Public No More - (Stanford Business Books (Hardcover)) by Andrew J Policano & Gary C Fethke (Hardcover)

About the Book

The protective mechanisms that have sheltered public universities are eroding. This book shows how this class of school can adapt to new funding realities, adopt focused strategies, and can create structural changes that place a greater emphasis on financial viability, market accountability, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Book Synopsis

Public No More examines the quickly changing environment within higher education, including the permanent decline in state support for public universities. This book raises the question of how research universities can survive with reduced subsidies and increased competition from both non-profit and growing for-profit institutions. Authors Gary C. Fethke and Andrew J. Policano, both longtime university administrators, offer a strategic framework for determining how tuition and access should be set and how universities should decide on quality and program scope. Throughout the text, real-world examples illustrate successful and unsuccessful adoptions of the authors' proposals.

Leadership within public higher education, policymakers, and researchers alike will find Public No More to be a sober and well-grounded guide to what lies ahead for universities across the nation.

Review Quotes

"Fethke and Policano do an excellent job of pinpointing the key issues in public higher education, and presenting strategic management solutions using lucid examples. Rigorous, but not overly technical, this book has a timely message, not just for higher education, but for the analysis of any situation in which strategic choices must be made and change is eminent."--John Kraft, Dean and Professor, University of Florida

"This book addresses a series of issues that are both relevant and critical for those attempting to understand the dynamics affecting public universities. It prepares university presidents, provosts, and all faculty leaders for the economic and intellectual decision issues that are arising on campuses across the country with increasing frequency. Public No More is also invaluable to public officials, who need to understand the impact of their choices on America's ability to provide the education that is essential to international competitiveness."--Joseph Alutto, Vice President and Provost, Ohio State University and Director, Nationwide Financial Services, M/I Homes, and United Retail Group

"Public universities historically haven't dealt well with the harsh realities of dropping revenues and rising global competition, but they'd better get started, warn Fethke of the University of Iowa and Policano of UC Irvine. . . Write the authors, 'We predict that schools that move toward self-reliance, with strategies that identify and implement a financially viable plan, will become the top public universities; those that do not will fall into competitive decline.'"--BizEd

About the Author

Gary C. Fethke served as a university administrator for over twenty-five years, as Dean of the Business School and Interim President at the University of Iowa. He is the Leonard A. Hadley Professor of Leadership in the Tippie College of Business. Andrew J. Policano is the Dean's Leadership Circle Professor and Dean of the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California at Irvine. He is widely recognized for his innovative leadership, which spans twenty-two years in three deanships.