Serving on the board of any nonprofit organization has taken on added significance in recent years. There is greater accountability for trustees and for the overall mission and effectiveness of the organizations that they have the ultimate fiduciary responsibility to maintain. The changes have challenged not only the personal commitment that board…

When officials at tuition-driven Fisk University raised the veil of secrecy a few years ago surrounding the university's financial condition, the details they laid out were less than encouraging. The Nashville-based university, home of the historic Jubilee Singers, was losing several million dollars a year and had not received any major private…

HBCUs are facing a myriad of challenges amid efforts to stay financially viable and competitive with majority counterparts. They are facing more pressure to reinvent themselves to stay alive and relevant as more and more Black students choose to attend majority institutions and private, for-profit colleges. Higher education administrators are…

As other universities across the country struggle with their financial challenges, continuing education units can serve the same pioneering role in the development of new financial and budget systems. Confronted by serious financial shortfalls during the last three decades, university administrators started to focus on new budget and revenue…

Every reader of this volume will determine which information is most relevant to his or her home campus. Like their readers, the authors, as editors of the book, have identified prominent overarching themes and have organized this chapter around three of them. Accordingly, the authors highlight the three macrolevel approaches--identifying and…

Offers cautionary tales depicting how an "Enron mentality" infiltrated three universities and jeopardized their accreditation status. The schools were guilty, respectively, of bad bookkeeping, lack of strategy and stable leadership, and loss of academic integrity by selling degrees. (EV)

This article discusses Antioch College, a once-prominent countercultural institution that will be closed in 2008 due to serious financial problems. Antioch has been hemorrhaging money for years. Its Board of Trustees has decided to shutter the college by July 2008 and lay off most of its 160 staff and faculty members. Although the administration…

Northeastern University (Massachusetts) has reduced its size by one-fifth, cut $60-million from its budget, eliminated 700 jobs, dropped or merged several programs, frozen salaries, and cut other costs in a successful retrenchment effort. Many agree the "rightsizing" was handled in a fair, humane way; others are angered. (MSE)

The intended audience for this primer includes new academic administrators and faculty members who seek involvement in campus governance and need a greater understanding of administrative processes, particularly those related to budgets and budgeting. After reading this publication, readers will have a better understanding of the budget process at…

Discusses the plight of Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, and the University of the District of Columbia, both historically Black universities that are fighting for their existence due to declines in enrollment and funding and administrative problems. Individuals at each institution discuss the current crises and outlook for…

This report examines the change process at a regional university in achieving a higher level of excellence in all its programs and activities. Results from 30 interviews are discussed in explaining how this university endured a major retrenchment and survived and thrived while simultaneously contributing to the surrounding community's economic…

This report, part of a project called "Redesigning Higher Education", argues that a set of fundamental changes underlies the growing number of critical difficulties faced by higher education in the United States. It finds the governance structures of American higher education inadequate to deal with a changing and increasingly cost-conscious…

Periodicals editors at higher education institutions constantly confront financial pressure. Some strategies used to pair expenses or raise revenue include consolidating two or more periodicals, pruning mailing lists, trimming printing and postage costs, selling advertising, and pursuing voluntary subscription programs. (MLW)

Franklin and Marshall College (Pennsylvania) has used institutional mission, strategic planning, lessons learned from previous experience, and sound general management principles to guide reallocation of resources during a period of financial constraint. The objective was repositioning, not retrenchment, and the resulting academic program is…

The predominantly African American University of the District of Columbia is beset by a perennially shrinking budget, the city's severe financial problems, board pressure to increase tuition substantially, decreased degree output, weak political support, and competition from many private universities within the city. These may be compounded by…