mortiz0010

Going through some old (and I mean OLD) files, I came across this Contract that was created while I was president at Rockland Community College (NY). It was resisted by some faculty but we finally gained enough acceptance to move it through to the Board which jumped on it and a community shell shocked after a $12.8 million state and federal financial aid allowance loved it. (No, I didn't create the problem It was my job to resolve it, keep the college open and fiscally solvent. We did.) The guarantee created confidence in our academic program and student focus.It was also the right thing to do. It also gained national recognition as a forward thinking approach to learning and jobs. Not sure what happened once I left in a protest over Board impropriety and ties to a politician who would soon go to jail after I left). I still think it is a good, student-focused idea that could be adapted by any college and would go a long way to help the beleaguered reputations of communi...

Are most colleges businesses and not just the obviously for-profit ones either? All colleges sell their services (marketing and recruitment),have sales staff (admissions), bill payable and collections (bursar), service providers (faculty) administrators and staff. They all do their best to provide services that their customers (students) want (electives) or must have (required courses). And they all try to make a profit (fund balance/surplus) or at least not to lose money of at all possible. They have employees and unions. Pay salaries and extend benefits And they do produce products (degrees) and sell services. Maybe they are businesses; unique businesses but businesses just the same. Businesses like a medical practice perhaps with professionals serving the needs of their patients. Each tries to use professional services providers (doctors/professors) to better the lives of their clients. Each purports to higher missions than making money.   Each make patients/customers/ students...

Higher education is in a position that hospitals were in back in the 1980’s. There were more beds than patients. Costs were climbing upsetting   and worrying the public. And the federal government was starting to assert itself on how hospitals were run and making them prove they were successful.   The result was that hospitals some consolidated, some were closed and others just went out of business. They could not manage under the scrutiny and additional cots to operate. That could, and is happening in higher education as well.  Hospitals are like colleges. They have an administration that is not trusted by the hospital community. Doctors who have a somewhat independent relationship to the hospital, being able to do as they please for the most part with their patients. Their allegiance is to their discipline more than to the hospital.   Hospitals also have indifferent staffs as well as some stellar performers And hospitals have patients sort of like colleges have s...