Institutional staff such as enrollment managers, business officers, and institutional researchers are often asked to predict enrollments. Developing any predictive model can be intimidating, particularly when there is no textbook to follow. This paper provides a practical framework for generating enrollment projection options and for evaluating…

The African Data Initiative started as a crowd-sourced campaign to improve the teaching of statistics in African universities. The analysis of climate data provides one suitable context to illustrate ideas that lead to a radical new form of teaching. The problem within the context comes first, the technicalities are largely reduced -- mathematics…

Recreation administrators have had to evolve their approach to managing areas and facilities as both financial and environmental resources have become more limited. One way that administrators have attempted to meet such challenges is through strategies that are more environmentally sustainable. The following article addresses the importance of…

Recent evidence suggests that traditional cost analysis may not be the most appropriate way to justify educational budgets. This article suggests that using constructed cost models to develop operating budget requests can help ensure that the distinction between legitimate information needs and managerial autonomy is maintained. (LBH)

Much has been said and written about the need for measuring accurately and improving the investment performance of college and university endowment funds, but little has been written about how colleges and universities should report on the status and performance of the investments of endowment funds. When guidelines for reporting are adopted, a…

Edits that can be performed by the processor who applies for federal campus-based student aid programs are discussed, along with a longer-term approach to assessing the efficacy of recommended edit checks. Attention is focused on the accuracy of data submitted by institutions on the application portion of the Fiscal Operations Report and…

Efforts of the Department of Education (ED) to simplify the Pell Grant formula by reducing the number of data elements used to calculate awards (i.e., data element reduction) are evaluated. A framework is developed to assess the critical characteristics of individual data elements, to eliminate elements from the formula, and to develop proposals…

Errors made in the allocation of federal funds to institutions for the three campus-based aid programs specified in Title IV of the Higher Education Act are discussed. Funds are allocated directly to participating colleges, which in turn award the money to students, for the following programs: Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants, College…

Error analysis for the institutional process of applying for federal aid is considered as part of the Quality Control Study of the U.S. Office of Student Financial Aid. Attention is focused on the results of the data collection activities that occurred using the Department of Education's records for the Fiscal-Operations Report and Application to…

The impact of data discrepancies made by colleges on the Fiscal Operations Report and Application to Participate (FISAP) is addressed, with attention to both impact on the entire aid program and resource allocation to institutions. Brief descriptions are provided of the allocation formulas for the three campus-based aid programs (Supplemental…

The Basic Educational Opportunity Grant Quality Control Study, Volume II focuses on study procedures used for the analytical report recorded in Volume I of the study. Copies of all data collection forms are included along with file layouts, field procedures and other general information letters. It is intended to provide a description of the…