Dive Brief:
- University of Missouri's Board of Curators is planning to completely reform the institution's existing rules of governance on issues ranging from sexual harassment and discrimination to how campus leaders operate the business, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
- A report from the commission put together last year to audit the university's Collected Rules and Regulations has been one of the primary reasons why the board decided to update the institution's guidelines, with Gary Forsee, former University of Missouri president and now vice chair of the commission saying that many of the rules were outdated.
- The decision to update rules follows the institution's high-profile 2015 protests, the ousting of the president at the time, Timothy Wolfe, and a 35% drop in enrollment the following year — which suggests that the need to adapt business practices comes from the recognition of a vastly different student body from decades before.
Dive Insight:
In an age of disruptive innovation within the industry — protests, entirely online schools, shorter alternative credentialing options and a rise in nontraditional learners on campuses nationwide — institutions must adapt to stay ahead. And, this doesn't mean changing day-to-day practices in campus life for students, but truly considering the core governing practices and how that affects customers. The University of Missouri saw in 2015 the repercussions of not approaching a vastly more diverse student body appropriately, when protests flared up and ended up having lasting impacts on the institution's business. The overhaul and commission suggestions to reform policies regarding things like discrimination and sexual assault only highlight the need for innovation to come from the top-down and be integrated into the actual functioning of the business, rather than institutional leaders just offering lip-service. As many in the industry have not considered their governing rules for several decades, campus leaders may want to look toward the University of Missouri to see what types of proactive steps can be taken to prevent what the university was not able to avoid in the past.