The members of the Board of Regents spend countless hours of their lives reading documents and going to meetings. They make decisions that will affect the future of Alaska in all kinds of ways. I'm sure that all of the board members are deeply committed to helping shape the University of Alaska into a great institution.
The faculty and staff have dedicated themselves to the same goal. Faculty have spent more time getting an education than most people. Tenured track faculty have gone beyond a bachelors degree, beyond a masters, to get a doctorate of one sort or another. For most that doctorate represents a full time pursuit of knowledge and skills for three to seven years. For some more.
Students, too, have a giant stake in the quality of the University of Alaska. While most will only be there for four to eight years (many students have families and full time jobs while they are pursuing their degrees so it takes them a little longer to graduate), the better the faculty, the smaller the class sizes, and the more efficient the administration, the more they get out of the time spent on their education.
All the various constituents of the university - this includes agencies and businesses that benefit from faculty research and expertise and a well educated work force; it includes all the businesses that students and university employees patronize; it includes all the people who take advantage of the sports events, theater and music productions, the book store and other speaker programs - have unique perspectives on what it takes to have a great university.
The Impact Of Corporate Thinking On American Life
But the university, like all other parts of American life these days, is split into different cultures. One of the most profound conflicts in our country and the world these days pits the notion of management and the market against traditional ways of doing things. We see corporate fishing fleets gaining control over small local commercial and sports . . . [The rest continues below]