Most American colleges and universities face difficult choices about how they will meet new demands in an environment of fiscal constraints. For many, growth and expansion are no longer feasible, instead they must change through substitution, or even through contraction. To make necessary changes, institutions facing these challenges may have to close select academic programs. Academic program terminations are not well documented in the literature, nor are they well understood by those charged with making and carrying out decisions. Much of what we know about how colleges and universities function as organizations and how they change is based upon assumptions of growth and not the opposite. This book explores the process of program termination. It discusses the context leading institutions to consider program reduction. It provides in-depth examination of the discontinuance process at four universities through rich case studies by focusing on the roles of leadership, shared governance, and external factors. It discusses the use (and non-use) of criteria to identify programs for closure and offers advice for institutional leaders seeking to close programs, as well as for faculty leaders seeking to keep their program from termination. Its findings also suggest that program closure may be more important to the future direction and livelihood of the institution than saving money.
Peter Eckel, Ph.D., serves as the Vice President for Governance and Leadership Programs at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. He is responsible for AGB Consulting as well as programs that enhance board capacity, including the National Conference on Trusteeship, the Institute for Board Chairs and Presidents and the Presidents Academy on Trusteeship.
Eckel has written and spoken extensively on academic leadership, institutional change and campus governance, including writing/editing six books and 22 nationally disseminated papers as well as numerous articles and book chapters. His papers have appeared in Trusteeship, Change Magazine, the Journal of Higher Education, the Review of Higher Education, and Higher Education Policy, among others. Internationally, he has spoken in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, South Africa, Ireland and France.
Eckel additionally serves as Associate Adjunct Professor in the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education, teaching in its Executive Doctorate Program. Prior to joining AGB, he worked at the American Council on Education (ACE) where he created and ran the ACE Institute for New Chief Academic Officers, the Advancing to the Presidency Workshop, and the ACE Presidential Roundtable Series. He earned his doctorate from the University of Maryland, College Park in Education Policy, Planning and Administration. He was recognized with the Thomas Magoon Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of Counseling and Personnel Services from which he received his Master's degree. His bachelor's degree is in journalism from Michigan State University. He has been a fellow at the Salzburg Seminar in Austria and at the Centre for Higher Education Transformation in South Africa.
