Learning Resources

Abstract: Among the many reforms currently sweeping higher education is the growing demand that formal educational opportunity be opened to adults. The result has been expansion of traditional continuing education and extension programs as well as a plethora of new and experimental programs aimed at the adult student. In an attempt to bring some order out of the resulting chaos, Jane Lord, a researcher for Educational Facilities Laboratories, and Ronald H. Miller, project coordinator for the New York City Regional Center for Life-Long Learning at Pace College, have reviewed the literature on adult education to produce this article, discussing the trends and the options open to institutions of higher education. An extensive bibliography is included.

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.

Abstract: Among other developments, the current crisis in higher education has generated a widespread movement toward statewide and regional cooperation among colleges and universities. A significant example is the new Academic Affairs Conference of Midwestern Universities (AACMU), a consortium of five institutions in the farm lands of Illinois and Indiana. Among its initial efforts are the initiation of a rapprochement between voluntary and statutory cooperative organizations, joint academic and research programs, an administrative internship for minorities, and an Urban Center in Chicago, which makes the city's resources available to the 90,000 students at its member institutions. AACMU's development is described in this article by Harold E. Walker, its executive director.

Abstract: Colleges and universities in recent years routinely have involved themselves in urban renewal. Their motive usually is simple: expansion. A few, more enlightened institutions have attempted to employ renewal to stabilize and enhance the surrounding community but, again, the motive was essentially selfish. Now, higher education has the example of two small private institutions--William Woods and Westminister Colleges in Fulton, Missouri--which have committed themselves to an innovative and sensitive plan for renewal that, while it will benefit the colleges, actually is designed to meet community needs. Their story follows.

Abstract: Interinstitutional cooperation has become a popular catchword as colleges and universities seek ways out of their current financial crisis and greater credibility in the eyes of the public. Such cooperation takes a variety of forms but seldom involves extensive sharing of physical facilities. The Auraria Higher Education Center in Denver is the exception, a huge, urban campus that will be shared by three major institutions--the University of Colorado/Denver Center, Metropolitan State College, and the Community College of Denver/Auraria Campus. The evolution of Auraria as a concept and as a campus is described in this article.

Abstract: Innovation in the design and construction of educational buildings can happen in the proprietary sector as well as in public and private, nonprofit institutions. Convincing evidence is to be found in the story of two new technical schools built for Bell and Howell Schools, a subsidiary of the Bell and Howell Company. The two projects involved the finely orchestrated application of three major innovations in planning and construction--the use of systems components, fast-track planning, and construction management. The results: two handsome and functional buildings, optimum adaptability to changing educational programs, low cost, and a total design and construction time of only nine months.

Abstract: Escalation of university-community tension across the nation has generated widespread investigation and speculation by planners into the possible causes. Much of the speculation centered on "campus form" as a significant variable. Did the physical size and shape of the campus and its buildings influence tensions or the lack thereof? Was physical dispersal of the campus preferable to the fortress-like enclave of the traditional urban campus? In search of answers, Educational Facilities Laboratories commissioned a team of researchers at the University of Cincinnati--Robert Carroll, a sociologist, and planning professors Hayden B. May and Samuel V. Noe, Jr.--to undertake a study of the phenomenon. Their conclusions are available in a report available from Professor Noe, Department of Community Planning, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221, and are summarized by the editor in the following article.

Abstract: The use of the computer, allied with simulation models, as a means of pretesting the effect of managerical decisions has become an accepted technique in business, industry, governent, and the military. More recently, the technique has come to be employed in higher education as a potential solution to the whole range of problems--from the allocation of pencils, to the availability of instructional space, to the management of money--faced by colleges and university administrators. But is computer simulation a valid tool on the campuses? Has it been effectively applied in higher education? Or, as some educators maintain, is adademe "unique" and therefore unresponsive to new sophisticated scientific techniques of management? In search of some answers, Jerome F. Wartgow, coordinator of research and evaluation at the new Governors State University in Illinois, recently conducted a study of the use and effectiveness of computer simulation at seven institutions of higher education. His findings and recommendations are summarized in this article.

Abstract: Paul Dressel, in his book titled Return to Responsibility, set off sympathetic vibrations both among the new generation of activists in academe and, in a very different arena, among planners and other governmental and institutional functionaries who control or oversee higher education's purse strings. On the other hand, a segment of the academic community sees in Dressel's proposals a new attempt to curb academic freedom, cloaked in the guise of "social responsibility." Among the critics is Michael A. Murrary, assistant professor, Department of Political Science and Institute of Governmental Affairs, Chicago Circle Campus, University of Illinois. Planning for Higher Education asked Professor Murray, former associate director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, to review Return to Responsibility, which was written in collaboration with William H. Faricy and with the assistance of Philip M. Marcus and F. Craig Johnson and published in 1972 by Jossey-Bass, Inc., San Francisco.

Abstract: The message at SCUP's 7th Annual International Conference in Atlanta in August 1972, was loud and clear: change--rapid and usettling, if not traumatic--has become the norm in higher education. And planners, whether their responsibilities are in the academic, fiscal, or physical arenas, will have to learn to deal with it. The message was perhaps best summed up by Fred E. Crossland, who, from his vantage point as program officer in higher education for The Ford Foundation, surveyed conditions on the campus and offered his conclusions in a luncheon address titled "Taking Aim at a Moving Target." This article is excerpted from his remarks.