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| author | Dylan B. Jones |
| title | A New Look at Shared Governance: Prisoner's Dilemma or Ultimatum Game? |
| abstract | I apply game theory to the problem of shared governance at a financially challenged liberal arts institution. I use the Annapolis
Group's definition of a liberal arts institution. I also analyze the first year enrollment between fall 2007 and fall 2013, to show that there are enrollment problems
for a subset of the Annapolis Group. The specific application of game theory is whether or not to eliminate a Classics program, which is assumed by the faculty to be
central to the liberal arts mission, but does not attract specific student demand to cover the cost of the program. The two main assumptions of the thesis are: i) the
faculty makes decisions based on whether or not the program up for eliminate is central to the institutions mission and ii) the administration makes their decision based
of financial sustainability. Relationships between faculty and administrators are important, but presumed secondary. A contribution of the thesis is a visual
representation of the simultaneous game that indicates the inflection point between choosing to eliminate or not. The sequential game shows the importance of first
movers, but raises the question of what is a first mover. The final sequential game with assurances illustrates that using the strict neo-classical economic paradigm
leads to undesirable outcomes. However, creditable commitments can lead to cooperation. Future research will focus on specific mechanisms to foster credibility and
trust between the faculty and the administration.
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| school | The College of Liberal Arts, Drew University |
| degree | B.A. (2015) |
| advisor | Dr. Jennifer Kohn |
| committee | Dr. Kenneth Alexo
Dr. Ryan Hinrichs
Dr. Patrick McGuinn |
| full text | DBJones.pdf |
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