In the wake of COVID-19, school systems face a daunting set of challenges as they plan for the 2020-2021 school year -- including meeting students' increased academic and social-emotional needs, implementing physical distancing requirements, and grappling with significant revenue loss. School systems must prepare for the 2020-2021 school year with…

This case provides a summary of a situation in which a newly appointed superintendent and his new chief financial officer of a midsized urban school district uncover a massive set of fiscal problems which had been previously hidden from the Board and most other stakeholders. How do the district's top leaders make decisions about how to address the…

In just the last 18 months, Massachusetts has seen the closure of small private liberal arts colleges Mount Ida and Newbury Colleges. The pressures on these types of institutions include technological disruption, changing student demands, and ever-escalating costs. To address this, the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education (BHE) and Department…

Based on observations and research on contingency planning, as well as interviews with ten college and university presidents, the author develops several steps to illustrate the retrenchment pattern now being followed or anticipated by a variety of institutions. (Author/LBH)

With colleges and universities in a difficult transition period, planning must be more flexible. New outlooks and methods are reviewed. For journal availability see HE 509 330. (Author/LBH)

Three effects current financial retrenchment will have on special educators in British Columbia will be maintenance at the same level or reduction of services, increase of insularity within the educational community, and politicization of education. Survival will depend on establishing priorities, increasing efficiency, budgeting, improving…

Managing college or university budget reduction involves more than careful matching of available dollars and essential and high priority programs. It is necessary to (1) have in place appropriate individual/personal policies and institutional policies and data; (2) take steps to decide on budget cuts; and (3) act to implement them. (MSE)

After a review of court cases and the AAUP statement of financial exigency, it is concluded that the policies and procedures for layoff of tenured faculty should be formulated to assure that at least minimal due process protection for the faculty is provided while permitting the institution flexibility for the decision-making process. (LBH)

Examines the budget reduction crisis at New York City Community College and the retrenchment models which were implemented. (MB)

This booklet for trustees of institutions of higher education offers guidelines for strategic financial decisions required in light of the financial challenges higher education faces in the 1990s and beyond. "Strategic response" is defined as a decision that requires changing a major policy, program, or practice and involves some risk. Five…

It is argued that, before higher education can solve its fiscal problems and operational constraints, it must address some central contradictions in governance and management that derive from outmoded or cumbersome systems. It must then create new models of participation and governance and new patterns of decision making. (Author/MSE)

Resource allocation and reallocation strategies for colleges who have financial problems are considered in three articles based on presentations to a national conference at the University of Arizona. In "Reallocation Strategies," James A. Hyatt discusses factors that shape institutional responses to reallocation and elements that should…

A study examined whether a patterned sequence of institutional responses to fiscal stress existed by analyzing the magnitude, sequence, and substance of decisions made by a variety of institution types. The results and their implications for planning are discussed. (MSE)

Summarizes some ways Massachusetts schools have trimmed their budgets in response to Proposition 2 1/2 and offers suggestions concerning how other schools or districts could go about doing the same. (JM)

A study examined the current financial crisis and politics of retrenchment in two universities during the 1992-93 academic year: the University of Maine-Orono and the University of New Orleans. Emphasis is on the role played by faculty in process and the effectiveness of alternative methods of faculty involvement. (MSE)