For most of the past decade the policy debate over improving U.S. public education has centered on teacher quality. In this debate, teachers and their unions have often been seen as the problem, not part of the solution. Further, current discourse often assumes that conflicting interests between teacher unions and administration is inevitable.…

When the five-member Board of the Alameda Unified School District selected Kirsten Vital as the new superintendent in 2009, they chose someone from outside their tight-knit community. Board Trustee Margie Sherratt thought Vital was chosen to "get us moving," to be a change agent on closing the achievement gap. Vital, in her initial…

The multiple scenario analysis technique for organizational planning used by multinational corporations is adaptable for colleges and universities. Arizona State University launched a futures-based planning project using the Delphi technique and cross-impact analysis to produce three alternative scenarios (stable, turbulent, and chaotic) to expand…

Describes a roundtable on institutional change attended by 27 college and university senior business officers and other school executives in which participants used a case study of Sears, Roebuck and Company to draw parallels with higher education, then focused on "telling the story" of higher education, and finally developed plans for…

The adaptation of a typical corporate strategic planning process to a midwestern state university is discussed. The university found that an ongoing planning process with a yearly cycle offers several advantages not available with prior approaches, and that strategic planning is a culture that takes time before it becomes pervasive in any…

A case study was done of the possible role of strategic planning processes for smoothing the transition period experienced by colleges and universities when changes in top leadership occur. The study was conducted in a medium-sized midwestern state university that had begun, 3 years earlier, a strategic planning process which had been…

Fisk University (Tennessee), Tougaloo College (Mississippi), and Howard University (District of Columbia) are achieving fiscal and academic success resulting from strategic planning. Elements of that success include building on institutional strengths, using bold institutional leadership, establishing financial stability, and involving faculty in…

Prairie View A&M University's (Texas) experiences are offered as lessons in how to establish institutional priorities and procedures for retrenchment. Thirty-one specific cost-reduction strategies and policy changes are presented, and the evolution of a formal, institutionalized budget process, nonexistent until fiscal year 1991, is described.…

This paper addresses what characteristics of institutional approaches to change succeed in achieving stated institutional aims within a higher education context. It asserts, through an examination of two case studies, that successful organizational change depends on context-laden feedback-driven processes that result in steady incremental…

A sequence of planning actions taken by California State--Dominguez Hills is outlined that began with normative planning, developed through a strategic stage, and culminated in operational planning. Much of the planning focused on the university's role as an urban institution in a changing environment. (MSE)

A model of organizational change is applied to long-term planning at the University of Minnesota. Results suggest that, although planning began in the 1970s, the 1980s saw a model change that increased centralization in strategic orientation and a reduction in size and programs. Implications for organizational research are examined. (Author/MSE)

The University of Wisconsin-Stout is in the third year of developing and implementing a long-range planning process in response to the decline in the traditional college-age population and scarce resources. Several basic principles that evolved with Stout's planning process are described, and a perspective for considering planning is suggested.…

This paper reviewed change strategies based on concepts of organizational learning adopted by four higher education institutions. The study sought to examine the complexities and challenges of applying change management principles and processes derived from corporate management cultures to the administration and governance of higher education. A…

This monograph summarizes the current thinking in the national literature on the subject of cost-containment and productivity in higher education and applies findings to higher education in California. It presents a framework for characterizing the major factors driving higher education costs, outlines potentially promising areas in identifying…

Six papers from the 1988 CAUSE conference's Track VI, Hardware/Software/Networking Strategies, are presented. They include: "Technological Synergies Are No Accident!" (James I. Penrod and Michael G. Dolence); "Augmentation Quotient" (William H. Branch); "Step 2: Of Bridges and Gateways--The Linking of Winthrop College's…