(from the Chronicle of Higher Education) Administrators at some colleges and universities are using hard data to measure the financial viability of different academic units. By adding revenues and subtracting direct costs, they hope to make those departments more efficient while accounting for the reality that some departments — especially in the humanities —will never generate as much revenue as others.
At St. Ambrose University in Iowa, facing stagnant enrollment of 3,200 students, "It's very important for us to be transparent about what we're spending on each department and what each department is bringing in," said Paul Koch, vice president for academic and student affairs. Besides sending findings via email to department heads, deans and a faculty finance committee, the university asked some departments to make changes based on a financial equation and shifted some resources to departments that have attracted more students and revenue, like computer science.
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