THE RATIONAL APPROACH TO BUDGET CUTS - ONE UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE

Abstract

The rational approach has limited value in universities: UM's approach to cutbacks met most of the criteria associated with rational decision making. There was a limit, however, to how useful this approach could be - in 1984/5 UM returned to across-the-board cuts, because of the constraints faced by the university. We could not analyze and reanalyze the situation... We felt we couldn't go through the whole process again but we still had to cut (administrator). The constraints faced by most universities reduce the degree of strategic choice and limit the value of rational analysis. The only way to save significant sums of money, since usually at least 80 percent of the budget is tied up in pa..