The Stress of Change: Testing the Resilience of Institutions

Book excerpt: Colleges and universities have administrative and governance arrangements that can come to terms with change. These can come into play to interpret and modulate change and to allow necessary adjustments through participatory processes. But the capacity of these mechanisms to preserve and protect the institution is not ordinarily all that visible. Gradual and decorous accommodations tend to make the working of these mechanisms largely or even wholly invisible. It is a premise of this collection of essays that we need to look at highly stressful change to understand, or at least get a feel for, the capacity of governance, administration, and faculty to deal with major issues. This is the 151st issue of the Jossey-Bass series; New Directions for Higher Education, published quarterly. Addressed to presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other higher-education decision-makers on all kinds of campuses, New Directions for Higher Education provides timely information and authoritative advice about major issues and administrative problems confronting every institution.