One of my most memorable graduate courses was called Stress and Adaptation. Adapting a 15-week course and a forty-page paper to fit into an eight-week term provided the stress. Learning adaptation was the reward for taking the course during the summer. Change is seldom welcome but often inescapable. USM had no choice but to adapt to the budget challenge of the Ehrlich administration. Although we may not be happy with the resulting changes, if USM institutions are to succeed, every one of us needs to accept and embrace the changes. The following three articles provide some wonderful insight into change in higher education settings.

In " Marketing: Overcoming internal resistance to change" published by University Business, author Robert Sevier asks and answers the question "what is it about change that people in general — and faculty and staff — in particular — most fear?" He also provides strategies on how to overcome resistance to change. http://www.universitybusiness.com/page.cfm?id=313.

President of the College of Charleston, Leo Higdon, says that " regardless of the cause [of change]… one thing is certain: If the institution’s stakeholders don’t support the change initiative, it won’t work." Read more about his suggestions for managing change, in "Change from within: The challenge of shaping the institutional culture" published in Liberal Education. http://president.cofc.edu/pdfs/change_within_winter03.d.pdf.