Out of the box: in every handful of ridiculous proposals lies a clever solution, just waiting to save the day - Editor's Note

University Business, April, 2003 by Kathy Grayson

MANY YEARS AGO, AS A YOUNG MANAGER, I ATTENDED A manager's retreat hosted by the publishing company that employed me at the time. The highlight of the retreat (aside from a memorable spa massage I threw in for good measure) was a daylong exercise on creative problem solving. During the first half of the day, we practiced "out-of-the-box" thinking: the ability to brainstorm solutions from the ground up, with no preconceived biases, agendas, or suppositions, and no fear of flying in the face of convention (or just plain embarrassment at what others might snicker at as a stupid idea).

That exercise constituted one of the most uncomfortable mornings of my life, as I tried to fling off every bit of assumption I had ever acquired, and attempted to free my billions of brain cells from patterns and experiences that were etched as deeply as with acid.

In the afternoon, the managers gathered as teams to find creative solutions for mock scenarios that were presented to us. That meant that we spent those next hours offering up every outlandish, out-of-left-field, insane, and unthinkable proposal that popped into our heads. At the end of the day, we found ourselves with a stream-of-consciousness list that read like a Stephen King novel gone amok.

And yet, by evening, after much discussion, we could see how at least two of those absurd suggestions--teamed in a most unconventional way--might offer a solution to our imaginary challenge.

Who would have thought that a group of editors, publishers, and circulation and finance people could be so courageous and innovative? Can you get any more conventional than editors, publishers, and circulation and finance people?

Well, maybe ...

As I write these words, remembering my previous life in publishing, I'm glancing at piles of college and university news strewn across the desk I occupy in my current position at University Business. Top of pile (representing top of mind, to an editor) are three recent printouts of UBdaily (our daily e-newsletter), with three stories I have marked up for this editorial. We ran all of them--"More Students Line Up at Financial Aid Office" (The New York Times), "SUNY Students Sit-in Over Tuition Increase" (Newsday), and "Lawmaker Challenges Rising College Costs" (Los Angeles Times)--in early March. Taken together, they underscore the conundrum that higher ed now finds itself facing: 1) An economy siphoning state and federal dollars away from tuition and operating expenses; 2) a public faced with record unemployment and a sudden and dramatic lack of funds to attend college (especially private institutions); 3) rapidly declining financial aid levels; 4) IHEs caught in a vise of disappearing dollars, and forced to hike tuition rates, often spectacularly; and 5) students, actively and loudly resisting their price-out of a higher education, or else quietly looking for work instead of a college degree.

Knee-jerk reactions to critical circumstances are, of course, the norm these days: tuition hikes, staff layoffs, deferred maintenance and construction, more aggressive capital campaigns. Moreover, no one is saying that tough times do not call for tough--and often painful--measures.

But what if there were other (shall we say?) creative ways to provide the needed dollars for financial aid, tuition differential, maintenance and construction, etc.? What if administrators and educators could come up with a combination of innovative plans, programs, and streamlining measures? For instance:

What about a military-style "reserves" program for college, wherein the business sector (or medicine, or K-12 education, or urban planning, etc.) funds the education of certain students with the understanding that a multiyear "stint" at an agreed wage level is owed, after graduation? (This might bring top talent to depressed areas with limited pay scales.) Or how about moving the "adopt-a-spot" community beautification model to the campus? Local business could not only "adopt" campus areas, it could "adopt" financially needy students (just like a scholarship, only with better PR, and maybe internship or work-study components that would benefit the business). How about moving to an enforced four-day "austerity" class schedule, wherein most academic buildings are closed one day a week (saving a fortune yearly in facilities costs, which could be applied elsewhere)? After all, many students try to schedule classes with a free day for internships, etc., and faculty rarely teach five days a week. Why not--for the time being--coordinate the free day, to release a significant amount of funds?

All right; maybe these ideas sound ridiculous. But the fact is, they're my small start in that uncomfortable "out-of-the-box" process. If your smartest administrators, educators, and students collaborate on this kind of unselfconscious brainstorming right now, you might be amazed at the number of revenue-freeing and -generating ideas you could come up with quickly. Taken together, they may see you through this economic storm.