"Spectacular error" sounds euphemistic compared to "devastating," "catastrophic," or "meltdown"--terms more commonly summoned to describe the credit crisis and ensuing global economic carnage. Whatever they are labeled, gross miscalculations on Wall Street are having a deleterious effect on college campuses across the country, with many…

The counterintuitive approach of the world's greatest value investor, Warren Buffett, may be the best hope for colleges and universities during this recession. Buffett's time-tested philosophy of seeking value and investing for the long term remains a sound approach, even if his short-term returns have declined along with those of the rest of the…

Strategic planning enables colleges to direct discretionary dollars into high-impact areas that can enhance critical core activities, improving output. When the institution can disinvest financial resources in weak or noncritical core areas and redirect them through careful budgeting, it improves its chances for success. (MSE)

Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis is the first public institution to implement Responsibility Center Management (RCM), a comprehensive decentralized, incentive-base financial management system. RCM has strengthened academic planning, budget management, general accountability, and multiyear fiscal planning. Organizational…

Five strategies for realistic deficit management in the college or university during fiscal stress are examined: (1) comprehensive strategic and operational budget planning; (2) examination of tenure-stream faculty positions; (3) program review and evaluation; (4) self-supporting auxiliary and service units; and (5) increased flexibility in use of…

Effective college planning in a period of reduced resources requires that a comprehensive long-range plan, based on consensus, be in place before budgeting begins, so essential resources will not be damaged. The starting point for planning is a well-stated conception of the institution and of its subsystems and their interactions. (MSE)

This collection of papers explores various aspects of strategic planning at Linn-Benton Community College (LBCC). First, an overview is presented, clarifying what strategic planning is not and describing the strategic planning at LBCC and its objectives (i.e., to develop a plan utilizing community and internal assessments that can be developed…

This paper integrates principles of Total Quality Management (TQM) with those of investment for institutions of higher education. TQM with investment budgeting as one of its critical tools is seen to be essential for effective management in a time of decreasing financial resources. A process for investment budgeting is outlined and explained…

Following six years of across-the-board internal budget reallocations, Penn State initiated a rolling five-year planning and budget process. It provides for more selective budgetary decisions based on careful analysis of university priorities. (Author/MLW)

Fiscal crisis in New England has been greater than that of early 1980s; colleges and universities should heed lessons. Presents guidelines extracted from study on organizations that effectively managed cutbacks in programs. Effective strategic planning was based on 8 preconditions that define system's capabilities to identify and react to decline…

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.…

Despite the complexity and elusiveness of strategic planning by research universities, factors correlated with satisfaction in planning include presence of president or chief executive, presence of centralization and decentralization elements in the planning process, presence of a permanent planning committee, linkage of planning to budgeting, use…

This paper addresses the problem of shaping new strategies in the face of current enrollment declines at many colleges and universities. It describes an approach that applies a long term planning model that can incorporate the short-term realities of lower enrollments and budget constraints with projections for new strategic initiatives. The paper…

Each college foreign language department needs to use its limited resources with long-term goals in mind. Strategic planning requires the department to make sense of innovations in technology, present and future costs, enrollment trends, product life cycles, student characteristics, methodology, programmed or non-programmed needs, and vendors. In…

In an attempt to analyze the current status of the University of Calgary, a Review Committee was formed, comprised of eight academics of diverse rank drawn from various faculties. Presented is the report of the committee. Chapter I, "The University in Context," examines universities in Canada with detailed emphasis on the Alberta…