League for Innovation in the Community College Spring 2020 | Page 6

SUPPORTING
THE
ACA
Entrepreneurial New Reven
T
he traditional higher education business model has more in common with
a medieval monastery than a modern corporation, largely dependent upon
state largesse, charitable contributions, and generous payments from
wealthy novices. For the past half-century, public colleges around the world have
faced unprecedented budget pressure driven by declining government funding,
aging demographics, steadily rising costs of technology and talent, and expanding
expectations for student support.
Increasingly, campus leaders have been required to adopt an entrepreneurial
mindset, seeking out new revenue streams to support the academic enterprise. In
many ways, though, academic culture resists a focus on generating profit. Some of
the most cherished academic ideals include collegial self-governance, a belief in
education as a public good, a commitment to promoting access for disadvantaged
students, and the academic freedom to pursue new learning without regard to
mundane political or economic considerations. Most campus leaders know the
challenge of encouraging market-focused, data-driven program decisions among
the academic rank and file, who trust their own disciplinary expertise more than
the fickle, changeable demands of students or the labor market. Moreover,
entrepreneurship demands an acceptance of risk that is extremely uncomfortable
for most public colleges, conflicting with both the zero-fault-tolerance of academic
culture and government expectations of fiduciary responsibility.
“
4
Increasingly, campus leaders
have been required to adopt
an entrepreneurial mindset,
seeking out new revenue
streams to support the
academic enterprise.”
League for Innovation in the Community College Innovatus