Many planning offices are experiencing an identity crisis. Before the recession, their role was clear: provide colleges and universities the analytical support needed to develop academic programs and expand facilities. For more than a decade, planning offices were the workhorses supporting ambitious growth strategies. New and improved programs and…

Multiple rounds of budget cuts have created tensions on many campuses, prompting questions from faculty about whether institutions are using resources wisely and spending funds appropriately (Minor 2003). As institutions respond to fiscal challenges, it is important that administrators and faculty have a common understanding of budget issues and…

A model for minimizing or eradicating the weaknesses of the tenure system is offered. The model is designed to be responsive to the needs of higher education, specifically in providing for academic accountability. The system proposed makes decisions about pay, rank, and tenure independent of one another. (MLW)

Offers colleges and universities some strategies when reallocation of funds is necessary. Discussion focuses on the use of facilitating teams to help department chairpersons, active promotion of reallocation in funding proposals, use of analytical databases in decision making, use of program audits, taxation policies, decentralization of decision…

A method for analyzing expenditures and revenue, and a matrix for use in decision making about program choice and more productive use of resources, is outlined. Institutional integrity (internal and external cohesion) is preferred to emphasis on competition. (MSE)

Techniques used by private colleges to survive fiscal crises are reported. Included are: common factors contributing to financial problems, the means perceived by presidents to be most useful in crisis planning, and the implications of the findings for overall higher education planning and management. (MSE)

The thesis that the nature of the planning and budgeting processes is affected by the resource environment in which they take place is demonstrated in a case study of Cuyahoga Community College. Increasing planning difficulty in the 1980s resulting from the changing economic environment is forecast. (MSE)

Miami-Dade Community College has developed a planning system that provides the tools necessary for an effective decentralized system with the capability of dealing with the changing roles of faculty and the increasing need for individualization and adjustments in the learning program. Two key components are described. (LBH)

Competition for students will increase in the next decade. Some factors indicating an institution's vulnerability to declining enrollment can be assessed, and may also be the key to initiatives by campus leaders to help offset the decline. (Author/MSE)

The dilemma of providing for continued development of new academic programs in the context of severe budgetary constraints is examined. Two curricular planning strategies that provide for academic growth with minimum resource proliferation are detailed--development of umbrella academic programs and creation of curricular aggregates. (AF)

Achievement of the goal of better education for less resources in British universities calls for increased national direction and help, interuniversity cooperation, and self-examination within individual institutions. Ideas for change within these broad categories are examined. (Author/MSE)

Under the leadership of a new president, Arkansas College engaged in a year-long evaluation and planning process. The "Small College Academic Management Project" (SCAMP), aimed at dispersing academic decision-making authority while maintaining the necessary decision-making accountability relationships, is described. (MLW)

The "postindustrial" environment for higher education, with shrinking revenues and enrollments and increasing competition, demands that all colleges and universities become more integrated organizations. Planning can be a powerful instrument for achieving better integration in highly differentiated academic organizations, and good organizational…

Cost is viewed as one consequence of individualization or contract learning rather than as an objective. Issues of accountability, faculty salaries, curricular unit framework of analysis, and formulae for cost prediction are addressed. (LBH)

A study examined whether a patterned sequence of institutional responses to fiscal stress existed by analyzing the magnitude, sequence, and substance of decisions made by a variety of institution types. The results and their implications for planning are discussed. (MSE)