Active asset management has not been consistent or cost-effective for college and university endowment funds. Indexing offers higher returns than median active management, provides more investment stability, is available to small institutional endowments across a broad spectrum of investment asset classes, and at lower cost than active management.…

Technological advances can be very helpful in managing college development functions, including organizing information on prospective individual and group donors, managing development staff, and precise and complex recordkeeping. Continued user demands promise to spur development of further program management techniques and tools. (MSE)

Alumni with drive and influence can help a college alumni organization meet its long-term goals. Prospective donors may be willing volunteers, and regular review of the alumni notes may suggest volunteers. A diverse volunteer group can best represent diverse alumni populations. Challenging, meaningful assignments that tap expertise are the most…

A plan that offers college employees an incentive to contain health care insurance costs is outlined. It consists of three parts: the institution's offering of coverage for claims above a certain level; an employee deductible; and an accounting system that rewards employees for keeping health care costs down as well as involving them in management…

The process of project management is illustrated through application to one activity, development of a new brochure, within the admissions program of a fictional college. The project life cycle is described, and a work responsibility schedule, project completion schedule, and critical path chart are used as planning and implementation tools. (MSE)

Fifty alumni association administrators offer tips on how they save money or make their programs more cost effective in a variety of administrative areas including event programing, staffing, postal services, support of chapters, looking for new sources of revenue, fees for services, publications, planning ahead, and sharing resources. (MSE)

Reporting occupies a central place in institutional research but is ongoing and never completed. With automation and data management, the proportion of time spent on either routine or ad hoc reporting should decline. This function need not draw unnecessarily from resources for more interesting work. (MSE)

The role of the university research administrator has evolved from that of "mediator-expeditor" among faculty, university, and sponsor to that of regulator of the grants process. This has had a significant impact on the kinds of research administration jobs available, characteristics of research administrators, and nature and content of…

Program administration can be enhanced through the use of unilateral groups (focus groups, task forces, advisory committees) and multilateral groups (coalitions, cooperatives, consortia, alliances, subcontractors, partnerships). Groups can help plan programs; share or train staff; share facilities, materials, and equipment; and reduce service…

Reviews the ethical concept of individual freedom as it might be applied to theater education. Argues that ethical decisions should be examined with an understanding of the basic principles of ethics. Suggests that understanding ethical concepts can help theater educators follow the arguments and justify the professional decisions they make. (RS)

Statistical modeling provides a method for colleges to use alumni-development information to create an equation predicting who is likely to respond positively to fund-raising appeals. This can make fund raising more cost-effective, provide higher returns on minimal investment, provide results quickly, and improve competitiveness. Resources…

Describes a national project to recognize child care programs that succeed in balancing competing interests of staff, children, and families. Discusses lessons learned from 10 selected programs, including using funding beyond parent fees, educating parents about program costs, advocating by the director, professionalizing staff, tailoring parent…

Interviews with 20 adult basic education program managers in Botswana identified the definition, goals, and principles of competent supervision. A relationship was apparent between the quality of the supervision of literacy programs and their outcomes. (SK)

Two models of administering college and university alumni chapters--using volunteers or paid staff--are compared, based on comments from alumni directors who have addressed the issues. A flexible club structure, which integrates a fully structured, chartered-chapter model with two versions of predominantly staff-driven models, is proposed as…

Describes adapting an organizational technique used by cartoon animators to camp planning. A story board is a bulletin board on which are posted tasks on file cards. Columns for "to do,""doing," and "done" make it easy to track progress, add and save information, involve other staff members, set priorities, organize…