Forecasting		Goal Setting
Monitoring		Implementing

A major limitation of the traditional long-range planning model is the lack of systematic inclusion of information about the changing external environment.  Without this information, the long-range planning process is locked into the past.  If we cannot forecast changes in the external environment, we must base our planning on information we know from the past and immediate present.

A scanning/forecasting model developed in the corporate world directly addresses the problem of collecting and evaluating information from the external environment (Morrison, Renfro, and Boucher, 1984).  This model consists of four stages. (See Figure 2.) The first stage requires scanning the external environment for emerging trends and issues which pose threats or opportunities to the organization.  In the evaluating/ranking stage each potential issue is analyzed as to the likelihood that it will emerge and as to the nature and degree of its impact on the organization if it does emerge (or, in certain cases, does not emerge).  This stage produces a rank ordering of the trends and issues according to their importance to current or planned operations.  The next stage, forecasting, focuses on developing an understanding of the likely future for the most important trends and issues.  In this stage, any of the modern forecasting techniques may be used.  Once the forecasts are made, each of the trends and issues is monitored for its continued relevance and for the accuracy of the forecasts made in the preceding stage.  Institutional strategies may be planned in response to these trends and issues.

Figure 2. Environmental scanning and forecasting.  Source: Morrison, Renfro, and Boucher, 1984.

A basic assumption of this paper is that augmenting college and university long-range planning with the environmental scanning/forecasting model should enhance the overall effectiveness of institutional planning.  That is, by establishing an environmental scanning and forecasting system, colleges and universities will have an early warning system to identify trends and issues that, when forecasted, present both threats and opportunities to the institution.  With early warning, administrators can prepare their response options in anticipation of changes implied by these trends and events.  Therefore, an environmental scanning and forecasting program will increase management efficiency in dealing with uncertainties inherent in the future by anticipating change and influencing the future rather than by simply reacting to it.

Substantial questions remain about the most effective means to integrate the environmental scanning/forecasting model with the planning steps of goal setting and implementation in the long-range planning mode.  Few colleges and universities have yet attempted this crucial integration, but encouraging experiments are now underway at a number of universities (Michigan State and Minnesota); units within universities (the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education); four-year colleges (St Catherine and Georgia Southwestern); two-year colleges (Piedmont Technical College and Catonsville Community College); and even state systems (the University of Colorado).  Consequently, these organizations have developed environmental scanning and forecasting systems which provide guidance in establishing a formal environmental scanning/ forecasting process (Morrison, in press).  The remainder of this paper will focus on those steps which a college or university could take to establish and implement the environmental scanning/forecasting model.

We begin with the scanning stage of the model by defining what is included in an environmental scanning system and the initial steps an institution may take in developing such a system.  These steps include developing a program structure and a comprehensive taxonomy with an electronic filing system, identifying and assigning information resources, securing scanners, and training scanners and abstracters.  We next describe how information obtained during the environmental scanning stage is utilized in the evaluation/ranking and forecasting stages based upon the experience of selected institutions.  Then we briefly describe some of those activities involved in the monitoring stage, including developing a newsletter and writing issue briefs.  We conclude with a discussion of problems, issues, and benefits involved with implementing an environmental scanning system.

The Environmental Scanning Stage

Brown and Weiner (1985) define environmental scanning as "a kind of radar to scan the world systematically and signal the new, the unexpected, the major and the minor (p. ix)." Aguilar (1967) has defined scanning as the systematic collection of external information in order to (1) lessen the randomness of information flowing into the organization and (2) provide early warnings for managers of changing external conditions.  More specifically, Coates (1985) has identified the objectives of an environmental scanning system as including the following:

• detecting scientific, technical, economic, social, and political interactions and other elements important to the organization

• defining the potential threats, opportunities, or potential changes for the organization implied by those events

• promoting a future orientation in management and staff

• alerting management and staff to trends which are converging, diverging, speeding up, slowing down, or interacting (pp. 2-13, 14)

An environmental scanning system, therefore, is structured to identify and evaluate trends, events, and emerging issues of import to the institution.  These terms are defined as follows:

• A trend is a series of social, technological, economic, or political characteristics which can usually be estimated and/or measured over time.  It is a statement of the general direction of change, usually gradual long-term change, reflecting the forces shaping the region, nation, or society in general.  Trend information may be used to describe the future, identify emerging issues, or project future events.  For example, at most institutions student profiles are changing.  Indicators of this trend are the number of minority students or the number of full-time adult students enrolling.

• An event is a discrete, confirmable occurrence which makes the future different from the past.  An event would be "Federal funding for student financial aid is reduced by 50 percent."

• An emerging issue is a potential controversy that arises out of a trend or event which may require some form of response.  For example, "Litigation as measured by the number of law suits per year in American society is increasing." An immediate consequence of this trend is substantially higher liability insurance for colleges and universities.  An emerging consequence arises from a tendency of state legislatures to protect the public by requiring licensure of an increasing number of occupations, including periodic updating of credentials.  This consequence implies an enhanced opportunity for the expansion of continuing adult and professional/occupational education programs.

Getting Started

Coates (1986) has described how some corporations and associations have initiated an environmental scanning system.  That is, one or several individuals are assigned to abstract information from a range of publications, including national newspapers, a few leading magazines, and some specialty publications.  These abstracts are then circulated in an internal newsletter.  A number of colleges are using this approach, e.g., Lane Community College, Piedmont Technical College, Grambling State University, and Georgia Southwestern (Morrison, in press; June, 1986).

An alternative approach was used by the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education.  The director first sponsored several seminars focusing on strategic planning models and the use of environmental scanning information in strategic planning activities.  These seminars were followed by a daylong workshop attended by interested staff members who participated in exercises in which critical trends and emerging issues which could affect the direction and programs of the Georgia Center were identified and evaluated.  Such activities enable participants to bring their individual knowledge of the external environment to a discussion which could result in the development of organizational knowledge.  Moreover, seminars and workshops generate enthusiasm for establishing a system for systematically seeking indications of change in the external environment and using this information to plan for the future.  This enthusiasm hopefully will encourage volunteers to participate as scanners in the environmental scanning program.

At the University of Alabama, after a half-day workshop with the planning council and a decision to establish an environmental scanning system, a description of the workshop and a "call for scanners" were placed in the institutional newsletter.  This call described the environmental scanning process, how it would relate to the university's strategic planning process, and the responsibilities of scanners.  The objective of the article was to identify volunteers from throughout the university who would be invited for an initial workshop on environmental Scanning.  This procedure obviates the necessity of conducting a workshop in every unit of the institution.

Establishing the Program Structure

The initial structure of the program could be quite simple.  At the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education, for example, some sixty staff members have agreed to scan assigned information resources and submit abstracts to the manager of the environmental scanning project.  The project manager, in turn, is responsible for collecting and filing scanning abstracts and, with the assistance of several colleagues on the scanning evaluation committee, for sorting, sifting, and evaluating the significance of the abstracts.  The resulting quarterly report is submitted to the strategic planning executive committee, which then uses the information to make recommendations regarding the strategic direction of the center (see Figure 3).

For a college or university, the scanning committee chair could be one of a number of people, such as the assistant to the president for planning, the executive assistant to the president, or the director of institutional research.  At the Georgia Center, the assistant to the director serves as the scanning evaluation committee chair; the director serves as the strategic planning executive committee chair.  At the College of St. Catherine, the assistant to the academic dean chairs the scanning committee.  In any event, senior-level officials should be involved because of the relationship of the scanning program to planning.  The director of institutional research in particular should be involved because the institutional research office is an appropriate repository of the hard-copy data collected in the process, in keeping with a national trend in which institutional research offices are becoming responsible for collecting external environment data as well as internal data.

The committee itself should include at least one senior-level administrator representing each of the major functional areas of the college (student affairs, business, development, and administration and faculty members/departmental chairs from various departments and schools.  Membership selection should ensure that all important stakeholders in positions of responsibility are either represented or are actual members of the committee.  A special effort also should be made to include the opinion leaders of the institution -those who will have to deal firsthand with issues now only beginning to emerge.

There are several reasons for high-level administrators to participate both on the scanning committee and directly as scanners.  First, their experience and broad overview of current operations, as well as their knowledge of reasonable future directions of the institution, are indispensable to informed evaluations of items identified by scanning.  Second, using these individuals lessens problems of communication, recognition, and acceptance of change.  Therefore, the time lag between the recognition of a new issue and its presentation to the institutional leadership is reduced, if not eliminated.  Third, senior executives who participate develop a personal stake in the success of the system.  When an issue arises that requires immediate action, the scanning committee is already in a position to serve the institutional leadership by offering experience and knowledge of relevant issues (Renfro and Morrison, 1983a).

The primary role of a scanning committee is to conduct analyses and evaluations of scanning abstracts on a monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly basis.  Thus, the scanning committee would perform the initial "cut" of the information provided by scanners: they would evaluate abstracts, identify the trends and events they consider most important to the institution's strategic planning process, and submit this analysis to the committee which makes recommendations directly to the chief executive for implementation.  Hearn and Heydinger (1985) further recommend that the analysis provide for administrative options as well.  At the Georgia Center, options are developed by the strategic planning executive committee.

It is estimated that after the system is operating, the chair would spend half to three-quarters of his/ her time managing and coordinating this activity.  Members of the scanning committee would spend two to four days a month in committee activities.  Scanners would probably spend an additional four to eight hours per month writing abstracts. (This assumes a broad base of scanners assigned only one or two information resources.) The latter estimate does not include, of course, the time they would actually spend in scanning.

Developing the Scanning Taxonomy

The same workshop designed to introduce faculty and staff to environmental scanning can also produce a good "first cut" of those trends and events which can serve as the basis for the environmental scanning taxonomy.  For example, in a recent workshop at the University of Alabama, a number of important trends were identified.  These included anticipated changes in the occupational structure of the institution's market area; in the number of 1 7 - 21 year olds; in the number of adult, minority, or international students who desire full- or part-time educational programs at the university; and in the number of professors in the academic marketplace with career-oriented spouses who require employment in order to move.  A number of merging issues likely to produce events which could affect those trends or the institution directly were also identified.  These included possible changes in meeting the requirements for federally funded financial aid packages, a possible change in the governance structure of higher education in the state, and a possible edict to eliminate duplication programs in state-supported institutions.

Such workshops could be accompanied by an "internal scan" of senior administrators, including academic department chairs, focusing on the question, What trends, events, and emerging issues in American and global society do you see which have implications for our institution?  Another approach would be to ask respondents, What are the critical success factors inherent in accomplishing our mission? and second, What trends, events, and emerging issues in our society do you see that will affect these critical success factors?  This scan can be done through a one-on-one interview lasting one to two hours.

In addition to the information acquired in the workshops and the individual interviews, a review of literature to identify previous scans of trends and events which have implications for the institution could be conducted.  For example, reference librarians could do a computer search of trends collected by a variety of agencies (federal and otherwise) as well as a literature search for articles focusing on the future of careers and technology.

The results of these activities may be used to develop the rough draft of a scanning taxonomy.  This draft can be supplemented by adopting or modifying taxonomies used by other institutions, e.g., the University of Georgia's Center for Continuing Education (Morrison, Simpson and McGinty, 1986) or the University of Minnesota (Pflaum, 1 986), or, as in the case at Michigan State University, modifying the taxonomy used by United Way of America. (See Figure 4.) It may take a year or so of experience before the taxonomy would become relatively stable and sufficiently comprehensive.  The objective is to develop a taxonomy so that every possible item resulting from scanning has a logical place to be classified, thereby facilitating retrieval of abstracts.  Moreover, when the taxonomy meets these objectives, an electronic filing system is possible.

Organizing the Files Electronically

Electronic files facilitate review, referral, and updating.  Moreover, the use of an electronic filing system, will make it easier to develop consortium relationships with similar institutions or with institutions in the same geographic area.  Such a consortium could easily enrich the data base of abstracts.  An electronic system that should be investigated is the one used by United Way, Prudential, and United Airlines (Mist +, a software program produced and marketed by Micro-Computer Information Support Tools, Washington, D.C.). Another, dbase 11, is used by the scanning program at the University of Minnesota.  Given the computer-support system available at most institutions, it is recommended that the specific filing system be developed from existing commercial software.

Identifying Literature Sources and Data Bases 

Information sources include newspapers, magazines, journals, TV and radio programs, and conferences.  The important criterion is diversity.  For example, it would be important to include major national and regional newspapers as well as important journals covering all sectors of society. (See Figure 5 for a selection of these information resources.) In addition to journals like those cited in Figure 5, every two years United Way of America publishes a national environmental scan which summarizes recent social, technological, economic, and political trends.  Its most recent edition is What Lies Ahead: A MidDecade View (United Way, 1985).  Renfro and Morrison (1983b) identify a number of other information resources, including those reviewed by the Trend Analysis Program at the American Council of Life Insurance and the ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education.

A number of government agencies publish trend data, often at little or no cost.  For example, GAO Reports may be obtained from the U.S. General Accounting Office; Center for Statistics reports (for example, The Condition of Education and The Digest of Education Statistics) are available from U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement; and periodic Rand reports may be obtained from the Rand Corporation. (See Figure 6 for addresses of these agencies.) Reports developed by the Congressional Research Service, an agency of the Library of Congress, are usually available from members of Congress in one's own congressional district.

Agency	Address
U.S. General Accounting Office  Document Handling and Information Services Facility	P.O. Box 6015  Gaithersburg, MD 20877
Center for Statistics  Office of Educational Research and Improvement  U.S. Department of Education	555 New Jersey Ave., N.W.  Washington, D.C. 20208
The Rand Corporation  Publications Department	1700 Main Street  P.O. Box 2138  Santa Monica, CA 90406

Figure 6. Selected governmental agencies which publish trend data

There are a number of commercially available services which may be used to supplement a scanning system.  For example, Policy Analysis Cornpany's CongresScan™ tracks the development of studies, reports, and issue briefs developed by the Congressional Research Service.  LegiScan® , another service by the same company, monitors and analyzes congressional activity within a framework of some sixty-seven issues.  Public Affairs Inflow of Sacramento, California, the Washington Post's Legislate, Congressional Quarterly's Washington Alert Service, and the Commerce Clearinghouse in Chicago provide computerized legislative information services.  The Naisbitt Group's Trend Report provides quarterly reports in thirteen major categories.  International Policy, published by the National Center for Legislative Research, covers international developments.  Scan, published by SRI International, Menlo Park, California, and Strategic Moves, published in Portland, Oregon, are broad in scope; Trend Digest, published by the Institute for Future Systems Research, Greenwood, South Carolina, focuses on trends and developments of import to higher education.

It is now possible for colleges and universities to have access to the environmental scanning data base developed by United Way of America.  This data base, accessed through United Way’s Human Care Network, a nationwide telecommunications network for not-for-profit organizations, includes abstracts from scanners throughout the country.  Abstracts may be retrieved by name of author, publication, date of publication, and file code reference to the keyword system-descriptors (“regional migration,” “immigration to U.S.,” “regional population size”), groups (“immigrants”), and regions “Northeast,” “Sunbelt,” “midwest”).  Hard copy of the entire article from which the abstract was written is available for cost of reproduction and mailing.  Moreover, in 1987 this data base will be enriched by the addition of charts and graphs of major trends.  The network also provides for access to other national databases (for example, Dow Jones) and data manipulation using SAS (Statistical Analysis System) United Way, 1986).  Hesse (personal communication, September, 1986) estimates that this data base contains all but 20 percent of what a college or university needs for strategic planning.  Michigan State University (MSU) is developing a symbiotic relationship with the local United Way which will include allowing MSU access to the United Way of America/Mutual of America Human Care Network.  In return, scanning information developed at MSU will be shared with the network.[ii]

A more limited data base, the Higher Education Media Scan (HEMS), is under development by the offices of Institutional Analysis and Planning at West Virginia University and Institutional Studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo (Bissonnete and Dutton, 1986).  At this time HEMS provides access to bibliographic entries on major articles published in current and recent volumes of the Chronicle of Higher Education, Academe, Higher Education and National Affairs, Change, the ERIC-ASHE report series, and New Directions for Institutional Research.  Each article included in the data base is described in a keyword list of subject codes ("athletics," "enrollment," "funding"), discipline codes ("agriculture," "biological science"), agency codes ("AAUP," "NCAA," "NSF"), and/or content identifiers (data, lists, tables).  Users can search by keyword fields or article titles and can enter local information and keywords.  Users are sent IBM compatible disks which are updated via BITNET, an electronic mail system to which many institutions subscribe.  The developers, Kathleen Bissonnete (WVU) and Jeffery Dutton (SUNY-Buffalo), are currently seeking volunteers who would agree to systematically review other information sources to put in the HEMS system.

Assigning Scanners Information Resources

Assigning scanners specific materials for regular review and analysis provides a measure of confidence that most "blips" on the radar screen will be spotted.  A suggested procedure of assigning information resources is first to ascertain what materials and conferences are regularly read or attended by scanners.  The list of material regularly read by scanners should be compared to the list of important information resources identified above.  If at all possible, scanners should be assigned material which they already regularly review.  It is likely that there will be material which is not regularly read; in such cases, it is recommended that scanners be asked to volunteer to read those resources.  Moreover, the scanning committee chair should institute a procedure to "spot check" how well the information resources are being reviewed.  If there are many scanners, it is advisable to build in redundancy, i.e., have two scanners for the same information resource.

Training Scanners[iii]

Scanners need orientation and training in scanning and reporting information from these materials via abstracts.  That is, scanners should keep in mind that they are scanning to anticipate social, economic, technological, and legislative/regulatory changes in order to facilitate planning and policy formulation.  Therefore, they should seek signals that indicate departures from expected futures.  Specifically, when scanning their assigned materials, they should ask themselves if the items

1. represent events, trends, developments, or ideas never before encountered

2. contradict previous assumptions or beliefs about what seems to be happening

3. represent new twists to old arguments

4. can be linked to other abstracts previously written or seen

5. discuss new patents, inventions, and/or research results

6. have implications for long-range program or management of the institution

7. contain polls or forecasts by experts

8. contain statistical descriptions graphically describing changes

Training Abstracters

It is ideal if scanners would also serve as abstracters.  However, scanners may be reluctant to spend the time required to write abstracts.  If so, it may be advantageous to employ one or two part-time student assistants to abstract materials submitted by scanners.  This alternative has the advantage of encouraging the submission of material, but it has the disadvantage of not having senior-level people submitting impact assessments of the information they send to the institutional research office.  It is recommended, therefore, that scanners be given an option of writing abstracts or of submitting material directly.  Regardless of who does the abstracting, however, it is recommended that all scanners and institutional research personnel be trained to write abstracts.  Figure 7 is an example of an abstract developed by a scanner at the Georgia Center.

There are a number of more sophisticated forecasting techniques available for use: trend extrapolation, trend-impact analysis, cross-impact analysis, and scenarios. (See Morrison et al., 1984, for a description of these approaches.) However, their use in higher education at this time is limited to a few institutions, such as the College of St. Catherine and Piedmont Technical College, which employs the ED QUEST process (Morrison, in press).

Another use of the information in the monitoring data base is to permit periodic newsletters.  Such newsletters inform faculty and staff of new developments which could affect the institution.  They also illustrate the advantage of having an environmental scanning/forecasting system, and give recognition to those scanners whose articles are used.  Newsletter format is important in order to focus attention on important developments and on the system; therefore, it is recommended that they have a logo, be printed on colored paper, and feature special boxes labeled "Wild Speculations." The important point is to avoid anointing speculations, but recognize that the purpose of the newsletter is to draw attention to items which have implications for the institution Moreover, it is important to acknowledge publicly the contribution of those scanners who provided the particular items.

Problems, Issues, and Benefits

Hearn and Heydinger (1985), in reviewing the work of the University of Minnesota Experimental Team for Environmental Assessment, have described a number of constraints in establishing and maintaining an environmental scanning/forecasting system in an institution of higher education.  For example, they note that academic culture tends to be resistant to change and to be resistant to what may be perceived as a consumer orientation on the part of the academy.  Faculty members may interpret a system which seeks to identify and respond to signals of change as inimical to the basic mission of the institution, even when that mission is rather vague and diffuse.

Moreover, the loosely coupled nature of a college or university itself precludes the kind of organization-wide responses which a business or corporation could make.  Universities in particular require participatory governance, which implies a need for environmental information to be widely disseminated prior to decision making.  When faculty members from across the institution are involved with producing this information, they also may develop expectations for the allocation of resources in response to their input, particularly when that input corresponds to departmental interests (W.D. Crump, personal communication, July, 1986).  A member of the University of Minnesota scanning team warns that this activity may spawn "an articulate but frustrated intelligentsia" (Hearn and Heydinger, 1985).

On the other hand, Morrison (1985) argues that by including faculty members and administrators from all functional areas in the environmental scanning process, not only is communication within the institution facilitated, but an increased receptivity for organizational change is developed.  That is, by attempting to identify, evaluate, and derive the implications of changes in the external environment for the institution, people see the "big picture," and thereby reduce their protection of "turf."

Establishing and maintaining an environmental scanning/forecasting system can be time consuming and costly.  Hearn and Heydinger note that Sears monitors 1 00 trends in over 1 00 periodicals; a Minneapolis agribusiness consulting firm monitors over 700 periodicals and over 20 issues.  One way of lowering the cost involved in the scanning stage is for colleges and universities to establish formal or informal consortia.  Since any nonprofit organization can become a member of the network, colleges and universities that wish to form a consortium can use the United Way mainframe as the host computer.  In addition to having access to abstracts already on the environmental scanning data base, participating institutions would be provided with a bulletin board, electronic mail, and training to use the system.  The major task in establishing a consortium is for individuals at participating institutions to agree who will systematically scan specified information resources and transmit their abstracts to the host computer.  This task could be coordinated at United Way of America headquarters (G.  Wilkinson, personal communication, October, 1986).

At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill an effort is underway to obtain funding for a statewide consortium serving all public and independent, two- and four-year institutions in the state (Morrison, May, 1986).  The proposal goes beyond placing abstracts on a host computer and using a central office to store and maintain files of complete articles.  For example, the consortium staff would (1) assist member institutions in recruiting and training scanners at member institutions; (2) assist presidents and planning staffs as to how they may use the information in the data base to identify those critical trends and events which form the contexts of their future; (3) provide a monitoring capability of those trends identified at member institutions as important to their future; (4) provide expert forecasting capability to augment forecasting performed at member institutions; (5) provide the capability of writing in-depth issue briefs on request from member institutions or of recommending experts who can perform these tasks; (6) publish a bimonthly newsletter summarizing the ongoing data collection activity of the consortium and highlighting those items of particular interest; (6) sponsor annual conferences for volunteer scanners which would focus on the items in the data base and provide examples of how this information is being used by member institutions in their planning process.

Two advantages institutions of higher education have over corporations in establishing an environmental scanning/forecasting system is that colleges and universities already have experts in a variety of fields and their libraries contain a diversity of information resources.  A major challenge, though, is how an institution can harness these rich resources, i.e., provide incentives for individuals to, in effect, increase their workloads by five to ten hours (or more) per month.  At Western Illinois University officials are considering a proposal whereby selected faculty members will be provided with release time from teaching to serve on the scanning committee and to provide scanning services (Morrison, in press).  At the Georgia Center, incentives are provided in recognizing the contributions of individuals whose abstracts are reflected in the newsletter Lookouts and by encouraging staffers in program areas to use the data base of abstracts in planning programs in their area of responsibility.  Therefore, individuals who contribute to the data base have access to all abstracts in the data base which they may use in planning their own programs or in their own research.  Coates (1986) recommends a yearly conference for scanners where prominent futurists lecture and lead discussions.  Meluso (personal communication, October, 1986) recommends that scanner assignments be changed over time to keep the task fresh and interesting.

The major benefit of an environmental scanning/ forecasting system to an institution is in providing critical information for strategic planning (Cope, 1981; Kotler and Murphy, 1981; and Keller, 1983).  Such a system allows the institution to detect social, technological, economic, and political trends and potential events which define the context of the future.  In turn, decision makers can anticipate what is happening in the state, region, nation, and world that will affect the nature and quality of the institution and its educational programs.  There are a number of ancillary benefits.  For example, participants in the system begin to examine all information with the question, What are the implications of this article (lecture, radio/TV program) for my department/ college?  Indeed, this subtle outcome-the development of an active orientation to the external environment and to the future-may well be an outcome which is as important as any other.  Moreover, in interacting with colleagues in program areas or on the environmental scanning evaluation committee, this future orientation is not only reinforced, but team building is enhanced.

The establishment of formal environmental scanning/forecasting systems in higher education is in its infancy.  At forums on environmental scanning held at the 1986 annual meetings of the American Association for Higher Education, the Association for Institutional Research, and the Society of College and University Planning, fewer than a dozen institutions were identified as having initiated formal systems (Morrison, March, 1986; June, 1986; in press).  However, it is also evident that individuals in a number of institutions are considering establishing such programs.  In so doing, they would do well to heed the admonition of Hearn and Heydinger (1985):

... the success of environmental assessment in higher education depends on its being not only intuitive, creative, and strategically oriented, but also open, representatively staffed, highly cost-effective, well-placed organizationally, and extremely sensitive to the organization's political context (p. 424).

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