The infrastructure, both physical and human, devoted to intercollegiate athletics at the largest U.S. universities is more comprehensive and impressive than the Olympic training facilities of most countries. More challenging is determining the extent of the significant investment that these institutions make in their sports programs. Many…

Declining state support for higher education is not unique to Southern New England nor is it a recent phenomenon. Public universities in the United States relied on state and local funding for about half of their revenue in 1980-1981. By 1999-2000 that proportion had dropped to about one-third. With the recession decimating state coffers, the…

Research suggests that institutional commitment to community engagement can be understood by examining levels of student, faculty, and community involvement in engagement; organizational structure, rewards, and campus publications supporting engagement; and compatibility of an institution's mission with this work (Holland, 1997). Underlying all of…

The Colleges of Worcester Consortium has created a broad array of statewide, higher education access services over several decades by leveraging federal, state, local, and foundation resources. The consortium comprises thirteen diverse colleges and universities in central Massachusetts and is a nonprofit regional association of these institutions:…

This chapter describes how Dickinson College, guided by a strategic plan, addressed its net tuition revenue problem through effective decision support, marketing and branding approaches, and pricing and financial aid strategies. The college's strategic plan guides allocation of resources toward fulfilling the college's purpose of providing an…

Although the transition from high school to college is a predictable rite of passage for students in their late teens and early twenties, much about the nature of these students and their environments is changing. In this chapter, the author focuses on four of the many new issues that have an effect on the transition experience of today's…

The top priority for college and university administrators should be to ensure that their instructional programs, and thus their entire institutions, are managed in the most efficient and effective manner possible. Proper management of fiscal resources determines the degree to which institutions are open and affordable. Review of the current…

Increasingly sophisticated analyses of costs and revenues have contributed to more effective financial management in higher education, with attention focused on ways in which fixed and variable factors contribute to direct or unit costs; analyses of cost-revenue relationships; differential effects of one-time and recurring costs; variety of…

Governing boards and administrations wrestle with complex endowment policy decisions that will determine current institutional quality and future institutional viability. This chapter presents data from the 2006 NACUBO Endowment Study (published in 2007), divided into the following issues of endowment management: historical returns; endowment…

The University of North Dakota conducted a feasibility study to develop a faculty funding formula that would serve as an internally acceptable guideline and an externally justifiable procedure for allocating faculty in the budgeting process. The current formula is reviewed, and appropriate formula revisions are suggested. (MLW)

In college and university administration, overhead costs are often charged to programs indiscriminately, whereas the support activities that underlie those costs remain unanalyzed. It is time for institutions to decrease ineffective use of resources. Activity-based management attributes costs more accurately and can improve efficiency. (MSE)

Financial policies are viewed as buffers that protect the core activities of a college from fluctuation and that maximize the return of investments in all areas. Assumptions necessary for making financial policies are detailed and a strategy is outlined for developing financial policies that mesh with institutional plans. (Author/MLW)

Strategic planning is seen as a process that articulates institutional mission, weighs external opportunities and threats, gauges internal strengths and weaknesses, and determines appropriate action. Benefits and pitfalls in planning are discussed. (MLW)

An approach to college budgeting that encompasses strategic as well as operational decisions is proposed. Strategic decisions focus on creation and maintenance of institutional capacity, whereas operational decisions focus on use of that capacity to accomplish specific purposes. Strategic budgeting must emphasize institutional assets and their…

The University of Montana's University Planning Council is an illustration of the integration of the planning and budgeting process into the institution's decision-making process, with broad constituent participation. (MSE)