MANAGING SCARCE RESOURCES IN THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE: STRATEGIES FOR THE DEPARTMENT CHAIR

Abstract

In recent years, the community college and higher education in general has witnessed a decrease in funding at the federal, state, and local levels. Community colleges, in turn, have called on the departmental level administrator to deal with the problem of real or impending budget reductions. Therefore, fiscal management has become one of the primary tasks of these mid‐level administrators. The present study examined how specific strategies might be utilized by department chairs to better manage scarce resources while maintaining or enhancing program quality. A sample of 50 department chairs was selected to take part in a 3‐round Delphi survey to determine effective resource management. Strategies advocated by the respondents as effective for resource management include addressing issues of human resource management jointly with fiscal issues and relying more heavily on academic program planning at the departmental level. Short‐term answers to scarce resource management, such as reduced program offerings and longer work hours, were viewed as problematic and not the solution to maintaining quality programs.