Academic Turnarounds: Restoring Vitality to Challenged American Colleges and Universities (review)

Terrance MacTaggart, former chancellor of the University of Maine and the Minnesota State University systems, is author of several widely-cited, edited volumes on state governance of public higher education (MacTaggart, 1996, 1998). In Academic Turnarounds, MacTaggart turns his attention more squarely to the campus level in an effort to address how institutions facing decline or mediocrity can reposition themselves for success. He has assembled an experienced group of former college and university executives whose impressive track record in leading efforts at institutional revitalization lends authenticity to the volume.

Academic Turnarounds is organized into three sections. In the first section, MacTaggart and colleagues outline and explore a three-stage schema for understanding academic turnarounds. Chapter one, authored by MacTaggart, serves as the conceptual centerpiece of the volume. MacTaggart describes each of the three turnaround stages: restoring financial stability, enhancing marketing and (re)branding, and strengthening academic programs and culture. The first stage, MacTaggart claims, is always an essential step for the turnaround of institutions in financial distress, yet many nonselective private institutions remain "frozen" in this phase of development, unable to advance to subsequent stages. The branding or rebranding of the institution, the second stage in academic turnarounds, is a longer-term effort aimed at creating a story that defines the institution in the minds of students. Institutions accomplish this stage less frequently, we are told, yet for ones that are successful, powerful synergies can emerge: stronger academic quality reinforces the institution's image, enabling it to charge higher tuition and thus further strengthen its financial footing. Mac Taggart concludes the chapter by delineating the roles of presidents, trustees, and faculty across each of the three stages.

Chapters two through four examine in greater depth each of the core stages. MacTaggart, in chapter two, highlights a number of "critical success factors" that seem always to be present in successful turnarounds: new leaders, accurate and timely financial information, an immediate focus on finances, transparency, and faculty involvement. MacTaggart briefly then describes how these forces played out in turnaround efforts at Syracuse University, Regis College, and Green Mountain College. In chapter three, Jerry Berberet illustrates the importance of marketing and branding in the stories of several institutions that have "repositioned" themselves in recent years. In the final chapter of this section, Adrian Tinsley reflects on "Stage III transformations," ones in which true academic revitalization has occurred. What are the essential elements of an academic revitalization? Having the right leader, using the right aspirational model for institutional excellence, measuring oneself against the right external ratings/rankings systems, getting better students, and designing better academic programs all are key, according to Tinsley. She concludes by examining how these elements helped drive efforts at revitalization at the University of Denver, the College of New Jersey, and Northeastern University.

Section two of the book examines a range of "special topics" critical to the successful turnaround of institutions. Michael Townsley describes a series of diagnostic tools that leaders of private colleges may deploy in analyzing financial performance at these institutions. He touches on the use of trend tables, marginal and ratio analysis, liquidity ratios, asset management ratios, operational performance ratios, and the composite financial index. In his chapter, MacTaggart turns to some of the distinguishing features of public-sector turnarounds that distinguish them from ones in the private sector. The key distinction, he maintains, is that those leading turnarounds of public colleges and universities must grapple with an overtly political environment that can hold important implications for revenue generation, agenda-setting, and governance of those institutions. MacTaggart considers how, beginning in the mid-1990s, these factors helped shape the University of Connecticut's successful turnaround.

The final section of Academic Turnarounds counsels leaders on initiating their own institutional transformation efforts. Kenneth Shaw, former president of Syracuse University, reflects on the activities that new presidents should undertake both before and immediately subsequent to their accepting a new job. In the book...