In 1988, a study was conducted of the operating costs of the 15 branch campuses and centers operated by the six Florida State universities and of nine representative community colleges in the state. Information provided by the colleges revealed that: (1) in comparison to their main campuses, branch campuses and centers tended to be less expensive per student credit hour and per headcount student for library services and plant operations/maintenance, more expensive for institutional support and student services, and roughly comparable for instruction; (2) there were large differences among the branch campuses and centers on all indicators of cost, including expenditures per student credit hour and per headcount student, ratios of support to instructional expenditures, student credit hours per full-time equivalent position, and the proportion of on-site expenditures to those allocated from the main campus; (3) the branch campuses and centers as a group showed evidence of diseconomies of scale; (4) considerable variation was noted among the community college campuses in expenditures per student credit hour and per headcount student, with the most expensive campus spending 2.1 times as much per student credit hour as the least expensive campus; and (5) the on-site share of total community college campus expenditures was highest in instruction, plant operations/maintenance, and library resources, while lowest in institutional support. Recommendations for minimizing costs are included. Two consultants from the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems designed the survey instruments for generating the operational cost data and carried out an analysis of the completed surveys. Their report and the survey instruments are appended. (UCM)