This chapter describes how Dickinson College, guided by a strategic plan, addressed its net tuition revenue problem through effective decision support, marketing and branding approaches, and pricing and financial aid strategies. The college's strategic plan guides allocation of resources toward fulfilling the college's purpose of providing an…

Planning, opening, and bringing to life a new institution of higher education is a challenging undertaking. At UC Merced, it has been a daunting and exhilarating experience for its founding administration, faculty, staff, and students. Campus pioneers had no road map, no playbook to tell them how to plan and build in the twenty-first century a…

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)

Attainment of fiscal stability in the 1980s at the expense of providing adequate resources for plant maintenance, it is suggested, must be avoided by introducing facility management programs anticipating rather than reacting to change. Plant utilization, maintenance, and modernization are seen as requiring continuing attention. (Author/MLW)

In this long-range look at higher education, it is predicted that short-range problems will be the challenge. Enrollment predictions, along with such other issues as quality of education, balance in higher education, integrity, dynamism of institutions, and the future of the private sector, are discussed. (MLW)

The chancellor of a state's community college system works with the college presidents to establish accountability for a common set of goals.

The ways in which ratio analysis can help in long-range planning, budgeting, and asset management to strengthen financial performance and help avoid financial difficulties are explained. Types of ratios considered include balance sheet ratios, net operating ratios, and contribution and demand ratios. (MSE)

The process of restructuring a higher education institution does not end with creation of a strategic plan; the plan's objectives and strategies must be monitored for effectiveness. Phases of creative strategy-making and plan formulation should be alternated with periods of assessment. The process is not a direct course, but dynamic progression…

One of the most critical components of the college or university chief financial officer's job is budget planning, especially using formulas. A discussion of funding formulas looks at advantages, disadvantages, and types of formulas used by states in budgeting for higher education, and examines how chief financial officers can position the campus…

As collection development in each library becomes part of a larger process for regional and national planning of scholarly resources, it is critical that it also becomes part of the larger institutional development process, reflecting scholarly and instructional needs. (Author/MSE)

Introduces the concept of college and university campus master planning, describes factors and actors in the process, discusses the relationship to capital budgeting, and offers a typical master planning and capital-budgeting process as illustration. Developing a comprehensive institutional master plan can profoundly affect the institution's…

The rapid deterioration of plant and equipment in higher education institutions necessitates quick action by colleges to assess capital needs. Specific plans of action at campus and national levels are required to resolve the lack of information and policies for meeting these needs. (MSE) ***

Examination of economic and demographic factors suggests that 1990s fiscal crises in higher education coincided with a cyclical economic downturn. Structural shifts in political and economic environments also created different challenges to maintaining excellence in teaching, research and service than in previous cyclical downturns. In response,…

Accreditation fosters academic freedom as a condition of academic quality. Accreditation depends on academic freedom to secure reliable institutional self-evaluation and planning, by according faculty the freedom to present their informed judgments about professional matters without reprisal. (MSE)

Simultaneous trends in student demography, consumer patterns, competition, limited resources, and information technology combine to make possible truly revolutionary change in higher education. The same mix of intelligent planning, risk taking, and technology that has enabled institutions to create change during retrenchment can help address these…