Browsing by Author "Ridenour, Minnis E."

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    A decision support system for tuition and fee policy analysis
    Greenwood, Allen G. (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1984)
    Tuition and fees are a major source of income for colleges and universities and a major portion of the cost of a student's education. The university administration's task of making sound and effective tuition and fee policy decisions is becoming both more critical and more complex. This is a result of the increased reliance on student-generated tuition-and-fee income, the declining college-age student population, reductions in state and Federal funds, and escalating costs of operation. The comprehensive computerized decision support system (DSS) developed in this research enhances the administration's planning, decision-making, and policy-setting processes. It integrates data and reports with modeling and analysis in order to provide a systematic means for analyzing tuition and fee problems, at a detailed and sophisticated level, without the user having to be an expert in management science techniques or computers. The DSS with its imbedded multi-year goal programming (GP) model allocates the university's revenue requirements to charges for individual student categories based on a set of user-defined objectives, constraints, and priorities. The system translates the mathematical programming model into a valuable decision-making aid by making it directly and readily accessible to the administration. The arduous tasks of model formulation and solution, the calculation of the model's parameter values, and the generation of a series of reports to document the results are performed by the system; whereas, the user is responsible for defining the problem framework, selecting the goals, setting the targets, establishing the priority structure, and assessing the solution. The DSS architecture is defined in terms of three highly integrated subsystems - dialog, data, and models - that provide the following functions: user/system interface, program integration, process control, data storage and handling, mathematical, statistical, and financial computations, as well as display, memory aid, and report generation. The software was developed using four programming languages/systems: EXEC 2, FORTRAN, IFPS, and LINDO. While the system was developed, tested, and implemented at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, the concepts developed in this research are general enough to be applied to any public institution of higher education.
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    Fiscal Decentralization and Municipal Budget Policy in Countries with Economies in Transition: Comparing Local Revenue Systems
    Gurova, Galina Ratcheva (Virginia Tech, 1999-05-12)
    The thesis explores the effect of fiscal decentralization on local governments budgeting and fiscal autonomy in selected transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The implications of legislative changes on local budgets and revenue authority are analyzed. Discrepancies between legal provisions and actual fiscal practices are identified on the basis of case studies of four countries: Bulgaria, Georgia, Hungary, and Lithuania. The study explores some specific approaches to dealing with local finances based on the respective countries' fiscal legislation. An attempt is made to evaluate local revenue authority based on both comparable statistical data and legal provisions of the selected countries. Following a comparative conceptual framework, the thesis reveals both unique and common patterns of budget policy and local revenue raising authority in each of the four countries. The results of the inquiry indicate that despite the greater fiscal authority and independence which local authorities gained during the transition, local governments in many CEE countries continue to operate within old centralized fiscal structures and budget policies. The right balance between the need for decentralization of governance and the ability and desire of local authorities to control and steer the local revenue policies is still to be found.
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    The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research Programing in the Dan River Region of Virginia and New Growth Economic Development Theory
    Materna, Jane M. (Virginia Tech, 2003-07-17)
    This paper applies New Growth Theory (NGT) to the economic development plan of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR) for the Dan River region. New Growth Theory is summarized into five concepts: knowledge and human capital, technology, flexible production and innovation, and the institutional environment. The IALR program demonstrates this NGT framework. The IALR program seeks to promote growth by attracting exogenous demand for innovation and high tech. Endogenously, the program plans to create an institutional support environment and human capital infrastructure. The New Growth Theory supports the IALR in developing a knowledge based economy. However, the New Growth Theory has limitations in application for economic development. It assumes that the targeted economy has some physical and social infrastructure. The Dan River region lacks transportation infrastructure and a history of valuing higher education. The New Growth Theory assumes that using knowledge as a factor will insure against diminishing returns. However, growth from high tech is risky and uneven. The IALR program is an example of an under-educated region trying to transform its economy by using high tech. What may happen is an increased gap between the lower and higher income population, with skilled knowledge labor being recruited and the existing human capital not able to keep up with the new skill requirements. Finally, while the Dan River region has a need to work on quality of life aspects, such as living conditions, equity, the environment, health and civic infrastructure, New Growth Theory does not consider these aspects.
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    Interview with Minnis Ridenour, January 2014, CAUS History
    Ridenour, Minnis E. (Virginia Tech. College of Archiecture and Urban Studies, 2014-01)
    Interview with Minnis Ridenour, Virginia Tech's former executive vice president and chief operating officer, on the history of Virginia Tech's College of Architecture and Urban Studies. He talks about the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), and mentions the Center for the Arts and the School of Visual Arts.
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    The People behind the Curtain: A Proposed Succession Planning Model for University-Wide Research Institutes
    Carlson, Kimberly A. (Virginia Tech, 2011-08-30)
    Public universities and their university-wide research institutes constantly search for ways to evolve to stay relevant and "marketable" in an ever-changing environment. The scholarly literature shows that the majority of higher educational institutes do not participate in succession planning, although numbers of research projects and researchers continue to increase over time, suggesting a great need for universities and institutes to learn how to sustain their work beyond current faculty or how to strategically grow and develop their current employees. The purpose of this research was to review current succession management strategies in large complex organization and to determine whether and how succession planning applies to university-wide research institutes in public, doctoral universities with very high research activity. To understand how succession planning might apply to institutes, this research involved a three phase process: 1) qualitative synthesis of scholarly literature, 2) electronic surveys of institute directors and university-level administrators, and 3) follow-up telephone interviews. The research synthesis focused on successful succession programs in for-profit, non-profit, and governmental organizations. Characteristics that were found across all three sectors were incorporated into a survey of executive directors and administrative overseers of research institutes to see which features applied in this university setting. Results from the survey were used in the development of a model for succession planning, which then was reviewed by institute directors for relevance to their organizations. Although several suggestions for improvement were given, many interviewees agreed that the model was relevant to their institutes. As such, I confirmed that succession planning should be a part of university-wide research institutes' management strategies to help officials make intentional decisions about their employee needs. This research is important for public administrators as they look at how best to use public funds and other resources in public universities' research activities.
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    The strategic planning role perceptions of Virginia local government chief executive officers
    Dougherty, Michael John (Virginia Tech, 1995-05-01)
    Local government chief executives officers are presumed to play a meaningful role as their localities undertake the strategic planning process. However, the specifics of that role have not been tested or even well articulated. This research was an initial attempt at defining what role or roles are played by strategic planning managers that are distinct from ordinary routine operations of government. Five hypothesized roles were defined for strategic planning managers after a review of the literature -- leader, accommodator, informer, integrator, and change master. Next, specific tasks that operationalized each role were described. Then a questionnaire was developed asking local government chief executive officers about their role perceptions using these tasks. It was sent to 168 city managers, town managers, and county administrators (or their equivalent) throughout Virginia. The results of the survey showed statistically significant support for three of the hypothesized roles: leader, accommodator, and change master. Meanwhile, the role of informer was found to be nearly universal and the role of integrator was found to be more dependent than the other hypothesized roles upon the structural characteristics of the locality. Among the structural characteristics, the size of the locality and its government had a meaningful effect on the role perceptions of strategic planning managers. Characteristics which described the sophistication and standing of the locality’s government had virtually no effect. Also, there was limited support for the concept that the degree to which strategic planning managers perceived themselves playing each role varied depending on the stage of the strategic planning process. Additional research is needed to investigate these relationships further and to define the tasks associated with the roles better.