Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Choice Quotes: Joe Berry #4
This post continues the thread of choice quotes from Joe Berry’s Reclaiming the Ivory Tower.
From “Getting Down to Work” (130):
Someone much smarter than I, when confronted with a complicated task of social analysis, said, “For a start, follow the money.” Start by looking at the institution’s income sources—taxes, government student aid, tuition and fees, grants of various sorts, sales of items or services, loans, sale of stock (if a for-profit institution), and contributions from alumni and others. Then look at who controls the cash and how it is spent. If your institutions is tuition-driven and has to actively recruit students in a competitive market, this suggests tactics that might be useful to pressure them. But, if it is a public institution, with an elected board, dependent on funding from various public sources, then that suggests other avenues to explore. Finding out who actually holds the power in the institution and over its budget and policies helps with strategic planning.