Academic Change in Liberal Arts Colleges: Examining the Role and Work of Professional Staff

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Mechanisms Shaping and Reshaping Organizational identities in Higher Education

Abstract

Private liberal arts colleges (LACs) face strong threats to their survival. Prominent challenges include declining enrollments, increasing tuition dependence, shrinking endowments, and diminishing strategic flexibility. While some LACs have closed, others have revealed core organizational changes to ensure their viability. To examine how and why LACs are innovating—and in traditionally buffered domains such as academics—this study focuses on the roles and work of professional staff in processes of change. The findings suggest that professional staff at the LACs in this study largely implemented the academic innovations pushed by central administrators/executive-level leaders. Yet professional staff revealed autonomy and creative latitude in how they engaged with faculty. Implications are discussed for enhancing professional development and the innovative capacity of LACs.

Authors

• Jarrett B. Warshaw, Florida Atlantic University

• Kelly McCormack, Florida Atlantic University