The Chronicle of Higher Education - May 24, 2013

Georgia Health Sciences University had more
than 700 training sites throughout the state,
with four regional campuses for the medi-
cal school and two regional campuses for the
nursing school. That broad statewide presence
can now be used by Georgia Regents Uni-
versity for the benefit of non-health-science
programs and for recruitment of undergradu-
ate students.
The final benefit is stronger competitive-
ness. The increased competitiveness of the
university stems from all that has been de-
scribed so far. In addition the competitiveness
of the university will be enhanced through a
larger student body, which allows for more
stability in fee revenues, used to support exist-
ing or future fee-based projects, including
intercollegiate and intramural athletics. And
the larger student body allows for greater eco-
nomic stability, as any tuition increases neces-
sary to offset declining state or other support
can be distributed across more students.
But circumstances vary, and it’s important
that states considering mergers or consolida-
tions understand the pros and cons of each
one.
A merger creates a clearer line of author-
ity and responsibility early in the process,
minimizes disruptions around branding, and
is minimally troublesome for a large part of
the campus community. Yet a merger runs the
significant risk of marginalizing the segment
of the university community being absorbed.
In addition, it may yield little incentive for
change among the dominant partner’s faculty
and staff, which may result in the loss of an
important opportunity for reassessment and
transformation.
Alternatively, while consolidation has the
potential to lead to the creation of something
new and better, it risks alienating constituents
among both university communities, mud-
dling the lines of authority during the consoli-
dation process, creating branding issues, and
being more complex from a process point of
view, albeit potentially less politically contro-
versial among external constituents.
It is also important to recognize that
significant differences can exist in the types
and parities of institutions being brought
together. Some unions are of similar types of
institutions, like the research universities in
the potential marriage of Rutgers University
with the University of Medicine and Dentistry
of New Jersey or the local-access institutions
created by the consolidation of Waycross and
South Georgia Colleges.
Other unions may involve dissimilar institu-
tions, as is the case with the consolidation I
Unions of relatively similar institutions
have the greatest opportunity for cost savings
stemming from reductions in duplications.
Alternatively, the combination of more dis-
similar institutions has the greater potential
for creating a different, and perhaps better,
whole, with a greater variety of programs and
offerings.
This grand experiment has just begun for
us—an experiment whose results may be de-
cades in the making, an experiment for which
judgment can only be issued by those far into
the future, when many of the present players
will be gone. Moody’s report was focused on
the short-term outlook for higher education,
but it is the long-term outlook that we should
care most about.

The Case of the Vampire Student

BRIAN TAYl OR FOR THE CHRONICl E
EVERY PROGRAM has them: vam- pire students. They’re the gradu- ate students who don’t grow into their degree work. They get so-so grades. They fail an exam or two but won’t quit. They begin
thesis work when they’re far from ready. More
than anything, they show up asking for help
again and again only to leave you drained
and frustrated because, for all the time you
have devoted to them, their work shows little
improvement.
My vampire came in the form of a master’s
student I inherited from a departing colleague.
The student was in her final year, and my col-
league explained that she was weak but a hard
worker.
Early in the fall semester, I took home a draft
of her thesis, made some coffee, and started
reading. As is typical in my field in the human-
ities, the thesis was long—close to 200 pages. I
didn’t get far before my heart sank: It was rid-
dled with errors, from the small-but-jarring to
the large-and-jaw-dropping. I made comments
in the margins. I came up with suggestions.
Working on her thesis was so slow-going that I
spent a long day doing nothing else.
A few days later I met with the student and
asked for her opinion of her thesis. She said she
was too close to it to have an opinion. I took a
deep breath and told her she was far from ready
to defend. She looked dismayed but seemed to
take my comments to heart, not taking notes,
but listening and at times asking for clarifica-
tion. Since she’d failed her comprehensive exam
the previous year, I also advised her to sit in on
a graduate course I was teaching, and to come
to my office hours with practice exam respons-
es for us to go over. The task ahead of her was
daunting. Still, we had a plan, and the spring
was a long way off.
As the weeks passed, we met to look over
her revised thesis chapters, but the conver-
sations had a curious sense of déjà vu about
them. I would make comments similar to ones
I’d made before, and she would listen but nev-
er take notes. I would remind her about sitting
in on my course and writing practice exam re-
sponses, and she would nod and tell me she was
planning to.

ANNE HERBERT
The students ask for help
again and again, but for all
the time you devote
to them, their work
shows little improvement.
Ricardo Azziz is president of Georgia Regents
University.
Encouraging her to quit, she said, would only
make her more determined.
I replayed our conversation in my head for
some nights afterward. Had I been unclear?
Had I not conveyed the magnitude of the prob-
lems with her thesis—not to mention her failing
her exam? But I countered: I’d given her a de-
tailed evaluation of where her thesis was com-
ing up short. I’d been plain that it wasn’t in a
state ready to defend—far from it!
Staring at the dark shapes of the trees out-
side my window, I imagined future conver-
sations in which I would define the problems
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