ABSTRACT

The higher-education literature describes the historic academic culture, involving the philosophical views and prerogatives of faculty toward campus governance, accountability, and institutional change. The absence of incentives and rewards at all levels of the University for making difficult decisions related to improving cost-efficiency and effectiveness and to generating additional revenues is a central political problem associated with the traditional campus culture and the resistance to institutional change. Institutional success will depend on the degree that the campus culture embraces a driving lust for excellence and a higher expectation of innovation and accountability. In the academy, attempts to invest in technological advancement can very easily be thwarted by the politics of the campus culture. The campus politics involved in making recommendations and in the planning for change is a separate issue from the implementation of change. Thomas P. Wallace has criticized the academy's inherent resistance to change and to the demands for "accountability."