Higher Education’s Coming Leadership Crisis

by E Wayne Ross on April 6, 2009

The Chronicle: Higher Education’s Coming Leadership Crisis

By ARJUN APPADURAI

What the current recession, with its associated fears, frauds, and free falls, will ultimately mean for American higher education is still uncertain. Yet some things are clear: Many colleges and universities are seeing drops in applications, and several are reconsidering tenure and other forms of long-term faculty autonomy and job security. Many are freezing salaries and stopping or slowing new hires. Others are scaling back plans to build new facilities or invest in expensive programs. Still others are taking drastic steps, such as the sale of their art collections, to deal with shortfalls in their operating budgets.