Higher education institutions are facing a challenging operating environment as enrollment declines pressure revenue, inflation pressures budgets, endowment earnings remain volatile, and concerns that fewer Americans see the value of post-secondary education threaten institutions' financial viability. Policymakers and Boards rely on financial…

Studies of charter closure rates typically focus on year-to-year closures. While important for researchers, such studies provide little guidance to families seeking to understand the risk of enrolling their child in a charter school. That is because studies determining how many schools close each year provide no information on how long the school…

If universities are to deal with the problems of declining enrollment and funding, they must combine both political and economic considerations, placing more responsibility on the administrators who now have to decide not only what to do but how to do it. (MLW)

Factors contributing to the struggle for survival faced by postsecondary institutions and ways to deal with dwindling resources, in particular by regionalism and regionalization, are considered. Among the contributing factors are the leveling off of the college-age population (18-21-year-olds), the declining status of advanced learning in American…

Explores the growing incidence of presidential resignations caused by current financial problems, and describes the importance of political skills, as well as administrative ability, to administrative success. Enumerates five steps for effective policy-making and discusses the problems encountered in dealing with popularly elected college boards.…

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 usefulness of marketing functions as they relate to higher education enrollment and financial problems is addressed, and proven marketing principles that have been violated by higher education decision-makers are considered. It is suggested that a college or university operation can be examined within the same context as any product…

The major thesis of this paper on declining resources and enrollment is that the management of decline, or, as the author calls it, "contraction," is not simply an economic and technical problem; it is basically a conceptual and political one. The author first considers the effects of contraction on schools, buildings, and courses,…

A case study of Sullins College, which in 1975 requested that the state of Virginia investigate the feasibility of incorporating the college into the state's public higher education system, is presented. This small, private, two-year college in southwest Virginia had been struggling for several years to maintain its small enrollment. Historical…

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.…

The attempted closing of Wilson College in Pennsylvania, a 110-year-old liberal arts college for women, is recounted. In 1978 the board of trustees voted to close the college and preserve remaining assets for other educational purposes. A movement evolved to save the college, and subsequent litigation resulted in rulings in May 1979 that: (1) two…

How schools weather budget reductions shows the difference between effective and less effective school systems. Policymakers' response to reductions depends on an array of factors: general economic conditions, access to data about future trends, community expectations and "myths," past records of school effectiveness, local education…

This review of the literature focuses on the effects of enrollment and fiscal decline on local school district management and also looks at the effects of local districts' policy responses to decline. The review's five sections include an overview of the kinds of literature available on decline; a summary of the main policy issues identified in…

A longitudinal, comparative case study examines the impact of enrollment decline on and the response to it by 15 suburban school districts in 2 metropolitan areas. Data were collected during 1978-81 through interviews, observation of public meetings, documentary and statistical sources, and case histories developed for each district from 1964-81.…

The impact of demographic shifts and enrollment declines for higher education are examined, and possible institutional responses to these problems are studied. After a review of the national statistics and projections of future enrollment trends, attention is directed to the campus level and the dimensions of current enrollment problems. Based on…