Higher Education Institutional Crisis and Solutions Term Paper

Introduction

Higher education continues to be a significant aspect within an economy with professions necessitating individuals with such educational attainments. However, institutions of higher education have continued to experience several challenges, including deteriorating student enrollments, increasing student debt across the United States, and also concerning student completion rates for the different educational programs. The Higher Education sector in the United States is experiencing major challenges. California State University, Los Angeles, is the leading all-inclusive public university that is situated at the heart of Los Angeles and is committed to engagement, service, and the public good. It is one of the renowned higher education institutions not only in Los Angeles but also in the state of California as a whole. The purpose of this report is to conduct extensive research to offer prospective solutions to an organizational problem being experienced at Cal State LA as a setting for higher education.

Vision, Mission, and Values

The mission of Cal State LA is to transform lives and cultivate flourishing communities across greater Los Angeles. The university purposes of nurturing and amplify the students' distinctive talents, diverse life experiences, and intellect, via engaged teaching, research, learning, scholarship, and public service that support their general success, well-being, and the greater good (California State University Los Angeles, 2020).

The vision statement for Cal State LA is to be internationally acknowledged as the leading comprehensive public university in greater Los Angeles. The organization is committed to delivering innovative and pioneering academic programs. These programs prepare students to be innovative leaders in both their civic and professional lives in addition to serving the public good via initiatives that facilitate the engagement of local, regional, and international communities in mutually beneficial affiliations (California State University Los Angeles, 2020).

The values of the university include the following:

1. Students First – Cal State LA places the academic achievement, career inclination, and welfare at the heart of everything that they do.

2. Pushing Boundaries – Cal State LA sets motivated and determined goals to challenge and inspire the organization, benefiting its role as the premier comprehensive public University of Los Angeles.

3. Engagement, Service and the Public Good – Cultivating significant, harmonious relationships that make a contribution to the public good

4. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – Nurturing diversity, anticipating cultural competence, and enthusiastically seeking standpoints an engagement from elements in the community to develop expectations that are equitable.

5. Student Engagement – Heartening students to take ownership of their campus experience and pursue prospects that promote inclusion, leadership, and a sense of belonging

6. Engaged Teaching and Learning – Cal State LA nurtures and magnifies the students' exceptional talents, different life experiences, and intelligence through engaged education, learning, studentship, research, and lively student life

7. Academic Distinction - Cal State LA nurtures and promotes academic distinction via innovation, academic exactitude and the search for lifelong learning

8. Community of Scholars – Cal State LA nurtures and promotes a community of scholars amongst faculty and students who are engaged in research, creative attainments and scholarship

9. A culture of Excellence – The organization heartens and anticipates all members to seek out academic, professional, and individual excellence

10. Transparent Collaborative Decision-Making – Cal State LA makes decisions that are based on evidence and informed by data and are cooperative and transparent

11. Mutual Respect – Cal State LA is dedicated to nurturing a setting that us supportive and accommodating where every individual dedicates to cultivating a culture for respecting everyone

12. Academic Freedom – Cal State LA promotes academic freedom and professional ethics (California State University Los Angeles, 2020).

Goals and Strategies

The goals and strategies of Cal State LA include the following:

1. Graduate students who are civic inclined and prepared for and dedicated to engagement, service, and the public good

2. Cultivate an accommodating and inclusive campus where students and members of staff and faculty as well as community as a whole are respected and nurtured

3. Generate a constructive, all-inclusive student experience with a clear and well-times path to a high quality degree

4. Provide undergraduate and graduate programs of high quality and invest in faculty who are distinctively dedicated to teaching a diverse student body (California State University Los Angeles, 2020).

Organizational Problem

One of the fundamental problems being faced by California State University, Los Angeles is financial limitations and constraints to facilitate student aid and also university business operations. Statistics indicate that several higher education organizations are experience major financial challenges, facing an increase of 8 percent in the 2017 school year. Furthermore, the declining state funding year after year for higher education universities and colleges has given rise to diminished critical…

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…to guarantee that governance is adapted to satisfy the new oversight difficulties, with the college faculty playing a significantly greater role in generating an inventive educational institution. Secondly, the university needs to implement a fresher, more flexible model that takes into consideration modifications in how the university employs tuition, re-envision underutilized assets, reconsider the utilization of funds that are limited temporarily and seek out extra partners to generate new revenue streams. Furthermore, the university needs to set aside outdated strategies for student enrollment and replace them with newer financial aid analytical models that distinguish academic programs. Also, they need to emphasize student life and concentrate on results via a stronger career-counseling network that generates a longstanding relationship (Mitchell, 2018).

Reflection

In light of the work completed during this course, my thoughts and ideas on leadership have changed, as compared to when I started the course. Initially, my perspective of leadership encompassed the notion of impelling individuals to behave in a certain manner. Nonetheless, my present perspective is that leadership encompasses motivating a group of different individuals to behave and conduct themselves toward a mutual goal or objective. I believe that it refers to communicating with individuals in an endeavor to ensure that the goals are properly elucidated and achieved. Secondly, what I have learned about my leadership will be significantly assimilated into my professional and personal pursuits. Specifically, I have determined that I am a transformational leader. In this regard, my emphasis takes into account working in tandem with the different teams to pinpoint the necessitated change, form a vision to implement the change using inspiration and motivation, and implementing the change together with dedicated team members. I believe that leadership necessitates teamwork.

One of the key aspects that I have learned about my style of research and writing is that it takes a longer period than necessitated. During this process, I have ascertained different approaches to undertake to refine my research and writing. One of the ways to achieve this is by splitting the research task or undertaking it into different practicable sections. This makes the research process simpler. On top of this, my new strategy is also writing down the different ideas and concepts that come to mind. Usually, while doing research, it is common for ideas to pop up to mind randomly, and they can easily be forgotten. Therefore, having a pen and a book…