This monograph examines the emergence of strategic human resource (HR) practices in higher education at a time when the budgetary crisis in public higher education has never been more acute. The wave of financial pressures on public research universities today heralds the advent of an era of unprecedented change. Financial upheaval resulting from two economic downturns in the first decade of the twenty-first century has resulted in the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s (Green, 2011). Chapters include: (1) Setting the Stage: Funding Realities and Talent Resources; (2) Looking Beyond an Administrative Human Resources Department: HR and Institutional Performance; (3) Strategic HR and Talent Management in Higher Education; (4) Strategic HR and Organization Development: A Holistic Process; (5) Building an Effective and Efficient Strategic HR Operation; and (6) Recommendations and Implications for Practice. Name and subject indexes are included. (Contains 4 tables and 6 figures.)