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MarchÌý5, 2024

You may have seen the headlines from across the country:Ìý

• $70 million deficit at the University of Connecticut.
• $225 million deficit at the University of Arizona.
• $293 million shortfall at the University of Chicago.

An increasing number of our peer institutions are confronting hard financial realities. Combined with skepticism of the value of higher education nationally, limited state funding,Ìýpressures on wages and career pathways, and anticipated declines in the overall number of prospective college students in the coming years, the need to transform how we deliver our mission is clear.Ìý

The good news is that ²ÊÃñ±¦µä is facing these headwinds from a fiscally sound position. However, to avoid the struggles faced by our aforementioned peers, we must act.Ìý

We want to take a transformational approach to confronting these pressing realities, recognizing that we don’t have the luxury of time, pretending these threats don’t exist or believing we can fix them with stop-gap measures.ÌýÌý

We are undertaking this transformation with clear goals in mind:

• Affordability of a ²ÊÃñ±¦µä degree for all populations in our state.
• Students able to access resources more equitably and navigate their learning journeys more easily.
• Faculty and staff paid competitively to market.
• Clarity of roles and responsibilities.
• Modern technology platforms that support decision making.
• A budget that is stable and sustainable.

Owning our future and a new way of thinking

Our near-term future is clear. Starting in FY 2027, without a proactive approach, our expenses will begin to exceed our revenues – first by a small amount (around $4 million) relative to our total budget, and then by larger amounts in subsequent years. Relative to our peers, though, we’re in a strong position and our budget projections for the near-term show modest enrollment growth projections.Ìý

But the moment that all American higher ed is in demands we act now from our stable position with fundamental changes to how we do business. It demands we end the practice of merely filling budget holes with temporary funds.Ìý

The way to get ahead of 2027 and beyond is with a uniform commitment to doing business in ways that:Ìý

• Recognize the shifting demographics already being reflected in our student applications and creating an experience that better meets the needs of a more diverse student population.
• Make better use of campus-wide technologies.
• Employ our workforce more strategically.
• Reduce duplicative and manual functions.
• End a culture of exceptions in our processes and technologies that leads to some of that duplication.
• Adopt campus-wide solutions that place primacy on serving vulnerable and minoritized populations.
• Establish a culture of multi-year planning that enables us to be proactive.

Likewise, we must commit to a new practice of financial resilience with budgets that mitigate unnecessary risk, and that avoid across-the-board measures while using sound fiscal practices to ensure responsible stewardship of our resources.Ìý

For individual work units, this means ending the culture of short-term workarounds and temporary measures and fully embracing a multi-year outlook. It means asking key questions: What do we want to be? What should we grow and what should we shrink? How do we free up funds to enable strategic investments in student affordability, upgraded technology, increased compensation, diversity, equity and inclusion, implementation of our Climate Action Plan, and faculty and staff housing?

How we will get there

We will engage these hard questions and meet these challenges with our values intact: a commitment to our comprehensive teaching and research mission, to Shared Equity Leadership, to shared governance, to transparency in decision making, and to working together under an assumption of good will and intent.ÌýÌý

We’ll be focused on priority projects endorsed by Chancellor DiStefano this past fall and that you’ve been hearing us talk about all year:Ìý

• Examining how first-year students are enrolled at the university.
• Improving wraparound support for all students (such as advising, tutoring, and all elements of student life), and improving the first-year experience for our newest students.
• Fostering greater employee engagement and well-being.
• Enhancing operational excellence through improving technology, automation, work processes and policies.

For the rest of the semester, we’ll begin shifting our mindsets and refining our approach to the transformation ahead. We will be student-centered, people-centered and equity-centered in our approaches. We’ll be coming to you with ideas and we’ll be seeking ideas from you. As a leadership team, we will set some clear parameters and will unveil new policies and practices. We are looking forward to these discussions, and to beginning the transformation of ²ÊÃñ±¦µä that will arise from them.

Learn more

We ask that you join us for a webinar (see info box for link) on Thursday, March 7, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., where we will present in more detail on this transformation and provide the opportunity for you to ask questions.Ìý

Thank you

Thank you for your partnership and participation. We have proven, over the last two decades, that by working together we can triumph over a great recession and a pandemic and make tangible progress on our goals–including increased retention, diversity, equity and inclusion action plan implementation, growing research and innovation outcomes, and updating our Campus Master Plan and Climate Action Plan. With those lessons and successes guiding us, we will take advantage of this opportunity to transform together and revitalize our mission of educating students, creating new knowledge and delivering value to the public we serve.Ìý

Russell Moore
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Patrick O’Rourke
Chief Operating Officer