Campus activities programmers are offered suggestions to make the budgeting process clearer. They include knowing funding sources, understanding distribution of funds, monitoring encumbered funds, developing a system to keep track of how funds are spent, avoiding overspending and handling re-appropriations, setting aside reserves, and asking for…

Offers background information on cost-per-hire. Includes reflections offered by human resources officials who discuss how they calculate this statistic and how they use it. Explains difficulties associated with calculating cost-per-hire, provides a sample worksheet, and uses a case study to show how this cost might be lowered. (RJM)

Argues that good budgets flow from good planning, and that good planning requires a careful process that asks the right questions. Looks at the need for planning, the importance of vision, the role of values, campus environment, hierarchies, the economic context, and unforeseen events. Advocates asking good questions using good information. (RJM)

Stresses importance of defining student services in educationally sound terms. Looks at prioritization through strategic planning, establishing funding priorities, retrenchment as a last resort, and standards and criteria for student services. Advocates spreading information on the role of student services and its function in education. (RJM)

Discusses why it is essential to look at costs related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty not simply as a critical expense, but as part of an intentional investment strategy meant to produce an important and significant value-added benefit. Offers advice on planning, financing, and assessing this investment. (EV)

The rationale for using Activity-Based Costing (ABC) in a library is to allocate indirect costs to products and services based on the factors that most influence them. This paper discusses the benefits of ABC to library managers and explains the steps involved in implementing ABC in the user services area of an Australian academic library.…

Analysis of information technology's role in higher education looks at pressures to use technology, the slow pace of adoption, current directions in technological advancement, and its impact on institutional policy and resource requirements. Its impact on teaching and learning without a new paradigm for instruction is seen as limited. (MSE)

The best kind of performance-based funding system is that which encourages and rewards good practice. Any state incentive program should encourage colleges and universities to develop a comprehensive database, conduct more and better talent development assessments, increase student-faculty contact, and increase student involvement in learning.…

A campus atmosphere of cultural pluralism in which individual minority groups can maintain a sense of identity and uniqueness while acknowledging and building on shared experiences and values can empower all members of the college community. Student activities policies and procedures reconsidered in this light can lower barriers. (Author/MSE)

Policymakers often use Rate of Return information in formulating public resource allocation decisions. The World Bank uses this strategy to advise developing nations in setting student subsidy levels, tuition, and allocation by educational level. However, Rate of Return may be an inappropriate policy device for these objectives. (Author/MSE)

Discusses the education financing system approved by the Kentucky legislature following the 1989 Kentucky Supreme Court decision striking down the previous educational financing system. The overall structure of the new system is basically sound. The allocation formula is comparatively simple and should permit both equitable administration and a…

Assesses public school finance equity in Tennessee by investigating the current financing method's impact on the number of locally funded teachers above those possible under the Tennessee Foundation Program. The availability of locally funded teachers varied according to the magnitude of the individual districts' local-option sales tax revenue.…

Lessons learned from experience about shaping science policy include (1) the partnership between health and science interests is fundamental; (2) research fund allocation should be based on scientific merit; (3) better data and careful analysis are vital to decision making; and (4) policy principles should be clear and concise. (Author/MSE)

The usefulness of cluster analysis for comparing programs for the purposes of resource allocation is discussed, based on a study using seven types of cluster analysis to examine key resource and productivity variables in doctoral-granting teacher education programs. (MSE)

Preliminary findings are reported from a survey conducted to determine the apparent absence of compensation for foreign language department chairs at some institutions. It is noted that, compared to the sciences or humanities, the typical foreign language program has greater and more complex tasks administratively and should, therefore, receive…