Strategic Governance: How to Make Big Decisions Better (American Council on Education Oryx Press Series on Higher Education)

This is an essential publication for those seeking to establish the representative council approach to organizational goal setting and decision making. The strategic planning council (SPC), made up of faculty, administrators, staff, and students, has its roots in the response of higher education to student unrest in the 1960s and early 1970s. The changing environment faced by colleges and universities today makes strategic planning a necessary component for dealing with decreasing federal support, an older student population, ethnic diversity, and a wide range of other issues. Examples of SPCs from eight different colleges and universities are contrasted and compared, accompanied by a careful examination of leadership style and organizational culture. Included in this discussion are universities that have successfully instituted strategic planning councils and those that rejected the approach.