Washington, D.C.
October 16-18, 1996

Redefining Higher Education

Program Session II: Identifying Strategic Choices and Tradeoffs

Introduction

Paul Kobulnicky, Director of Libraries
University of Connecticut

Welcome. I am Paul Kobulnicky, Director of Libraries at the University of Connecticut and current Chair of the ARL Committee on Management of Research Library Resources (also known as the Management Committee).

A lot of what the Management Committee has been talking about for the past year or so has come to fruition in today's program. We are very concerned, as you all are, about making strategic choices regarding the investments we must make; we make investments now for the long term, especially when they are grounded in human resources.

The way we will be most effective in our organizations is to have a good sense of how our choices fit into our institutions' strategic directions. We must also recognize that our institutions, though working alone, are also part of a larger higher education fabric. We need to make choices that are consistent with the future for higher education in general.

We are here today to support and contribute to the transformation of higher education. To do so, we must examine the future of higher education and identify the responses necessary to effectively manage, encourage, and capitalize on the changes that are on the horizon.

In Program Session I, our colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania and the AUCC did a remarkable job of addressing the implications of the digital environment on teaching and research and the actions that need to be undertaken by the administration in order to effect a positive result. In this session, we have an esteemed panel of presenters who will address how the various higher education communities are educating decision-makers and other stakeholders about the complex challenges entailed in this evolutionary process.

Notice the word "evolutionary." One of the things we would like to talk about in this session is the fact that our organizations are imbued with great culture, and that culture is very difficult to change. Culture does, however, evolve on a continual basis, and the speakers in this program will talk about broad-based organizational efforts to lead the changes that help move the cultures of our organization.

Our first presenter is Peter Magrath, President of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC), the oldest higher education association in the U.S. Dr. Magrath assumed the NASULGC presidency in January of 1995. Previously, he served as president for the University of Missouri, the University of Minnesota, and the State University of New York at Binghamton. He also held faculty and administrative posts at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Brown University.

Dr. Magrath holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University and brings to this program a broad perspective on higher education.

Our second speaker for this program session is Gregory Wegner, the Associate Director of the Institute for Research on Higher Education of the University of Pennsylvania. Part of his role at the Institute lies in helping to oversee the functioning of the Pew Higher Education Roundtable, and he has served since 1988 as the managing editor and co-author of its periodical, Policy Perspectives.

Dr. Wegner received a Ph.D. in English in 1987 and has served as senior liaison for colleagues and universities throughout the nation. He will focus today on the work of the Pew Roundtable.

Our third presenter will address the understanding between scholars and librarians about the nature of the challenge facing library leadership. Phyllis Franklin is the Executive Director of the Modern Language Association, a position she assumed in 1985. Prior to that, she taught American Literature and Women Studies at the University of Miami and served as a Fellow in the academic administration at Duke University under the auspices of the American Council on Education. Dr. Franklin received an A.B. degree from Vassar and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Miami.

Let me begin by asking you to welcome Peter Magrath.