Synthetic Higher Learning with Three Branches - Research Paper Example

 Synthetic Higher Learning with Three Branches Introduction The University of Colorado is public educational institution of higher learning with three branches. These include the Denver, Boulder and Colorado campuses. Established towards the mid-end of the nineteenth century, the institution has grown to become one of the most recognized institutions of learning in the United States of America. The university established itself as an educational hub in the State and later spread by allocating special programs in its three branches. In this respect, the Denver campus specializes in undergraduate degree programs, special programs directed at the needs of the metropolitan Denver region. It was the only one offering graduate training in public administration, urban planning and architecture among others. In addition special health schools such as pharmacy, dental, physical therapy were also located in this campus. Its management process has experienced a lot of issues. To begin with, managing university budget had been a great area of contention between the involved bodies. Tension began growing between Owens, the university system and the higher education commission on this effect and consequently, the Board of Regents increased tuition fees by 28%. On the other hand the state cut its appropriations. While Owens believed in independent university governance, he made a serious campaign for Referendum C that led to suspension of Tabor restrictions and later, a state legislation that restricted any tuition increases to not more than 2.8 percent. However more recommendations were made to other sectors of the university system whereby propositions ensured that segments such as the transport system and healthcare got more appropriations. This left an implication of a collaborative approach in budget management (Dale, 2008). Arrival on financial management decisions on the board has not been spontaneous but rather evolving. For instance, TABOR, amended in 2000 and followed by a veto in 2003 made it difficult for the system to manage its own funds and thus budget. There was imposition of expenditure limits, abilities to expand and any appropriate tax refunds when there was necessity for such arising from financial surplus. However, the twenty-third amendment in 2003 under bill SB 264, the university system was exempted from TABOR and thus brought about greater flexibility in financial management process. While discussing these issues, it is important to incorporate each of them under appropriate discussion as done below. Planning Policy drawing within the institution is one of the most complex processes since it entails creating a foundation for the management process and thus good ground for planning. Policies have largely been delegated as a duty to the Board of Regents, the president and the state legislation. While the mandate of the president and the state legislation are limited to observation of implementation of policies, direct influence from these two can have an equal impact as creation of new policies. This is evident when Owens drew a policy that accentuated on efficiency and productivity within the institution. Thus the structure of planning is divided into layers. Implementation of these policies is executed within the institution. In this regard, the president, who is an internal element to the institution, becomes solely responsible for implementation of policies drawn by the Board of Regents (Daft, 2010). However policies by the Board are limited in some aspects. For instance, the board can not have a sole authority to handle cases of financial uproars. In one scenario, happening in 2001, the Board of Regents had to be backed up by the joint budget committee, a state body and the university system in order to raise influential concern on several issues such as continual increases of tuition fees, rigidity of the system and state appropriations to higher education. These had been identified as some of the most pressing issues of the time which needed immediate policy attention. Later changes in the evolution of financial management process led to a shift of allocation of financial resources. A new University policy gave vouchers to new students and thus focus was shifted to students. In addition, new policies were developed to improve the institution’s relationships with the outside world. As an example, a policy was developed to guarantee direct admission of Colorado High school into the university given attainment of certain grades and GPA requirements. This was aimed at improving direct relationships between the institution, the society and other institutions of learning for creation of a better image. Governance From Owens’s proposition, the university was to be governed by the governing board in an effort to monitor wide-scope performance in the university such as undergraduate education quality, external partnerships with other institutions of learning, rates of graduation and satisfaction of students based on instructional materials and consequent expenses recurring from these. In 2005, the State’s overall budget to higher education reduced to only 10% from previous allocations of more than 20%. This state control indicates a lot of political undertakings in the management process (Bolman, 2006). Control Initially, the structure of control of the university had established, under its constitution, the Board of Regents as the sole governing body of the university system through an election system in six year terms. It was thus internal-oriented and assumed an independent approach. Individual selection of members was done through elections, which mandated the body to make its own selections through elections and but still followed a political approach as late as 2006. The political aspect of control was aimed at involving the State as a political body to satisfy societal expectations of transparency. Another suitable approach, meant to bring effectiveness into institutional management recommended a principle of shared government and consequently, the board, the university system, the state and the students were involved in the control process (Poldan, 2009). On one incident, investigation of scandals that hit the athletics team, led to the need for creation of an independent panel, which was however without external opposition from the state legislature claiming responsibility to control legal processes and individual members of the Board of Regents citing weaknesses in transparency and President Owens. While incorporating human resource of the control panel, the external society also expressed negative feelings towards credibility of the system and in one occasion, an outsider sued the institution for misconduct during an off-campus party with allegations of sex and alcohol scandals. This led to the Board of Regents convening a state body led by democrats and republicans. The panel reported systematic failings within the university and consequently, the president was to decide the fate of the involved university employees who include the vicechancellor, the director and the coach. This clearly indicated that every aspect of the management process greatly involved external bodies competing and bargaining for human resource control (Griffin, 2011). Direction or focus The structure of the management process is also one of most complex systems of management, especially in public institutions of learning (Smith, 2009). The university is greatly headed by the president who executes the Board of Regents’ policies. There are chancellors at each campus who report directly to the president. The president has a high influence in drawing of policies for example referendum C. By vesting great authorities in the president over hiring and firing vicechancellors, staffing structure was also made tighter by allocating much power to the vice chancellors in recruitment and termination of senior administration employees. Justification was that the problems of the university should be handled by the university itself since they affected the institution directly. Great influence from the state senator greatly affected direction provision within the institution. In 2006, tenure policies reviewed by a team comprised of a legislature, board, and student and outside members. The senate hailed the review team for its publicity nature. In provision of a clear line of direction, external politics has been greatly involved. While the university might have ultimate power in decision making, political influence from state senate and legislature is evident in direction provision process. While creating a reviewing team into the actions football scandals, the senator made suggestions for inclusion of some of its members for transparency purposes. Staffing The structure of the process of staffing at the University of Colorado is quite intricate. With only specificity on top management such as the office of the president and that of vice chancellors, professors and senior administration staff, staffing policies are not well spelt out by any body. The process is structured in a top down model whereby senior employees such as the president and the vice chancellors are directly responsible for hiring and firing process of the senior administrators. For instance, the president has direct authority to hire vice chancellors. Even though autonomous, there are provisions for transparency of the system. As happened in one of the cases of hiring and firing as in when Professor Churchill gets a firing note from interim vice chairman, he returns an appeal to evaluation of the process of firing. With reasons such as closure to state legislature the process was reconsidered. Organization The institution is organized in such a way that the administration issues directions of inst ruction to the academic and non-academic staff. Secondly, the institution makes collaborative partnerships with outside organizations. For instance, the institution liaises with the state legislature in carrying out some aspects that require legal expertise. In the case against the athletics team, state intervention is evident. Although the organization does not involve the state in its daily activities, intervention from the later makes it apparent that the organizational structure must involve the state at several points of execution of decisions. SWOT analysis Internal organization has been faced with numerous challenges. Given the foundation of the internal organization, there are provisions for creation of an independent body to overlook the running of the affairs of the institution. For instance, managing human resources as an absolutely internal affair of the institution, productivity of the same resource can be highly achieved. This is one of the greatest strengths of the organization (Jackson & Mathis, 2011). Strength is also evident in the drawing of policies. In order to avoid biasness arising from personal differences and clashing between employees, directors and the president, aimed at punitive approaches, creation of the regent body as the sole policy reviewer and maker greatly helps the institution towards achieving accuracy and relevance in the policy making process. This way, corruption is avoided in making one-party favorable policies and thus ensures an efficient running is achieved in managing the institution. Another important internal strength in the institution is the handling of financial policies. When the institution made a policy to fund students openly by appropriating vouchers directly to students to use them at their will, the institution showed maturity of financial management. While the decision to allocate funds to students was not the university affair, the policy to govern financial usage by the students was largely affected by the University of Colorado as an internal step and thus greatly created a strength in handling of financial affairs. Lastly, creating a political-free human resource department that ensures availability of skilled human resources within the university is another great internal strength (Bolman & Deal, 2010). The internal body, responsible for hiring academic and non-academic staff within makes appropriate decisions as regards the appropriate skills required by the institution and consequently ensures that these skills or resources have been acquired. Weaknesses However, there are great weaknesses in the hiring and firing process within the institution. In one such incidence, a Boulder vice chancellor gave a dismissal notice to Professor Churchill which was to undergo an evaluation from the Board of Regents. This action implied that the internal hiring and firing system was biased towards individual differences and thus did not reflect the effective running of the institution towards attaining its goals and vision. Another internal weakness observed is the lack of exhaustive mechanisms in implementing effective disciple. At one case whereby the institution was sued for misconduct committed by team members for sexual and alcohol abuse during an off-campus party, the institution was found to lack internally discipline-enforcing mechanisms that would have avoided such scenarios from occurring. This weakness brought fear and external distrust to the organization due to insecurities arising from campus events. Consequently, the image of the institution got tainted for lack of correct handling mechanisms. Opportunity The institution has a great opportunity to stand as a suitable symbol educational representation in the state of Colorado if its reputation will continue to hold its position in current market. The University of Colorado is ranked among the best public universities in American and the top performing institution in the state. These rankings make it strategic for the institution to use educational image as a differential aspect of standing out in the region. Threat While the university may be standing a chance of becoming the best educational institution in America, there are several threats. To begin with, lack of immediate resolution of scandals continues to reduce trust within the institution and thus makes it become a last option of choice for aspiring students. Secondly, the university is threatened by lack of transparencies in handling both financial and employment policies. Given that there have continual increments of tuition fees for a long time, the cost of higher education has gone beyond outreach of many ordinary people. With increased cost of education and subsequent maintenance of income of immediate societies, then university admission rate will reduce. When this happens, university popularity and thus preference reduces, consequently making the institution become infamous. On the same note, clear policies outlining avoidance of personal clashes between the hiring and firing of senior staff at the institution is causing a serous defamation threat. Given the incidence where Professor Churchill called for a review of termination of his contract, exterior perception of the institution changed and consequently, future trust in the institution’s employment policies may be diminishing. Alternatives Intervention mechanisms are a great imperative when considering remedial action. When institution find their strategies ineffective or not achieving the required results, then turning to alternative cases become the only available option. In this case the University of Colorado needs to adopt serious alternatives in response to its current situation. The first alternative the University of Colorado to have is to avoid cases of personal bias in the process of recruitment and dismissal of human resource. In order to have in place an efficient and trustworthy human resource department, free of corruption and personal clashes in the course of duty (Thompson, 2011). Although this action might be not fully understand the immediate needs of the institution, prior requests from the institution will greatly help the institution in fulfilling its vision and mission as stated in its direction statement. Secondly, in achieving societal trust, the institution has to outsource its evaluation systems such as legal, accounting and human resource. Human resource planning, evaluation, appraisal and fostering has to be conducted by third parties which are independent of internal manipulations for true reflection of performance levels of the company and the effect of its human resource in achievement of its objectives. Although external bodies do not put into consideration employee performance and reasons for low performances, outsourcing evaluation systems creates a lot of credibility within and from outside the institution. Thirdly, internal committees on legal evaluations and prosecutions should be disbanded for transparency purposes. It is within logic that internally formulated committees will be subject to internal influences and thus hinder the process of efficiency and thus achievement of result. Therefore control systems should only be mandated with crisis identification roles while follow up and execution of justice system is subjected to state laws and practices (Joseph, 2012). Lastly, there is too much political involvement in major management practices in the University of Colorado. Alternatively, the university does have the option of de-linking itself with the political world in order to have fewer cases of stalled tasks that remain unhandled for long periods of time. For instance, in cases such as financing education and raising tuition fees, the university should be the sole body to determine appropriateness of relevance of such actions without influence from the political arenas. Too much mix up of educational matters with political ties reduces the accuracy of education provision and consequently, loss of credibility in the corporate world. Recommended course of action After consideration of the above available alternatives, it is obvious that the University of Colorado needs some changes for it to become effective in management. To begin with, the university Board of Regents needs to clearly review its policies of raising tuition fees continually and other taxes. They seem inappropriate since they have caused cause of concern in the last few years. Too much rigidity of the board great hurt running activities of the institution and therefore negatively affecting its vision and mission. In order to promote rather than negate, the board need to place policy priority on objectives of the institution, constituted together with its mission statement of intellectual acquisition and dynamism in the metropolitan area. Secondly, institution has to put in place independent organizational structures since it is an independent one. Independent organization implies independent decision making and accurate result achievement. The case of state and the political Board of Regents continual interruptions of organizational structures within the institution undermine its potential to achieve its objectives of diversity, dynamism and discharge of intellectual education. This recommendation is highly prioritized for great efficiency within the University of Colorado. Conclusion From the discussion, it is evident that several management cases have come under state political influence. To begin with, constitution of the regent of boards has brought about disputable cases in the management process. Although the structure of planning is divided into layers, implementation of these policies should be executed within the institution as per the laid layers. Concerns of TABOR and former president and later state governor have had great influence on the running of the institution. Lack of immediate resolution of scandals continues to reduce trust within the institution and thus makes it become a last option of choice for aspiring students coupled with lack of transparencies in handling both financial and employment policies have greatly threatened the success of the institution. However, the institution stands a great opportunity in becoming an educational hub in the state given its immense investment and publicity. Strongly, the institution, even though faced with challenges from financial regulatory bodies such as TABOR has had fights in reclaiming its position on management of the same. Alternatively, the institution has great advantages in minimizing its political affiliations in the management process whereby great involvements of political bodies have had negative influence on achievement of accurate results and effective fulfillment of its objectives and mission. As recommended, the laid down organizational structures should mandate their responsibilities and the university Board of Regents needs to clearly review its policies of raising tuition fees continually and other taxes. References Bolman, Et al. (2006).Modern approaches to understanding and managing organizations. San Francisco, USA: Jossey-Bass Bolman, L.G. & Deal, T.E. (2010). Reframing the path to school leadership: A guide for teachers and principals. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin, ©2010. Daft, R. L. (2010). Management. Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learning. Dale, E. (2008). Management: theory and practice. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Griffin, R.W. (2011). Management. Mason, Ohio: South-Western, Cengage Learning. Jackson, J. &Mathis, R. L. (2011). Human resource management: Essential perspectives. S.l.: South- Western, Division. Joseph, W. S. (2012). Models of institutional Management. Houston, Chicago: Wiley & Sons. Poldan, J.K. (2009). Redirecting Management at the University of Colorado Revisited. Denver, Col: University of Colorado. Smith, R.P. (2009). Effective organizational management. New York, NY; Wiley. Thompson, E. W. (2011). Modern management. New York, NY: Cengage Learning. Read More