Board Responsibility for Procurement of Resources.

The greatest single matter of concern before policy boards, officers, and administrators is seen as the question of financing the ongoing operation of the college, the university, or the system of higher education. Unionization, affirmative action, student recruitment, tenure, educational competition, changing modes of instruction all have financial implications. Policy boards hold dual responsibility: they have ultimate, non-transferable responsibility for the procurement of essential financial resources, and they have the responsibility for determining, as objectively as possible, the degree of wisdom by which existing resources are managed. Nine preconditions for fiscal procurement responsibility, from private or public sources, are outlined that deal with: (1) response, not reaction, (2) the chief executive, (3) academic deficits, (4) management assurance, (5) financial options, (6) staff ingenuity, (7) constituent perceptions regarding private, public, and church-related institutions, (8) tax implications, and (9) institutional marketing. (LBH)