Meeting the Challenges of the Eighties : Redirection of Resources for Renewal. Association for Institutional Research: Annual Forum Proceedings, No. 3 (20th, Atlanta, Georgia, April 27-May 1, 1980) / Paul J. Staskey, Ed.

Proceedings of the 1980 annual forum of the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) on the topics of meeting the challenges of the eighties by redirecting resources for renewal are presented. Contents include the following addresses: "Planning: An Adaptive Process," by Barbara S. Uehling; "Catastrophe Models in Administration," by E. C. Zeeman; "Applications of Catastrophe Theory to Institutional Research," by F. Craig Johnson; "Meeting the Challenges of the Eighties," by Elias Blake, Jr.; and "Higher Education and the Environment of the Eighties," a panel discussion and reaction with Georgia state officials and AIR respondents. In the first address on planning, it is suggested that among other problems, institutions have failed to give the appropriate information to decision-makers and that insufficient attention has been directed to the political considerations in an institution. Catastrophe theory, a method of modeling based on recent theorems in mathematics, is examined in terms of 10 applications. In illustrating the application of catastrophe theory language to institutional research, cost data and teacher performance are addressed. Additionally, it is suggested that challenges of the eighties include bringing Hispanics, blacks, and other low-income groups into the mainstream from which they have been excluded. Contents also include abstracts of contributed papers, seminars, panels, workshops, and meetings; and minutes of the annual business meeting. (SW)

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