"Good to Grrrreat!"

Anyone with an ear to the ground has no doubt heard the sussuring of a hedgehog rolling over in its little hedgehog grave.  You know the one.  The grave beneath the chapel?  Anyway: said hedgehog is rolling over after reading minutes from a meeting in which the "hedgehog concept" was used to justify threats to fire tenured faculty members because though they may belong to "good" departments and programs, they do not belong to "great" departments and programs.  

Problem:  the "good to great" concepts (hedgehog et al.) cannot be applied to academia in the same way they can be applied to corporations. First of all because the entire "good to great" analysis emerged from close, careful empirical study of corporations, not academic institutions. More importantly because a "great" institution cannot sever and forget about core values, core obligations, its central mission (identified by the chancellor's strategic plan as having everything to do with the liberal arts).  But don't take my word for it.  Here's Jim Collins himself, the author of the "Good to Great" book:

Once institutions have developed their hedgehog concept, their core values are readily identifiable. Core values don't change over time; they remain fixed and provide a sense of purpose that goes beyond just making money. Core values are the ideological framework on which everything is built. They are not open for negotiation. Academic freedom is a core value in higher education; the practice that flows from that core value is tenure. Institutions must not confuse their values and their practices: one is fixed, the other is open to change to allow for progress.

I have a feeling that a dead hedgepig is even more dangerous than a living one. Hedgepig is dead, and we have killed him. Long live hedgepig.