New Ehrenberg book examines who's in charge at the modern university

Why can't colleges and universities behave more like businesses and cut their costs to hold tuition down? In their new book, Governing Academia: Who is in Charge at the Modern University, Ronald G. Ehrenberg and his co-authors provide part of the answer by offering an understanding of how academic institutions are governed.

Ehrenberg

An array of factors influence how universities are governed, says Ehrenberg. These include how states regulate higher education and govern public institutions; the size and method of selection of boards of trustees; the shared roles of trustees, administrators and faculty; how universities are organized for fiscal and academic purposes; the presence or absence of collective bargaining for faculty, staff and graduate student assistants; pressures from government regulations, donors, insurance carriers, athletic conferences and accreditation agencies; and competition from for-profit providers.

The book, which sorts it all out, includes sections and chapters with such intriguing titles as Darwinian Medicine for the University, Herding Cats in University Hierarchies and How Academic Ships Actually Navigate.

Ehrenberg, who edited the book as well as contributed to it, is the Irving M. Ives Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Economics at Cornell. He is director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute (CHERI) and a former vice president of academic programs, planning and budgeting at Cornell. Previous books by Ehrenberg include The American University: National Treasure or Endangered Species? (Cornell University Press, 1997) and Tuition Rising: Why College Costs So Much (Harvard University Press, 2000). The 13 other contributors to Governing Academia include leading academic administrators and scholars from a wide range of fields including economics, education, law, political science and public policy.

"Governing Academia covers an important range of issue related to governance of institutions of higher education," said Michel Baer, senior vice president, programs and analysis, American Council on Education. "The contributors address issues that affect both public policy and the internal operations of campuses."

The book is published by Cornell University Press and sells for $35. To order copies call 1-800-666-2211.