Competing Conceptions of Academic Governance: Negotiating the Perfect Storm (review)

Governance within higher education is a most complicated issue. Managing a university, variously described as "monadic chaos" or "organized anarchy," is a redoubtable challenge. Who should govern a university, how, and to what ends, have been recurring questions in the history of universities. As the historian Alan Cobban (1975) states: "Whatever the difference in scale and technology, there is a hard core of perennial problems which have taxed the minds and ingenuity of university legislators from the thirteenth century to the present day" (p. 35).

Governance issues have nearly always been raised passionately. This book on academic governance in the United States fits this tradition well. Many of the views and the accompanying arguments used by the nine chapter authors may not (always) be surprising for those interested in the topic but they certainly present well the highlights of important and challenging issues.

Tierney starts off with the metaphor of the perfect storm. He argues that, while external changes are not new in higher education, the scale and scope of the problems academe currently faces are combining to create a unique storm. A careful reconsideration of higher education governance is justified since many of its structures have been in place for a rather long time and may have become obsolete in various ways. The goal of the book is to enable those involved in traditional colleges and universities not merely to weather the coming storm but to ensure that higher education institutions reach their destination in a timely manner and in good shape.

To reach this goal, the authors of subsequent chapters address governance at different levels in the system, resulting in varying and sometimes conflicting suggestions for improving existing structures. Ultimately, Tierney's goal has proven to be too ambitious. I seriously doubt that, after reading this book, governors, academic leaders, and faculty will better know how to reach their destination promptly and effectively. Nevertheless the book is highly interesting and insightful.

The perfect storm in higher education (i.e., the forces that create the unique, changed environment) refers to increased levels of competition, different ways of approaching the issue of quality, and the transformation of the state's role. In a competitive world, institutions need to be able to determine how they excel in order to clarify their market position.

The first chapters of the book by Marginson and Collis describe some of the most important external changes that are challenging higher education. Globalization, Marginson argues, is largely determined outside the mechanisms of formal governance. In this sense, the university runs the risk of losing control over its own destiny. Collis takes the argument further by discussing the "paradox of scope": The traditional core of organizations is shrinking, while at the same time its peripheries are expanding though the proliferation of alliances, joint ventures, partnerships, and other long-term contracts. Current governance structures cannot deal with this "unbundling of the university," or at least they are having sincere difficulties with it.

As Keller and Duderstadt in their chapters clearly argue, current governance structures impede the ability to make hard choices and should therefore be revised, particularly since clear strategies are required more than ever before. Most arguments against the present structures are well known, such as the fact that multiple constituencies in the universities are represented in various governing bodies, all having their own agendas and vested interests. As a consequence, such governance structures are frequently conservative—perhaps more conservative than effective. They have a style of governance that is more adept at protecting the past than preparing for the future.

After convincing analysis of the problems and needs for change, several contributions of this volume are not satisfying when they look for answers. Suggestions, mainly normative, are instead what is offered. Tierney in his concluding chapter, for example, argues that the...