1 Interim Three-Year Plan Discussion with New York Faculty Council October 1, 2007
2 Enrollment In the last four years, the University has lost 2,100 FTE regular students. Lubin has lost 1,600 FTE students and Seidenberg has lost 1,000, while Dyson and Lienhard have grown has reversed that trend but attrition is higher than budgeted. Overall, we should be on budget for revenues.
3 Purpose of a Three-Year Plan We are beginning a recovery from four years of significantly declining core enrollment and revenues. We must solidify the reversal of that trend, create a clear vision for the strategic repositioning of the university and implement and market that repositioning. The plan will provide the clarity of purpose to make the difficult choices needed to create a firm platform for future growth in size and reputation. This is a three-year process.
4 Process Purpose of Interim Plan: to guide decision- making until the new strategic plan is complete. A broader planning process with a three-year time horizon involving faculty, staff and students is being organized. Composition: 9 faculty, 5 Deans, President (Chair), Provost, EVP F&A, VP Ext. Aff. And 2 students. Time: four to six months. Purpose: a consensus document to replace the interim plan. Purpose: a consensus document to replace the interim plan.
5 Goals – Fall 07 – Spring 2010 Financial Stability Moderate Growth Strategic Repositioning A Growing Academic Reputation in Selected Areas Continuous Improvement in Faculty, Staff and Student Life A Steadily Improving Management Culture
6 Goal: Financial Stability and Moderate Growth An enrollment level for each School’s core degree programs that we are reasonably confident can be replicated in good times and bad, and School-based and centralized expenses that are properly related to the revenues produced by those enrollment levels. Trade-offs between improving the quality of students and improving the quality of programs –The Capital Campaign plays a critical role Cash Reserves and Borrowing Capacity
7 Enrollment and Retention Continue to improve the execution of central enrollment operations. Link central enrollment to active enrollment efforts at each School. The Deans should participate in shaping the marketing programs for their Schools. Special marketing and enrollment efforts at Lubin and Seidenberg. Continued growth at Dyson and Seidenberg New retention program.
8 Financial Management Establish stability levels at each School Continue to reduce costs –Overhead target ratios –Process reviews Improve revenue mix Real estate utilization
9 Financial Health –credit rating is below investment grade. –covenant defaults –too much debt and some of the debt is too expensive –unable to incur additional debt –our lenders have our financial performance under special and constant scrutiny –our auditors have put us in a category requiring special scrutiny –our unrestricted net assets have been eroded to much too low a level
10 Goal: Strategic Repositioning Past 5 years: Pace has configured and presented itself as a single unit under the unifying banner of Opportunitas, treating the Schools as the functional equivalents of large departments, centralizing essential functions and de-emphasizing the participation, authority and accountability of the administration of the Schools.
11 Strategic Repositioning (2) The strategic repositioning will return Pace to its traditional strong base in professional education; it will market the strong connection between a Pace education and professional careers, giving much more emphasis to the Schools and their centers of excellence than is now the case.
12 Strategic Repositioning (3) It is the quality of the Pace liberal arts core that lays the basis for the critical and independent thinking and the habit of lifetime learning that differentiate Pace professional education from professional trade schools.
13 New Mission Statement Pace University’s historic mission retains its central importance today: to provide an excellent education with a heavy emphasis on professional training to students for whom that education offers the opportunity to lift their lives and prospects to new levels. Pace University’s historic mission retains its central importance today: to provide an excellent education with a heavy emphasis on professional training to students for whom that education offers the opportunity to lift their lives and prospects to new levels.
14 Immediate Steps Change in marketing School-based task forces Some tailoring of the core curriculum Increasing student identification with the Schools
15 Goal: A Growing Academic Reputation in Selected Areas Academic leadership areas Centers of excellence Redeployment of resources The balance of teaching and scholarship
16 Continuous Improvement in Faculty, Staff and Student Life There are myriad small ways to improve the quality of the experience of faculty, staff and students without any cost or with only a very low cost. If these small changes are made continuously, over the course of a few years they tend to aggregate into a significantly different experience for faculty, staff and students
17 Immediate Steps Service initiative Re-enforcement through reporting Performance evaluation and compensation system
18 Goal: A Steadily Improving Management Culture Raise our standards of performance Eliminate bureaucracy Proceed with a sense of urgency Execution, not process, is what counts Develop a genuine service ethic Decentralize and push decision-making down Insist on accountability
19 Immediate Steps Culture change starts at the top Re-enforcement through reporting Performance evaluation and compensation system