Overseeing the operations of a college and/or district combines the elements of a financial wizard, a logistics magician, a political demagogue, a Baptist preacher, and a prognosticating soothsayer. It's particularly challenging for new CEOs. This paper offers advice for such new CEOs and for those just interested in a shared perspective. Topics…

Despite increasing college enrollment and growing diversity of the college student population, college completion rates are low. Many colleges are exploring ways to leverage technology to improve student retention and increase the educational options for and success of their diverse student bodies. Web-based course or learning management systems…

What needs to be done to strengthen U.S. democracy, to make it work the way it should? Each generation of Americans asks some version of this question, but this book offers an answer that recognizes the heightened urgency and hopefulness in the way individuals are asking the question today. At the heart of the debate is a conviction that…

Once a college or university has chosen a consultant, details of the relationship may need negotiation, and a contract protecting both parties must be drawn up and signed. A range of contract options is available, depending on the nature, cost, and sensitivity of the work to be done. (Author/MSE)

The key to the success of decision support systems will be the way that institutional researchers integrate the variety of specific and personal systems into a viable and coordinated institutionwide system. (Author/MLW)

Before committing to the expense of consultancy, the college administrator needs to consider several basic questions: "what is the problem?" and "what is keeping the staff from solving the problem?" Certain kinds of problems are more likely than others to benefit from consultant expertise. (MSE)

While microcomputers may be easy to acquire and put into use, advance consideration of some pertinent issues will ensure that they are used successfully for planning and management support. (Author/MLW)

Interviews with 12 senior administrators (8 college, 2 business, 2 hospital) who kept a journal for a year or more revealed 3 major journal-keeping functions: sorting through administrative chaos; generating solutions to problems; and documenting the past by recording details of decisions, personal data, responses to situations. Implications for…

Consultants and higher education clients have worked together for many years. The rapidly changing landscape of American higher education has produced continuing evolution in consulting practice and in the areas consultants serve. To use consultants effectively, institutions must learn about themselves, the consulting process, and available…

Good feedback from a consultant is evidence-based insight into the good, bad, and indifferent aspects of the work being done. The college administrator needs to prepare for hearing and acting on it. Receiving feedback is difficult, but handling it well is critical to the ultimate effectiveness of change. (Author/MSE)

This guidebook argues that solutions to the many problems that internally plague academic institutions of higher education are best developed when administrators closely examine the values, beliefs, traditions, and histories that organizational members hold. Institutional evaluations should take place within a cultural context in which…

The best-prepared college crisis managers go beyond planning and networking to compiling information on what the campus does to avoid and cope with problems, including (1) keeping lists of key campus individuals and establishing rapid access to media; (2) cultivating campus connections; (3) gathering information on contingencies; and (4)…

Monroe Community College (MCC) has been involved in strategic planning over the last 4 years. The following lessons have been drawn from these 4 years of experience: (1) all plans need to be seen as temporary; (2) no plan drawn up in the planner's office could be implemented if it ignored the fleeting, ambiguous nature of the college's and…

Complex institutional problems require comprehensive and complex solutions, including such strategies as defining or redefining institutional mission, finding a market niche, planning, cutting costs and increasing income, structural change, enterprising leadership, and using existing assets and good luck to best advantage. (MSE)

This work, commissioned by the Presidents Academy of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), presents a variety of case studies illustrating the types of sensitive situations in which community college presidents may find themselves and offers advice on how best to prepare for and resolve such situations. It addresses some of the…