Collegiality in Academia

Here are my introductory remarks at the opening dinner of SHEEO July 13, 2010, The Graves 601 Hotel, Minneapolis, Minnesota - regarding Complete to Compete, the National Governors Association initiative to boost graduation rates and degrees.  The premise to maintain our standard of living, serve the goals of economic development and address work force needs in the 21st century is a great back drop for the State Higher Education Executive Officers meeting.

I am often subtle in my remarks using analogies to make my points.  The drive to increase educational services across an ever widening array of learners who need guidance, coaching, remedial support, and advising is a perfect storm.  The drive to leverage capacity to serve learners and the drive to increase enrollments, funded by tax payers, should be carefully planned with policies, rules and regulations to safeguard the academic diversity on one hand, and control the conflicts of interest on the other.  The emphasis and friction of accepting prior learning, and how it counts toward degree requirements has often been a major area of contention across institutions who are disconnected.  I have written on the macro and micro economic costs before which reflect the loss or waste in capacity due to FTE spent on course work that does not count.  As we work to foster transparency, acceptance of prior learning and student mobility trends, we also have to have real time referees understand the nuances of prior learning assessment, and the required oversight to maintain the rigor and validation of information and claims made by learners, and how they are assessed.

Without umpires and referees - and even instant replay, the means to an end to graduate more students without independent cross checks, can have unintended consequences - such as lowering the value of a degree and watering down what it means to employers and other stakeholders.  We rely and present accreditation as the central answer, but I am not sure their long term review of practices is adequate to keep the conflicts of interest at bay at the operational level of institutions seeking to drive enrollment higher and lower costs.

Thus, my topic is the need for collegiality and how institutions should work together to address student mobility and prior learning assessment like the ball players coming together to play the summer All star game.  We forget the rivalries and focus on the competencies. They are not playing for their individual teams.  Like a consortium of players, institutions and their faculty should foster a new form of collegiality to address how prior learning can be recognized and respected independent of the enrollment drivers, providing the balance between learner's expectations and institutional responsibility - utilizing the funding formulas to reinforce quality practices.

There has traditionally been a strong element of Collegiality in the governance of Colleges and Universities rooted in environments where individual independence of thought and mutual respect are necessary, particularly in institutions with strong research.


Collegiality is often contrasted with Competition- our drive to win at all costs - eliminating the opposition’s survival in effect. The World Cup just ended. This week, the All Stars – where teams gather their best – to play the game of baseball - putting aside their rivalries and differences while displaying skills orchestrated by managers who develop strategies to win home field advantage. Then play resumes as teams strive to win their divisions.

Today, the connected world uses their cognitive surplus - interacting in fundamentally different ways than generations before. We are not bound by borders or for that matter the institutions in the same way. In contrast to receiving TV broadcasts, reading newspapers and listening to radio, our generation leverages technology to be active participants with social media and networks that radically change the way we participate in learning inside and outside the classroom, at work and in our busy lives.

Academic programs - once composed as hierarchical linked requirements dominated by lecture, are now commercially orchestrated with content, self paced reflection, assessment and more. The dimension of our connected world relies on alliances and consortiums abstracting differences and sharing resources to achieve a greater good or lower cost or faster delivery. How we evaluate and trust digitally is much different than in-person meetings. Measuring effectiveness and creating cross checks requires information - like instant replay to govern fairness of play. Your effort as SHEEO’s - is more important than ever - as energies scale to graduate more – while not losing the nuances and strength fostered by decentralization and variety. We can’t afford to diminish the quality of education or water down the meaning of what completion represents or what the process of attending college is all about – that would destroy the meaning and strength of the education investment.

AcademyOne is an innovative technology company focused on what Adam Smith called the invisible hand – a process where we compete to provide unique value and agree to share much of our work - because it does not offer a competitive advantage. Technology often falls into the middle ground. We support SHEEO and important collaboration projects around the world. We also support PESC, the Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council, developing specifications and methods harmonizing electronic services through voluntary cooperation. I want to thank SHEEO for giving AcademyOne this opportunity and supporting our work – especially with PESC - as we help define technology for the 21st century focused on what we all have in common through services such as EdUnify and ontology that will frame web applications for the next generation like the music staff changed the world ten centuries ago - focused on the notes independent of composer or music genre or instrument. Enjoy the conference. Listen to the music – it is all around you. Attend the Ball game – and as you do, remember how important the refs are managing the tug and push of competition. Technology, like the refs in the middle, can offer perspectives based upon common standards and rules agreed upon before the game begins.