College faculty live and work in four cultures: that of the academic profession, the discipline, the academy as an organization, and the institution type. Each of these influences how they function in the organization. Colleges should recognize and build on the sometimes conflicting cultures. (Author/MSE)

To effectively communicate agendas and goals, new college presidents need to acquire cultural perspective on their institutions, seeing the campus as a lived experience, interpreting its themes, and deciphering its shared meanings and symbolic processes. This allows him to experience the continuity of the institution and become part of it.…

Four developments have made strategic planning and information-based management necessary in higher education: changing external conditions; demands for accountability; deteriorating financial strength; and need for changes in leadership roles. Although institutional situations and needs vary, what is most important is to learn to manage with…

Evaluation of college student recruitment and retention programs is complex and has limitations that must be acknowledged. It requires an ongoing commitment to evaluation and a willingness to look at such programs within the larger context of academic policies and administrative procedures. (MSE)

We cannot continue to define academic quality using standards set from a limited perspective and expect students from diverse backgrounds and cultures to meet them. To increase minority participation in graduate schools, institutions should better understand minority standardized test performance and better prepare minority undergraduates for…

Misconceptions about Asian and Pacific American students are common. The educational status of all minorities will be more comprehensibly assessed by investigating characteristic academic and social needs and problems and giving greater attention to social and personal development, adjustment processes, educational trade-offs, and long-term career…

The predisposition of higher education has been to maintain homogeneity and adapt only when necessary. The credibility of an institution's commitment to diversity and quality is weakened when it limits access of minority groups. Creating pluralistic communities will involve fundamental change and require a greater capacity to deal with conflict.…

Eight common objections to performance funding of public colleges are presented and answered. The arguments focus on the complexity of higher education's goals, diversity of institution type, subjectivity of educational quality, relative power of the allocation amounts linked to performance measures, politics of resource allocation, cost of…

The culture of an organization helps to determine the degree to which a new way of working is adopted and used. Team-based decision making in colleges and universities, as in other institutions, is more likely to be successful if organizational beliefs support the idea that change strengthens organizational goals. (Author/MSE)

Discusses three emerging trends on the affect of information technology on institutional research (IR), examining the following: information technology as a catalyst for change; pressures of access and accountability and challenges of open access to information, and the new informational professional. Offers a vision of technology's…

Argues that full-cost models in higher education fail to account correctly for capital and financial aid expenditures. Urges full accounting of all cost drivers that impact on higher education expenditures, e.g., operating costs, maintenance costs, physical capital costs, the current replacement value of capital stock, and the opportunity cost of…

Two senior administrators at the University of Delaware discuss the types of cost data that are ultimately useful for decision making and policy development. Describes the data collection format and provides examples of departmental workload verification data and departmental expenditures by object and function. Explains use of comparative…

This introductory chapter to this theme issue on job satisfaction among faculty and staff first reviews the faculty satisfaction literature and then discusses a conceptual model of faculty job satisfaction based on six life event "triggers" and three mediators of job satisfaction. Reviews how each trigger affects college professors and offers data…

Describes the challenges and elements of satisfaction in academic medicine. Proposes a model of academic faculty satisfaction which postulates that organizational, job-related, and personal factors combine to develop self-knowledge, social knowledge, and satisfaction with outcomes of productivity, retention, and learner-patient satisfaction. (DB)

Explores faculty satisfaction with collective bargaining and unionization, using experience at six California community colleges as an example. Considers faculty satisfaction/dissatisfaction factors and unionization, the changing role of the faculty union, and the views of six California college faculty union presidents. (DB)