the big hairy college committee

I've spent about a year co-chairing a big hairy audacious college committee to make recommendations about current budget cuts and future priorities. This morning we're sharing our final report with all the students, faculty, and staff in the college, and anybody else who might take an interest. I'm not sure how our numerous goals and recommendations will be received, but the effort has been personally rewarding and, at times, even inspiring.

Our college of about 16,700 students and 550 faculty is diverse and consultative, with an emphasis on transparency. These are wonderful attributes in a college, of course, but they do keep committees busy.* When the dean asked me to serve, he read a list of the 30 names and affiliations of the committee members, spanning the full range of humanities, arts, and social sciences. My first reaction, which seemed to delight him, was that, "These people don't agree with each other at all." Plus, they were multitudes, with enormous differences in status and power -- so much so that we'd sometimes use classroom clickers to make sure that everybody could be heard.

As it turns out, I shouldn't have worried so much about whether everyone on the big hairy committee agreed with one another. Instead of advocating narrowly on behalf of their departments or units, the members seemed to check their affiliations at the door -- even in high-stakes conversations and debates. People generally just rolled up their sleeves and got to work, with everyone orienting toward some vision of  the common good of the college. While these visions were not always in perfect alignment, we avoided the sort of internecine conflict that one might expect among folks acting on behalf of their home departments or units. For me, at least, it was inspiring to witness so many smart people doing such difficult work so civic-mindedly.


*For example, being consultative and transparent meant sharing our draft reports as we were writing them and quite a few meetings with stakeholders. In just the past two weeks, we've met with the associate deans, chief financial officer, chief of staff, chief information officer, and director of alumni relations; the department chairs and center directors; the budget advisory committee and the curriculum, instruction, and advising committee; the professional and administrative board; the administrators forum; the undergraduate student board; and, graduate student representatives on college and university committees.