The strategy of deep selective budget cuts for institutions is not always the soundest policy, since the choice between these and across-the-board cuts is an oversimplification. The literature on rescission shows no instance in which a university administration has cut the same percentage across-the-board. (MLW)

This booklet for trustees of institutions of higher education offers guidelines for strategic financial decisions required in light of the financial challenges higher education faces in the 1990s and beyond. "Strategic response" is defined as a decision that requires changing a major policy, program, or practice and involves some risk. Five…

The complexity of what is involved in the rational planning of higher education is apparent only when the problems of allocation of resources between higher education and other economic activities are considered jointly with those relating to internal efficiency. (Author)

Although the major locus of mental health care in the United States is in community agencies, funding cutbacks threaten the services those agencies provide. To assist human service managers in developing guidelines and concrete action strategies for dealing with financial problems, 106 mental health professionals (e.g., agency directors, technical…

Responses of colleges and universities to declining revenues and enrollments were investigated, based on a 1983 survey of 334 four-year institutions. Scalogram analysis was employed to determine whether there was a hierarchy of institutional responses to enrollment/revenue decline and whether declining and nondeclining institutions can be…

Conceptualizing high local fiscal stress as a variable which includes low fiscal capacity, high local tax effort and high local need requires building a typology reflecting this conceptualization. This study builds such a typology for 166 counties in the northeastern United States and examines the effects of variables taken from a series of…

Pennsylvania State University's early response to declining resources and its current planning and budget process are described. Attention is also directed to the fiscal outcomes of the process over the past 5 years and several of the strategies devised to promote qualitative concerns and respond to variable growth-decline situations. From 1971 to…

A review is provided of the major fiscal, historic, and management issues influencing the debate about community college finance and governance in California. The report begins with a brief discussion of the major points of difference between the funding mechanisms for the community colleges and for the state's two public university systems. These…

Five articles are presented concerning student aid planning and educational policy, based on experiences gained in regional workshops conducted by the National Institute of Independent Colleges and Universities (NIICU). The purpose of the workshops was to translate the data gathered in the NIICU Student Aid Recipient Survey into formats useful for…

Discussion of European funding models for higher education looks first at different funding mechanisms used in several countries, with particular attention to formula funding and its increasing use. Institutional responses to differing financial and planning environments are noted, particularly when circumstances produce unwanted outcomes.…

A TWO-PART COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS IS MADE OF LARGE AND SMALL CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. PART I ANALYZES A WIDE RANGE OF FISCAL AND NON-FISCAL VARIABLES ASSOCIATED WITH FISCAL STATUS OF CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. IT COVERS THE 2,788 CITY SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN THE UNITED STATES WITH ENROLLMENTS OVER 3,000. COMPLEX INTERRELATIONSHIPS SURROUNDING FISCAL STATUS IN…

This document presents the final recommendations and background papers of a task force empowered by the Michigan legislature to consider the mission and roles of the state community colleges, alternative funding modes, and the responsibilities and interrelationships of the state and local governing boards. Following an overview of recommendations…