Brendan Guenther's Portfolio

I chose EAD876 - Budgets and Finance in Higher Education because I was getting involved heavily with our unit's budget and had for years managed capital infrastructure projects and revenue generating work-for-hire contracts. When I enrolled in the course I was working regularly with a unit budget that totaled over $1M and frequently dealt with projects with budgets ranging from $25K-$75K. I wanted to better equip myself to understand the larger picture of budgeting and gain familiarity with university wide finance issues.

Taking EAD805 Higher Education Administration was a great start for my graduate work. I made strong connections between the material and my professional work. Birnbaum(1998) provided four excellent lenses into the dynamics of a higher education institution. I was able to frame the way departments and faculty peer-groups operate differently then operational wings of the university. These ideas were most useful in committee and project work where more than one social form is in play at once.