When Universities Eat Themselves

My doctoral studies are in the domain of composition and rhetoric, and CCCC is the organization that significantly informed how I approach research and teaching. I and many of my colleagues are still reeling and left wondering why NCTE would disband CCCC given its sustained excellence and impact as a scholarly association that spanned disciplinary boundaries and barriers. NCTE says the decision was based on fiscal sustainability and governance problems, but rejected all proposals to correct the issues and dissolved the organization anyway.

I've been watching something structurally similar happening at private universities with their schools and colleges of professional & continuing education. With blind faith in uninformed online enrollment projections offered by consultants, leaders at these universities are deprioritizing or folding their PCE units into hack back-office administrative units because they think they'll save some pennies while they chase the unrealistic online revenues. Like NCTE, some of these universities hold muted disdain toward anything that doesn't fit their dying model of higher education, so their short-sighted and myopic views of PCE units serve as a false reassurance that they're making the best decision. This is especially egregious when these leaders try to justify their bad decisions with disingenuous tropes about evolving the organization or protecting the core. CCCC was told its "culture" threatened NCTE's nonprofit status, with zero explanation. PCE divisions are being told they no longer fit university brands, or that relocating their services, programs and mission under visionless administrators and bands of transactional robots will create operational efficiency. In both cases, "leadership" is trying hard to tidy up something that sits awkwardly within their fading imagine of a dying institution. 

What frustrates and saddens me most is the shortsightedness of it all. I don't think these leaders are bad. I do think they're uninformed, scared and casting about to do something that looks like control. But dissolving a mission-critical scholarly association or dismantling an established and successful PCE unit isn't control, it's just dumb.