Executive Commentary

From Crisis a New System?

Bob Hassmiller This is written on Monday, January 18, 2010—Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. I’ve just been told that we sold extra advertising, so now there is a page for my “Commentary.” The one I wrote previously is now in the NACAS Quarterly, so I have one day to think anew.

The MLK holiday reminds me of the major heroes who sacrificed their safety, position, often friends and family to make a better America. No, not 1776—more like 1956 and 1966 as freedom marchers and others fought and clawed for a reality of fair racial and gender treatment. Indeed they created a new reality by forcing the old bigoted civilization to look in a mirror and admit it was wrong.

Yesterday, I worked to help fundraising efforts for the American Red Cross efforts in Haiti. I know colleagues who are preparing to respond there, and I am so proud of our friends at the University of Miami who have sent about 100 of their top medical staff to run early field hospitals amid the chaos. I’m aware of groups from Stanford and other of our institutions who are stepping up to offer similar efforts.

I have some understanding of reactions to disaster. My wife and I have volunteered in various disasters for the American Red Cross. We both worked during the Florida hurricanes in 2004, and Sue visited International Red Cross tsunami efforts in Indonesia. Never before had we seen the infrastructures of police, firefighters, healthcare, as well as the availability of easy access to food, water, communication and shelter smashed—with the resulting need to create new systems.

In these instances, we rebuilt better racial harmony (better, not perfect), survived the hurricanes and built better disaster systems, are still rebuilding those areas wracked by the tsunami, and we will rebuild Haiti. Why? Because with crisis comes the opportunity to create new and better systems.

I am still a pessimist for higher education. From Friday, January 15:

“Across the nation, state tax collections in the first three quarters of 2009 posted their steepest decline in at least 46 years, according to a report this month from the public policy research arm of the State University of New York.” [Colin Barr, senior writer Fortune magazine]

“It’s surprising that political leaders don’t seem to be taking seriously the magnitude of the problems,” said Reschovsky. [Economist Andrew Reschovsky, a professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison]

“You would hope it wouldn’t come to this, but it might take schools closing and programs being eliminated to create a sense of urgency.”

These changes, added to anecdotal information that we at NACAS get from around higher education, mean that crisis, often interpreted by me as the declaration of financial exigency and tenured faculty cuts and even campus closings, could change the higher education landscape.

What is a higher education association, especially one of auxiliary service professionals, to do? One suggestion, based upon my experience with disasters, is to look at systems beyond your single campus.

We’ve prepared national, state and even association systems. The problem is that so much of what we do is community-related. Last weekend, during “off-time,” I visited the research triangle that includes Duke, North Carolina State, North Carolina, Durham and Wake Community Colleges, among many higher education institutions. They are very different, yet very similar too. In normal circumstances, each would have its own auxiliary service system.

But these are NOT normal times, and we are very close to crisis circumstances. I wonder what we, as an association, could do to encourage higher education institutions to explore more community-based cooperative systems. Could we expand self-operations to achieve greater economies through greater cooperation? Could we work with our outsourcing partners to do the same? Might we even have hybrid systems that would bring unique solutions to our joint challenges? Is it possible to both compete and cooperate in our communities at the same time?

There are many reasons to respond to each question with “Of course not. We haven’t ever done it that way, and we’ve always been successful.” But these are extraordinary times, and I can relate that new and possibly more effective and efficient systems often do arise out of crisis situations.

If it could be done, the advocates would have to be you! We at NACAS may be able to help—but you are the stakeholders. It’s your association and your decision. What is a higher education association, especially one of auxiliary service professionals, to do?

Please agree or disagree to bob@nacas.org.