| This study examines how academic departments make fiscal decisions in periods of resource stringency by addressing two research questions: (1) What were the responses of academic departments in Michigan State University to institutional fiscal stringency? (2) Through what processes did these academic departments select their responses to fiscal stringency; and did these processes conform to the rational decision making model?;The study involves two academic departments in the same college, with the same chairpersons throughout the R-cubed period, with similar faculty and student sizes, and with both undergraduate and graduate programs.;College and departmental documents (communiques, plans, reports and memoranda), and archival records (budgets and demographic data) were examined. The dean of the parent college, chairpersons of the departments, and faculty members who were on the Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC) during that period were interviewed. Faculty members who were not involved in making decisions for the department at that time were also interviewed.;Data was analyzed initially by using coding categories to organize, sort, and explain the relationships within the data. Afterwards, the empirical data were subjected to pattern analysis. Patterns in empirical data were compared to those predicted by the rational decision-making model and the literature.;Departments in the study knew the timing and extent of the reductions. Their responses to fiscal stringency were shaped by the directives of their parent college, serendipity, areas of flexibility in their budgets, and complexity of the department. The departments used a combination of efficiency, revenue augmentation and survival measures. The departments mortgaged positions of retiring faculty members (one or two years before their retirement) to meet the reduction quotas. They also tried to protect their programs from budget cuts by marketing themselves more, generating more revenue and offering to eliminate programs that were important to their parent college.;They also used a combination of decision making models (mainly the political and rational models) to select their responses to fiscal stringency. |
