Learning Resources

Abstract: This paper contains a management model for pricing and enrollment planning. It is assumed that the institution maximizes its long run quality reputation through the accomplishments of its alumni. The model yields rules for optimal pricing decisions with respect to the “sticker price,” the average scholarship per student, and enrollment. It identifies the optimal mix between the sticker price and the average scholarship, a measure of the institution’s financial ability to support students, and an average cost pricing rule. The model also reveals that pricing rules based on the theory of the firm are inappropriate for higher education and can lead to financial distress.

Abstract: This paper describes the status of Latino students in higher education, identifies the barriers to access and persistence, and discusses the challenges this rising population presents. The article also highlights campus programs around the country that are currently addressing the needs of Latino students and provides recommendations for academic and university planners on how to become a catalyst for positive institutional change by creating a campus-wide program that helps all students persist through graduation.

Abstract: Colleges and universities need to identify the “core” which defines them as an institution. They need to find and declare their niche within state systems, and then build a budget around that core, that niche. Across the nation, public institutions are wrestling with declining state budget resources and increased demand for services. Traditional budgetary approaches could result in wholesale across-the-board reductions or program eliminations. What is needed is recognition of the situation, acceptance that these down cycles occur and re-occur, and a new approach to funding requests. If funding is not available for all programs, fund and preserve the core.

Abstract: A growing cadre of progressive K–12 educators believes that sustainability education has a central role in developing in students a sense of responsibility for the future. Leaders within the movement to educate for sustainability see an opportunity in the convergence of the large-scale systemic reform efforts sweeping our nation and the vision and goals of the emerging field of sustainability education. Transformations are appearing in classrooms that have adopted sustainability education as a context for systemic reform efforts, and the results of this are bound to affect the shape of higher education in years to come.

Abstract: The path to a healthy, just, and sustainable future for all current and future generations of humans and other biological species will require a transformative change in thinking values and action by all individuals and institutions in the next two decades. The institutions within higher education bear a moral responsibility to increase the awareness, knowledge, skills, and values needed to change the collective mind-set. Because it prepares most of society’s professionals and leaders, higher education plays a critical but often-overlooked role in making this vision a reality. This article explores how higher education would model sustainability as a fully integrated community intricately connecting learning, research, operations, purchasing investments, and work with local and regional communities. The envisioned framework for higher education will result in the interdisciplinary, systemic learning and practice needed to provide the educational experience for graduates to lead society on a sustainable path. It provides several examples of colleges and universities that have made some of these changes with an emphasis on curriculum connected to other college and university functions. It also suggests a new role for college and university planners in this transformation and provides other sources of information on the changes that are happening in higher education.

Abstract: This article provides a survey of innovative approaches to campus transportation in the United States. The high costs of parking expansion have propelled many institutions toward a transportation demand management strategy, using parking pricing, transit passes for students and employees, and investment in bicycle infrastructure to shift many trips from single-occupant automobiles to other modes of travel. These institutions have experienced multiple benefits, including lower transportation costs, lower environmental impacts, and improved community relations.

Abstract: Sustainable planning for academic institutions can reduce the ecological footprint and improve project performance. Structured workshops are proposed as the method to integrate green planning seamlessly into the process by establishing goals, developing preliminary green measures, and making realistic decisions based on consensus. Energy conservation, indoor environmental quality, and resource efficiency are the strategies for achieving the goals. Green rating systems, such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED™), offer specific ways to gauge the environmental effectiveness of green measures. Greenness is dependent on the capital cost invested but produces life-cycle costs savings. “Greening” the campus through the workshop process is the precursor to “greening” the curriculum.

Abstract: The challenge of planning a sustainable future is so great and the task so broad that moving our institutions of higher learning, let alone our society, toward sustainability requires an unprecedented coalition of leaders. Planners must use the best skills and knowledge of all members of the academy: faculty, students, staff, trustees, alumni, and administration. This article reviews and critiques the processes, circumstances, and leadership that enabled Northland College to make significant progress toward sustainability. An Environmental Council that supported strong linkages between student learning and sustainability was key to the progress. The council was an incubator of leadership from which students, faculty, and staff emerged as agents of change.