Learning Resources

Abstract: The process of devising a financial strategy to enhance its academic distinction began at Rutgers, a large, public, research university, in 1980 with a not uncommon statement of the Rutgers Board of Governors that sounded like many other mission statements. It used the expected phrases: continue development as a national and international resource by improving quality of instruction, research, and service; increase emphasis on scholarship; expand graduate and research areas of excellence; enhance programs to serve society's needs for broadly educated, humane, competent professionals to serve New Jersey's needs in education, business and industry, public policy studies, government, and other areas. But the Rutgers board did not see the statement as a platitudinous expression to be said and forgotten, and called upon the University administration to implement the statement with all due speed. What follows is the story of its implementation and the results of that action.

Abstract: Drawing on his experiece 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: Allocation of a lump sum appropriation among seven colleges and universities in a single system, according to the authors, can often be a source of wide dissension. In the following article, which was presented at the SCUP 11 Conference in July, Messrs. Holmer and Bloomfield point out that the institutionsof the State of Oregon have achieved consensus on a budget allocation model that rests on recent advances in cost analysis. The model would allocate funds for instruction on an IEP-type base: equal for each major discipline and by level of instruction. Staffing standards for each level of instruction in each discipline have been derived from an exchange of such data among members of the Association of American universities. The claimed virtues of the model lie in its adherence to three premises: 1) equal pay for equal work (by discipline and level of instruction); 2) the use of external standards as a basis for funding the instruction function; and 3) insistence that institutions be free to reallocate allocated funds in accordance with institutional priorities rather than an externally-derived average. Freeman Holmer is Vice Chancellor for Administration of the Oregon Department of Higher Education. Stefan D. Bloomfield is Assistant Director of Planning and Institutional Research at Oregon State University.

Abstract: Higher education's recent financial problems have generated a series of new strategies in budgeting and the allocation of resources. An intriguing example is described in a recent 500-page report, Budgeting and Resource Allocation at Princeton University, reviewed in this article by Anthony D. Knerr, university associate dean for budget administration at the City University of New York.