Learning Resources

Abstract: Many colleges and universities own considerable areas of land that play a significant role in their research and teaching programs. University forests and other natural resource management units can be a large part of this land base. This land and timber base is a financial asset that, especially in times of financial difficulty, can easily morph from a research and teaching asset to a source of vital revenue, producing an emotional response from faculty, students, and the community. Planning, especially constituency-based participation, can lessen public disputes over the management of these lands. Without proper planning, such disputes are almost ensured.

Abstract: This article focuses on the impact of the Southern Association of Colleges and School’s redesign of regional accreditation processes. The authors describe (1) common patterns among regional accreditation associations,(2) a systems modeling framework to illustrate important components in the planning process as it relates to student learning outcomes, and (3) the fundamental role of peer review in the redesign process.

Abstract: With a renewed interest in finding innovative solutions to various social issues and problems both at home and around the world, university students are seeking the opportunity to build entrepreneurial skill sets and learn how to apply them for the common good. Despite the student excitement surrounding this topic, considerable confusion persists around what exactly social entrepreneurship is and where its most suitable academic home should be. This article explores the variety of definitions of social entrepreneurship and the arguments regarding its academic home; it suggests a conceptualization of social entrepreneurship that would situate it broadly in the curriculum rather than limiting it to one disciplinary home.

Abstract: There is a crisis in higher education. With skyrocketing tuition, shrinking budgets, and increasingly complex social problems, it is time to ask: What are public research universities doing—and what should they do—to fulfill their compact with the citizens of their states? Locating some of the major cultural and structural obstacles impeding academic engagement, this article argues that “intellectual entrepreneurship” provides academic institutions with both a philosophy and set of mechanisms to meet the ethical obligation of discovering and putting to work knowledge that makes a difference—to educate “citizen-scholars” who engage in service with rather than to society.

Abstract: Healthcare reform efforts in both the Clinton and Obama administrations have attempted to address college and university health. Yet, although the world of healthcare delivery has almost universally evolved to managed care, school health programs have not. In general, school-sponsored health plans do little to improve access and have adopted strategies that may in fact breach the school’s fiduciary duty to the student. For these health programs to survive, planners must embrace change and integrate their operations with standard health insurance systems. In this way, they can do good both for students and families and for the future of college and university health.

Abstract: This article explains the cost of education in public research universities. “Price,” meaning “tuition,” is often incorrectly substituted for “cost,” meaning expenditures by the university that make the education possible. University cost is disaggregated to enable readers to distinguish between the costs associated with providing education to students and the costs of other non-educational activities that tend to produce their own revenue. While tuition has increased rapidly, real cost per student for providing education has been roughly constant for nearly 20 years. Increased revenue from tuition has been almost precisely offset by reduced revenue from state appropriations.

Abstract: Until recently, there has been no credible, reliable source for instructional cost data on a national basis for two-year colleges in the United States. To fill this need, the Kansas Study of Community College Instructional Costs and Productivity was designed and implemented as a national data collection and reporting consortium. Based on the four-year college and university Delaware Study of Instructional Costs and Productivity, the Kansas Study collects and reports community college instructional costs and faculty workload at the academic discipline level of analysis. This article analyzes aggregate national data from the Kansas Study to determine the major instructional cost drivers for community colleges nationwide.

Abstract: This article reviews current planning efforts regarding the use of2009 federal stimulus dollars in higher education and focuses on identifying best practices.It takes the approach that“best practice” should be defined by criteria outside current planning efforts and suggests that desired outcome, process, and maintenance of key relationships are the appropriate criteria. The article also describes general current practice based on a survey of planning likelihoods and analyzes the planning practices reported against the identified external criteria.