US colleges and universities have long been the envy of the world. Institutional autonomy has fostered creativity among faculty, students, and staff. But this autonomy means that colleges tend to create their own solutions for every need. As a result, higher education suffers from costly redundancies that drive tuitions ever upward, putting higher…

The relationship between education and organizational financial efficiency can be described as tense and ambiguous. Therefore, issues of educational leadership inspired by models stemming from the business sector are currently hardly dealt with. Consequently, not much attention has been given to findings from the field of Business Financial…

Following a discussion of the factors to be considered in constructing feasible college budgets, an exercise in budget development is presented involving a hypothetical community college with 2,500 full-time equivalent (FTE) students, 500 in developmental education, 750 each in transfer and technical programs, and 500 undecided. Exercise…

One management-development approach treats finance as a learning opportunity to assist school leaders in addressing the moral, ethical, political, and resource-related tensions faced while enacting daily leadership responsibilities. Administrators learn to make difficult choices among competing interests while advancing their school's capacity for…

College programs winning the 1992 American Association of University Administrators awards for outstanding academic administration during times of fiscal constraint are described briefly. Awards were given for total quality management (Oregon State University), enrollment management (Indiana University), and financial management (Chaffey Community…