Strategies to help garner community support in school technology growth or maintenance include the following: (1) consider a "current state of technology" report; (2) forget five-year plans; (3) develop annual technology reports; (4) look to your website; (5) seek constructive opportunities to share technology, and (6) show off best examples at…

Formal environmental scanning procedures can provide key administrators of higher education institutions with valuable external information regarding both the probability and impact of external trends and forces. Such information may then be used in various strategic planning stages including scenario development, institutional mission and goals…

This report, in two volumes, contains recommendations and supporting documentation for restructuring mental health services to Texas' children with an emphasis on the cost effectiveness of developing accountable school and community based services, family centered prevention services, and early intervention services. Major mental health issues for…

This handbook provides a model or process for examining the impact of a community school. Specifically, it provides a step-by-step guide to assessing impact by looking at voting, public opinion, attendance, and vandalism data. Other potential indexes of impact are also discussed. The steps involved in conducting an impact evaluation are similar to…

Assessed service utilization and cost impacts of a consolidated model of long-term care for functionally impaired elders. Compared to traditional long-term care, this model reduces hospital and nursing home stays, redistributes funds to broad range of community-based services, and reduces overall cost of long-term care. (Author/NRB)

Suggestions are provided to help community colleges disseminate their publications as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible, by taking advantage of relevant postal regulations. After looking at the prohibitive costs of first-class mailings, the paper considers second- and third-class bulk mailing options, beginning with a comparison of the…

Alternative scheduling provides community colleges with a means to adapt to declining enrollments and fiscal exigencies, and to respond the demand for accountability to students. Strategies such as departing from traditional semester- or quarter-length courses and developing weekend programs have been implemented at certain institutions to…

The Seattle (Washington) School District operates a single, centrally located athletic playing field for 10 secondary schools. Rental fees charged to community groups and other schools have generated substantial revenue. Providing a valuable service to the community has paid off in goodwill toward the school system. (Author/MLF)

Discusses the operation of auxiliary enterprises (i.e., college-owned and operated satellite business operations); service departments (i.e., college units that provide specialized services to other college units); and other revenue-producing units at community colleges. Suggests effective management and operational practices. Discusses the…

School and city officials in Pomona (California) have saved money by cooperating on a number of programs. These include building new schools, placing public parks next to schools, purchasing a computer, and sharing recreational programs. (MLF)

In response to the rising costs of health care and large increases in insurance premiums, a study was conducted at Lakeshore Technical Institute (LTI) to investigate the feasibility of using a self-funded health insurance plan at the college. Data were obtained through a literature review; telephone and on-site discussions with a personnel…

The high school stadium in Flint, Michigan, once was used only for varsity football games. After the installation of synthetic turf, an average of 332 events have been staged there each year. (Author/MLF)

An enrollment-driven model for estimating instructional costs is presented in this paper as developed by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE). After stating the principles of the WICHE planning system (i.e., various categories of data are gathered, segmented, and then cross-tabulated against one another to yield certain…

A study was conducted in 1988 by a community college librarian who was seeking an objective guide for weeding unused library books. It was hypothesized that a book not used in a certain number of years would never be used. At the beginning of the study, no books had ever been weeded although the library had begun acquiring books in 1969. To test…

A four-day week at a Pennsylvania community college has reduced the amount of natural gas used to operate air conditioning equipment. (MLF)