This book discusses how institutions are best organized, how decisions are best made at various levels, and how administrators and faculty can effectively collaborate.

Presidency

Every faculty member who wants to understand how decisions are made on campus should invest in this volume.

Academe

Here's a guide to good decision making that's worth the time spent no matter where in the decision-making chain one might find oneself. The author sees organization as an art, and practitioners of that art who succeed in fitting form to function, as creators of institutions that are more effective in carrying out their missions. Interspersed with a set of 'maxims' by which to live an institutional life, Fitting Form to Function is a call to administrators to conduct more enlightened administration. Spending a few hours with this book is the equivalent of spending time with a well-tempered, wise, and discerning colleague. You cannot help but return to your work thinking, 'We can find a way to do this better. '

JoAnne Boyle, president, Seton Hill University

Members of the faculty and administrators-and even trustees and students of higher education-will find this roadmap of the academic terrain useful. Focusing on the special nature of academic entities and the practical implications that follow it touches all of the traditional dimensions of academic life.

Stanley Ikenberry, former president, University of Illinois

A refreshingly accessible work and a very good primer for students. Students and professors alike will enjoy the maxims and Weingartner's philosophical insights strewn throughout the text.

Michael Siegel, Suffolk University

Too often, people who work in higher education institutions understand only their small corner of the often large and complex enterprises of which they are a part. Fitting Form to Function, Second Edition, will help broaden the readers' understanding of the various roles and responsibilities of university administrators and faculty groups. It will also help them to understand how each unit or division of a college or university fits into the larger mission of the campus. Most importantly, it will help the reader be more successful in their navigation of the power and politics of their campus through their understanding of how the organization works. This book has been a required text in my PhD cognate and post-master's-level higher education course for several years. It has served my students well, but the second and fuller edition promises to be an even better fit.

Sandra Packard, Oakland University