CHE Transitions Blog

Monday Notes 3.21.05

As you are well aware, the strategic planning committees will be forwarding their recommendations about the future of the university to the President on March 31, 2005. At that time, the recommendations will probably become public.

While I cannot speak with certainty about the recommendations that will be forwarded about the college, I can share with you that change will certainly occur and that the college as we know it today will be impacted.

If I were asked to synthesize the goals of the planning exercise into a few sentences, those would be:

1. Economy of scale. Units that are small are at risk. Efforts will be made to coalesce similar disciplines to obtain synergy as well as economy of scales to support the academic endeavors.
2. Number of colleges. The president believes that the university has too many colleges for efficient management and there is a potential to reduce the number of colleges in the current planning.
3. Synergy of disciplines. There will be an effort to bring like disciplines together to support scholarship.

Given these goals [and please note that the goals are my “take” on our planning], multiple scenarios can be created for the future of the college. I can share with you that I do not definitively know which scenario will be presented to the president at this time.


Regardless of the scenario for the future, this college will have three goals in the next few years:

1. Participate in the creation of a strong university for the future
2. Celebration of the philosophy of human ecology and its contributions to society
3. Celebration of the quality of the college and its programs

The college is recognized nationally as a world-class leader and is typically ranked #2 of its kind among public research universities. Many of the programs you create are ranked in the top 5 or 10 of their type. The college ranks among the top four within the University of Minnesota with regard to the quality indicators established by the university. The college is fiscally responsible. Those are points of pride that you have achieved and contribute to each day as you do your work.

Colleges of Human Ecology, nationally and in Minnesota, have historically been a front door for women to the halls of higher education. Our own alumni are testament to the pathways created because of their study in the college. A recent article in the New York Times, The Revenge of Ellen Swallow, reflects on the role of the founder of human ecology in opening doors of science to women in the past 100 years.

I spent some time reading about quality in organizations over the weekend. Edward Deming concluded his long years of work by stating simply that quality was about the human spirit.

What essential element has to be in place for an organization to be successful? While we understand that organizational success is really dependent upon a "thousand things" (Pete McVeigh), the exercise of trying to get down to the essentials is interesting ... and a great reminder about what is truly important and critical.

Margaret Wheatley, in her new book, "Finding Our Way" states:

There is only one prediction about the future that I feel confident to make. During this period of random and unpredictable change, any organization that distances itself from its employees and refuses to cultivate meaningful relationships with them is destined to fail. Those organizations that will succeed are those that evoke our greatest human capacities ... our need to be in good relationships, and our desire to contribute to something beyond ourselves. These qualities cannot be evoked through procedures and policies. They only are available in organizations where people feel trusted and welcome, and where people know that their work matters."


As we continue our journey, through unknown territory, celebrate our excellence, our history, our shared spirit, as well as the future we will create. Know that your work matters.