Innovation

John Kao (2007) notes that every organization which seeks to be innovative has to both define innovation as the organization conceives of it. Likewise, it must also determine where in the organization innovation is placed—there needs to be a specific point which the organization can point to when asked where innovation is.  Higher Education has not only sought the idea of tradition (even where such tradition is a recent phenomenon, tradition makes it an easy way to avoid the challenges of innovation) to protect itself from innovation, its siloed structure makes any innovation created in one part of the institution difficult to spread through the organization.  Undoubtedly, many campuses have developed practices such as teaching and learning centers to help spread practices such as good teaching, these relate to innovations relevant to individuals and not to the organization as a whole.  The advantage of a Graduate School being the center if innovation is that even in traditional institutions, the graduate school is the academic entity which extends across the college in involving faculty from many disciplines, departments, or even locations.

One of the ways in which Kao highlights the ability for an organization to support innovation is through the creation of “skunk works.”  The term itself goes back to a division at Lockheed Martin which was charged with innovation, and was able to do so and do so quickly due to its autonomy and not being required to follow standard processes.  They report in at a high level, but also are required to have a smaller operating division in that the skunk works makes itself more agile by selecting high talent individuals who are committed to their projects and performing the work necessary to get the job done (Lockheed Martin 2011).  In short, all efforts are made to keep the projects agile [see AGILITY]. 

At SUNY—Empire State College, the School for Graduate Studies is the place in the organization where innovation should be highlighted.  The reasons for this are many.  First, as the entity within the college that offers structured degrees, the School can develop curriculum which assures faculty opportunity which, along with the growth enrollments it brings and allows the hiring of a more diverse faculty.  In this way, innovation feeds innovation.  Second, given the fact that GRAD is removed and different from standard ESC practice allows experiments to be conducted outside the standard and traditional practices of the college.  Finally, as students entering the graduate programs tend to be much closer to one another academically than undergraduate programs (mostly because grad as a 9 hour transfer cap and we do not currently offer PLA), we have a base line against which to measure programmatic successes.  More importantly, as there is currently a national discussion going on about the Master's degree and its place in society (as seen in the national push for Professional Science Master's degrees).  Allowing the School for Graduate Studies to serve as the center for innovation for Empire State College allows the graduate school of an open university bring its flexibility to bear and take the lead in this conversation.