Many small institutions face difficulties, and the person who bears the brunt of dealing with those challenges is the college president. While each situation is unique, presidents can learn from the experiences of others, and at the very least, commiserate with each other regarding the challenges they face, especially when their institutions are…

Higher-education analysts have predicted it: The global financial shambles will cause the closing or merger of a growing number of colleges. At the top of the endangered list are rural colleges. Included in this group is the author's own college, Sterling College, in Craftsbury Common, Vermont. Despite this prediction, the author is counting on…

The case of a fictitious small, private college illustrates how such colleges may require planning strategies differing from those used by other institutions. Such "enlightened brinkmanship" requires exceptional intuitive and market-oriented skills among campus leaders and faculty and a well-run organization. (MSE)

The author of "The Fifth Discipline" says most schools are not learning organizations. Educators are too isolated and rule-bound to experience collective learning and engage students. Deep learning is learner-driven. Learning communities enhance people's collective capacity to create and pursue overall visions. Schools must exchange…

Argues that the identity of basic writing (its status and position) is a function of larger institutional decision-making processes and therefore the focus of efforts to change basic writing should also engage these institutional processes. Focuses on how participating in technology design can be a wedge for engaging in decision making about the…

Strategic planning is discussed as a viable, effective method for coping with change to help an institution achieve its goals. A nine-step model of strategic planning is presented, and the results of a critique of a planning process at a major western research university are described. The nine steps are to: develop a planning culture, planning…

An organization needs to establish an ideal and shared "vision" of what it, as well as society in general, should be like in the future. After the vision is set, the organization should define what it will deliver and should work cooperatively toward creating that vision. (AEF)

The authors propose that the present system of medical education has not kept pace with changes in medical services and financing and is contributing to high health care costs. Academic medical centers are urged to assume a leadership role in finding solutions to problems in medical education and health care reform. (Author/MSE)

Discusses the effects of information technology on the environment within which the typical academic library must operate and the effects of the resulting environmental turbulence on the general social context of the university and on the relationship between the university and its libraries. (Author/CLB)

Social and technological changes foretell higher education as a fast-growing, highly competitive business expected to provide nontraditional educational services. Colleges and universities are having difficulty identifying and taking advantage of these new services. Higher education can and must create a value-added university or face destruction.…

Reflects on the heady past and dubious future of outdoor education in Ontario. Calls for reconceptualizing the field of outdoor education, taking down the terminological fence created by the word "outdoor," focusing on the holistic aspects of outdoor education, and uniting with like-minded souls in education as a whole, to survive into…

An analysis of the problems facing leaders in higher education or other organizational settings as well as insights on effective leadership is presented. The 23 chapters are organized in four parts. Part 1, "The Unconscious Conspiracy and How to Confound It," suggests the presence of such a conspiracy involving the entrenched bureaucracy and…

The restructuring of the oral health sciences program at the University of Alberta (Canada), in response to drastically reduced funding, is described. Major objectives were to reduce program cost to the university and enhance the institution's scholarly/research profile. The model, used in other countries, separates clinical from academic costs.…

Discusses tribal colleges' struggles with lower-than-promised federal appropriations, including difficulties related to governance and planning and the threat of closure. Describes possible alternate means of funding, such as forward funding one year in advance, funding from state governments, and private funding from tribal governments or private…

This report presents a course of action that California and its higher education campuses could pursue in response to economic conditions that have undercut the quality and equality of the system. California's higher education system is described as being in a state of emergency due to unique features: the staggering increase in its college-age…