The political processes involved in an academic program evaluation are discussed. The focus is on how evaluative information is politically linked to programmatic decisions within the context of various organizational and evaluative utilization models. To examine the explanatory power of the various theories and models, information from a program evaluation conducted at a small public liberal arts university is examined. The scope of this program evaluation is as follows: to obtain a systematic view of the relative strengths and weaknesses of each department, and to use the feedback to improve the programs; to have participants rank order each of the 19 academic programs on nine criteria; and to target future resource allocations to program changes. Attention is directed to the following issues that may affect how evaluative information is linked to programmatic decisions: stages of the evaluation process, a distinction between the reasons and motives for the evaluation, involvement of the participants/decision-makers in the evaluation process, communication of the results, organizational setting, recognition of the subjectivity of the evaluation, and the role of the institutional researcher. A list of evaluation criteria, an evaluation form, and a bibliography are appended. (Author/SW)