The need for information services offers institutional researchers with experience in systems design, data management, and analysis an opportunity to study the key issue involved in providing this service to the campus administrative community. The case of the University of Kansas is described. (Author/MLW)

A strategic plan for the University of Miami charts specific objectives, programmatic and financial, that will lead it to prominence among the nation's teaching and research universities. Long-range plans for the information systems and academic systems of the university are discussed. (MLW)

The Office of Information Services at Kent State University, responsible for academic and administrative computing, is described. Its goals are to support and facilitate instruction research, which requires the planning, acquisition, preparation, management, and maintenance of equipment and equipment sities. (MLW)

The experience of a small liberal arts college in trying to develop a usable and understandable planning, management, and evaluation (PME) system is described. PME tasks in small colleges center upon selecting starting points, demonstrating how different procedures can facilitate operations and decision making, and educating people. (Author/MLW)

The nature and form of useful management information in a variety of situations is discussed. It is suggested that questions posed by managers may determine the effectiveness of the management information system. Questions concerning demographic trends and enrollment declines are used to illustrate this point. (SF)

A study to survey CAUSE member institutions concerning the use and evaluation of data base management systems and associated fourth-generation products is discussed. Characteristics of respondents, their standards and methods, the automated tools they use, fourth-generation language usage specifics, and future plans of respondents are described.…

To increase the value of administrative information for universitywide decision making, the office of institutional research at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University has undertaken a project to standardize data elements and codes across all administrative systems and institutionalize an ongoing standardization process. (Author/MSE)

The planning processes at two universities are contrasted as they relate to styles of data management and institutional research required to support two different planning philosophies--centralized planning and decentralized planning. (Author/BH)