This chapter describes the development of a state-level student tracking system that enables the state and institutions to follow various cohort types of students across institutional boundaries. The system was developed by the Policy Research and Data Warehousing section of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV). SCHEV is the…

Coordinated planning and management are critical ingredients of any successful alumni information system. The initial exercises in developing an effective alumni information system are to recognize any limitations, commit the institution to overcoming them, use existing resources effectively, plan for the acquisition of additional resources, and…

A college or university's intercollegiate athletics program is a visible and sensitive component of a campus about which pressures for data and information can become intense quickly. The campus institutional research professional and other campus administrators must be prepared to face this challenge knowledgeably and responsibly. (MSE)

Individual interest in privacy is a multiple legal issue, roughly divided into four parts according to different types of law: constitutional, statutory, administrative, and common law. Policy implications of this issue for institutions are discussed. (Editor/LBH)

Problems of the college or university that center around the people who use the institution's computers are examined. It is suggested that effective use of computers in higher education depends on how well the users and providers understand the constraints and problems of each information system. (Author/SF)

Examines practical issues of measuring and reporting competencies. Explores the pursuit of common systems for counting, describing, and measuring competencies. Provides an overview of the role that validity and reliability play in the process of making competencies transportable, both within and outside postsecondary education. (EV)

Sophisticated computer technology now allows for increasingly adaptable privacy safeguards. Various protection mechanisms are described, including password technology and encryption techniques, and administrative guidelines are offered. (Editor/LBH)

Administrative computing in higher education and its implications for the management of colleges and universities are explored. The evolution of administrative computing is traced from the use of minicomputers to the implementation of a management information system. (Author/SF)

Five categories of student outcomes in graduate and professional education are identified: timely degree completion; knowledge of the discipline; preparedness for professional practice; preparation for research and inquiry; preparation for teaching. A framework for assessing each is offered and various methods for collecting data on student…

Examples of current institutional policy and practice illustrate threats to individual rights to privacy. Problems relate to computerized records and communications technology, the accuracy of the records, and the usage of the information. (Editor/LBH)

Historically, statistics have been important in intercollegiate sports. At first, the data were kept as game statistics, but more recently they have been used for institutional research, accountability, compliance with regulations, and public relations. (MSE)

Involvement of the institutional research office at the University of Texas at Austin in integration of student-athlete data into the central database is described, including identification of data maintained in different offices, internal and external data reporting needs, and expansion of central files. Lessons learned from the effort are…

Methods for recording and comparing student enrollments among dental schools and in relation to other health profession education programs are reported. Differences are noted and it is suggested that to gain a proper perspective on the allocation of resources for an educational program, all aspects of the program must be described and evaluated as…

The experience of Coastal Carolina College (South Carolina) suggests that, although the small college often has the same academic reporting demands for intercollegiate athletics as a large institution, the nature of the institution creates different recordkeeping and reporting challenges. Computerization and active institutional research staff…

At Rio Salado Community College (Arizona), project documentation is the final step in the continuous improvement cycle. This stage is very important because it assists others in understanding the work the team has done and documents in detail when, where, how, and why process changes were made. (MSE)