Explores how U.S. higher education's number one position over the last century is threatened as institutions struggle to deal with rising expectations from students and employers, which are producing chronic fiscal problems feared to be eroding the quality of teaching and research. (EV)

Although the rules for public-employee pension funds vary, they operate under the same guidelines. Throughout their careers, teachers and other state and local employees contribute portions of their salaries into retirement funds managed by states and municipalities. In almost all cases, the employers also pitch in a percentage of the employees'…

The treatment of uncertainty in the business classroom has been dominated by the application of risk theory to the utility-maximization framework. Nonetheless, the relevance of the standard risk model as a positive description of economic decision making often has been called into question in theoretical work. In this article, the authors offer an…

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) documents dimensions of quality in undergraduate education and provides information and assistance to colleges, universities, and other organizations to improve student learning. Its primary activity is annually surveying college students to assess the extent to which they engage in educational…

Institutional researchers have undertaken many studies of student attrition in the past but mainly focusing on the quantitative dimensions. No doubt it is important for institutions to be aware of their attrition rates and how this may vary by demographic and other variables in order to develop strategies to minimise drop-out rates and thereby…

House Democrats recently unveiled draft legislation for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Widely touted as an economic stimulus package, the $825 billion draft legislation included as much as $142 billion for education. This includes the creation of a $79 billion State Fiscal Stabilization Fund to assist state governments in…

With the global recession in full effect, post-secondary education in Canada is about to face some very significant challenges. The purpose of this report is to outline the likely main effects of this global recession on the Canadian post-secondary education (PSE) sector, as well as suggest a series of measures that governments can take to help…

When Dr. Gregory H. Williams left The Ohio State University (OSU) in August 2001 to become president of the City College of New York (CCNY), many of his colleagues in the academy were convinced that Williams--who was dean of OSU's law school--had lost his mind. At the time, City College, the flagship school of The City University of New York…

We examine the relations among socioeconomic status, control beliefs, and two coping styles (problem-focused vs. emotion-focused) in the context of financial stress. Findings indicate that low socioeconomic status (SES) is linked to greater use of emotion-focused financial coping and lesser use of problem-focused financial coping. The effects of…

Fiscal realities are forcing a review and potential refocusing of Illinois community colleges. This study compared the themes that emerged from interviewing an Illinois community college stakeholder group in 2005 to what emerged from a similar study in Iowa by Ebbers and Gardner in 2002. Illinois stakeholders talked about their overall perceptions…

Describes the advantages of using the bulletin board as an additional means of communication through graphics. (RB)

This document contains witnesses' testimonies and prepared statements from the Congressional hearing held in Chattanooga, Tennessee to gain that state's perspective on catastrophic health insurance. Opening statements are included from Representatives Marilyn Lloyd and Claude Pepper. Two panels of witnesses provide testimony. The first panel,…

Text of a Congressional hearing examining the plight of aging Americans, still at financial risk despite the help of Medicare and Medicaid, is presented in this document. Testimony or prepared statements are delivered by 17 Congressmen including Representatives Roybal, Jeffords, Renaldo, Hammerschmidt, Pepper, McCain, Manton, Fawell, Robinson,…

Divorce is a very common experience and, while much divorce-related research has been conducted dealing with women and children of divorce, divorce research focusing on men has been minimal. This study examined thoughts, problems, and concerns of urban divorced men during the first month of divorce--Time 1(T1), at 6 months--Time 2 (T2), and at 1…

A history of the first 20 years of the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) is presented, along with an issue of the SCUP newsletter (v15 n3 1985) summarizing the society's 20th annual conference. SCUP's role and performance is divided into five-year periods beginning with 1961-1965. SCUP was founded in 1966 but initial planning for…