Learning Resources

Abstract: In 2004, the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education published Ensuring Access with Quality to California's Community Colleges, funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. That report called attention to the considerable challenges facing the community colleges and the importance of addressing these problems. A central critique included in the report's findings was that current community college finance mechanisms "serve to provide barriers to progress rather than promoting it." The "essential first step" in aligning resource allocation mechanisms to programmatic priorities was to perform a policy audit of the system's finance infrastructure, the Ensuring Access report concluded. The Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy at Sacramento State University was subsequently funded by the Hewlett Foundation to perform the policy audit. This paper summarizes the methodology and the findings of the research and discusses the prospects of using the policy audit to influence public policy regarding the financing of California's community colleges.

Abstract: This article proposes a framework that can help institutions break down and analyze the costs of online learning so they can make decisions about how to improve the cost-efficiencies of online education. The framework involves looking at costs across elements (which include the two stages of development and delivery plus administration of the enterprise) and seven factors: students, faculty, other staff, course design, content, infrastructure, and policy. The elements and factors may combine and interact, thereby improving (or not improving) cost-efficiencies. Where possible, current research results are included and areas where research is needed are identified.

Abstract: Public discussion of higher education costs frequently confuses price with expenditure. This article examines factors associated with increases in the sticker price of a college education and the expenditures incurred by institutions in delivering that education. The discussion suggests that while growth in college tuition is real, access to higher education has not been reduced. Moreover, data indicate that colleges and universities have been responsible fiscal stewards in containing costs over which they have control.

Abstract: The increased attention to costs in recent years at colleges and universities draws attention to the matter of whether all costs are reflected and accounted for in the institution’s internal and external financial reports. One category—capital costs—is thought by some to be overlooked at times. The possible neglect of capital costs in institutional planning and in financial reporting has its basis in a theoretical debate on how nonprofit institutions view capital. In order to justify capital as an essential, reportable cost to a nonprofit, it is necessary to see how capital is viewed in the for-profit firm. Even if capital is an essential cost to higher education, accounting and measurement difficulties may arise. This study explores these issues and examines the literature relevant to this topic.

Abstract: The capital renewal and replacement of the nation’s public higher education facilities has been a growing problem for several decades. While the need for new and improved facilities has increased over the years, many campuses simply have too many aging infrastructures that are too costly to replace. This, at a time when we have less than favorable economic conditions, only adds to the situation. As the age, size, and complexity of buildings continue to grow, so too does the amount of maintenance funding required to keep buildings in good working order. The purpose of this study was to assess and compare the 50 states’ efforts of funding public higher education capital needs. This study investigated areas relating to capital needs financing, planning, decision-making processes used in each state, available funding, and future directions in the various states. Of the 50 states, 41 states responded, representing 82 percent of the 50 states.

Abstract: This article reports on a methodology long used by The Texas A&M University System—notably the campuses of Prairie View A&M University and Texas A&M University-College Station—to monitor the efficiency with which their resources are employed in the enterprise. Others can now use these concepts to respond to and prepare for these new fiscal realities, to react before institutional weakness becomes too enervating, and to help constructively shape the changes that are coming, rather than simply react to them. Concomitant with that methodology is a proposed model to apply these findings to examine complex financial issues that currently influence higher education and will continue to do so during the next decade.

Abstract: A program cost study was conducted at a large midwestern university to determine department level expenses and revenues associated with the mission-critical activites of instruction, research, and service. The analysis is patterned after a controversial study conducted at the University of Rhode Island (Swonger and Mead, 1996: Cordes, 1996, Roush, 1996) but includes significant improvements based in the availability of well-developed models for allocating costs (Responsibility-Centered Management, or RCM) and attributing faculty effort to these mission-critical activites (Instructional Effort Report/Capacity Model). Rcm has been used for nearly a decade to allocate all campus revenue and expenses to academic units. The IER/Capacity Model has developed over the course of the ten years from a system for illustrating faculty teaching loeads to one concerned with total faculty workloads. The results of the cost study ere promulgated through a series of reports and meetings with university administrators. The reports provide to them a wealth of cost information to supplement exisiting evaluation mechaisms assesing program process and quality and were incorporataed into the annual planning and budget proceses across all campus units.

Abstract: Book review of The Advancement President and the Academy, eidted by Mary Kay Murphy. ACE/Oryx Press, 1997. 153 pages. ISBN 1-57356-028-6. Pull quotes: "The advancement president must live out a commitment to intellectual life."