The methodology of a minor miracle: killing a myth through strategic planning in the Elam School of Fine Arts

This paper reports the planning processes used in one of New Zealand's premier schools of fine art. Elam has a culture of exuberant individualism, high productivity and disciplinary sectionalism. There is a belief that it is cantankerously and inevitably unbiddable, and yet, paradoxically, it is well enough organised to shape New Zealand's cultural identity, consistently producing some of its finest visual artists and designers. Processes were drawn from action research, organisational development and educative leadership theory to develop a collective purpose with goals and objectives, and program plans and budgets for 1998. It is shown that there was no `̀ minor miracle'' involved, just the death of a myth about Elam's incapacity to learn as a School. sold and the printing press research unit, the foundry and the glass workshop were closed. A doctorate of Fine Arts (DocFA) was introduced, the first in New Zealand, with the first enrollees starting in 1997. The struggle to improve the buildings was resumed as the financial and political contexts worsened. The context of managed change The 1960s and early 1970s had been periods of dramatic growth in New Zealand's higher education. Massey and Waikato universities were constructed, Canterbury University was relocated, and Auckland, Wellington, Otago and Lincoln were largely rehoused on expanded existing sites, with Auckland getting a new medical school. This scale of expenditure, however, could not be sustained given New Zealand's economic realities and adverse demographic trends. The cut-backs in the 1980s revealed the fundamental weaknesses of the system. Despite 15 years of favourable funding, tertiary education in New Zealand has been only shallowly established and has always been relatively impoverished compared to older and more lavishly funded Australian, American, British, and European university systems. It costs, for example, twice as much to educate a British student and a third more to educate an Australian student. Because they had less in the first place, therefore, the New Zealand universities were hit more severely than those overseas by inflation and the Government's unwillingness to supplement their grants (Gustafson, 1981, pp. 208-9). The Elam School of Fine Arts could not be sheltered from these pressures. Indeed, the signs became particularly ominous in 1997 at local and national levels. Elam had four aggressive competitors in the Auckland region, and others elsewhere, many of whom had higher growth rates, more attractive buildings and better facilities. One conclusion (Simpson, 1997) was that Elam has not attracted comparable levels of institutional investment. Another was that Elam had failed to reposition itself. Another source of pressure for change was political. The New Zealand Government's June 1997 Green Paper, A Future Qualifications Policy for New Zealand: A Plan for the National Qualifications Framework, proposed a standardisation of all educational qualifications as a way of recognising students' achievements. While it acknowledged the `̀ rapidly changing world'' (p. 6), the Green Paper assumed that knowledge itself was largely given and could be plausibly partitioned into units, all learning could therefore be assessed in terms of unit standards, and therefore, that curriculum should be narrowed to (and commodified as) competencies and skills. The primary justification was that qualifications should `̀ convey to students and employers a value that is clear and credible'' (p. 6). The stress in this justification on economic relationships and values was in sharp contrast to the broader range of values implied by the aesthetic education long offered by the Elam School of Fine Arts, and by other components of university education. Nevertheless, the September 1997 Green Paper, A Future Tertiary Education Policy for New Zealand: Tertiary Education Review, proposed to cap the governments' level of contribution and to focus attention on possible funding mechanisms. The government was evidently considering the separation of teaching and research funding at undergraduate levels, making the research funds thus released more contestable, and introducing bulk funding or student entitlements to raise the level of responsiveness of institutions. It followed that the budget round in the University of Auckland began in 1997 for 1998 in dire circumstances. All `̀ principal activity centres'', such as the Elam School of Fine Arts, were asked to prepare strategic plans and program budgets that backed up into a mission statement, and goals and objectives for 1998. They were also to make full provision, for the first time, for voluntary retirements, appointments, other salary-related costs and occupancy costs. Two issues required immediate clarification at Elam; the nature of key purposes, and, how could they be specified?