A "formal information inventory" survey method was used to help educate a university campus about outcomes assessment while identifying assessment activities already being undertaken. The survey was sent to 102 individuals identified as being responsible for, or having knowledge of, any assessment activities within a department or area,…

In the interest of understanding the role of Chief Planning Officers (CPO) in gaining broad support for planning within an institution of higher education, this paper used a national survey of administrators to examine that role. This study, conducted by the National Center for Postsecondary Governance and Finance, involved a survey of 3,333…

A newly organized small college model for a decentralized institutional research office was described and evaluated. Using Hearn and Corcoran's six external or organizational forces (external environment, personalities or individual interests, management styles, power arrangements, microcomputing and telecommunications, and structural and…

This paper documents how the University of Oklahoma developed discipline cost indices which it then used in its budget allocation process. In order to overcome the interinstitutional comparison problems between universities which use different reporting and accounting methods, discipline cost indices were derived using data collected through the…

Perceptions of college institutional research directors concerning the quality of executive decision making at their institutions were studied. Perceptions were assessed using a theoretical model of Groupthink developed by Janis, who postulates that a high amount of environmental stress should lead to a greater degree of…

A pilot survey of institutional research and planning (IR/P) functions at 78 U.S. colleges and universities yielded data on common and diverse tasks, products, and services; broad staffing and related operating expense requirements for these tasks, products, and services; and specific staff "person days" required to perform/achieve each…

An effective environmental scan will improve the quality of community college planning and decision making by alerting institutional leaders to the challenges and opportunities in the environment. Scanning can be done in three ways: (1) establishing a scanning committee to gather and synthesize information to guide planning; (2) sponsoring a…

Focus group research, which involves the exploration of a carefully selected research question by a group of homogeneous subjects, is a qualitative research tool which seems to be a quick and easy means of staying abreast of the educational needs and expectations of community colleges. However, it is difficult to moderate focus groups and…

This paper discusses the role that the Office of Institutional Research and Strategic Planning played in providing data support, planning, and cohesiveness as Utah Valley Community College worked to become Utah Valley State College. The two tier model adopted at Utah Valley State College aspires to describe a cost-effective four-year college with…

An analytic system for determining student flow in different subject fields in order to produce departmental workload forecasts is examined. The system consists of three steps. The first step, student flow calculation, computes the relationship of enrollments by major and student level from one year to another. This calculation utilizes historical…

A description is provided of the development of a university assessment and planning system for all levels of the university. The system is applied in a case study of a regional university. The designed system takes into account the constraints of the state budgeting system, the planning procedures of the state-wide university system, and the…

Results of a survey of institutional research curricula in 88 U.S. higher education programs are presented. The extent to which institutional research core courses are theoretical or practitioner-oriented was also assessed. Eight of the programs offered an area of concentration in institutional research, and 17 programs had an institutional…

Results of a feasibility study of implementing flextime for nonacademic staff at Midlands Technical College are presented, along with implementation outcomes. Surveys were administered to staff and department heads, as well as to state agencies that had administered flextime. Findings include: (1) 95.6 percent of nonacademic staff favored a…

This study investigated the role and scope of institutional research in regionally accredited, private colleges with a headcount enrollment of less than 3000 students located in the southeastern United States. The study queried 252 individuals (155 responses) who were primarily responsible for institutional research about the activities and role…

The types and number of faculty cases litigated and reported at state and federal levels for the 1982 calendar year are examined. Each case is reviewed for the basic facts, the underlying legal rationale, the data requirements, and the decision of the court. It is noted that categorical data summaries were developed of the cases and the associated…