This edited volume explores the intersection of academic decision making with contemporary, cutting-edge challenges for which no simple solution exists. It moves the issue of decision making outside of the contested arena of stakeholder responsibilities, and presents a series of distinct and uniqe chapters that illustrate how colleges and universities are creating and sustaining dynamic and effective decision-making processes.

When founded in 1911, Connecticut College for Women was a pioneering women's college that sought to prepare the progressive era's «new woman» to be self-sufficient. Despite a path-breaking emphasis on preparation for work in the new fields opening to women, Connecticut College and its peers have been overlooked by historians of women's higher education. This book makes the case for the significance of Connecticut College's birth and evolution, and contextualizes the college in the history of women's education. «Eighth Sister No More» examines Connecticut College for Women's founding mission and vision, revealing how its grassroots founding to provide educational opportunity for women was altered by coeducation; how the college has been shaped by changes in thinking about women's roles and alterations in curricular emphasis; and the role local community ties played at the college's point of origin and during the recent presidency of Claire Gaudiani, the only alumna to lead the college. Examining Connecticut College's founding in the context of its evolution illustrates how founding mission and vision inform the way colleges describe what they are and do, and whether there are essential elements of founding mission and vision that must be remembered or preserved. Drawing on archival research, oral history interviews, and seminal works on higher education history and women's history, «Eighth Sister No More» provides an illuminating view into the liberal arts segment of American higher education.

An emerging issue in higher education studies is that of boundaries crossing. This is the main topic of the book “The transformation of University institutional and organizational boundaries”. Several signals of shifting boundaries can be envisaged in higher education and research institutions which could be glimpsed through organizations, the institutions and changes to the academic profession. That of boundaries crossing in Higher Education is a complex and heterogeneous issue, which characterizes scientific knowledge today and represents a key issue when looking at University transformations across contexts and policies, instruments and practices. The analysis of boundaries supplies interpretative frameworks for the interactions between the development of professions and disciplines, as well as the relationships of the science with various parts of society such as state, professionals and the market. Fuelling further the discussion on HEIs transformations allows capturing changes in the function, objectives and scope of higher education and research institutions, the move beyond sectoral and disciplinary boundaries and the increasingly blurred boundaries of academic professions and of scientific work. Public policies and HE reforms can push or impede the mentioned transformations but they can also derive from individual likelihood of moving in blurring spaces or from the transformations of the epistemic communities and the emergence of new fields and sectors. Hence, changes are there, open to our observations.

With public colleges and universities facing substantial budget cuts and increased calls for accountability, more institutions now rely on private revenue streams for support. As market-driven policies and behaviors become more commonplace, some cautious critics sound the alarm, while others watching the bottom line cheer. But which perspective gets it right? Does the privatization of public higher education threaten its very mission or support it? In this collection of essays, economists, policy makers, political scientists, sociologists, and organizational researchers discuss the impact of privatization from their respective disciplinary perspectives and assess its implications for the future of higher education. Privatization may bring additional funds and services that are free from government regulations and oversight, but does it also allow private interests to have undue influence over public higher education? Should public universities have to compete in the economic marketplace as vigorously as they do in the marketplace of ideas? What are the implications when institutions of higher learning function like businesses? With privatization now a reality for most public colleges and universities, an objective examination of the issue from these diverse academic perspectives will be welcomed by those struggling with its challenges.

Are you an academic leader or considering taking on a leadership position in the academy? Then this book is for you, even in an era of crisis in the highly-complex higher education sector. A one-size-fits-all leadership philosophy can not meet all the challenges and opportunities facing academic leaders. Rather, successful leaders require a range of approaches and an ample supply of tools to maximize their effectiveness. This volume takes you through a series of balancing acts, each of which helps you to tailor your leadership choices to the issue at hand.It helps leaders to identify your current strengths and comfort zone in a series of dimensions and then encourages you to move beyond those comfort zones and to develop an ever-expanding array of leadership tools and skills. The result will be greater effectiveness in your decision-making, relationships, and management.

Should educators pay students? Should they make them wear sunglasses, regulate their clothing, allow them to bring animals into classrooms, discourage them from playing videogames, or transform their schools into gymnasiums? These are some of the suggestions that Cockeyed Education examines. This book enables readers to differentiate substantive from cockeyed suggestionsfor improving schools.. It directs them to the suggestions that scholastic experts, politicians, and members of the public have made. Additionally, it introduces them to the case method. It helps them apply this analytical technique to events that range from early Chicago schooling to the 2009 economic stimulus package.