The purpose of this study is to understand how strategy and strategic decision-making have contributed to financial strength at those small, private, non-profit, less-selective, tuition-dependent institutions with small endowments that have established financial stability. Interviews were conducted of participants at three institutions, including…

This study examines how Chief Student Affairs Officers (CSAO) make sense of their role engaging with fundraising at small, private, liberal arts institutions with endowments below the median endowment size of $140.2 million. Specifically examining how they make sense of engaging with fundraising and how they have gained knowledge or experience in…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the relationship between the dependent variable, fiscal responsibility composite scores, and the independent variables enrollment, SACSCOC accreditation status, level of degrees offered, and institution endowment at private 4-year degree-granting HBCUs accredited by SACSCOC for fiscal years…

Universities consist of students, faculty and staff, interacting through multiple layers of organization and on a variety of time scales. They are complex adaptive systems (CAS) yet the bulk of scholarship on higher education analyzes them using conventional social science methods, with little work that tries to understand them using complexity…

This study sought to examine the effect of a Black Male college president's previous position (senior-level academic or student affairs vice-president or non-senior academic or student affairs vice president) on his success with the institutional factors of enrollment, retention, graduation, and endowment between 2013 and 2017. This study employed…

Small, private colleges in the United States provide students with close-knit and individualized college experiences. However, these institutions are increasingly vulnerable to closures, mergers, and acquisitions due to economic downturns, enrollment challenges, and many other internal and external factors. Compared to their larger public and…

This study addressed the issue of retention rates among the nation's private, not-for-profit, baccalaureate degree-granting Historically Black Colleges and Universities. In doing so, it examined the potential presence of relationships among revenue sources and retention rates. In order to conduct a comprehensive research study, the following…

The percentage of full-time college students decreased by 7% in the United States between 2010 and 2018. Modern university leaders confront difficult decisions regarding their institutions' future because of financial challenges related to reduced tuition revenue. Grounded in the theory of diffusion of innovations and the balanced scorecard, the…

Financial crunching has created a vacuum in the mission of community colleges, with specific focus paid to completion rates and degree attainment of students from low economic settings. This constraint on a profound national level has imposed a general concern to the American society, and many of our community colleges have aligned with global…

In the last decade, private liberal arts universities have experienced financial difficulties requiring the need to raise private funds. The financial viability of these universities depends on the ability of university presidents to raise money; however, challenges remain to carry out this task. To increase fundraising effectiveness at the…

Today 17 elite private colleges in the U.S. have offered no-loan policies, which replace student loans with grants, scholarships and/or work-study in the financial aid packages awarded to all undergraduate students eligible for financial aid. Generally, the goal of these policies is to increase the socioeconomic diversity of campuses and to reduce…

In his 1887 biennial report to the General Assembly, Kentucky Agriculture and Mechanical College President James Patterson wrote that competition was so strong that only the educated individual would give the state the comparable advantage in production and trade necessary to compete against peers for academic dominance in scientific and technical…

As the primary transmitter of advanced skills and incubators of new knowledge, colleges and universities play a crucial role in modern economies. In the U.S., the higher education sector consists of a diverse set of institutions. Public, private non-profit, and private for- profit organizations coexist in this market. Although large research…

Colleges and universities have been questioned regarding their use of endowments, with critics maintaining that these assets have significance beyond the financial benefits they provide and suggesting that institutions hoard endowment to attain unnecessary intangibles such as prestige. A few scholars have attempted to study the purposes of…

America's colleges and universities have expanded campus facilities by renovating and increasing square footage. This is in contrast to general construction activity during the same time period. This quantitative study investigates the relationship between university and college campus facility square footage per FTE and university…