102: Innovation in Higher Education: Lessons Learned - Strategic Planning and Innovation

Solutions for Higher Education with Southern Utah University President Scott L Wyatt

Show Notes:

President Scott L Wyatt and Steve Meredith welcome Dr. Jon Anderson, Southern Utah University’s Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. In this episode, the group discusses the role of shared governance in university strategic planning and how to engage faculty, staff, and students in the process.

Featured Quotes:

And so, [according to the American Association of University Professors] it is the president’s responsibility to innovate for the institution and to push that, and the question then becomes, ‘How is that best done?’ And as you mentioned, it’s best done not by one person putting out new ideas and everybody jumping in line. A lot of that work has to be coming to a shared understanding of the changes that need to happen, and not specific policy changes that I’m talking about, but the changes that are driven by environmental conditions that put the long-term sustainability of the institution at risk.
Jon Anderson - Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Southern Utah University

. . . I’ll say in advance as we have this conversation that this work of shared governance is not efficient, and it is incredibly slow relative to dictatorship styles, and it is very time-consuming, but very healthy. And so, as we work through this, we’ve got to make sure that people who are engaging in it—and we’re asking, faculty, staff, everybody to engage in it—they have to know upfront it is going to take a lot of effort, it’s going to take a lot of time.
Jon Anderson - Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Southern Utah University

Links Associated with this Episode:

• Transcript

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