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The article presents a study of transparency in government, specifically, of state sunshine laws as they relate to higher education. The article seeks to determine how stakeholders perceive open-meetings and records laws and their impact on higher education. Contemporary sunshine laws are considered. The study covers the sunshine laws of six state university systems. Twelve findings are discussed, including the importance and universal valuing of openness in higher education, the institutionalization of sunshine laws in higher education governance, and stakeholders' definition of "public good" as it related to higher education. The authors also provide policy recommendations.

Implementing an incentives-based budget system at a large public research university significantly redirected internal funds while producing notable organizational and financial surprises. For example, units did not increase their "hoarding" of students, contrary to some expectations. The findings point to several issues for further analysis and research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The significance of the major department as a salient and instructive vocation-related context for undergraduates is examined. It is proposed that major departments influence students psychological well-being through experiences in the departmental setting itself and through the occupational rewards that respective departments can offer students upon graduation. The findings provide moderate support for the theoretical perspective, which was tested in a longitudinal sample of 188 male and 206 female students in 28 major departments at tow institutions. Although the results for the specific model tested suggest that the organizational features of major departments are generally less significant to woman students. A major theme emerges form the results as a whole: college men and women tend to react somewhat differently to similar vocation-related experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines reforms in state governance of public institutions of higher education in the U.S. between 1985 and 2000. The authors discuss research by public administration scholars and those who research the organization of public higher education, and they investigate why states chose the governance arrangements they did and why some states did not enact reforms. They examine economic and political factors affecting governance reforms and discuss how problems internal to higher education influence decisions. They examine a counter-conventional account of governance reform, which they call the "political instability hypothesis, investigate nine hypotheses of comparative state politics and higher education, and use event history analysis to examine social aspects of the study.