHE Bulletin is available in microform from University Microfilms International
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to AAHE Bulletin, One Dupont Circle, Sutte 360, Washington, DC 20036-1110.
Typesetting by Ten Point Type. Printing by Hagerstown Bookbinding & Printing, Ina
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AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
4
1994 NATIONAL CONFERENCE
"UPSIDE-DOWN"
THINKING
About the 21st Century Academic Workplace
ext March, AAHE's National Conference
conversation follow. We're also delighted to report
on Higher Education will take as its
that Handy has accepted an invitation to address
the 1994 National Conference.
theme -The 21st Century Academic
Workplace." As planning for the National
The man Fortune magazine once described as an
Conference began, suggestions about people who
"intellectual bombthrower" is currently a visiting
could speak to the theme
professor at the London
a mnrcisatioq w
ith Charles Handy
were sought. Among them
Business School and a
recurred Charles Handy
regular commentator
hy Russel
Edqv Ttini
.. as the imaginative
on B)3C radio. He is a
.
author of a half dozen
consultant to organi-
books on the management of change .. . as a pro-
zations in business, government, education, and
ponent and practitioner of "upside-down thinking,"
health. His books include the widely acclaimed The
in which "new ways of thinking about familiar things
Age of Unreason (Harvard Business School, 1990)
can release new energies and make all manner of
and The Future of Work (Blackwell, 1984). When
things possible."
interviewed for this Bulletin, Handy was just fm-
In July, AAHE president Russ Edgerton spoke by
ishing up his latest, The Age of Paradox, to be pub-
Eds.
phone with Handy in London. Excerpts from their
lished in the spring, again by Harvard.
EDGERTON: Dr. Handy, let's
zations were doing, they were all
begin with how you came to your
getting rid ofjobs, not creating
current interest in what you call
more, and the new jobs that peo-
"upside-dowil thinking" about the
ple were talking about were all
nature of work. I gather that in
coming from small organizations.
the early 1980s you started
But when I looked at e.te small
worrying about the fact that
organizations, their jobs weren't
there just aren't enough jobs to
the sort that we've been used to
go around, that efforts to create
. jobs that lasted for forty-five
like what President
more jobs
or fifty years, where you went up
Clinton and the G-7 were trying
the hierarchy and ended up with
to do this summer in Japan
a nice pension. Instead, the jobs
weren't going to do it. So you
happening in the smaller organi-
began challenging the fixation
zations were short-term, part-
on "employment" as the only
time
jobs where the organi-
and that led
source of "work"
zation would say, "Would you
you down a new path. Have I got
come and do this for us?" without
this right?
offering careers, pensions, or any-
HANDY: Yes, it seemed to me that
ment essentially all worked in
thing like that.
there was a discontinuity some-
very large organizations .. .
So I came to realize that we
where. The people who were talk-
mostly in government. When I
really have to rethink what we
ing about creating more employ-
then looked at what large organi-
mean by 'work." If you look at
AAHE BULLETIN/SEPTEMBER 1993/3
folio of different types of work.
the statistics for my country,
We're increasingly seeing that
nowadays only 55 percent of the
kind of concept becoming very
workforce are in conventional,
common over here, with people
full-time jobs in organizations.
"The strategic problem
saying they're "going portfolio"
The rest are part-time or self-
for any organization
or "I've started my portfolio
employed or, I'm afraid,
these days is to decide
career." This sort of thing starts
unemployed.
nowadays in the middle of life.
what jobs or what work
EDGERTON:
In The Age of
what we have
EDGERTON: So
Unreason, you have an intriguing
goes into which part
is a decline in the role of large,
litany about the "three 47s" .
. .
of the shamrock; in
centralized employers, bringing
the old norm of 'orking forty-
particular, who should
in its wake radical shifts in the
seven hours a week, forty-seven
nature of work and the charac-
be in the core? This
weeks a year, for forty-seven
teristics of the workforce. As you
years. You're saying that today,
gets very interesting
are talking, I'm thinking that
in Britain, this stereotype fits
when you look at
President Clinton's health reform
barely half the workforce. It
universities. Do we put
proposals will probably hasten
sounds like the full-time, life-long
this shift. I wish we had hours
job is going the way of the nuclear all our teaching faculty
to talk about these issues!
family.
in the core? Or do we
Let me move you to some of
HANDY:
Yes, and going down
regard them as
the direct implications of all this
every year. Britain's slightly ahead
independent professionals
for higher educatiun. I'd like to
of the game, if you can call it that,
take you down three paths. First,
who we can hire when
because 55 percent is a slightly
let's look at the university as an
higher percentage than most
we want them?"
organization. Does the "shamrock"
countries. But it's coming down
metaphor fit, and what does it
everywhere.
EDGERTON:
tell us? Second, let's look at what
Also in The Age of
Unreason, you mention a number
your big picture implies for the
knowledge and skills that our
of factors bringing this situation
professionals who are no longer
about, but the key driver is the graduates need. Third, I'd be
on the payroll of the company
interested in your thoughts about
emergence of what you call the
but are hired to do specific pieces
the way we conduct the business
"shamrock organization." Tell us
of teaching and learning.
of work.
what you mean by this.
The efficient company these
The "shamrock organi-
HANDY:
days is cutting its core people
zation" is a metaphor plucked
"SHAMROCK"
down as far as it can and pushing
from my Irish heritage. The sham-
out as much of its work as it can,
HANDY:
rock is the Irish clover, and it's
Your first question is
both to contractor organizations
always been used in history to
very intriguing. The strategic
and to independents. Such com-
problem for any organization
suggest you could have three leaf-
these days is to decide what jobs
panies call it "out-sourcing." But
lets but there's still one leaf. It
or what work goes into which
I call it the "shamrock" to say
seems to me that's the way the
there should be a shape about
part of the shamrock; in partic-
modern organization is shaping
ular, who should be in the core?
it.
up.
EDGER
Z'ON: As I recall from
This gets very interesting when
Three very different kinds of
your book, ev,n folks in the pro-
you look at universities. Do we
workforces are associated with
fessional core are worldng harder
put all our teaching faculty in
such an organization. If you run
for a shorter total period.
the core? Or do we regard them
it cleverly, they all three think
HANDY:
Well, that's right. These
as independent professionals who
of themselves as part of the
that's what
people are working sixty- or
we can hire when we want them?
whole, but only one
seventy-hour weeks, but it doesn't
In medicine, for instance, doc-
I call the "core" workforce, the
go on for forty-seven years any-
tors are forming themselves into
is actually
professional core
independent partnerships and
more. Certainly, in Europe people
full-time employed in the organi-
are being eased out of the orga-
selling their services as a F.'oup
zation. The second leaf is the con-
to the hospital. So thefte moved
tractual organizations, the sub-
nization in their early 50s. So
they're cramming their hours into
from the first to the second leaf.
contractors, who are in
a much shorter period of time,
And other doctors are going inde-
themselves organizations and
and then they've got the dilemma
pendent .
. they're moving into
themselves will be shamrocks in
.
about what do they do after-
the third leaf.
their own terms. And then the
wards. And what they tend to
Clearly there are faculty who
third leaf is the independents,
do afterwards is to go into what
are essential to the core, for
what I call the "hired help," who
example, those running depart-
I call the "portfolio" worklife .
are either temporary, part-time,
. .
the life of the independent who's
ments, those in charge of key sub-
semi-skilled workers helping out
got a portfolio of clients or a port-
ject areas. But others might be
at peak times, or independent
4 /AAHE BULLETIN/SEVrEMBER 1093
out there perhaps as indepen-
who were grouped around tasks
dents. I can see tenure being re-
or projects. Universities tend to
stricted to maybe twenty or
be rather individualistic, lonely
twenty-five years. and then fac-
places. That's one factor.
"Most of the problems
ulty being expected to live port-
But it also has struck me in
and dilemmas that I
folio lives ... employed when
going 'round to offices, not only
face in life my parents
they're needed.
academic offices but all sorts of
The whole question
EDGERTON:
never knew about, certainly
offices, that nobody was in them
of which faculty are on tenure-
most of the time. When I men-
my teachers didn't.
track appointments, and which
tioned this to chief executives
That they were trying
are not, is a huge issue in this
and heads of organizations, they
to teach me solutions
country.
would say, "Well, of course not!
The trouble I see is that
to problems that they
HANDY:
Our people are out with the
these decisions are made ad hoc
.. with the students .
clients .
already had encountered
. and they shouldn't be. It
with the suppliers
. .. talking with
.
well, that was very
. .
should be a strategic decision:
government. We don't want them
nice of them, thank
What kinds of people, what kinds
in their offices, that means they're
ofjobs, should we have in the first
you very much, but
probably not working!" My aca-
leaf and what in the others?
demic colleagues come to their
those problems aren't
EDGERTON:
Many of our cam-
offices to see students, to attend
there any more. There
puses have drifted into treating
meetings, to deal with bits of
are quite new problems
certain programs as areas for
admin, but they do their real
.. . the
"third lear personnel
now, and therefore their
thinking elsewhere. Usually at
teaching of writing comes to
home.
old solutions are
mind. Language instruction is
as you say in
EDGERTON: So,
irrelevant."
something increasingly being
your book, why provide these very
talked about in these terms.
expensive offices for people who
At the London Business
HANDY:
really are using them as filing
School, we now are insisting that
cabinets?
our graduates have at least one
EDGERTON:
But I know you also
HANDY:
The point about clubs,
believe that organizations then
foreign language. We're not in the
of course, is they do have special
business of teaching them that
need to go on and rethink the
rooms, but the rooms are for
way the second and third leaf
foreign language, but we will
functions
. for activities, not
. .
arrange for them to learn it. In
personnel are treated. I'm think-
for people. There's a "games
other words, we've out-sourced
ing of the shoddy ways some of
room," there's a "reading room,"
our own academic institutions
the foreign language teaching.
a "telephoning room." I want
Again, that was an ad hoc deci-
treat part-time faculty, blue-collar
organizations to spend more of
sion. It should be a strategic deci-
personnel, and others who are
their space on activity rooms
sion. There are an awful lot of
not part of the professional core.
rather than on individual rooms.
things that our core professional
Well that's right. There's
HANDY:
Only very important, core people,
staff should not take its time
a big debate in the European
who are there all the time, would
doing. It is more sensible for us
Community at the moment over
actually have allocated private
to subcontract such things to
what's called the "Social Charter"
space. I think it would be much
independent institutions rather
forcing organizations to treat
more efficient, a more convivial
than trying to hire expensive fac-
outsiders and part-timers pro-
way of living, quite honestly.
ulty to do what they would regard
portionately as well as they treat
as rather degrading work.
full-timers.
WHAT STUDENTS
But, you see, we're still condi-
EDGERTON:
Thinking of part-
NEED
tioned in so many of our insti-
time faculty, I was captivated by
tutions by the old model of an
your argument in The Age of
EDGERTON:
Let's shift to what
organization with which I grew
Unreason about the need to
these changes in work imply for
up: "If you want it done properly,
rethink office space and your
the kind of knowledge and skills
you have to do it yourself... . We
our students need.
image of the "working club."
should employ everybody." That's
When I left business and
The most important
HANDY:
HANDY:
crazy, because then we end up
joined academia many years ago,
thing is that we've got to be
the caterers,
giving everybody
I was dismayed to find that the
responsible fo our own lives.
the
the cleaners, the drivers
academics all sat in little offices,
That sounds rather obvious, but
same terms and conditions that
and you really had to have an
it is, I think, a quite radical shift
we give to our very, very special
excuse to go in and talk to them.
from the previous generation.
people, our leading professors.
The collegiality I had expected
I started my working life by
In the end, if you go that route,
to find was actually less than in
working for an oil company, and
you end up restricting your staff
a business, because in a business
the first book that they gave me
numbers on everything.
you always were meeting people
was a pension booklet. The impli-
AARE BULLETIN/SEPTEMBER 1993/5
through it.
cation v.as they were going to
Now, that is quite alien to most
give me a career, and they were
of what we do in the educational
going to train me to that career,
process. And it's very threatening,
and at the age of about 62 they
"Devising the project
of course, to any teacher because
would provide me with money
so that it Is a learning
a teacher then has to walk into
for the rest of my life. And I was
vehicle becomes the
situations in which he doesn't
quite happy with that.
educational task, it seems
know the answer. It's a very cha-
It was only when I left them
otic situation, which we haven't
that I realized that life was actu-
to me. The key people
prepared our teachers for. When
ally a lot more complicated. I was
in the university, then,
we teach case studies in our
totally unprepared for it! I really
become the educational
school, the teacher usually has
didn't know how to organize
his oeferred solution. And the
designers and the
myself, how to pay my own taxes,
game in the classroom is to guess
let alone how to prepare myself
educational managers.
what the teacher's going to say
for a worklife in which I had to
The experts, if I can
at the end. That's not real life,
sell my services to others.
call the faculty that,
son is getting
you know!
EDGERTON: My
are almost in the wings,
married next week. I was telling
him recently that when I started
HOW WE WORK
really. And that, of course,
my career I worked for a big state
is going to cause
EDGERTON:
Let's move on to
university, then the federal gov-
tremendous upheavals,
my third question . .. the organi-
ernment. I hadn't a clue about
because it's going to
zation of the teaching and learn-
things like pensions, but these
institutions took care of me. He
ing process itself.
change the whole power
HANDY:
As I say in my book, I
is moving from a small consulting
structure of higher
want to see us move to the con-
firm to another city, looking for
education."
cept of "student as worker,"
a new job. He has to worry about
rather than student as just a stu-
all sorts of things I didn't!
dent .
. watching, observing,
HANDY: In our educational sys-
.
and
to know. But beyond that
absorbing. I want the student to
tem, we force-feed our students
very quickly we move beyond that
be actually doing, solving prob-
where
. tell them what to do,
everything, it seems to me, is
lems, and, again, having creative
to go to class, what to learn, how
up for grabs. There are no right
to learn it, what to read, what
initiatives. I believe that is the
answers to most of the questions.
core task of education
to
tests to take. Their role is to react.
And we've got to make up our
improve people's capacity to
But the worklife they are entering
own answers, because the ques-
make a difference to the situa-
is one in which they will have to
tions are always new.
tions in which they fmd them-
invent their own careers.
The skill that you need, as you selves, using a whole range of
My goodness, even in my busi-
say, is one of reframing, of looking
ness school we present our stu-
skills.
at things in a different way, of
That turns our professors into
dents in every course with a
coaches and mentors, rather than
seeing what the real problem is
whole packet of things. Even
and coming up with imaginative
subject experts. And so, what I
courses based on cases .
. we've
.
and unthought-of answers to
would end up doing, of course,
collected the data for them. All
questions that teachers of ten
is contracting out some of our
they have to do is analyze it. Any-
more famous professors who are
years ago didn't know existed.
body can analyze data! What's
the subject experts, turning them
Most of the problems and dilem-
much more difficult, it seems to
mas that I face in life my parents
into portfolio people or grouping
me, is knowing what data to col-
them into small research units.
never knew about, certainly my
lect in the first place, and how
teachers didn't. That they were
I'd pull them back in when I
to collect it. But to save them
needed them, but the core func-
trying to teach me solutions to
time and us time, we do all that
problems that they already had
tion of the educating organization
for them. And that, in a sense,
encountered . .. well, that was
would be coaching and mentoring
incapacitates them for real life
very nice of them, thank you very
people in actual action. And, as
outside.
assume that the
much, but those problems aren't
people grow older, I see more and
EDGERTON: I
more of that action taking place
there any more. There are quite
stress you put in The Age of
new problems now, and therefore in the workplace, using the uni-
Unreason on "refraining" issues
versity or the school as a helper
their old solutions are irrelevant.
and "upside-down thinking" is
in the learning process. The uni-
We've got to learn, very early
also something you would want
versity becomes a place to
on, the particular skill of looking
to turn into an agenda for edu-
at a mess and trying to make
encourage and develop learning,
cation. Am I right?
sense of that mess and then com- rather than a place of knowledge.
Absolutely. Of course,
HANDY:
ing up with initiatives that are
I suppose that's what many insti-
in any subject there's a basic
tutions are trying to do, but I
going to help us work our way
amount of information you need
13, AAHE BULLEMN/SEPIEMBER 1993
{f,
don't think they're doing it rad-
. to coach oul students, who
telev3sion studio facilities. But
.
may not need to be all in one
ically enough.
there are no professors there.
place at any one particular time.
If you were going
EDGERTON:
It sounds like, in
EDGERTON:
to go about trying to promote
all these arrangements, that get-
know of
EDGERTON: Do you
the "student as workee concept,
any universities that are begin-
ting very clear about the task or
what gets in the way? What issues
ning to organize themselves along
the project is the key, and then
about the structure, the calendar,
these lines?
everything else follows.
the schedules, the concept of
We've just started a new
Absolutely. Devising the
HANDY:
HANDY:
instructional unit, would have
business school in Cambridge Uni-
project so that it is a learning
to be put on the table and
versity in which students come
vehicle becomes the educational
reinvented?
to Cambridge for only one semes-
task, it seems to me. The key peo-
ter in three. The rest of the time
HANDY: You're going to have
ple in the university, then, become
small groups of people working
they will actually be working.
the educational designers and
on these educational tasks, and
They'll have two tutors, one at
the educational managers. The
therefore the individualistic tone
work, the other at the university.
experts, if I can call the faculty
of education would go . .. it'll be
So the way teaching and learn-
that, are almost in the wings,
much more a situation in which
ing is organized becomes more
really. And that, of course, is
students are working for most
like the Open University we have
going to cause tremendous
of the time in teams. That's going
to be quite hard to organize, and
The Age of Unreason
quite hard to evaluate. So we've
got to have different ways of eval-
"George Bernard Shaw once observed that all progress depends
uating achievement in learning,
on the unreasonable man. His argument was that the reasonable man
rather than just how much stu-
adapts himself to the world, while the unreasonable persists in trying
dents know and how much they
to adapt the world to himself..
. We are now entering an Age of
.
can recapitulate of what they
Unreason, when the future is there to be shaped, by us and for us
know.
a time when the only prediction that will hold true is that no pre-
Second, of course, we can't have
dictions will hold true; a time, therefore, for bold imaginings in private
such huge, mass groups of people
life as well as public, for thinking the unlikely and doing the
listening to lectures or whatever
unreasonable."
. it'll be much more individ-
.
.
The Age of Unreason, pp. 4-5
ualized and, in a sense, con-
tracted out. I mean, students will
And Other Handy Works
be watching interactive videos
Readers interested in ordering The Age of Unreason can call the Har-
of one sort or another and they'll
vard Business School Press toll-free at 800/545-7685. The Age of
get their information and knowl-
Paradox is forthcoming from the same publisher in the spring of 1994.
edge via various forms of tech-
Other Handy books, usually available from retail bookstores, include
nology, rather than by actually
The Future of Work (Blackwell, 1984), Gods of Managment (Pan
meeting the expert face-to-face.
Books, 1979), and Understanding Organizations (Penguin, 1976;
So the experts, as I say, will prob-
revised 1986).
ably be outside the organization
and will be pulled in through the
use of media.
here in Britain
which started
to
upheavals, because it's going
The organization itself will be
off as the Open University of the
change the whole power struc-
a honeycomb of small groups of
Air. The initial idea was that stu-
ture of higher education.
people working on problems. It
dents would learn by listening
understand that
EDGERTON: I
will be quite hard to contain that
to radio and television, but then
after your newest book, The Age
within a semester structure, I sus-
things evolved. Now students get
of Paradox, goes off to the pub-
. you can't assure that
pect .
their information over television,
lisher, you're writing next on the
.
real-life problems will stop at the
but they also meet with tutors
subject of education?
end of May and start in the begin-
in their own locality and they also
It's not really a book but
HANDY:
ning of September. So I see the
go off on one-, two-, three-week
a project to explore the possibility
university and the school being
intensive learning ventures with
of establishing a national foun-
that
more like an organization
other students and faculty. They
dation here in Britain, indepen-
is, working all the time. People
also link into electronic networks.
dent of government
that is,
will take their breaks at different
It's a whole multimedia kind
a center for thinking about learn-
times, rather than all at one time.
of university. If you go to the
ing and education. Nothing like
The interaction won't just be peo-
Open University in Britain, there's
that exists here.
ple sitting in a room with an indi-
nobody there .
. well, that's not
Dr. Handy, thank
EDGERTON:
.
vidual; we'll use all the facilities
quite true. There are "core man-
you for letting me interrupt your
that we have .
. electronic com-
agers" and the "core administra-
writing. We look forward to pick-
munication, video communica-
tors" and an enormous printing
ing up this conversation at
tion, televisual communication
business and some quite good
AAHE's conference next March!
AAHE BULLUTIN/SEITEMBER 1993/7
1994 NATIONAL CONFERENCE
Call for Proposals
AAHE's 1994 National Conference on Higher Education
Chicago Hilton & Timers
March 23-26, 1994
Chicago, IL
"THE 21ST CENTURY
ACADEMIC WORKPLACE"
clarify educational results.
Third, that the National Con-
houghtful colleagues
across the country
The many faces of diversity
ference model the twenty-first
the racial, ethnic, gender, and
are unanimous: This
century "ways of working" we
age mix of Americans seeking
is no time for "business
expect presenters to envision!
as usual" in higher
higher education; increasing aware-
As you prepare your proposals,
ness of students with disabilities;
education. Under the leadership
be especially thoughtful and
the exposure of our young people
of incoming Board chair Carol
inventive regarding presentation,
to electronic and visual media
Cartwright, a similar conclusion
organization, and interaction with
has been reached: This is no time
will challenge, as never before,
the audience.
for a "business as usual"
our traditional and familiar ways
Fourth, to celebrate 1994,
of thinking and teaching.
National Conference. The twenty-
AAHE's 25th Anniversary year!
first century is coming fasten
A companion article in this Bul-
AMBITIOUS
your seat belts!
letin outlines some ideas about
OBJECTIVES
Surveying the academic land-
with the
how we might do so
scape, it seems increasingly likely
hope that you will offer others.
that
With issues like these in mind,
AAHE is setting out toward the
Campuses will be econom-
THREE PROGRAM
1994 National Conference with
ically hard-pressed not just for
TRACKS
four ambitious objectives:
months but for years. Unless we
First, that the 1994 program
are willing to shut down pro-
The 1994 National Conference
be future-oriented. When we
grams or reduce quality, we will
theme
"the 21st Century Aca-
gather in Chicago next March,
have to work harder and smarter.
demic Workplace"
will be
the twenty-first century will be
Talk of "restructuring" is in the
expressed in three main tracks.
air, though few can say what re-
but six years away! It is none too
In the box right, some possible
soon to bring into focus the kind
structuring really means.
subtracks and illustrative sessions
of academic workplaces that we
This time around, the coming
are offered that seem likely can-
should be striving to create.
generation of information and
didates for such a program. Those
Second, to encourage "upside-
communication technologies is
subtracks and sessions are
down thinking" (as Charles
going to have a big impact. If not
intended only as catalysts for
Handy likes to put it) about aca-
in six years, surely in sixteen, new
your own thinking as you prepare
technologies will have radically
demic work. Higher education's
your proposals.
deep structures and traditions
changed th way we work.
As always, proposals unrelated
(the course, the credit-hour, the
The growing concern over
to the theme but on topics and
department, tenure) that are
"time-to-degree" and new interest
issues important to higher edu-
in a three-year BA/B.S. will raise
next year's "givens" need not be
cation are also welcome.
again the whole question of what givens six years hence. What if
from the classroom, to the
a degree means in the first place.
OTHER WAYS TO
bookstore, to the long-standing
These issues will run together
GET INVOLVED
problem cf academic governance
with the movement to defme
occupational skill standards and
we could radically change the
In addition to presenting and/
way we work? What then?
the accountability pressures to
or proposing a general session
8/AMIEB111.LETIN/SEPTEMBER 1993