Budget Initiatives

Dear Colleagues:

As I’m sure many of you are now aware, I spoke with the Faculty Senate last Friday, providing an update on our current budget situation and an initial proposal to resolve a portion of our $20 million budget challenge.  This  initial proposal would allow for approximately $6 million to be absorbed through changes in configuration, with significant reductions in administrative costs.   This would buffer the impact on programs, faculty, and staff. 

 In particular, the recommendation is for the creation of a College of Health Sciences, incorporating the Loewenberg School of Nursing, the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, the School of Public Health, and Health and Sports Sciences.  The College of Education would be able to focus more specifically on the initiatives outlined previously by President Martin.  An additional $1 million would be recovered through the graduate student tuition waiver and stipend budget (currently an $18 million annual expenditure).  It is also recommended that we continue to explore a collaborative partnership with the UT Health Science Center for operation of our speech and hearing clinic, an operation that has a net annual loss in excess of $1.3 million.  The partnership would allow us to continue the clinic operation in collaborative fashion, ensuring clinical training for our students while dramatically reducing the unsustainable losses we have been experiencing for years now.

 As a result of discussions with the Faculty Senate on Friday, I have formed a collaborative budget working group that will include three yet to be named faculty senators, myself, along with Dean Karen Weddle-West, Dean Lin Zhan, Dean Tom Nenon, and special assistant to the provost Dr. Henry Kurtz.  We will begin our work immediately.  I look forward to working in collaborative fashion to identify and implement solutions in a timely manner. 

As we move forward with resolving this budget challenge, I think it important to remember our core values and mission.  I spent some time with senators discussing this very issue on Friday.  Our ability to deliver the curriculum effectively at both the undergraduate and graduate levels is essential, with a firm commitment to rigor and excellence.  We need to continue efforts to improve retention and graduation while thinking strategically and creatively about innovative and interdisciplinary approaches.  We need to continue efforts to grow our Lambuth campus as well.  We cannot slow our efforts to grow research, scholarship, and creative activity–rather we need to make smart investments during this period. 

 As you can see from our integrated enrollment plan, we are being aggressive in efforts to grow our student base, with a wide array of initiatives already underway.  The recent news that we will not pursue a tuition increase this coming year recognizes that the single greatest barrier for our students is a financial one.  As recent enrollment declines indicate, we cannot continue to shift costs to students by increasing tuition and fees.   This challenge provides us the opportunity to innovate, improve efficiency, and think in creative ways about how we can cross traditional silos and disciplinary boundaries to deliver our mission more effectively.  As many of you know, the higher education landscape is changing and we certainly are not alone. I’ve provided a link below that you might find interesting.  Even the most well-funded universities are facing similar challenges.   

As I shared with the Faculty Senate, our budget situation is indeed a challenge. But embedded in the challenge is an opportunity for us to position the University of Memphis for growth and success in the coming years.  As you all know, this campus is filled with great minds, including faculty, staff and students.  Working together we will find the solutions needed and not only adjust to the rapid changes in higher education, but implement the strategies needed to thrive in the coming years. 

 Link of Interest:

Changing Higher Education Landscape: http://chronicle.com/blogs/bottomline/are-colleges-ready-to-adjust-to-a-new-higher-education-landscape/

 Go Tigers!

M. David Rudd, Provost

Integrated Enrollment Plan

Dear Colleagues:

 Here’s an update on our efforts to grow enrollment, improve retention and help our students successfully complete their degrees.  You’ll find a link below for our integrated enrollment plan, one that cuts across not only first-year freshman recruitment, but our broader retention challenge.  A few things are worth mentioning. 

First, this is the University of Memphis’ first integrated enrollment plan, one that ties the work of our colleges and departments to our central enrollment and retention offices. 

Second, the plan emphasizes the importance of retention and offers some specific numeric targets across colleges. The Office of Institutional Research has developed a new tool that allows in-depth examination of student progression across colleges (and years). As you can see, the persistence of the problem is a unique and critical challenge. 

Third, we will launch efforts to reward our students directly and in meaningful ways for degree progression, efforts geared toward lowering costs, reducing debt burden, improving efficiency, and helping make degree completion a reality. 

Finally, we have a number of initiatives well underway.  We are quite active right now, with several additional strategies being explored and implementation decisions to be made in the very near future.

 I have great confidence we will not only grow enrollment but strengthen retention in the coming years.  Core to our mission is an obligation to help our students not only successfully complete their degrees and launch their futures, but also overcome potential barriers to success. One thing is certain, students learn more effectively, progress more efficiently, and complete their degrees with greater frequency when connected in meaningful ways to faculty and staff.  A common variable across all effective retention efforts nationally is the importance of key relationships with faculty and staff.  I look forward to working with you to build these relationship and helping our students accomplish great things. 

Integrated Enrollment Plan

 Tigers!

David

Next Phase of Budgeting

Dear Colleagues,

 As you know, we continue to address the $20+ million budget gap for the University of Memphis.  We’re in the process of preparing the budget for the 2014-2015 academic year, consistent with current enrollment projections.  As required by TBR policy, we must submit a balanced budget by mid-March.  The  problem has been resolved for the current academic year using a range of strategies, including recovery of available surplus funds. 

As mentioned in previous communications, a significant portion of the problem is structural, that is, how we’re structured and staffed.  I am in the process of meeting with college deans to develop a strategy for resolving the projected gap for the coming academic year, along with implementing a structural configuration that best positions us to be competitive in the coming decade. It is critical that we align our resource allocation with our mission and core university priorities including: delivery of the curriculum at both undergraduate and graduate levels and expansion of our research enterprise, alongside service and community integration.

I will keep you updated as decisions are made. As many are aware, we recently completed our IT integration effort, which is a first step in this alignment, efficiency, and effectiveness effort.  Deans are intimately involved in these early discussions and may well reach out for additional discussion at the college level.  Many have already done so and will continue the conversation.  Current hiring across the colleges has not been frozen, rather deans have been given the latitude to make decisions on a case by case basis depending on performance and what is needed in each college and program.

Successfully meeting this challenge will require us to be thoughtful, strategic, and creative.  I look forward to working together in the coming months.

 Go Tigers!