Responses of college administrators in schools facing conditions of fiscal stress, and alternative strategies found to be effective in private sector firms are examined. It is suggested that many college administrators are responding to conditions of decline by being conservative and efficiency oriented. A number of factors within and outside the…

Experiences of the 1970s and prospects for the 1980s of colleges that had undergone enrollment decline and/or financial cutbacks were surveyed, based on visits to 20 colleges and universities in 11 states in the Northeast, Midwest, and South. Some of the strategies to resist and overcome decline have potential for success in a wide range of…

The recent dramatic growth of postsecondary education is reviewed, and the context in which the state legislature and the higher education community will probably interact in the future is described. The era of rapid economic growth following World War II was accompanied by even more rapid increases in demand for college educated workers.…

The historical pattern of resource allocation in American higher education as exemplified by public colleges in Colorado was examined. The reliance upon average cost information in making resource allocation decisions was critiqued for the special problems that arise from student enrollment decline or steady state. A model of resource allocation…

Budgeting and budget planning in higher education are considered, and the long-standing debate concerning whether budgeting is largely a technical or a political exercise is reviewed in this monograph. The roles of various participants in the budgeting process and the form of their participation, with emphasis on centralization of authority in the…

This study developed (1) exemplary behavioral objectives and performance indicators for the business component of a school district and (2) a model to aid practitioners in stating the behavioral objectives and performance indicators of a school district's business function. A jury, whose members had a working knowledge of PPBS, school business…

This report by the California State Auditor reports that six of 10 California community college districts audited are incorrectly reporting their levels of spending on teacher salaries. State law requires that districts spend 50% of their current educational expenses on instructor salaries each year. By mandating this spending level, the…

This report provides the annual budget for Oakton (Illinois) Community College's fiscal year 1998. It opens with a letter from the president, followed by an addendum and a copy of a GFOA Certificate for Distinguished Budget Presentation, awarded in 1996. Four sections follow: (1) an introduction, which includes a chart of organization for Oakton…

The South Australian State Department of Education, Training and Employment allocates funding to schools in much the way that the literature suggests is a generic basis for funding schools. This includes per school base funding, per student funding for all students, additional per student allocations based on year levels, and additional per…

This book contains a detailed description of the challenges faced by educational finance and budgeting in Cambodia. Until recently, educational financing took the form of emergency budgets and was limited to government planning for teacher salaries and costs of examinations. There has been a general lack of coordination between provinces and the…

A comprehensive capital charge policy is recommended as an integral part of college budgeting and reporting. It includes three components: a capital renewal and replacement charge, a new equipment and library and laboratory acquisitions budget, and a debt repayment schedule using internal borrowing. (MSE)

Describes a cost allocation procedure developed at the University of Texas at Austin for its School of Nursing to project costs for long-range budget planning. Eleven tables illustrate the use of this costing/budgeting/resource allocation methodology, a potentially effective way to justify funding increases. (MF)

As economic realities drive colleges and universities to reassess financial strategies for managing information technology investments, many will have to develop a new game plan, requiring: collaboration among academic, financial, and technical leaders; rejuvenation of the collective conventional wisdom; shift to life-cycle budgeting; emphasis on…

A new approach to medical school faculty compensation and advancement is proposed as a means for developing a better ethos for teaching. According to the plan, half the available resources are distributed according to departmental merit, based on research and teaching performance of each department faculty as a group. (Author/MSE)

Three papers on library budget priorities for the 1990s discuss (1) reallocating the budget to spend less on staff and more on collections and access; (2) budget concerns of public libraries, emphasizing the future role of libraries; and (3) the academic library perspective, including assumptions, evaluation, and new paradigms related to library…