This document was written as a report for a 1981 research project at the School of Engineering and Architecture (SEAS) at University of Virginia (UVA), Charlottesville. It is an examination of the institutions of higher learning in the United States, and how they might evolve. The ideal of the 'Great University' is used as a focus toward which various changes and interactions might be directed. An extensive literature search reveals the best available models for measuring education quality, although no one of them is found to be totally adequate for the ideal concept of quality in education. The term `institutional mechanics' is used to represent the various forces at work in an institution and the types and rates of change that such forces produce, singly, or in concert. Only those forces that affect quality are considered. Warfield wrote most or all of the report in 1980, part of it written while we were in Iowa, and then he finished it in May 1981. In 1983 Warfield added an Executive Summary, of about 12 pages, to complete the report, which he titled "INSTITUTIONAL MECHANICS AND THE GREAT UNIVERSITY."   To reconstitute the original report, four documents (in filenames Edw70.wpd; Imgu81A.doc; Imgu81.doc; Imgufact.doc) would need to be printed out and combined. The entire report, including the 1983 Executive Summary is a little over a hundred pages. IN 1984 John Warfield moved to George Mason University where a copy of his Institutional Mechanics report was placed in the IASIS File. The report was never published, but over the years photocopies were circulated among colleagues, including administrative personnel at ITESM in Monterrey, Mexico. SEE ALSO "A Brief Annotated Bibliography on Universities." (r.w. Aug 6, 2014)

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