Business Commons^™

A Web Designer’S Guide To Being Lazy, Conny Liegl

Conny Liegl

Sorry to disappoint, but this talk is not the ultimate guide on how to avoid working. It is instead an example of a workflow paradigm shift and supportive technology that will allow us to use the eight hours at our desks more efficiently.

Working in higher education, we are continuously faced with budget cuts that directly impact the amount and variety of our daily tasks. The official job descriptions barely reflect the actual day-to-day work we encounter: we wear many hats and have to carefully manage our time as well as the increasing number of projects. Tedious maintenance of content …

Iowa Moves To All Living Learning Communities, Von Stange Ed.D.

Von Stange, Ed.D.

Living on campus at the University of Iowa has become an educational hallmark of the student experience. In July 2012, Iowa began the process of implementing a campus-wide Living Learning Community (LLC) initiative. This workshop will examine the changes undergone to make the transition from 14 to 32 LLCs in less than a year’s time. Join representatives from the UH&D team as we discuss the successes and challenges of this campus culture change and share best practices in staffing, programming, funding, assignments, and collaborations. Presented with Becky Wilson, Josh Atcher, and Linda Varvel from the University of Iowa.

Public School Religion Education And The 'Hot Potato' Of Religious Diversity, Cathy Byrne

Dr Cathy Byrne

Religiously marked intercultural conflict is on the rise in Australia (HREOC, 2007; Dreher, 2006). In addition, intolerant and religiously discriminating sentiment has re-emerged in Australia's debate on migration (Schech & Haggis, 2001; Cratchley, 2007). However, inter-religious education as a remedy is not a high priority. Independent and governmental reviews recommend intercultural and interfaith education to address ignorance and intolerance (Erebus, 2006; HREOC, 2004). Australia appears more focused on the development of values and citizenship courses which assume shared heritage and promote uniformity ( Halafoff, 2006). In public education, religious diversity is a 'hot potato' — no one wants to touch …

Hospitality Management Graduates' Perceptions Of Career Factor Importance And Career Factor Experience And The Relation With Turnover Intentions, Eric A. Brown

Eric A. Brown

Previous researchers have shown hospitality management students have different expectations than experiences in a career in the hospitality industry. The purpose of this research was to determine the importance and experiences of career factors of hospitality management graduates and how they relate to turnover intentions. In particular, differences between those that stayed in the hospitality and those that left the hospitality industry were examined. Web-based questionnaires were distributed to hospitality management graduates from different four-year institutions. These questionnaires were designed to measure the perception of experience and perceptions of importance of 20 factors that could influence a hospitality management graduate's …

Conclusion: Looking To The Future, Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] A number of important themes emerge from the chapters in Governing Academia. First, decentralization gives individual units—be they university campuses within a state system, colleges within a university, or departments within a college—an incentive to act in their own best interests, but less of an incentive to work toward the common good. As Heller points out, at the level of a state system, decentralization of control may lead to wasteful overlap between campuses. As Wilson shows, decentralized budgeting in the form of responsibility center management models may cause units not to maximize the quality of the education they are …

Introduction To The Book Governing Academia, Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] During recent decades tuition for undergraduate students has risen at rates substantially higher than the rate of inflation at both public and private colleges and universities in the United States. These high rates of tuition increases led Congress to establish the National Commission on the Costs of Higher Education in 1997 to conduct a comprehensive review of college costs and prices and to make recommendations on how to hold tuition increases down. Parents of college students, taxpayers, and government officials all wanted to know why academic institutions can't behave more like businesses—cut their costs, increase their efficiency, and thus …

Collective Bargaining In American Higher Education, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Daniel B. Klaff, Adam T. Kezbom, Matthew P. Nagowski

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] No discussion of governance in higher education would be complete without a consideration of the role of collective bargaining. Historically, most researchers interested in the subject have directed their attention to the unionization of faculty members. Given several recent decisions by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that leave open the possibility that unionization of faculty in private colleges and universities may increase in the future, we discuss collective bargaining for faculty in the first section (Leatherman 2000, A16). Recently, however, attention has been also directed at the unionization of two other groups in the higher education workforce. Activists …

Do Indirect Cost Rates Matter?, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Jaroslava K. Mykula

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

This study addresses the relationship between a university's indirect cost rate and its level of federal research funding. Both direct and indirect cost funding are examined. The data used in the analyses include unpublished institutional level data for all doctoral and research universities on funding and indirect cost rates obtained from the National Science Foundation for the fiscal years 1988 to 1997 period. Our major finding is that higher indirect cost rates are associated with higher levels of direct and indirect cost funding for institutions that initially are among the largest recipients of federal funding. In contrast, for universities initially …

Enhancing The Attractiveness Of Research To Female Faculty, Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] CSWEP has long been concerned about the underrepresentation of women in faculty positions at major research universities. I have been charged by the committee with enumerating a set of policies that might enhance the attractiveness of research universities to female faculty. After presenting some data that suggest the magnitude of the underrepresentation problem, I do so below. In each case, I sketch the pros and cons of the policy. Although the focus is on increasing the attractiveness of research universities to female faculty, many of the policies would increase the attractiveness of academic careers per se to new female …

Merit Pay For School Superintendents?, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Richard P. Chaykowski, Randy A. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Given the important role that school district administrators play in the educational process, one might expect their 'performance" to be of fundamental importance in determining both how much students learn and the cost of public education to taxpayers. Yet, while public debate has considered the issue of merit pay plans for teachers, virtually no attention has been directed to the methods by which school administrators are compensated. This paper provides evidence on whether school superintendents are explicitly or implicitly rewarded for their "performance" by higher compensation and/or greater opportunities for mobility. We analyze panel data from over 700 school districts …

Review Of The Book In Pursuit Of The Ph.D., Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] When William Bowen, the President of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (formerly the President of Princeton University), and Neil Rudenstine, the President of Harvard University (formerly Executive Vice President of Mellon), combine to write a book on doctoral study in the arts and sciences, the academic profession must take notice. And well it should. Building on Bowen and Julie Ann Sosa's (1989) predictions of forthcoming shortages of Ph.D.'s in the arts and sciences, In Pursuit of the Ph.D. provides a detailed analysis of the propensity of American college graduates to enter doctoral programs in the arts and sciences and …

Review Of The Book The Cost Of Talent: How Executives And Professionals Are Paid And How It Affects America, Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] Why should the former President of Harvard University be concerned that during the 1970s and 1980s the earnings of doctors, lawyers in private practice, and top corporate executives grew substantially relative to the earnings of professors, teachers, and high level federal civil servants? Why should he care that physicians with specialized hospital-based practices, such as neurosurgeons, have seen their earnings rise substantially relative to physicians practicing family medicine during the same period? In each case, the answer is that Bok believes that occupational choices are determined, at least at the margin, by the pecuniary and nonpecuniary benefits that the …

Review Of The Book Prospects For Faculty In The Arts And Sciences, Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] Very few books by economists are announced to the world in a front page story in the New York Times. However, Prospects for Faculty in the Arts and Sciences by William G. Bowen and Julie Ann Sosa was (see Fiske) and this honor is well deserved. Prospects may well be the most important analysis of the academic labor market to appear since Alan Cartter's pioneering work in the mid-1970s.

Introduction To The Ilr School At Fifty: Voices Of The Faculty, Alumni, And Friends, David B. Lipsky

David B Lipsky

[Excerpt] Today the school's faculty is as strong as it has ever been. It consists of renowned researchers and accomplished practitioners who are, at the same time, dedicated to their students and to classroom teaching. Our students are outstanding—so outstanding that I wonder if I could be admitted if I were applying today! Our extension and outreach programs serve 30,000 adults every year and are the envy of all our academic competitors. As we look to the future we know we have a solid foundation on which to build. In dreams begin responsibilities. The dream that Irving Ives and a …

The Future Lies Ahead (With Apology To Mort Sahl), David B. Lipsky

David B Lipsky

[Excerpt] The progress and development of the ILR School during the past 50 years, though sometimes uneven in both pace and direction, has largely met the promise and expectations embodied in the founding legislation. The fulfillment of the legislative purpose testifies to the contributions of those many individuals and institutions with whom we have interacted over this period of astonishing growth in size, complexity of structure and programs, and recognized stature at home and abroad in both the academic and practitioner worlds. Because the largest part of my professional life h a s been spent as a member of the …

Adverse Selection And Incentives In An Early Retirement Program, Kenneth T. Whelan, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Kevin F. Hallock, Ronald L. Seeber

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

We evaluate potential determinants of enrollment in an early retirement incentive program for non-tenure-track employees of a large university. Using administrative record on the eligible population of employees not covered by collective bargaining agreements, historical employee count and layoff data by budget units, and public information on unit budgets, we find dips in per-employee finance in a budget unit during the application year and higher recent per employee layoffs were associated with increased probabilities of eligible employee program enrollment. Our results also suggest, on average, that employees whose salaries are lower than we would predict given their personal characteristics and …

An Economic Analysis Of The Market For Law School Students, Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

This study utilizes data from a number of sources to estimate how lawyers' starting salaries relate to their ability, the quality of law school they attended, and whether the law school was a private institution. Based upon this analysis, a benefit—cost analysis is conducted of the value of attending a high-quality private institution. Analyses are also done of how the financial attractiveness of law vis-a-vis other careers has changed in recent years and a conceptual framework discussed for law schools to use in allocating their financial aid resources.

Education By Corporation: The Merits And Perils Of For-Profit Higher Education For A Democratic Citizenry, Amy Sepinwall

Amy J. Sepinwall

For-profit colleges have elicited wildly divergent reactions, with critics vilifying them and their executives, and supporters seeing in the institutions a necessary and laudable complement to public and non-profit institutions. As I propose to argue in this chapter, the truth likely likes somewhere between these extremes.

Commentary on for-profit education proceeds along three narratives: the first views the for-profit college as a kind of villainous, unstoppable monster; the second, contrastingly, sees the for-profit college as a kind of savior; and the third takes a more nuanced position, identifying virtues of for-profit education while expressing concern about its compatibility with education’s …

Critical Success Factors Of Technological Innovation And Diffusion In Higher Education, Wayne Dennison Ph.D.

Wayne Dennison

This case study surveyed faculty members and information technology (IT) leaders within the State System of Higher Education (SSHE) and at Southern Regional State University (SRSU) to examine their perceptions of technological innovation, adoption, and diffusion in higher education. The data gathered identified seventeen critical success factors affecting technological innovation, adoption, and diffusion and was used to evaluate how the perceptions faculty compared to those of IT leaders within a single university setting. Examining and comparing the perceptions of these two groups regarding critical success factors for innovation, adoption, and diffusion of technology provided insight into elements influencing technological innovation …