The effects of declining enrollments, rising costs, increasing public scrutiny, diminishing financial and energy resources, and emerging environmental impact considerations will be felt by all institutions of higher education, regardless of institutional type. To cope with these threatening issues, a strategic planning process must be developed…

The use of the Community College Goals Inventory (CCGI) to assess priorities assigned to institutional goals and to estimate priority changes required to reach intended outcomes was studied. The CCGI consists of goal statements that mainly cover outcome and process goal areas. Respondents indicate their perceptions of how much importance is…

A research project underway at the University of Arizona is described, and the usefulness of the national data system of the Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS) to institutional researchers, as well as some drawbacks of the system, are considered. The need for institutions to have data on enrollment, budgets, and faculty/students…

Selected academic and personal characteristics of the Georgia State University Master of Science Degree graduate students in the College of Urban Life were examined. The sample of 759 students active during the period of 1969-78 were studied in terms of: demographic characteristics, undergraduate environment and performance, the environment at…

Longitudinal data on enrollment, weekly student contact hours (WSCH), and average daily attendance for 1967-1977 provide the following findings: (1) an overall ten year enrollment growth of 53.5% for fall and 57.6% for spring semesters; (2) day enrollment increases of 82.7% for fall and 83.6% for spring as compared with evening enrollment…

A questionnaire was administered at North Carolina State University in 1975 to determine the role of the university counseling center. The questionnaire was administered routinely as part of the intake process. Information is presented on the following: intakes on a monthly basis, ages of clients served, breakdown of clientele by sex, marital…

The applicability and validity of NCHEMS' Information Exchange Procedures (IEP) to major research universities are examined. IEP enables peer institutions to compare information about their resources. The major research universities formed a task group to determine the use of IEP's focus points: costing methods and possible alternative approaches…

Focusing on current grading practices, this report details a survey of 443 respondents from both four- and two-year institutions of higher education. The data are compared with a 1973-74 survey of the same institutions. Findings show that in general more stringent policies are enforced in the use of nontraditional grading practices, in making-up…

Harcum Junior College (Pennsylvania) continuously engages in institutional self-study through its comprehensive Institutional Research (IR) program. The IR Office conducts both decision-oriented research, where the problem is defined by the decision-maker, and conclusion-oriented research, where the items studied are selected by the researcher.…

In order to assess the effectiveness of the faculty development program for full-time instructors and the orientation program for part-time instructors at William Rainey Harper College, a questionnaire was mailed to all 67 lead teachers, coordinators, and academic administrators; 23 (34%) responded. Half of the respondents indicated that the…

A sample of students were surveyed who were enrolled at the University of Washington during the autumn quarter of 1977 but did not continue at the university the following quarter. Survey items included: reasons for not continuing, occupational status as of spring 1978, effect of not continuing on present occupation and plans for the future,…

The academic advisement system in a large, comprehensive community college is evaluated. Student and faculty questionnaires were designed to measure perceptions of the processes and outcomes of the advisement system. Findings from 841 student questionnaires are reported and discussed. The survey investigated background variables, process…

The University of Notre Dame developed the Teaching Activity Report in an effort to present professors with meaningful summaries of their individual instructional efforts each semester. Geared to meet the needs of the individual instructors and their superiors, the Teaching Activity Report synthesizes all facets of the individual's instructional…

The realities of current fiscal environments faced by most public higher education institutions, budgeting problems, and three appropriate roles that institutional researchers can perform while assisting campus budget and academic staff compete for resources are discussed. Several major themes that flow through the budgeting process concern:…

A chronicle of the problems faced in an attempt to collect data on sociology curriculum trends in California's community college system is presented. The project was initiated in an effort to determine if other colleges in the system were experiencing the same difficulties with curriculum and enrollment in sociology courses being encountered by…