| Enrollment shifts, recession, the nation's fiscal difficulties, and a lessening of public confidence in higher education are all hurting the nation's colleges and universities, forcing many to retrench. Retrenchment has three standard objectives. The objectives are to reduce the deficit, minimize the impact on the organization's mission, and maintain organizational morale. The literature recommends a number of retrenchment approaches to better accomplish these objectives. The approaches have been grouped into six "retrenchment strategies" in this paper: (1) increasing revenues, (2) reducing expenditures through rational allocation, (3) using political skills effectively, (4) focusing on customers, (5) streamlining decision-making, and (6) growing selectively.;Public higher education is distinct in its dependence on state and local funding, limited control over tuition, politicized and bureaucratic governance, and accountability to the public; a distinct retrenchment approach may be needed. This is a study of a four-year public institution--The University of Toledo (UT)--undergoing retrenchment. It seeks to find out how a public university like UT responds to decline and why its responses might differ from what the literature recommends.;Through interviews and review of university documents, UT's retrenchment actions were identified and analyzed. The analysis highlighted discrepancies between UT's actions and the literature-recommended strategies hoping to explain why UT responded differently.;Six conclusions have been drawn from the study. First, there is an association between strategies and outcomes at UT. Second, there is so much inertia in public higher education that change occurs only by crisis or strong-willed leadership. Third, retrenchment is difficult given public higher education's structure. Fourth, job security is extremely important in the process, even if it supersedes other objectives. Fifth, communication is critical to the success of the process and is difficult to do. And sixth, continuity in top management benefits the retrenchment process.;The study showed that retrenchment is difficult and that few examples of complete success exist. Suggestions of how UT administrators can use the information have been provided, as well as implications for other public colleges and universities. |
