Alaska faces a problem that is easy to explain but hard to solve: state government is spending more than it collects. The budget crisis looms because oil production, which supplies 85% of the state's general fund revenues, will soon begin to fall as the Prudhoe Bay oil field is depleted. This paper examines the potential deficit and the effect it…

The role of student affairs staff in small colleges is considered in eight chapters. Topics of discussion include: conditions facing small colleges, the small college ecology, the role of the student affairs division in providing leadership for institutional planning and research, examples of innovative programming that maximize scarce resources…

First of a two-part report on a 1982 study by the staff of the Education and Work program at Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL), this issue presents the preliminary findings from questionnaires (and telephone surveys) of 30 unemployed men and women. In order to determine how unemployment affects people, NWREL's study identified and…

Arrangements in educational institutions for voluntary early retirement programs are discussed. Retirement at any age can be a profound and stressful lifetime change; and it can also represent a welcome transition into newly satisfying and rewarding opportunities. The focus is on: mandatory retirement (exceptions and the new meaning of "early");…

Strategies and problems facing the small private liberal arts colleges as a group are described. Many of these schools have weathered the financial emergencies of recent years by cutting expenditures to the point where the quality of education is threatened. New measures have been called for to reduce the tuition gap between private and public…

The legal status of tenure rights threatened by financial exigency and the role of the American Association of University Professors in protecting those rights are considered. Accommodations of competing managerial, employee, and institutional interests that must be addressed are also discussed. Court cases are reviewed that deal with managerial…

This newsletter discusses factors that shape federal education funding policies. It examines the size of the federal deficit and its progress, as well as the factors affecting the resources available for education. The 1993 interest on the federal debt is projected to be $314 billion and payments such as these have held down funding for student…

This publication is based on two surveys of the same Anchorage, Alaska households taken in June and November 1987 to study the effects of a strong recession of the previous two years. Different kinds of households were queried about household incomes, housing status, members' occupations, moving plans, and expectations about the financial future.…

Two newsletter articles are presented that examine legal aspects of campus collective bargaining: (1) "Campus Bargaining and the Law: A Decade of Higher Education Collective Bargaining--1972-1982" (June M. Weisberger); and (2) an analysis of the the Appellate Court decision in the S. Simpson Gray case. The first article examines major…

These two documents contain a variety of articles on media use in education. The first provides 16 articles that focus on justifying media programs in the 1980's. Topics include selling your program to administrators; reorganization of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction; video literacy; student-made videotape recordings; interactive…

Considerations that can help colleges and universities develop institutionally specific strategies for planning faculty reductions are addressed. It is suggested that an institution can provide a fair and workable reduction plan if it: thoroughly explores alternatives to faculty layoffs; develops explicit standards and procedures for reduction…

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…

Providing a basis to help Alaskans determine future spending levels and priorities, this report traces how the state spent more than $26 billion in general funds from fiscal years 1981 through 1986 before oil prices crashed and brought state revenues tumbling down with them. Figures indicate that cumulative general fund expenditures over the…

A voucher system of schooling would destroy the few democratic gains made in public education in recent years, worsen inequalities that already permeate education, and block opportunities for meaningful reform. Articles included in this special issue are: (1) an introduction, "Why We Are Publishing False Choices" ("Rethinking…

Changes that higher education is experiencing and forecasting and approaches to improve higher education management are considered. In addition to declining enrollment, rising costs, and diminishing financial resources, colleges are faced with the task of managing these changes under the pressures of new constraints and new constituencies.…