A 1979 reputational survey, duplicating a 1977 study, sought to identify the most influential educational decision makers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. Both studies found that a top policy maker is likely to be a white male noneducator from certain policy-making or policy-impacting institutions. (Author/SJL)

Student admission criteria and a college's advising and recruitment efforts are viewed from the perspective of a growing higher education establishment trying to attract students. A student selection model is proposed, derived from an "innovation-decision process" (Rogers and Shoemaker), which focuses on applicant behavior and decision-making…

A survey of 2,500 applicants accepted at Boston College in 1977 is used to develop two statistical models of student decision making for college choice. One model focuses on the decision-making process and the other on institutional image, and the two are compared. The results of the two models guide institutional policy in different directions.…

Alarmed by growing criticism, the author presents a defense of American public education, citing evidence that today we educate more students, that students are achieving more, and that the schools are the least expensive and most effective of our social institutions. He urges other educators to join his defense. (SJL)

A study involving interviews with 50 academic leaders revealed that college fund raising is a team effort; the institution's president is typically the central player; presidents should focus fund-raising attention on major gifts and administrative leadership; academic quality and institutional prestige are critical factors; and fund raising is…

Examines the degree of school counselors' impact on a school's prestige by exploring counselor influence on student placement and referral. Analyzes counselors' supply and receipt of information and offers implications for counselor practice, within ethical boundaries. Suggests that school counselors adopt a balanced perspective which accommodates…

This speech examines the image of the university as a powerful center of knowledge in the contexts of both the traditional university and the modern research university. The institution's role in thinking and research, personal growth, and social change are discussed, especially as these areas interrelate and can create an exciting intellectual…

Discusses strategies for increasing long-term administrative support of experiential college programs, including identifying client groups, establishing program credibility through outside sources, developing alliances within the institution, adapting to the institutional context, working with members of the institution to help achieve their…

Although higher education institutions dislike rankings published in the mass media, they like the attention the rankings create and prefer to be included rather than excluded. Common criticisms of the methodology include emphasis on inappropriate criteria, unfair comparison of private and public institutions, faulty assumptions, inaccurate data,…

Improving college stature is an ongoing and essential process needed to regain public support and trust. Administrators can elevate stature through specific techniques in innovative planning, resource allocation, outcomes assessment, and image management, and they can communicate better with the public. (MSE)

This article proposes that university department prestige can be measured by ability to place its doctoral recipients, as illustrated by analysis of accounting student placements. Resulting rankings of departments were evaluated for stability over time and against other program characteristics to illustrate the validity and uniqueness of the…

A new company is offering selected universities a chance to profit directly from the scholarly materials produced by its faculty, particularly in the areas of corporate training, continuing education, distance learning, and the international-student market. Critics fear that institutions' desire for income may affect faculty priorities.…

The current challenge for higher education is not to change its traditional beliefs but to become more conscious of them and the role they play in academic life. Such inquiry will show that preoccupation with acquiring resources, enhancing reputations, and being smart has had an effect contrary to academics' own best interests and to the…

Examination of the geographic mobility of science faculty within and to/from the United Kingdom finds the academic community of those countries Europeanized but not truly globalized. Inflows of scientific skills mostly benefit the already high-performing institutions and departments; lower-performing universities benefit less because they are less…

Describes the way in which Wilfrid Laurier University (Ontario), an institution that had worked hard to improve its programs and reputation, addressed a disappointing ranking in a national news magazine. In cooperation with other educators, administrators, and institutional researchers, the university undertook a successful project to have the…