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)

Without significant changes in educational programs, teaching-learning strategies and living-learning environments the so-called "invisible colleges" may in fact disappear because they have been unable to meet the needs of their constituencies. These small, private colleges with limited resources must become interdependent with their environments.…

Most small colleges face difficult decisions during the 1980s regarding their institutional identity and educational goals. Forces acting upon college administrators today tend to favor comprehensiveness at the expense of distinctiveness. Society will be served better by an array of distinctive small colleges, each having a character of its own.…

Endangered small, private colleges can take steps toward survival, including mission clarification, expanding services to existing and potential clienteles, introducing management by objectives, and developing public relations and fund raising. Long-range options include avoiding the postsecondary mainstream and striving for efficiency of…

Presents management models showing the evolution of public expectancy as reflected in legislated policy: the petty cash model, the public utility model, and the business model. Discusses the John A. Walker Community Center at Wilkes Community College (North Carolina) as an example of the integrated planning/resource development (i.e., business)…

The decision on the most appropriate size for liberal arts colleges should not be made on economic grounds. Analysis of literature shows that economic benefits through economies of scale are too debatable to play an important role. Fixed costs may be offset by less institutional complexity in small colleges. (Author/MSE)

College administrators in small and specialized colleges with a narrower margin for financial planning need a management process that continually renews the institution's sense of direction while ensuring that plans are matched to available resources. (MSE)

The role of student affairs staff in small colleges is considered in eight chapters. Topics of discussion include: conditions facing small colleges, the small college ecology, the role of the student affairs division in providing leadership for institutional planning and research, examples of innovative programming that maximize scarce resources…

Characteristics of successful small-college administration are identified: entrepreneurial spirit, intuitive decision-making, an effective intelligence-gathering network, planning for the future using analogies from the past, and a penchant for keeping options open. (Author/MLW)

An assessment of the Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS) reveals that small colleges can benefit from the consistency of standardized responses in creating individual planning data systems. HEGIS has a long enough history to have stabilized its several instruments. However, if one is looking to create student or personnel specific…

Options available to small universities in Australia in order to maximize their efficiency in lean times are discussed: staying small with better funding; staying small with standard funding; federation with another institution or institutions but with internal differentiation; merger; and closing. (MSE)

A report examining the conditions facing Williams College in the 1980s is excerpted. The committee was to emphasize strategies to serve two major institutional goals: maintaining a large pool of well-qualified applicants, and maintaining a faculty that is talented, well compensated and professionally committed. (MLW)

Franklin and Marshall College concluded it would come closer to its educational goals by reducing its size. Use of a planning model to project institutional finances based on tuition, gift, grant, and enrollment estimates predicts a potential major improvement in the college's position. (MSE)

A model for long range planning is discussed including: identification of institutional strengths, establishing mission and goals, resources needed, resources available, resource allocations, periodic evaluation, and revising plan based on evaluation. Presidential leadership and faculty involvement are necessary for completing the task. (MLW)

There is a need for concentrated administrative leadership in planning for computing and information technology in colleges and universities. An executive perspective through three personal interviews with Samuel A. Banks (Dickinson College), Robert H. McCabe (Miami-Dade Community College), and William E. Lavery (Virginia Tech) is presented. (MLW)