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Observations

hagenj
Sun, 10 Nov 2013 00:26:54 GMT

There has been lots of discussion about portfolios, but we have not really defined what a portfolio is. Normally, a portfolio is something people produce to showcase their work, like a photographer or remodeling contractor showing prospective clients a sampling of their previous work. Or in higher education, academic programs produce something like a portfolio for the regular program reviews. Individual faculty produce portfolios for promotion and tenure application. We do not seem to be using portfolio in that sense here. It is also left unsaid what ‘opening the portfolio’ is intended ultimately to accomplish. To meet the budget cuts and enrollment challenges on the immediate horizon, MU really only has two options: increase enrollment of tuition paying students or cut costs (or some combination). For universities, cutting costs pretty much means reducing personnel costs, i.e. having fewer employees. I understand MU has now brought in three different outside consulting agencies. It reminds me of the movie Office Space, when Bob and Bob (the Bobs) show up at the offi ce and begin asking everybody a bunch of questions. Everybody knows the purpose … identify people to be fired, but nobody says that. While academia is not as harsh as the corporate world, we are engaged in a similar process although the ‘firing’ will likely take place through attrition in some fashion and other less obvious mechanisms. If we are to be honest with ourselves and those across campus, the purpose of opening all these portfolios is to find ways to do the same basic work (or more) of a university with fewer people. At most, this has been hinted at but it should be up front. If we are not clear about the ends, the means will become muddled and lead us off course. For example, there was much discussion last spring about various types of ‘re-organizations’ and ‘mergings’. These various realized and potential mergings produced zero actual cost reductions. The cost reductions came through reducing personnel costs. David Pittenger assumed lead of the Grad College and the Outreach VP positions. The offices were not merged but savings resulted by replacing two people with one. Similarly, Donald Van Horn became dean of a new merged college. But the realized savings resulted from replacing two people with one. The same savings could have been achieved if Donald became the dean of Fine Arts and the dean of Journalism without merging the colleges. The merger may or may not have been a good idea regardless, but the savings did not result from the merger. The savings came from reducing the number of employees. I can’t want to speak for my COLA colleagues, but I would guess we in COLA spent hours and hours last spring discussing various possible mergers and re-organizations. That time was wasted. We should have been discussing way to do the same (or more) work with fewer people. This illustrates the inherent problems that always result from not being clear from the onset about the ultimate objectives. Activities and objectives will not align (to borrow from assessment language). Josh

hogsettd
Tue, 12 Nov 2013 20:00:26 GMT

Josh, I really appreciate what you are saying. And it makes me think also! Maybe if we take inventory, as we are doing, it might help us to re-align and not try to do more work with less people. Can we identify areas of need that may have shifted due to changes in the situation, markets and demographics and place emphasis there ....maybe even allocating more resources to that program, college, etc.? As for consultants, we all know what happens in this situation... you might hear what some one is saying if they are brought in and seen as an expert. One consultant I heard recently stated it so very well...."gosh, when we say that out loud it really sounds bad". A good consultant will ask the questions and maybe more than once to get to the "why" and the " why "we might be doing it when we say it out loud really is confusing, complicated and does not make sense. I for one am glad to be able to be communicating with others... listening, learning through the processes that are in place. Sincerely, Denise