Leveraging resources meets budget constraints.

College and university budgets gratefully received benefits from the stock market boom of the 1990s.

Now facing a dramatic loss of revenue, many schools wonder when, if ever, the financial bleeding will stop.

Paula Cunningham, president of Lansing Community College and Lynn Schaefer, VP of finance and administration at Oakland University, both in Michigan, know firsthand the challenges of shrinking institutional. They spoke at the annual meeting of Michigan's ACE Network for Women at Michigan State University in June.

Managing in difficult times

Nationally, higher education has a $27 billion deficit. Michigan's is $700 million and the future looks grim: reduced income taxes, a Medicare deficit and legislative turnover.

Plus, critics debate the cost of college, demand increased accountability by tying budget requests to graduation rates, and question raises above the rate of inflation.

Michigan is not alone in its financial woes. In some states budgets are based upon how schools compete against other non-profit and for-profit educational providers. Other states have even worse scenarios. "The tough times are here to stay," said Schaefer, so solutions must be suitable for the long run.