Legal issues in program discontinuance and resulting lawsuits are considered, including liability to the faculty, students, and other constituencies; freedom of speech; due process; contractual obligations; legal defense; and consideration of program alternatives. A list of related resources is appended. (MSE)

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)

The experiential exercise presented here, using a dialectic process similar to that found within Strategic Assumption Surfacing and Testing (SAST), developed by Mason and Mitroff, offers graduate and undergraduate management students the opportunity to study a contemporary ethical problem in a new way. The ethical issues of a plant closedown…

This article examines the implementation of educational policy in a religious education program at a Los Angeles Catholic parish. It charts the elimination of Spanish-based classes ("doctrina") for Mexican immigrant children in favor of "English-only" instruction. The article offers insights into the politics of language use in everyday practice…

In 1978 a complaint was filed by New Hampshire Legal Assistance against Laconia Developmental Services, New Hampshire's only public institution for children and adults with developmental disabilities. The decision from the Federal district court judge in August 1981 ordered the state to devise a plan for: institutional improvement; development of…

This articles examines litigation which has been generated as a result of fiscal cut-backs at institutions of higher education and looks at the rights and obligations of college and university administrators and students as well as possible future trends. A first section details the effects of budget reductions at California state institutions…

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'…

A collaborative enterprise to provide adult education center programs dissolved due to mismanaged interagency cooperation. Problems included unwillingness to relinquish control, lack of candor, poor selection of partners, lack of planning, failure to implement, and failure to evaluate. (SK)

This study explores the ability of shared governance systems to make institutional hard decisions, focusing particularly on discontinuance of academic programs. A case study method examined shared governance processes at four research institutions to identify themes and patterns across the institutional decision-making process. Between 11 and 16…

Recent reports on Australia's research infrastructure have highlighted the decline in serial subscriptions in academic and research libraries during the 1990s. They have used the annual CAUL statistics in order to support these claims. This article examines the CAUL statistics for serial subscriptions, indicating their numerous flaws when used for…

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…

Four key criteria used in academic program review (quality, centrality to institutional mission, competition, and demand) are defined and discussed. They are then applied to the process of strategic planning for an unspecified private university. Decision-making matrixes and their use are illustrated. (MSE)

Describes and reflects on the experience of the University of Washington's Slavic languages program when faced with termination in 1995, including the initial response of faculty, staff, and students; the successful effort made to garner support from other institutions, alumni, business, and organizations; relations with the legislature;…