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The school should identify the undergraduate programs that best serve its liberal arts strengths and commit to making them the best in the state.

Second, the graduate and law programs need to be integrated with and connected to the undergraduate liberal arts base. Whatever the vision of Hamline is, the current silos that separate the CLA, law, and grad programs should be dismantled. Hamline is a liberal arts institution first, and it is this base that should be the foundation, even in its professional degrees.

An “academics first” vision also means remembering that faculty are why individuals choose schools. No student ever selected a school based on the administrators. If you want better academics, support faculty, invest in their development, and commit to respecting tenure across the university.

Governance matters. Top-down corporate models are ill-suited for an academic vision that draws upon the faculty for its strength. One recommendationčUniversity Council has never achieved legitimacy or efficacy as a governing body. It should be replaced with both an all-university faculty senate and a real all college council of faculty, students, staff, and administrators.

Transparency and trust promote better governance. Climates of secrecy and top-down management facilitate distrust, often promoting skepticism and second guessing of administrators, even if they mean well.

Make the school budget totally public. Let all know the real financial status of the school and how spending supports institutional imperatives

Academic excellence requires money. Hamline must worry about revenue generation, be it from tuition, contributions, investments, or other income sources. There is no magic bullet to raising more money for its academics.

In developing revenue generation and savings, here is where Hamline can learn from the private sector.
Diversity is no longer a buzzword or a good public relations tool in the corporate world; it is a business imperative as the workforce and customer bases are changing. Student demographics are rapidly changing, and Hamline is geographically situated to take advantage of this diversity.

Second, take a cue from IBMčreward individuals who can suggest ways to save money or improve efficiencies. Staff, students and professors are often better situated than administrators to see how and where change is needed.

Third, eliminate middle management. Both the private sector and government in the last few years have moved to eliminate layers of management, but studies show that colleges across the country, including Hamline, have bucked that trend, adding more administrators and bureaucracy.

Making academic excellence the primary mission of Hamline is what the presidential vision should state, but to make that possible, shared governance, trust, and transparency must be promoted, and revenue sources must be identified. The arrival of a new president makes all this possible, and one hopes that a vision of the future confronts these four issues.

Professor David Schultz
Graduate School of Management