It is not enough for university governing boards and chief executives to decide the system must change; leadership must convince constituents that everyone has something to gain. When the University of Maryland's campuses could not reach consensus in paring programs, the system board stepped in to foster collaboration and cooperation. (Author/MSE)

This document contains findings of a study conducted in response to a proposal that would merge the current Departments of Education and Labor. The proposal would also merge the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) with the two departments. Fiscal year 1995 budget data were used to analyze the congressmen's draft proposal and to…

This letter report by the Director of Education and Employment Issues in the U.S. General Accounting Office responds to a request from Senator Edward M. Kennedy for information on the federal costs involved for liquidation activities of the Higher Education Assistance Foundation (HEAF) in fiscal year (FY) 1992, the second year of the agreement to…

This report summarizes and assesses Project REAL (Return to Employment and Learning), which attempted to attack the high rate of youth crime by focusing on youth offenders who, because they committed repeated serious offenses, were likely to become career criminals. Following a brief introduction, the report describes typical Project REAL clients…

Legal issues in program discontinuance and resulting lawsuits are considered, including liability to the faculty, students, and other constituencies; freedom of speech; due process; contractual obligations; legal defense; and consideration of program alternatives. A list of related resources is appended. (MSE)

The course of enrollments, events, and decision-making leading up to the 1980 dismissal of five faculty at Goucher College is outlined in terms of: financial exigency, termination of tenured appointments, ruptures in due process and faculty participation, and absence of a decision for program discontinuance. (MSE)

The experiential exercise presented here, using a dialectic process similar to that found within Strategic Assumption Surfacing and Testing (SAST), developed by Mason and Mitroff, offers graduate and undergraduate management students the opportunity to study a contemporary ethical problem in a new way. The ethical issues of a plant closedown…

This article examines the implementation of educational policy in a religious education program at a Los Angeles Catholic parish. It charts the elimination of Spanish-based classes ("doctrina") for Mexican immigrant children in favor of "English-only" instruction. The article offers insights into the politics of language use in everyday practice…

In 1978 a complaint was filed by New Hampshire Legal Assistance against Laconia Developmental Services, New Hampshire's only public institution for children and adults with developmental disabilities. The decision from the Federal district court judge in August 1981 ordered the state to devise a plan for: institutional improvement; development of…

This articles examines litigation which has been generated as a result of fiscal cut-backs at institutions of higher education and looks at the rights and obligations of college and university administrators and students as well as possible future trends. A first section details the effects of budget reductions at California state institutions…

This study describes the actions taken by public institutions of higher education over the last several years to respond to severe financial pressures. It is based on the responses of 296 public colleges and universities to 24 questions included in the 1994 Campus Trends survey that were relevant to actions taken in expenditure control, new…

A bibliography on decline and retrenchment in higher education is presented that includes publications from the fields of higher education, the organization sciences, and public administration. The objective is to make available the reference tools that have been useful in conducting the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems'…

A collaborative enterprise to provide adult education center programs dissolved due to mismanaged interagency cooperation. Problems included unwillingness to relinquish control, lack of candor, poor selection of partners, lack of planning, failure to implement, and failure to evaluate. (SK)

This study explores the ability of shared governance systems to make institutional hard decisions, focusing particularly on discontinuance of academic programs. A case study method examined shared governance processes at four research institutions to identify themes and patterns across the institutional decision-making process. Between 11 and 16…

Recent reports on Australia's research infrastructure have highlighted the decline in serial subscriptions in academic and research libraries during the 1990s. They have used the annual CAUL statistics in order to support these claims. This article examines the CAUL statistics for serial subscriptions, indicating their numerous flaws when used for…