Turnaround: Leading Stressed Colleges and Universities to Excellence

Turnaround: Leading Stressed Colleges and Universities to Excellence by James Martin, James E. Samels, and Associates The Johns Hopkins University Press 2009 307 pages ISBN 978-0-8018-9068-0 Reviewed by Theodore E. Long The publication of Turnaround could not have been more timely. Appearing just as a mighty economic storm was pounding higher education, its very title promised help for all of us battling the headwinds of the great recession. Indeed, the promise of help is fulfilled in this volume, but not exactly in the way some might have hoped given the book's timing. For Turnaround is not about coping with the great recession or revising our business models to address new market realities. Instead, it focuses on those institutions that are stressed because they have fared poorly for whatever reason, and it offers more guidance on turning things around inside the institution than on adapting to a changing higher education marketplace. The primary thesis and organization of the book reflect the perspective of Martin and Sameis, leaders of The Education Alliance, a higher education consulting firm www.edalliance. corn), and authors of several other volumes on academic leadership. Their extensive experience suggests that (1) institutional stress is widespread (currently affecting about 1,000 institutions, they estimate), (2) renewed leadership can achieve a successful turnaround, and (3) general principles exist that leaders can apply to do so. Given that framework, they enlist 19 other scholars and educational leaders to elaborate on these principles in the major areas of college and university operation: the leadership team, board governance, academic affairs, student affairs, finance, fund-raising, institutional research, and public relations. There are also chapters about fragility's relationship to accreditation, religiously affiliated colleges, for-profit colleges, and legal standing, as well as chapters offering national and international perspectives. While this array addresses many important facets of turnarounds, I found it curious that a volume focused on institutions "dependent on tuition or state appropriations" (p. 3) did not include any substantial treatment of enrollment and financial aid issues or a systematic comparison of turnarounds in state-supported vs. private institutions. Martin and Sameis wrote the first chapter on the nature of stressed institutions and the new leadership needed for turnarounds and the final chapter on the action principles required to achieve successful turnarounds. As a college president, I found these to be the most focused and compelling of the book's 16 chapters in terms of understanding institutional stress and the leadership challenge involved in turnaround situations. While I would challenge some of their 20 indicators of risk (no online programs, relatively new or relatively experienced leadership teams), they form a coherent set overall, particularly when several conditions appear together. Wise leaders will use this list to avoid stressed situations before they occur, not just to recognize them after they develop. The analysis of new skills needed by leaders is sharp and provocative, something that even the most experienced leaders can use to renew their work, and the summary lessons offered about achieving turnarounds provide a useful framework for undertaking them. The other essays are all solid, and I found several especially valuable. D. Bruce Johnstone's analysis of the financial fragility of higher education internationally demonstrates how pervasive and systemic the challenges to our fiscal model had become even before the economic collapse, a sobering warning for all of us. In his "View from Washington," Daniel J. Levin discusses considerations of educational reform from the Spellings Commission and requirements of financial management from Moody's that apply to all institutions, and he offers some valuable counsel about leading turnarounds from those perspectives. …