Dear Dr. Brehm,\nWelcome to campus! Although you won't officially be our chancellor until sworn in by the trustees, I thought it best to dispense with formalities and get in touch with you as soon as possible. You see, I have what could be some vital information -- information that's not in the reports you've been reading, and that might not circulate at the high-profile cocktail parties you've been attending. I want to give you the inside scoop: all the dirty little secrets they haven't told you.\n I'm not trying to scare you away from IU, Dr. Brehm. You've told reporters you don't want to be an ivory tower administrator, so you need this information. You know, the underbelly of the University. The other side of the academic track. The word on the street!\nSo, watch my column for the next couple of weeks. At the very least, it will be a nice break from retention reports and faculty recruitment statistics.
This week: Responsibility Centered Management has Ravaged the University\nAre you familiar with this system of money management? Former IU President Thomas Ehrlich, with every good intention, I'm sure, implemented Responsibility Centered Management on the cusp of the 1990s. And let me tell you, Dr. Brehm, it's worked a doozy on us.\nRCM makes each department accountable for its own budget by attaching money to students. So, if the business school can attract 500 students, then it also attracts their money. Likewise, if the English department loses 50 majors, it loses their money. One of the real barbs of RCM is that it offers no incentives for departments to collaborate and, indeed, has turned them into enemies.\nThat's why the College of Arts and Sciences waged an advertising war with the business school. One of the more embarrassing initiatives of COAS, this campaign suggested that all business majors are briefcase-carrying robots whose individuality has been stamped into the ground by Financial Accounting.\nThe folks over at Kelley were none too happy about the COAS' slogan, "Think for a Living," which accompanied posters of businessmen with vacant expressions. Of course, they didn't get too hot under the collar, what with all the money they were raking in, by virtue of their large classes and calculated requirements.\nYou see, Dr. Brehm, under the auspices of RCM, it just makes better sense to open up classes to hundreds and hundreds of students. Professors are expensive and ought to earn their keep, right? So why closet your Ph.D. in a seminar class of 15, regardless of the research that supports small class sizes? Put him in a lecture hall, give him a PowerPoint presentation to lead and let him rake in the money. It's simple cost-benefit analysis.\nAnd while you're at it, keep those students in the B-school. Business majors no longer take their economics classes through the economics department. Heavens, no! Then part of their money would flow to another fountain. That's why the business school protected their fief by offering separate econ classes (much to the dismay of the econ department).\nAnd for goodness sakes, don't be selective. Gone are the days when it was hard to get into the business school. If you have high standards, then you have fewer students and less money! Why be selective and rigorous when you could be rich! And the Kelley School's downward trend in national rankings? Well, chalk it up to money matters.\nUnfortunately, these problems aren't unique to the Kelley School of Business. You can follow the money to a general decline of standards. For instance, why should the history department encourage rigorous grading? If students get a bad grade in American History I, they'll never be back for American History II and neither will their money.\nAbout the only school on campus that has withstood the pressure to water down its rigor and increase its class sizes is the music school. And look at the music school! They're in the hole because of their commitment to selectivity and excellence!\nOh, Dr. Brehm. Help!\nNone of us can quite remember what preceded Responsibility Centered Management. Maybe it was some kind of ill-conceived patronage that ensured a supportive environment for all departments. Perhaps a misguided system that funded the important work of even small departments such as Linguistics and Folklore, despite their diminutive undergraduate enrollment.\nWhatever it was, it's gone now. The Responsibility Centered Management that replaced it ought to be called Hostility Centered Management. Departments are waging war with one another, administrators are cramming professors into overcrowded classes and the students … Well, Dr. Brehm, we're just trying to get an excellent education.
