How to Run a College: A Practical Guide for Trustees, Faculty, Administrators, and Policymakers

Higher Ed Leadership Essentials

by Brian C. Mitchell

Residential colleges are the foundation on which US higher education is based. These institutions possess storied traditions fondly cherished by students, alumni, and faculty. There is no denying, however, that all colleges today struggle with changing consumer preferences, high sticker prices, and aging infrastructure. Technological and pedagogical alternatives--not to mention growing political pressure--present complex challenges. What can colleges and smaller universities do to stay relevant in today's educational and economic climate?

In their concise guide, How to Run a College, Brian C. Mitchell and W. Joseph King analyze how colleges operate. Widely experienced as trustees, administrators, and faculty, they understand that colleges must update their practices, monetize their assets, and focus on core educational strategies in order to build strong institutions.

Mitchell and King offer a frank yet optimistic vision for how colleges can change without losing their fundamental strengths. To survive and become sustainable, they must be centers of dynamic learning, as well as economic engines able to power regional, state, and national economies. Rejecting the notion that American colleges are holdovers from a bygone time, How to Run a College shows instead that they are centers of experimentation and innovation that heavily influence higher education not only in the United States but also worldwide.

Genres: Education, School, Nonfiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Risa ✿]

Not giving this a rating since it was required reading for Grad School, but overall not the worst textbook I've ever read. There's some very obvious changes in things educationally since COVID, but the basis of a lot of the practical theories and applications still stand.

[Drtaxsacto · Rating 4 out of 5]

I originally bought this book because I know the author - he had a distinguished career working in Washington and then migrating to first an association of colleges and universities and then to become president of two colleges in the east. I also bought it because I chair the board of a Health Sciences campus in California and wondered whether the book would be a good piece for new regent orientation.

The book moves through all the aspects of campus life from Academics to Athletics, to student life and finances. Mitchell presents some interesting data in a way that is helpful, not pedantic. Alumni giving is down. Admissions discounts are up. More than 80% of college athletics programs do not support themselves (I think that figure may be a bit generous). The college financial model is not working. The rate of tenure in many institutions needs to be re-worked.

Where I think the book falls down just a bit is not including a chapter on the fundamental existential crisis facing many institutions across the US. I also worked in higher education, being president of a similar association to Brian's in California. One shibboleth that was common over the entire time I worked in the sector (4 decades) was that churches and universities were among the most stable institutions in society. I am not sure that is still true. American higher education faces a series of external challenges (including changes in demographics, an increasingly skeptical public, a financial model that is broken, the scourge of political correctness which violates every principle of academic freedom and a host of other issues) which are more different and diverse than other crisis periods in the almost 400 years of higher education in this country. Those cross pressures are substantial.

I might also quibble whether this type of book would be useful to policymakers - getting them to consider the issues raised in this book would be a challenge.

But does the book accomplish what it set out to do? Absolutely.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book might have provided too high level a view of colleges and how they run to have much practical utility (especially for my purposes, being much further down the totem pole). Nonetheless, it was interesting in its clear pictures it painted of the various stakeholders who help make universities run and how they be made to work both for and against the educational mission of universities. In particular, the section on faculty governance offered insights into the important role that faculty can play in making changes across institutions, something I think the younger generation of faculty (myself included) tend to forget.

[Harold · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a straightforward description of a typical University/College, focusing mostly on the residential liberal arts college. It sets forth the basic component parts and what they do, and outlines how the pieces fit together. Unlike many books in the field, the authors don’t grind too many axes along the way. But I wasn’t sure who the book is intended to reach, perhaps new trustees who are not intimately familiar with the college dynamics. Certainly it is too basic for anyone who spends her career on a college campus, but how many people who don’t want or need the instruction manual.

[Rory · Rating 4 out of 5]

This small book would serve as an excellent primer for those new to academic boards or for those increasingly common administrators who are coming into higher education without an education background. There is little that is "new" here for those who have been around colleges for a while, but the anecdotes in them are timely and relevant. Chapters one and two should be required reading for all new board members.