David W. Leslie

Understanding Strategy: An Assessment of Theory and Practice

Is the U.S. love affair with strategic planning over? Are we coming out of an extended period of dominance by a particular management fad? Or have we learned, adapted, and gained the wisdom to select what works and what does not? This chapter explores the continuing evolution of strategic planning theory and practice in business and in higher education, draws lessons from today’s college and university practitioners, and suggests future areas of study.

Redefining Tenure: Tradition Versus the New Political Economy of Higher Education.

This article investigates the problems that confront academe and suggests that faculty work has changed so profoundly in recent years that tenure is no longer sufficient and/or necessary. The author argues that intellectual freedom and accountability are competing demands that must be met simultaneously. He reviews the problems that exist, how tenure exacerbates those problems, and how an expanded faculty career profile might be one way to solve some of the vexing problems that confront colleges and universities.

Easing the Exit: An Aging Professoriate Likes Options.

41 In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the graying of America’s college and university faculty coincided with new federal regulations that prohibited mandatory retirement. So in order to both encourage faculty retirements and assume better control of when positions would be vacated about half of all U.S. colleges and universities adopted various retirement incentives and processes. “Phased retirement” was one of the most popular of these strategies. Because of its prominence, in 2003-04 we conducted a study of the experience of individuals and institutions with phased retirement. We began by analyzing data from the 1999 . We then interviewed 105 faculty and administrators on 12 widely varied campuses, and an electronic survey drew responses from another 45 individuals. This article is an overview of some of our key findings about how phased retirement works for individuals who participate in these plans and for the institutions that offer them. by David W. Leslie and Natasha Janson Easing the Exit

Research on Higher Education: Dead End or New Directions?

Abstract: As an introduction to the special edition, the editors survey the papers selected for publication and challenge the research community to respond to criticisms of research on higher education.

Academic Freedom for Universities.

Academic freedom has been traditionally associated with the individual professor’s right to free expression. Recent legal developments suggest an emerging set of legal theories that may grant certain “academic freedom” rights and privileges to the corporate university. This article reviews the concepts of academic freedom, university autonomy, and the developments which have brought recognition of institutional academic freedom as a distinct legal privilege. The implications for protection of individual rights are discussed.

Radical Humanism in Practice: The Scandinavian Folkehøjskoler

Abstract: This paper reports the results of a field study of “folk high schools” in four Scandinavian countries, including historical and cultural perspectives and analyses of Grundtvigian educational ideology, student experience in the folkehøjskole and the teaching culture. The radical humanism embodied in practice in the folkehøjskole may provide a useful resource for broadening and deepening the exposure of American students to humanistic ends.

The Common Law of the Academic Profession: An Assessment

Abstract: The academic common law may soon vanish, not simply as a result of court action but also due to the American Association of University Professors’s declining role in defending the common law of academic employment. This essay apprises members of the academic profession of changes that are taking place, examines the status of practices long regarded as immutable parts of American academic culture, and challenges the profession to maintain its legacy of independence from external control by reconsidering its own common law.

A Landmark in Scholarly Synthesis: An Introduction

Two review essays explore the implications of Pascarella and Terenzini’s How College Affects Students for practice and for research directions. George Kuh emphasizes how recent changes in the clientele and the context for higher education require thinking beyond the research that the authors reviewed. Leonard Baird emphasizes the need to reconsider and broaden the base of research methods on which existing knowledge is based. Both authors assess How College Affects Students as a significant landmark in integrative scholarship on higher education with many implications for policy, practice, and future research directions.