Helping Faculty 'Get It'

Attend a meeting of senior college administrators, and you'll probably hear someone gripe about how the faculty don't understand the challenges -- financial and otherwise -- that their institution is facing. A typical explanation is that the faculty are focused on their discipline or their research, or they don't view finances as their problem. Michelle Behr, the provost and dean of the college at Birmingham-Southern College, didn't want to be just another complaining administrator. So last fall, she began holding two monthly meetings for the faculty to consider the current higher education landscape -- and what it means for the future of liberal arts colleges like Birmingham-Southern.