Building Strong Geoscience Departments

Session T1SEGSA – 2007

Geoff FeissCollege of W&M

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PLAN

1. Why should we worry?

2. What have we learned?

3. What should we do looking forward?

The Past is the Key to the Present

This is an era of accelerated change on campus. In the current atmosphere of tight

budgets and new attitudes, nearly all traditional academic departments are asked

to evaluate their course offerings…

John Dennison, 1972

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30-year reality check

• 1973: Arab Oil embargo starts “stagflation” of early 70s

• 1979-82: post-70’s inflation recession

• 1988-92: Stock market decline; recession

• Early 2000s: Dotcom bubble and 9/11 recession

• 2010-12: ???

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Public sector budget priorities

• Transportation & infrastructure

• Health care (Medicare/Medicaid)

• Mental health

• PreK-12 education

• Public safety

• Environment and recreation

• Higher Education

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Increasingly, higher administration budgeting is a matter of:

Who thrives?

Who survives?

Who dies?

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The terms of engagement:

• You cannot hide

• The game is often fixed

• There are some really bad threat responses

• Budget cutting is never easy, always fraught, and often personal

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Lessons learned: The Winners

There are 2 kinds:

1. Top-ranked, mission essential, high enrollment programs

2. Those who have it together

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Characteristics of “together” programs:

• Manage change• Congenial and collaborative• Student-centered• Mentor young faculty and nurture staff• Strong enrollments• Play nice & by the rules• Work hard; have fun; don’t whine• Have a sense of mission & own it• Can validate their excellence and potential• Don’t take things personally

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Losers can be:

• Without a clear vision• Alienated• Too quaint• Entitled• Paranoid• Disunited and in disarray• Clueless• Victims of bad luck

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The Key To Success

LEARN TO CHANGEManage it

Better yet: embrace it; foster it: control it; and lead it

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To succeed in change:

• Lose battles, win the war

• Share credit

• Be active, not passive

• Define the metrics of success

• Find allies

• Put students at the center

• Don’t overanalyze

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You better hope that there is intelligent life in your department,

because there's bugger-all in senior administration – Apologies

to Eric Idle