Law and Policy

Session ThreeHEOC 725

Law and Policy

Policy can be defined as a set of general rules that guide an enterprise. Policy answers very basic questions such as “Whom should we be serving?” and “What good(s) should we be providing to those whom we serve?”

Why do organizations need policy?

Without policy, organizations drift. They are easily captured by immediate needs and they give up the opportunity to be effective over time.

Think of an organization without policy that you’ve experienced. What were the results?Now think of an organization that was shaped by clear policy. What advantages did the policy provide?

Assignment

Working together over the internet, each study team submit one page summaries of some “hidden hand” influence. Review, for example, the efforts of Women Employed to reinstate the Monetary Award Program Grant. Or Google “Achieving the Dream AND Michigan” to see what the Lumina Foundation is doing in several states to increase college complete rates.

The “nested set”

Policy expert John Carver once observed that policies can be seen as “nested sets.” For example, the strategic ends of a college fit within the strategic ends of the state and the nation it serves.

We will begin by looking at policy with a big P, that is policy that guide forces bigger than the college or university.

If Carver is right, the policies with a big P will influence institutions that “nest” within the larger society.

For example, if “job creation” is important to the Obama administration, it will be important to the states and their colleges as well.

Philosophers have a name for the principle that Big Things influence little things within their reach.They would say that if jobs are important to the President of the United States, then a fortiori (Latin for “from the stronger”) jobs are important to American colleges.The term is pronounced “a-for-she-or-ee”

Why Make Policy?

Policy helps groups define their goals. External groups are guided by their own policy positions when they attempt to influence higher education.

Those policy positions reflect the larger group’s a) notion of what’s good for America, and b) desire to have a significant say in the process

In other words, groups are guided by their:A. vision of America, andB. desire for power

Sometimes the two conflict. Then the organization has to decide which is more important, at least for the time being.

Review chapters 6 and 7 in Altbach. They describe the effect that emerging state and federal policies are having on colleges and universities. Note especially Aims McGuinness’ observation that states care less now about a college’s health than what a college can do for the state, (p. 218ff.) The same could be said for the feds.

In Illinois, the legislative leadership has consistently put power over ideals. Changing the state’s fiscal system in fundamental ways would be risky to the parties’ share of power. So the risk is not taken. The last politician to take significant political risk in order to advance his ideals was southern Illinois’ Republican Senator Ralph Dunn, the deciding vote in the state’s last tax increase.

Mike Lawrence and others from the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute in Carbondale have called upon the legislature to put the needs of the state above political security but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Legislative leaders put the political advantage of their party over the welfare of Illinois.

State and Federal Bureaucracy

“Bureaucracies” were invented by King Henry II of France (1133-1189). Henry II was played by Peter O’Toole in the 1968 film, “The Lion in Winter.” Father of three French kings and husband to the self-confident Eleanor of Aquitaine (played by Katharine Hepburn), Henry provided services to all parts of his kingdom through a well-trained, ethical, reliable “bureaucracy.”

Today the term “bureaucratic” is used as an epithet to describe the self-indulgent, over-reaching behavior of overly secure government functionaries.

What has happened since Henry II?

“Bureaucratic” is used as an epithet to describe self-indulgent, wasteful, oppressive government interference in the lives of the people.

This has happened because some bureaucrats, secure in their lifetime (civil service or unionized) appointments, sometimes seem eager to regulate whatever the cost to the public.

Other Forces

Read chapter 9 in Altbach. The authors describe the impact of accrediting associations (such as The Higher Learning Commission), other voluntary associations such as the American Council on Education, and foundations and other not-for-profit organizations (such as Women Employed)

Employees and the University

Early Maoist Chinese used to make fun of their factory employees. “They pretend to work and we pretend to pay them,” went the joke.

Similar cracks are made today about university employees. The advent of unions and the use of civil service systems have given university employees a slice of the good life.

Current discussion focuses on the “defined benefit” pension systems of state college and university employees. While pension systems elsewhere are diminished or eliminated, the employees of state colleges and universities continue to enjoy robust pensions upon their retirement.

Because they are treated well and because the colleges they serve are generally respected by the larger society, college employees are extraordinarily loyal to their employing institutions. University and college retiree organizations are common and the giving record of college employees and retirees is impressive.

College employee and retiree groups have the potential to be very effective in advocacy on behalf of higher education, but college leaders have been generally hesitant to enroll their efforts perhaps for fear of losing control of the advocacy campaign. As the ranks of college employees and retirees continue to grow rapidly, this underutilized resource deserves another look.

What have we missed?

What other larger social forces have we missed?

A. the environmental movement?B. the “tea party” movement?C. growth of immigrant populations?D. other?