The University of Minnesota's response to financial cutbacks due to unexpected reductions in state revenues is discussed. The public higher education system and each state agency submitted alternative retrenchment budgets. The University of Minnesota proposed three approaches for cuts at the 12 percent level: across-the-board reduction; closing…

The themes of the 1982 annual conference of the American Association of University Professors are outlined. They include the importance of planning, selective versus across-the-board retrenchment strategies, definitions and problems of financial exigency, program reduction, and affirmative action claims. (MSE)

Oregon State University and Southern Oregon State College have responded to state budget cuts with fundamental changes in academic programs and departments. Reductions are being made according to state guidelines for eliminating programs, rather than skimming broadly. Faculty are angered about personal and scholarly losses. (MSE)

This report evaluates Department of Education opportunities to consolidate overlapping education programs, to find cost savings, and to strengthen its "gatekeeping" over schools' participation in student financial aid programs. It notes that, besides already proposed program consolidation, other programs that could be streamlined include…

Addresses the implications and impacts of a board of education decision to close an outdoor education center. Stresses the rationale for outdoor and environmental education, the connection between classroom curriculum and outdoor education, and the reduction in systemwide services that would result from the closing. (LP)

Planning issues for colleges seeking to maintain quality in institutional programs in the face of retrenchment are analyzed, based on a literature review. An extensive bibliography on the following topics is provided: quality (ratings, rankings, reform, institutional goals, and educational outcomes); retrenchment (enrollment decline, faculty,…

A University of Maryland at College Park faculty member describes the recent retrenchment process, focusing on the role of the faculty senate and the academic planning advisory committee in decision making. The administration is credited with conducting an open and decisive process. (MSE)

This study examined the status of local gifted education programs in 19 states and reasons attributed by 1,579 educators for the status of the programs. Programs in states with gifted education mandates and good economic health were intact and expanded, while programs in states without mandates or in poor economic health were threatened. (SW)

Describes efforts of an advocacy group of parents, outdoor educators, and classroom teachers to preserve outdoor education in Peel in the face of budget cuts. Despite efforts, a task force recommended the elimination of numerous teaching positions, resulting in reduced programming at outdoor education centers. (LP)

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)

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'…

Adjustments that state policy-makers and institutions of higher education will need to make as they face cutbacks in public support and declining enrollments are described, based in part on a research project on retrenchment in higher education conducted by the Southern Regional Education Board. Given the long-term contractual obligations of…

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…

Planning by the University of Wisconsin system for rational management of projected enrollment and fiscal decline is considered. It is suggested that a change in a college or university's mission may be an instrument for enabling a particular institution to meet unusual problems of declining resources. The elimination and consolidation of courses…