History teachers have frequently made recourse to character cards as a device to help young people, each assigned specific roles, to understand how different kinds of people responded in different ways to particular situations in the past. Edward FitzGerald builds on this tradition, demonstrating the value of using rich historical accounts to help…

Observers have expressed concern about growing inequality in resources across universities. But are universities really becoming more unequal? We argue that the typical approach of examining endowment growth alone is not sensible. In line with the literature on household inequality, we focus instead on a comprehensive income measure. We find that…

The so-called Greek Financial Crisis, which has been the object of close attention in the German media since the end of 2009, has caused a public debate on who should be held responsible for the decline of crisis-hit Greece, the common currency and the Eurozone. The media's enduring and controversial public discussion has lately been referred to…

This study revisits case learning's effects on student engagement and assesses student learning as a result of the use of case studies and problem-based learning. The author replicates a previous study that used indirect assessment techniques to get at case learning's impact, and then extends the analysis using a pre- and post-test experimental…

In this paper we examine how business cycles affect labor market outcomes in the United States. We conduct a detailed analysis of how cycles affect outcomes differentially across persons of differing age, education, race, and gender, and we compare the cyclical sensitivity during the Great Recession to that in the early 1980s recession. We present…

The aftermath of the international financial crisis of 2008/2009 and current economic downturn in the world economy has unsurprisingly put publicly-funded higher education (HE) systems under immense pressure in most parts of the world. Added to measures of the past 20 years, aiming at introducing cost effective management approaches imported from…

Big isn't as big as it used to be for many of the largest school districts. The most recent enrollment numbers for the nation's biggest school districts seem to reflect the country's ailing economy. Forty-eight of the 100 largest public school systems in the United States in 2008-09 reported enrollment declines compared with the previous year's…

This article is a personal faculty perspective regarding academic accreditation. It describes the psychological process and consequences of losing accreditation. Compton Community College was one of the oldest community colleges in California and has served a diverse population of students for over 50 years. As a result of severe administrative…

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…

A discussion of the ways in which college retrenchment planning is institution specific and political looks at how four institutions have shaped different retrenchment strategies. Challenges inherent in each strategy are examined, and practical suggestions are made for campus leaders facing retrenchment. (MSE)

This paper highlights some of the similarities and differences in the labor-management experiences of Boston University (Massachusetts), Temple University (Pennsylvania), the University of Bridgeport (Connecticut), and Yeshiva University (New York) to determine which may represent failures and which do not. In comparing the Yeshiva and Boston…

Record budget cuts--more than 10 percent of state appropriations in some cases--and explosive enrollments have coincided with tough times for many state institutions. Staffs have been pared, faculty members are teaching more than ever, courses have been reduced to the minimum, and long-delayed maintenance continues to be set aside. These budget…

Three possible ways in which California can resolve the current problem of declining public support for higher education are examined. The scenarios focus on (1) the information revolution; (2) the relationship between education and the economy, corporations, and market dynamics; and (3) changed assumptions about what constitutes a good education.…

In response to declining state resources, institutions often increase faculty/student ratios and teaching loads to help balance budgets. In order to gain a clearer sense of the consequences of such courses of action, the University and Community College System of Nevada (UCCSN) undertook a survey of the total workload of all full-time…

In fall 1994, the University and Community College System of Nevada (UCCSN) undertook a survey of the total workload of all full-time instructional faculty employed during the semester. In the survey, faculty were asked to report the average amount of time per week they devoted to teaching, research, and service activities. Survey findings, based…