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How to Run a College

A Practical Guide for Trustees, Faculty, Administrators, and Policymakers

Brian C. Mitchell and W. Joseph King

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How can colleges stay relevant in the twenty-first century?

Residential colleges are the foundation on which US higher education is based. These institutions possess storied traditions fondly cherished by students, alumni, and faculty. There is no denying, however, that all colleges today struggle with changing consumer preferences, high sticker prices, and aging infrastructure. Technological and pedagogical alternatives—not to mention growing political pressure—present complex challenges. What can colleges and smaller universities do to stay relevant in today’s educational and economic climate...

How can colleges stay relevant in the twenty-first century?

Residential colleges are the foundation on which US higher education is based. These institutions possess storied traditions fondly cherished by students, alumni, and faculty. There is no denying, however, that all colleges today struggle with changing consumer preferences, high sticker prices, and aging infrastructure. Technological and pedagogical alternatives—not to mention growing political pressure—present complex challenges. What can colleges and smaller universities do to stay relevant in today’s educational and economic climate?

In their concise guide, How to Run a College, Brian C. Mitchell and W. Joseph King analyze how colleges operate. Widely experienced as trustees, administrators, and faculty, they understand that colleges must update their practices, monetize their assets, and focus on core educational strategies in order to build strong institutions.

Mitchell and King offer a frank yet optimistic vision for how colleges can change without losing their fundamental strengths. To survive and become sustainable, they must be centers of dynamic learning, as well as economic engines able to power regional, state, and national economies. Rejecting the notion that American colleges are holdovers from a bygone time, How to Run a College shows instead that they are centers of experimentation and innovation that heavily influence higher education not only in the United States but also worldwide.

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Reviews

Breakthrough books on higher education will enable you to see your institution in the larger, and more ominous, context of higher education's challenges. About trusteeship itself, turn to How to Run a College by Mitchell and King.

Mitchell and King argue for colleges and universities to evolve, modernizing practices and monetizing assets. They examine major elements of college operations: governance, finance, enrollment advancement, academic affairs, student life and athletics

Mitchell and King have mined the latest data and case studies to help new, experienced, and future college and university presidents be successful leaders of their institutions and supporters of their students.

This fine book offers a full, balanced, and informed overview of American higher education. Indulging in neither denial nor fantasy, it lays out a concrete and common-sense strategy that promises a way forward. Everyone involved in running a college, from the president and trustees to faculty and alumni, would benefit from reading, and studying, How to Run a College.

Mitchell and King have given us an eminently practical and proactive guide to running a college. Drawing on observation, experience, and current research, they offer useful suggestions for change in order to help us 'imagine the possible.' With appropriate detail and perspicacity, they identify the interface where 'creativity and innovation meet management and process' and argue that this is 'where the future of higher education is born.' Let us make it so.

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About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
5
x
8
Pages
216
ISBN
9781421424774
Illustration Description
4 graphs
Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Governance and Management
2. Finance
3. Enrollment
4. Advancement
5. Academic Affairs
6. Student Life
7. Athletics
8. Collaboration and Technology
9

List of Illustrations
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Governance and Management
2. Finance
3. Enrollment
4. Advancement
5. Academic Affairs
6. Student Life
7. Athletics
8. Collaboration and Technology
9. The Path Forward
Notes and References
Index

Author Bios
Brian C. Mitchell
Featured Contributor

Brian C. Mitchell

Brian C. Mitchell is the president and managing principal of Academic Innovators. He is the past president of Bucknell University and Washington & Jefferson College. Together, King and Mitchell are the coauthors of How to Run a College: A Practical Guide for Trustees, Faculty, Administrators, and Policymakers.
W. Joseph King
Featured Contributor

W. Joseph King

W. Joseph King is the past president of Lyon College, as well as the former executive director of the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education and of Rice University's Connexions.