| In response to pressures from their institutional environment and to attract new resources, in the latter half of the twentieth century, a number of small, non-elite colleges and universities expanded their educational missions, evolving from single purpose to comprehensive institutions (Astin & Lee, 1972; Clark, 1987; Finnegan, 1991; Finnegan & Gamson, 1996; Geiger, 1999, Harcleroad & Ostar, 1987, Youn & Gamson, 1994). This study sought to discover the consequences for faculty roles and responsibilities of the evolution of a small, primarily undergraduate, liberal arts college to a comprehensive university in response to the challenges and opportunities presented by the external environment in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century.; This single-institution case study took place at a small, private comprehensive university located in the Midwest. Data were obtained from institutional documents and from semi-structured interviews with the President, the Dean of the undergraduate college, and thirteen full-time tenured or tenure-eligible faculty members in liberal arts disciplines.; The study found that while the university had maintained its traditional emphasis on a strong liberal arts education, it had expanded its mission through the addition of graduate and undergraduate professional programs to attract new sources of revenue and increase its prestige. While teaching remained the primary faculty role, administrative responsibilities and expectations for scholarship had increased. As faculty roles evolved, the institution increased support for faculty work through release time for administrative duties and increased allocations for research-related travel and equipment, and it was developing a new model for determining faculty workloads. Other finding where that institutional change had been guided by the transformational leadership of the President and the Dean/VPAA and that the sense of community had increased.; This study suggests that transformational leadership allows an institution to respond rapidly to opportunities in the external environment; that institutions should seek to preserve institutional diversity by supporting missions that reflect their values and meet the needs of their constituencies; that changes in faculty roles can be facilitated through incentives and rewards; and that, as an institution grows, the sense of community may be enhanced through opportunities to identify shared values. |
