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Most of us in academia came into it wearing rose-colored glasses We believed we were working in a different kind of environment, detached from the cutthroat ways of industry. After more than a few years however, it is becoming apparent that academia and universities specifically, are being run more like those businesses in the hurly-burly marketplace.
Certainly, universities' stocks are not traded on the DOW or Nasdaq, but these days, every other president is giving an interview telling us how he or she is really the "CEO" of their university and how they are running their universities as businesses.
So, are universities 'businesses' now? Are we using the same metrics? If we are businesses, what do we do with tenure and opposing points of view among faculty? If we are businesses, are we for-profit or non-profits? Are we ready to pay taxes on all our buildings and turn away the special state subventions and grants from Federal bodies? It seems Presidents are happy to receive the benefits of their special status while trying to get out from under the obligations of that special status...
So what is your view? Should universities be "run like a business"?
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Joined: 5/30/2009
Posts: 103
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Every organizational unit, even the family or an individual needs to be a "business". What I mean by this is that we all need to be aware that "revenue minus cost = profit (or surplus - if you prefer). So we all need to have revenue coming in, and that our costs should be less than our revenue. So far, only the Federal Government, at least in the USA, seems to operate outside this basic equation - running at a deficit. Universities need to protect revenue sources (gov't, students, funders, endowments) and be cost watchful just as much as for-profit.
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