The retrenchment experiences of a variety of institutions--large and small, public and private--are described and evaluated using an extensive spectrum of case studies sponsored by the Southern Regional Education Board. Part One discusses challenges of retrenchment (James R. Mingle) and strategies for the 1980s (David W. Breneman). Part Two, "Choices for Institutions" examines the the following areas: warning signals of distress (Lyman A. Glenny and Frank M. Bowen); institutional strategies for responding to decline (James R. Mingle and Donald M. Norris); evaluating and discontinuing programs (Edward A. Dougherty); negotiating mergers between institutions (Gail S. Chambers); managing faculty resources (Eugene C. Craven); faculty responsibilities and rights during retrenchment (Paul Strohm); procedures and criteria for faculty retrenchment (Kenneth P. Mortimer); and legal restraints on faculty cutbacks (John A. Gray). Part Four, "State Policy Choices: Public Institutions" focuses on the following areas: enrollment management (Bowen and Glenny); program evaluation as a tool for retrenchment (Robert J. Barak); changing patterns of state funding (David S. Spence and George B. Weathersby); state budgeting and retrenchment (James M. Furman); preparing for enrollment decline in a state system (Donald K. Smith); political realities of statewide reorganization, merger, and closure (Mingle, Robert O. Berdahl, and Marvin W. Peterson); public olicy toward private college distress (Richard W. Jonsen and E. Grady Bogue and Chambers); and state role in private college closings (Joseph P. O'Neill). In a concluding section, Mingle discusses the choices facing higher education in the 1980s, suggesting that retrenchment needs a constituency, offering proposals for state intervention, examining public policy and independent colleges, and addressing program and institutional review. References and an index are included. (LC)