Among many diverse pressures on higher education, there are 5 major stresses which together have produced a crisis in university management: the growing student population, rising costs, a rapidly changing demand for programs, student demands for relevance, and an increasingly repressive public environment. Although some academicians fear the application of business management methods to academic administration, their fears are attributable to a limited view of management process. One of the features of management is systems analysis which rests on 3 elements: a model or simulation of the organization's behavior; a continuous planning cycle (typically incorporating program budgeting); and a coordinated "management information system. "A carefully developed automated information system is needed to process data flowing into this system. The management system's character must be precisely tailored to 2 parameters: the existing institutional profile (size, traditions, strengths, anticipated growth, organizational structure) and the future institutional profile (goals and objectives). The University of Houston is an example of an institution that is undertaking a major drive toward implementation of management systems. (JS)