In late 2013, our guest, futurist Bryan Alexander, and colleagues crowd-sourced a new metaphor into our higher ed vernacular: The Queen Sacrifice. According to Alexander, The Queen Sacrifice is a strategy in which “a college or university sacrifices one of its most vital elements (faculty, academic offerings) to ward off financial woe.” The perils of a queen sacrifice are plenty, implying both a practical fissure in the institution, and a cultural one. When financial restructuring is on the table, pushing cuts of academic programs shines a spotlight on institutional values and mission, in addition to financial woes.

This week on Navigating Change, Bryan Alexander joins us to address a question that eludes the most talented academic strategists: how do you transform academic structures and programs without diminishing the mission?

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