School closings can be made more acceptable to a community if a long-range plan for dealing with declining enrollments is developed that includes a statement of goals, process, criteria, and efforts to include public information and interaction. (Author/MLF)

Analyzed the structure of the admissions process and developed a system which utilizes the admissions computer database to give more comprehensive and consistent estimates. This system makes the computer a tool for admissions decision making, rather than just a reservoir of data. (Author)

At present, long-range planning in education is largely exploratory and far from comprehensive. The conceptual framework and techniques now available have the potential to offer new insights, sharpen the imagination, and provide the impetus to explore needed changes and directions in teacher education. (JD)

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)

Bradford College (Massachusetts), a small liberal arts college, used creative planning to revitalize the institution despite fiscal constraints. Decisions and actions since 1981 are reviewed in terms of first steps (revitalizing faculty affairs), finding a new president, reorganizing the curriculum, planning noncurricular changes, and developing…

A methodology for developing a strategic, long-range organizational information architecture is described. The development of a plan to identify key categories of information to enhance decision making and operational productivity is detailed. Figures and tables detail the methodology's application at the University of Minnesota. (DB)

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…

This paper examines the philosophical approaches to knowledge that have governed education and concludes that a new paradigm is needed for the new millennium. Education is subdivided into a three-level hierarchy, including: (1) the accumulation of factoids as knowledge; (2) the development of knowledge into theories and models for the purpose of…

Two hundred college and university vice presidents of finance were questioned about the evaluation processes currently used by their institutions in making resource allocation decisions. A strong parallel with hospital budgeting was found, with prestige maximization subject to some overall budget constraint. A longer range approach to academic…

The process of system-level planning must account for and facilitate the interaction of administrators and faculty from different campuses and create a context in which all can be involved. Eleven criteria are identified,including goal-setting, coordinated decision making, and accountability. (MLW)

The Hawaii Judiciary has been using futures research to help identify the legal aspects of emerging social trends. Emerging issues analysis works because the life cycle of issues can be seen as following certain patterned phases. Describes the process of this research and its results. (Author/CS)

Patience and teamwork in long-range planning are seen as having helped ensure prosperity at Williams College. The mechanics involved reaching what is described as a modified consensus. Two major changes included the end of fraternities at the college and the decision to coeducate. (MLW)

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.…

"Lighting New Fires: American Catholic Schools for the 21st Century" is a National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) program that has called on every Catholic school to undertake educational planning. This manual was written to take a school community through the details of the entire planning process. Following the foreword, the first…

This essay presents the major ideas of the book "The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism" (1991), written by Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Reich describes the development of the symbolic-analyst as the new citizen in the economic order, utilizing the basic skills of…