Presents a merit pay allocation model based on the principle of awarding comparable percentage salary increases to college/university faculty members with similar merit ratings. The model enables users to calculate merit pay amounts for individual faculty members in a systematic and efficient manner and can incorporate various policy directives…

Examines structural features of grade point averages (GPAs) and offers examples showing that GPAs cannot consistently determine class rank since class rank is sometimes permuted with arbitrary change of scale. Notes relativistic efforts to resolve inconsistencies are insufficient. Discusses the function of GPAs as predictors of academic…

A statistical methodology applied to three years of teaching load data from 21 major public universities yields an objective, broadly applicable set of student credit hours (SCH) weight factors. A table of optimum weighting factors for upper division and graduate SCH is presented. (Author/MLW)

Presents three mathematical models for the evolution over time of the proportion of minorities in an academic department or similarly selected group of constant size. Analyzes both the steady-state and time-dependent behavior of the proportion of minorities and suggests a method of evaluating the fairness of a department's hiring history.…

The applicability of catastrophe theory to research in higher education is considered. The controversy surrounding the use of catastrophe theory as a tool for research in the behavioral and social sciences is reviewed, and several problems which appear in the literature are presented in a theoretical framework. (Author/MLW)