Learning Resources

Abstract: In an era of rapid and often discontinuous change, careful planning provides the only hope of meeting the challenges that higher education institutions face. As this viewpoint explains, planning never requires an explanation; lack of planning does. The future may not be simply a race between planning and catastrophe, but planning can inspire us in such a way as to prepare a future that is more fully adequate to our dreams than would otherwise have been the case.

Abstract: One of the major issues in strategic planning is moving the academic strategic plan from planning to implementation. This article suggests that there are several effective implementation methods: using the budget, using participation, using force, establishing goals and key performance indicators, working within the human resource management system, using the reward system, using faculty and staff development, working with institutional culture, working with or around tradition, developing and using change champions, and building on systems that are ready for or are easily adaptable to strategic change.

Abstract: Recruiting and retaining women and minority faculty members is a particularly challenging workforce development issue facing many universities. This article summarizes current literature and the results of a survey of selected institutions to gauge responses to this challenge. All the survey respondents indicated that recruitment of women and minority candidates has been problematic, that retention problems vary, and that job placement is difficult and can negatively influence the recruitment and retention of women and minority faculty members. Job placement for partners has been most difficult for those universities located in small- to mid-sized cities. A variety of programs have been attempted to alleviate problems of recruitment and retention.

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: Over the past decade, the escalating price for a college education has become a prominent concern among the American public, institutions of higher education, and state and federal governments. As a result, much effort has been expended in examining and seeking solutions to this complex problem, with a significant focus on the costs of delivering higher education. This article provides a basic overview of the concept of cost in higher education and related issues, discusses the major consumers of higher education cost data and their perspectives, outlines the major sources of data on higher education costs, and describes some of the major (and perennial) issues related to higher education costs.