Resumen de Departments as Agents of Change
Higher education is changing because it has no choice. And, for the mostpart, outside influences are dictating the processes of change. The morefortunate institutions have had a flat budget during this period, but mosthave been forced to deal with a declining revenue stream as well.Legislators seem bent on micromanaging state-supported institutions, evenas they cut their support. Regulators demand greater institutionalaccountability. Students and their parents expect more service at lowerprices and increased flexibility. Technological advances have dramaticallyaffected the availability and accessibility of extant knowledge. It is nolonger a question of whether institutions will change, but rather, who willcontrol the change. Most institutions possess long-standing academictraditions, but these are placed at risk in an increasingly competitivemarket that holds little sympathy for such traditions and may even see themas obstacles or barriers. As a result, the change agents will undoubtedlyhave a profound effect on the very nature of academic institutions. Fromthe academic point of view, it would seem prudent to attempt to manage thechanges that will inevitably occur.
A number of concerned observers, notably the Pew Higher EducationRoundtable and the American Association for Higher Education, arguepersuasively that the academic department is the logical focus forresponding to the current winds of change. Using a marketing metaphor, theacademic department has been likened to a "producers' cooperative" ofservices that consumers seek. Thus, the department should be heldaccountable for the quality of teaching delivered by its members, for thecoherence of its major, for its contributions to the general educationcurriculum, and for supervising and rewarding its individual facultymembers. If departments are to be held accountable, it is surely in theirbest interest to act in such a way that they are accountable.
Expecting academic departments to be the principal agents for recastingAmerican higher education might appear to some like putting a fox in chargeof the chicken coop. For many observers, departments epitomize everythingthat is wrong with higher education. Departments have come to be viewed asthe agents of a discipline that draw faculty attention away from their homeinstitution, and seek to sustain individual privilege at the expense ofinitiatives designed to enhance learning and teaching. Departments havebeen portrayed as clans of arrogant experts accountable only to their ownpersonal agendas and to their disciplines. From this rather harsh point ofview, departments have become privatized as they and their institutionsstrive to enhance their reputations through the faculty they hire, often atthe expense of undergraduate teaching. Faculty define their interests inincreasingly narrow terms, which in turn is often reflected in the coursesthey teach. As individual courses come to represent the increasinglyspecialized views of their faculty-owners, the curriculum begins to losefocus and coherence. Thus, the privatization of faculty effort hasfar-reaching effects on an institution's educational mission.
In spite of its apparent flaws, the department, more than any other unit,stands the best chance of providing the basis of change that can renewhigher education. Although individual faculty members may find theirgreatest rewards elsewhere, a department can only be rewarded on the basisof the combined efforts and accomplishments of its collective faculty. Thisfact alone makes departments an obvious vehicle for change. Furthermore,institutional support for a discipline is focused in the department, as isthe institution's responsibility for teaching undergraduates.
For a department to compete effectively in the new marketplace, it mustensure that its members remain active scholars who are not only expert intheir primary fields, but also open to inter- and cross-disciplinaryopportunities. New developments and intellectual opportunities willcontinue to occur at the interfaces between traditional disciplines andmust be expressed to students. These are the very processes wherebydisciplines themselves evolve and change. An effective department will holdits members accountable for the quality of learning achieved by both itsmajors and students seeking general knowledge. In this regard, thedepartment is the logical arena for faculty to talk regularly about how,what, and why they teach, as well as to learn from each other and fromtheir students as they strive to lay a solid intellectual foundation whilekeeping course content current and relevant and to interpret the meaning ofsuccess in an increasingly competitive marketplace for ideas, jobs, andopportunities. An effective department will function as a team of scholarswith diverse experiences, talents, interests, and ambitions that is willingto assign (and reward) different responsibilities to individual members atdifferent stages of their professional careers.
If the renewal of undergraduate education is to occur through thedepartment, a department must become an agent of the institution as well asof its discipline. Methods must be devised to foster greater commitment toteamwork. Rewards at the faculty and departmental level must berestructured to respond to the collective achievement of the department inboth teaching and research. Techniques need to be developed to makeeffective teaching a subject of collective dialogue and inquiry and amutually shared goal. Teaching should become the focus of the kind ofscholarly activity that most faculty now reserve for their disciplines.Effective systems of quality control must be devised by institutions aswell as mechanisms for rewarding departments that attain collective goals.
Up to now, most departments and their faculties have been reluctant toengage in the kind of self-scrutiny that is the hallmark of successfulservice-oriented enterprises. Using the marketing metaphor again, anorganization that focuses on its customers will tailor its services to fittheir needs, continually monitor its success in fulfilling service goals,and make adjustments over time. Approached with a positive attitude, thisis a time of exciting opportunities for departments and their faculties.
