Leading Existential Change in Higher Ed: Mergers, Closures, and Other Major Institutional Restructuring

A guide on how to strategically lead institutions of higher education through mergers and other major institutional restructurings.

Higher education is at a crossroads. With demographic shifts, financial constraints, shrinking enrollments, and the demand for institutional innovation, universities and colleges are grappling with monumental challenges. In Leading Existential Change in Higher Ed, Ricardo Azziz, Lloyd A. Jacobs, Bonita C. Jacobs, and Richard Katzman offer invaluable insights into how institutional leaders can successfully navigate mergers, closures, and other large-scale transformations.

The authors explore the critical components of successfully leading institutional restructuring―such as pacing change, managing resistance, and harnessing the power of early adopters―while also recognizing the obstacles leaders face. Using vivid examples from real mergers in higher education, this book demonstrates how and why versatile leadership is essential as colleges and universities face an increasingly uncertain future. Whether managing a complex merger, preparing for potential closure, or undertaking other major institutional restructuring, leaders must be willing to embrace difficult decisions and act decisively before institutional decline becomes irreversible.

Drawing on decades of leadership experience and research, this book provides actionable strategies for higher education leaders to take charge of change, rather than be swept away by it. Leading Existential Change in Higher Ed is an essential guide for college and university presidents and chancellors, trustees, policymakers, and other executives and stakeholders who seek to lead and guide institutions of higher education through turbulent times.

Ricardo Azziz is a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a research professor at the University at Albany, State University of New York; the director of the Center for Higher Education Mergers & Acquisitions (CHEMA) at the Foundation for Research and Education Excellence; and principal at SPH Consulting Group. He led the merger that created Georgia Regents (now Augusta) University, serving as its founding president.

Lloyd A. Jacobs is President Emeritus of the University of Toledo, where he led its merger with the Medical College of Ohio.

Bonita C. Jacobs led the merger of Gainesville State College with North Georgia College and State University to form the University of North Georgia, where she served as the founding president.

Richard Katzman is a fellow at CHEMA and a senior consultant at SPH Consulting Group.