The role of information systems as a strategic resource in small colleges and universities

The study examines how aspects of the management/governance structure and finance/budgeting allocations relate to information systems in small colleges and universities with 5000 or fewer students. Two sets of comparisons were made against the present study. The first set of comparisons used the 1986 Coughlin study, Computing Strategies in Small Colleges and Universities, for the two principal areas, management/governance structure and finance/budgeting allocations. New information was gathered and used institutional type for the second set of comparisons.;The subjects were information system administrators at small colleges and universities with 5000 or fewer students that were members of either CAUSE and/or Educom. The administrators were mailed a survey that consisted of 20 questions which related to institutional demographics, management/governance issues and finance/budgeting issues. The study had 21 hypotheses that were tested for significant relationships using chi-square at.05 alpha level. The findings were divided into the following sections: management/governance structure related to Coughlin's study and the current study; management/governance structure related to private and public institutions; finance/budgeting allocations related to Coughlin's study and the current study; and finance/budgeting allocations related to private and public institutions.;This study should be of interest to information system administrators in small colleges and universities because of the significant issues examined. Findings address critical issues such as reporting structure, responsibility for policy setting and information system resource acquisition, charging of computer lab and technology fees, and distribution of these fees.;Significant findings occur in several key areas. It was learned that the reporting structure for information system administrators has remained unchanged even though information system administrators do have more responsibilities now than when Coughlin did his study; for example, more institutions indicate that a single administrator is responsible for both academic and administrative computing. On issues of finance/budgeting, findings indicate that information system administrators perceive that they have lost ground financially since the Coughlin study.