Learning Resources

Abstract: A reprint of the 1976 article with a new 2015 introduction by the author. Original abstract: Drawing on his experience as Provost for Planning at West Virginia University, Raymond M. Haas deals in the following article with the importance of a proper charge to the Planning Office as a means of achieving integrated planning. He further proposes that the role of the Planning Office should be clearly coordinative in the nature--to the point where its only responsibility for actual planning should be in planning the planning process. Finally, he argues that "... integrated planning can be achieved only when planning is a regularly scheduled activity which occurs frequently, and which produces results that manifest themselves in the allocation, reallocation, and effective use of resources within the institution." The author's remarks have been adapted from his presentation at the Society's 11th Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.

Abstract: Higher education is undergoing many sector-level changes while under growing pressure as a whole to demonstrate or improve institutional performance. Increasingly, private-sector industry organizations are applying portfolio management to their organizational resources as a strategy to improve performance. Although not formally recognized in practice or in the literature as portfolio management, the activity of prioritizing academic and administrative programs in higher education applies the principles of economic portfolio theory and private-industry portfolio management to the higher education sector. A small number of higher education institutions have undertaken academic program prioritization. Little empirical research exists to understand the use of portfolio management in higher education or its effectiveness in improving institutional performance. This study examines the characteristics of 62 institutions that have identified a need to intentionally manage and prioritize their portfolio of academic and administrative programs to improve institutional performance. The purpose of this study is to identify any relationship between the identified need to manage the organizational portfolio and certain institutional characteristics that have been found through empirical research to be predictors of institutional performance challenges. A wealth of research opportunities exists in the organizational portfolio management domain; recognizing the characteristics of institutions that identify a need to manage their portfolio of academic and administrative programs is a step toward filling the gap in the research and informing resource decision making.

Abstract: Academic programs should be the centrifugal force informing and driving the accomplishment of all other institutional plans. While financial, capital, and enrollment management plans are critical to institutional success, each is secondary to academic programs as a driving force. Institutions should simultaneously move toward “integrated planning” while developing a hierarchy of plans, with the academic program portfolio as primary. Undertaking more effective planning will require attention to several elements: operationalizing the mission, confronting the real issues, integrating resources into the plan, staying within institutional scope, quitting some programs and services, focusing on implementation and assessment, and maintaining a planning database for management purposes. The primacy of academic programs in the development of higher education plans will presage their success.

Abstract: Military veterans have received federal support to better prepare for success in higher education for nearly five decades. One such federal program, Veterans Upward Bound, has existed since the Johnson administration with a goal to increase veterans’ postsecondary education completion rates. Although there is clearly a demonstrated need for such efforts, the question remains whether these support programs are successful. This article explores federal reporting of programs designed to prepare veterans for the postsecondary learning environment in terms of goal achievement. Findings suggest inconsistent internal data collection methods, nonexistent outcome reporting, and conflicting data on veterans’ postsecondary success rates from non-government agencies.

Abstract: Despite the fact that U.S. federal TRIO programs, like the Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program, aim to enrich academic spaces for underrepresented students, there are many challenges that minority students face as they move through the program pipeline. This article provides insight into programming efforts by the McNair program at the University of Texas-Austin through interviews with current and past McNair scholars. Furthermore, areas of improvement in planning and integration for local and national application are discussed using the example of UT-Austin’s Intellectual Entrepreneurship Consortium.

Abstract: Optimizing Academic Balance (OAB) analysis provides your institution with effective tools to use in making the strategic academic decisions needed to stay competitive in the context of your institutional mission, quality, market potential, cost, and revenue. Optimizing Academic Balance utilizes market potential data (inquiries, applicants, admitted students, enrolled students, juniors, and graduates) to measure demand for each of your majors using student credit hours (SCH) generated by program as a proxy for revenues and direct (faculty and departmental) costs for teaching each program. It may be applied to all academic program offerings—undergraduate, graduate, and non-traditional.