Providing adequate floor space in today's educational institutions to accommodate future growth has been facilitated by twenty-first century technology such as GIS data systems.

Institutional research (IR) is a growing, applied, and interdisciplinary area that attracts people from a variety of fields, including computer programmers, statisticians, and administrators and faculty from every discipline to work in archiving, analyzing, and reporting on all aspects of higher education information systems. Cases on Institutional Research Systems is a reference book for institutional research, appealing to novice and expert IR professionals and the administrators and policymakers that rely on their data. By presenting a variety of institutional perspectives, the book depicts the challenges and solutions to those in higher education administration, and state, federal, and even international accreditation.

This book provides administrators in public and non-profit organizations with direction and a framework from which to lead their organizations effectively. Taking a global approach to the issues administrators need to examine when managing a group of employees at any level (including budgeting and expenditures, forecasting, policy creation and execution, communication and reporting), this book explores the driving forces in organizational decision making. Author Nick Valcik takes a holistic view on organizational management, beginning with the core aspects of public organizations and the leadership competencies necessary to manage an organization successfully. Designed to be used on undergraduate and graduate courses in public administration and in public affairs programs, the book discusses the basics of organizational structure, delves into risk management issues, and offers a set of tools that can be used by administrators to make informed decisions based on actual data or documented processes. Throughout the book, real world case studies provide students and practitioners with a clear understanding of how exactly the right decision tool may be applied when facing a particular decision in any organization.

Space has become increasingly crowded since the end of the Cold War, with new countries, companies, and even private citizens operating satellites and becoming spacefarers. This book offers general readers a valuable primer on space policy from an international perspective. It examines the competing themes of space competition and cooperation while providing readers with an understanding of the basics of space technology, diplomacy, commerce, science, and military applications. The recent expansion of human space activity poses new challenges to existing treaties and other governance tools for space, increasing the likelihood of conflict over a diminishing pool of beneficial locations and resources close to Earth. Drawing on more than twenty years of experience in international space policy debates, James Clay Moltz examines possible avenues for cooperation among the growing pool of space actors, considering their shared interests in space traffic management, orbital debris control, division of the radio frequency spectrum, and the prevention of military conflict. Moltz concludes with policy recommendations for enhanced international collaboration in space situational awareness, scientific exploration, and restraining harmful military activities.

Campus climate studies and research on the impact of diversity in higher education abound. On closer examination, however, the corpus of findings on the role of diversity and how diversity is captured with campus climate surveys reveals both conceptual and methodological limitations. This volume of New Directions for Institutional Research addresses these limitations with the inclusion of studies by institutional research (IR) practitioners who make use of data that furnish new insights into the relationships among student diversity, student perception of campus climate, and student sociodemographic backgroundand how those relationships affect academic outcomes. Each chapter emphasizes how IR practitioners benefit from the conceptual and analytical approach laid out, and each chapter provides a framework to gauge the contribution of diversity to educational benefits. The findings revealed in this volume cast doubt on the benefits of student diversity purported in previous research. At a minimum, the influence of student diversity is neither linear nor unidirectional, but operates within a complex web of interrelated factors that shape the student experience. This is the 145th volume of New Directions for Institutional Research. Always timely and comprehensive, New Directions for Institutional Research provides planners and administrators in all types of academic institutions with guidelines in such areas as resource coordination, information analysis, program evaluation, and institutional management.

This book shows how Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) can be used for operations management in public institutions. It covers theory and practical applications, ranging from tracking public health trends to mapping transportation routes to charting the safest handling of hazardous materials. Along with an expert line-up of contributors and case studies, the editor provides a complete overview of how to use GIS as part of a successful, collaborative data analysis, and how to translate the information into cost-saving decisions, or even life-saving ones.

The role of technology in business environments has become increasingly pivotal in recent years. These innovations allow for improved process management, productivity, and competitive advantage. Strategic Information Systems and Technologies in Modern Organizations is an authoritative reference source for the latest academic research on the implementation of various technological tools for increased organizational productivity and management. Highlighting relevant case studies, empirical analyses, and critical business strategies, this book is ideally designed for professionals, researchers, academics, upper-level students, and managers interested in recent developments of technology in business settings.

Developments in technologies have evolved in a much wider use of technology throughout science, government, and business; resulting in the expansion of geographic information systems. GIS is the academic study and practice of presenting geographical data through a system designed to capture, store, analyze, and manage geographic information. Geographic Information Systems: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications is a collection of knowledge on the latest advancements and research of geographic information systems. This book aims to be useful for academics and practitioners involved in geographical data.

This book analyses the rationale and history of space programs in countries of the developing world. Space was at one time the sole domain of the wealthiest developed countries. However, the last couple of decades of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century have witnessed the number of countries with state-supported space programs blossom. Today, no less than twenty-five developing states, including the rapidly emerging economic powers of Brazil (seventh-largest), China (second-largest), and India (fourth-largest), possess active national space programs with already proven independent launch capability or concrete plans to achieve it soon. This work places these programs within the context of international relations theory and foreign policy analysis. The author categorizes each space program into tiers of development based not only on the level of technology utilised, but on how each fits within the country's overall national security and/or development policies. The text also places these programs into an historical context, which enables the author to demonstrate the logical thread of continuity in the political rationale for space capabilities generally. This book will be of much interest to students of space power and politics, development studies, strategic studies and international relations in general.

This volume explores the seemingly incongruent forces of statistical reasoning and the law and sheds some light on how institutional reaseachers can use the two in a complementary manner to prevent a legal action or to help support the rebuttal of a prima facie case (i.e., one that at first glance presents sufficient evidence for the plaintiff to win the case). Until now, there has been little linkage between the disciplines of law and statistics. While the legal profession uses statistics to support an argument, interpretations of statistical outcomes may not follow scientific reasoning. Similarly, a great piece of statistical theory or a tried-and-true methodology among institutional research professionals may be thrown out of court if it fails to meet the rules of evidence or contradicts current legal standing. Chapters in this volume exploring this topic from a number of perspectives, including: The Art of Combining Statistics with the Law The Use of Data in Affirmative Action Litigation Statistical Evidence and Compliance with Title IX Organization and Maintenance of Data in Employment Discrimination Litigation Analyzing Personnel Selection Decisions in Employment Discrimination Litigation Settings Regression Analysis: Legal Applications in Institutional Research The information contained within this volume will benefit institutional research practitioners and contribute to a more frequent dialogue concerning the complexities of statistical science within the legal environment. This is the 138th volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Institutional Research. Always timely and comprehensive, New Directions for Institutional Research provides planners and administrators in all types of academic institutions with guidelines in such areas as resource coordination, information analysis, program evaluation, and institutional management.