Abstract
A study examined the administration of college forensics programs, comparing the current (1990) status of programs to the status of such programs one year ago and five years ago. The study was based on the philosophy that if forensics programs have changed, more than likely they have changed in terms of what activities are offered to students, and therefore, of how the program is administered. Surveys were mailed to 374 forensics program administrators at colleges and universities in the United States and 155 completed surveys were returned for a response rate of 44%. Results indicated that nearly half of the programs that currently offer only individual events used to offer debate as well. Thus, in the last 5 years, many schools have had to make choices regarding the direction of their program, and most directors seem to have selected individual events as the activity that they will continue to sponsor. The number of debate-only schools has remained relatively stable over the past 5 years, as have the number of schools with both debate and individual events programs. Survey results suggest that as long as the individual events and debate programs have adequate resources, their existence in the forensics community will continue to be fairly stable. (One figure, four additional pie charts, and one table of data are included. The questionnaire regarding the status of forensics programs is appended. (MG)