The Worrisome Ascendance of Business in Academe
Recently the Board of Visitors—not a particularly apt name given their actions—at the University of Virginia forced the ouster of President Teresa A. Sullivan after two years in office. Since then we have learned that the rector and vice rector of the board, Helen E. Dragas and Mark J. Kington, who has since resigned, have M.B.A.’s from UVa’s Darden School of Business. Peter D. Kiernan, a powerful alumnus who evidently weighed in on the decision, is also a Darden graduate and, before he resigned in the midst of the furor, was chairman of the Darden School Foundation Board.
The trio, having made their chops in real estate, construction, and investing, apparently saw an opportunity to transfer their knowledge to higher education. Though colleges can learn many things from the ways businesses operate, treating a college strictly like a business would be a mistake.
In an e-mail to Darden board members justifying Ms. Sullivan’s ouster, Mr. Kiernan uses the business term du jour “strategic dynamism” to describe the ever-reactive leadership style he prefers, which is opposed to the older, more static “strategic planning” style employed by Ms. Sullivan. (Apparently engaging in “strategic dynamism” means excluding faculty, students, and most alumni.) In truth, when challenges arise quickly, successful businesses have always responded accordingly—i.e., dynamically. Strategic dynamism at UVa is nothing more than a euphemism for Thomas Paine’s adage, “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.”
To be sure, higher education faces unprecedented challenges: growing competition for new populations of students at home and abroad; the opportunities, costs, and uncertainties of new technology; declining state support for public institutions; rising tuition; increasing student debt. All demand a careful look at budgets. Stagnant or declining incomes and uncertain employment prospects sharpen pressure to demonstrate what a college degree offers.