Funding the Future: Preparing University Leaders to Navigate the Coming Change

Just a few years into the twenty-first century, higher educational leaders face unanticipated and unparalleled financial challenges. Federal and state support dwindles while universities suffer from negative growth projections and anemic endowments. The costs of ''doing business'' in private higher education continue to rise sharply, with the average ''consumer'' struggling to pay even discounted tuition. Educational leaders face the question of the sustainability of the current financial model.

This book guides and encourages a conversation that is critical for private colleges and universities. It is organized into three sections. Section One, ''Gaining a Vantage Point,'' includes a literature search reviewing decision-making processes in the light of complex financial pressures, then reports on a qualitative research project completed for this book surveying senior level executives of private higher educational institutions from across the U.S. Section Two, ''Understanding Higher Educational Finances,'' provides a ''primer'' on higher education's budgeting nomenclature and processes. Section Three, ''Preparing for Change,'' focuses on vital leadership principles for navigating change and includes a list of the critical issues facing educational leaders as they look to the future.