FUNCTIONS AND INTERRELATIONSHIPS

OF VARIOUS TACTICS ELEMENTS

The TACTICS program is actually a consortium of consortia. On each level of organization, several entities cooperate toward a common goal:

The TACTICS Policy Board is the governing body. It consists of representative members of present and former TACTICS institutions, the Assisting Agency heads, and the director of the TACTICS Coordinating-Management Office. The Policy Board sets direction and determines policy for the TACTICS operation.

The five Assisting Agencies participate on the Policy Board and work in conjunction with the Coordinating Colleges to oversee the operations of the eight components.

The five Coordinating Colleges 1) receive and account for the expenditure of funds, 2) report the fiscal and programmatic activities of the TACTICS components to the Office of Education, and 3) work together to assist the components in planning and coordinating component activities.

The Coordinating-Management Office gives leadership to the development and delivery of appropriate programs and services to the colleges, coordinates all TACTICS efforts in the interest of the colleges, develops periodic reports on TACTICS program efforts, maintains communication and information flow, and holds Policy Board meetings.

The seven service components assess the needs of the participating colleges and universities, then plan and deliver the appropriate programs and services via site visits, conferences, workshops, telephone consultations, etc. The one remaining component assists the Coordinating-Management Office in overall program planning and development and provides individual assistance to the seven service components.

The sixty-three colleges and universities now participating in the TACTICS program form another consortium level as they assist one another while participating in the component programs. Institutional personnel who have achieved high levels of competency in a given area often are engaged by the components to serve as consultants to help other institutions.

COMPONENT CAPABILITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS

MIS

Management Information Systems is the TACTICS program working to improve the effectiveness of information flow on the campuses. The MIS Directorate, a corporate program offered by the Institute for Services to Education for TACTICS, applies scientific techniques to facilitate decision-making within the college and university environment. The management supports generated by the Directorate represent a broad range of technical resources available to developing institutions. These supports are based on an eleven-year experience with the black colleges and similar developing institutions.

The MIS Directorate assesses existing information systems, offers counsel, and assists institutions in developing long-range plans for total information systems capability, including staffing configurations and modification and acquisitions of hardware/software packages. General models of information systems are developed, which are used in developing institutional data bases, transactional systems and comprehensive information systems tailored to the needs of institutions.

The MIS Directorate critiques documents formulated by the colleges that are related to information systems development (e.g., proposals, documents, long-range plans). The Directorate maintains a longitudinal data base of 450 selected institutional parameters by means of an annual Fall data collection across all participating developing institutions. Through the use and maintenance of this data base on historically black colleges and other developing institutions, the MIS Directorate publishes trend analysis reports and responds to queries from colleges.

General and specialized conferences, workshops and other forms of training and briefing programs are offered by the Directorate. In summary, the services offered by MIS are these:

MIS Orientation

MIS Development

Data Base Definition and Development

Transactional Information Systems Development

System Evaluation

Model Development

Documentation Review

MIS Tools

Research Profiles

Statistical Reports

Issue Papers

Recognizing the increasing need for MIS services at TACTICS colleges facing diminished financial resources, the MIS program is designed to achieve high impact levels with each participating institution.

Several colleges utilized the MIS Directorate to evaluate computer acquisition proposals. It was determined that the proposals did not respond to the needs of the colleges. The acquisition actions were therefore deferred, resulting in the institutions' avoidance of buying equipment that would not properly serve their needs and saving an estimated $80,000.

Through consultation with one college, the MIS Directorate provided advice in the design of a new information system for the college. As a result of this design, the scheduling of a computer installation was delayed by at least six months, saving the college about $60,000.

Mississippi Valley State University was provided technical assistance in the design of a PPBS (Program Planning and Budgeting System).

Jarvis Christian College utilized the Directorate to streamline its manual registration process. The new registration system saves time and energy for both faculty and students.

North Carolina A&T University, the Puerto Rican MIS Consortium, Paine College, and Wiley College are using MIS to facilitate data base development at their institutions.

One college was provided with operational procedures and job descriptions for the establishment of the long range planning office and the management information systems office.

Southern University in New Orleans asked the MIS Directorate to provide a training program for support personnel. This service resulted in increased office efficiency and improved esprit de corps.

Among many other accomplishments, the MIS Directorate has assisted in the establishment of 36 institutional research offices and produced 12 research publications, 2600 copies of which have been disseminated.

CAP

The Cooperative Academic Planning program, sponsored by the Institute for Services to Education, assists TACTICS institutions in developing and implementing new curricula and in updating existing courses of study. CAP meets an institution's individual needs for short, medium, and long range academic program planning in coordination with the institution's plan.

The CAP program:

Serves as a catalyst for curricular change, improvement, development, and assessment upon academic departments and divisions.

By a comprehensive team approach with other TACTICS components, integrates changes in existing majors and freshmen studies, and develops new majors, learning resource centers, etc.

Helps optimize curriculum decision-making by assisting institutions in the development of sound planning, programming and management techniques.

Helps strengthen institutional awareness and capability in ongoing systematic academic planning, recognizing that a holistic view of planning promotes a synthesized analysis of goals and objectives.

Keeps institutions abreast of new alternatives that contribute to the improvement of educational practice.

Helps institutions develop objectively verifiable indicators and evaluative methods.

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