CCRI President: College or Corporate President In Training?

by Joe Allen

The current trend in restructuring higher education from the top down is misguided and doomed to fail. Hiring administrators with little or no experience in higher education reminds me of the financial crisis of 2007-2008.

The financial threat to the automotive industry forced the executives of the Big Three (Ford, General Motors (GM), and, Chrysler) to testify in Washington during the TARP hearings: Alan Mulally for Ford, Rick Wagoner for GM, and Robert Nardelli for Chrysler. Of the Big Three, only Ford had the financial stability to weather the financial hurricane. Why?

If we look at the CEOs, only Alan Mulally came up through the high technology industry from the engineering shop floor. He started at Boeing as an engineer in 1969. He moved into management in the aerospace industry and then, in 2006, was hired by Ford as President and CEO of Ford Motor Company. His success at Ford reflects the value of his industry experience.

On the other hand both GM and Chrysler eventually filed for bankruptcy. Rick Wagoner’s education in economics and business led him to an entry level analyst position in the treasurer’s office at GM. He had no engineering knowledge to support his work as CEO. Robert Nardelli’s education in business was equally devoid of engineering. As a result, their leadership of these automotive companies failed miserably.

The current leadership situation in Rhode Island higher education is similar to this.

The President of the University of Rhode Island (URI), like Alan Mulally, started on the shop floor. In academics, the shop floor is the classroom.  President David M. Dooley started in the classroom as Assistant Professor (’78 -’84), advanced to Associate Professor (’84 -’89), and then as Professor (’89 – ’93). From there, he moved through administration positions until he was named President of URI in 2009.

However, the President of the Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) has limited academic industry experience. Meghan L. Hughes has some classroom experience (Lecturer and Faculty Advisor 2003 – 2009), but no administrative experience in higher education.

Given this lack of administrative experience, there is reasonable concern about the current state solicitation Institutional Strategic Planning and Facilitation for CCRI. In particular, with respect to Section 4: DESIRED CULTURAL OUTCOMES, every bullet in the request implies administrative inexperience.

CCRI envisions a strategic plan that will encompass the following desired cultural aspects, however not limited to:

1. Common understanding of institutional goals and direction
2. Compelling interest and motivation for implementing results
3. High level confidence in the plan for the future
4. Widespread ownership of the process
5. Strong desire to maintain momentum

In addition, the need for metrics to measure results is extremely troubling. These are institutional goals that the administration, faculty and staff should monitor; they should define the metrics.

Responses to this RFP will include recommendations of how to measure results of these desired outcomes.

In Section 5: DESIRED CULTURAL OUTCOMES, note

The approach will comply with NEASC Standard 2 (Planning and Evaluation). In addition, the successful firm will assist CCRI in conducting the planning process that demonstrates the following:

3. The planning process encompasses the institution as a whole and considers the perspectives of internal and external constituent groups.

Having participated in the Strategic Planning process as a faculty member at CCRI, I am concerned with this approach. It indicates that an independent third party is necessary for coordinating internal dialogue among students, faculty, staff and the administration at CCRI.

This solicitation simply confirms the concerns originally expressed in GOLOCALProv.com, February 28, 2016

Current, Former CCRI Faculty Critical of New Leadership, Direction

If CCRI administration hopes to realize their “desired cultural aspects”, it is imperative they open meaningful dialogue with students, faculty, and staff and maintain continuous communications with all. Otherwise, CCRI will be as academically and professionally bankrupt as GM and Chrysler were financially.

Joe Allen, Ph.D. was a faculty member at CCRI. He retired in December 2015 and currently resides in California.