05-14-2018, 10:02 AM
Email to EC faculty this morning:
The financial issues of small public and private colleges have made headlines in recent years, the result of demographic changes, lower enrollments, regulatory uncertainties, rising competition, and other external and internal challenges. Excelsior, which has not been immune to these fiscal pressures, has spent the past 18 months focused on identifying and implementing the necessary reforms to adapt to these marketplace challenges.
To date, we have made significant improvements in our academic experience through new student-centric practices, processes, and policies and the centralization of services. By eliminating executive administrator positions and consolidating departments, removing layers of middle management, and reducing positions, we have squeezed out inefficiencies and achieved necessary cost-savings that are being redirected to our core: academic quality and student services, technology, and marketing.
Our focus now is on creating a more efficient, effective, scalable, and sustainable academic model.
Currently, 78% of student completions are clustered within 15% of our degree programs and concentrations. As a nonprofit with limited financial resources in a dynamic and volatile market, this is untenable. The elimination of undersubscribed programs and concentrations is an essential component to our academic reframing and will allow us to diversify beyond the Associate Degree in Nursing program by diverting institutional resources toward creating a portfolio of high quality, in-demand “flagship programs.”
The streamlining of our programs was led by a task force comprising the College’s Executive Staff, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, deans, faculty program directors, analytics and research team, and Marketing department. With the help of outside experts, we evaluated each of our programs and concentrations based on strategic fit, national and regional market data – student demand, competition, employment opportunities – and internal enrollment and trends. Together, the task force determined which programs and concentrations to sustain, fix, or teach-out as well as which held the potential for real growth. The details will be provided at a webinar on May 29 at 7 pm eastern.
In addition to this programmatic streamlining, which will take several years to implement, Excelsior will also restructure our schools. Moving forward, the College will be home to:
On the operational side, this restructuring will enhance quality, efficiency, and scalability through shared operational and administrative resources, the elimination of redundancies, and a more balanced distribution of resources across programs – something we have struggled to achieve historically. This will allow us to not only be more effective in the delivery of our programs, but to do so in a more cost-effective manner, saving us millions of dollars annually, which we intend to use to lower tuition and improve our market competitiveness.
From an academic perspective, this new structure will allow for the creation of a shared vision and culture, a consistent application of best practices, and a fully realized interdisciplinary approach to curriculum development, review, and revision at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Additionally, future and already in progress cross-academic initiatives such as Writing Across the Curriculum and Career Readiness will be more effectively implemented. Due to its uniqueness and inherent complexities, we determined it most appropriate that SON remains a separate unit, with continued leadership by Dr. Mary Lee Pollard.
In the meantime, faculty should continue to work with their faculty program directors.
Regarding the two new leadership positions, Dr. Li-fang Shih, formerly Dean of the School of Business and Technology, has accepted the role of Dean of the School of Undergraduate Studies. Dr. Rob Waters, formerly Dean of the School of Public Service, will assume the role of Dean of the School of Graduate Studies. We are confident that Li-fang and Rob have the right mix of experience, expertise, and vision to lead our newly constituted schools forward.
As we turn the page to the next chapter in Excelsior’s history, we do so with a renewed sense of optimism. I hope you can join us at our Provost’s Circle webinar on May 29 at 7 pm eastern. Details and login instructions to come.
Thank you.
Debbie Sopczyk
The financial issues of small public and private colleges have made headlines in recent years, the result of demographic changes, lower enrollments, regulatory uncertainties, rising competition, and other external and internal challenges. Excelsior, which has not been immune to these fiscal pressures, has spent the past 18 months focused on identifying and implementing the necessary reforms to adapt to these marketplace challenges.
To date, we have made significant improvements in our academic experience through new student-centric practices, processes, and policies and the centralization of services. By eliminating executive administrator positions and consolidating departments, removing layers of middle management, and reducing positions, we have squeezed out inefficiencies and achieved necessary cost-savings that are being redirected to our core: academic quality and student services, technology, and marketing.
Our focus now is on creating a more efficient, effective, scalable, and sustainable academic model.
Currently, 78% of student completions are clustered within 15% of our degree programs and concentrations. As a nonprofit with limited financial resources in a dynamic and volatile market, this is untenable. The elimination of undersubscribed programs and concentrations is an essential component to our academic reframing and will allow us to diversify beyond the Associate Degree in Nursing program by diverting institutional resources toward creating a portfolio of high quality, in-demand “flagship programs.”
The streamlining of our programs was led by a task force comprising the College’s Executive Staff, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, deans, faculty program directors, analytics and research team, and Marketing department. With the help of outside experts, we evaluated each of our programs and concentrations based on strategic fit, national and regional market data – student demand, competition, employment opportunities – and internal enrollment and trends. Together, the task force determined which programs and concentrations to sustain, fix, or teach-out as well as which held the potential for real growth. The details will be provided at a webinar on May 29 at 7 pm eastern.
In addition to this programmatic streamlining, which will take several years to implement, Excelsior will also restructure our schools. Moving forward, the College will be home to:
- The School of Undergraduate Studies comprising all non-nursing associate and bachelor’s-level programs;
- The School of Graduate Studies comprising all non-nursing master’s-level programs; and,
- The School of Nursing, comprising all associate, bachelor’s, and master’s-level nursing programs.
On the operational side, this restructuring will enhance quality, efficiency, and scalability through shared operational and administrative resources, the elimination of redundancies, and a more balanced distribution of resources across programs – something we have struggled to achieve historically. This will allow us to not only be more effective in the delivery of our programs, but to do so in a more cost-effective manner, saving us millions of dollars annually, which we intend to use to lower tuition and improve our market competitiveness.
From an academic perspective, this new structure will allow for the creation of a shared vision and culture, a consistent application of best practices, and a fully realized interdisciplinary approach to curriculum development, review, and revision at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Additionally, future and already in progress cross-academic initiatives such as Writing Across the Curriculum and Career Readiness will be more effectively implemented. Due to its uniqueness and inherent complexities, we determined it most appropriate that SON remains a separate unit, with continued leadership by Dr. Mary Lee Pollard.
In the meantime, faculty should continue to work with their faculty program directors.
Regarding the two new leadership positions, Dr. Li-fang Shih, formerly Dean of the School of Business and Technology, has accepted the role of Dean of the School of Undergraduate Studies. Dr. Rob Waters, formerly Dean of the School of Public Service, will assume the role of Dean of the School of Graduate Studies. We are confident that Li-fang and Rob have the right mix of experience, expertise, and vision to lead our newly constituted schools forward.
As we turn the page to the next chapter in Excelsior’s history, we do so with a renewed sense of optimism. I hope you can join us at our Provost’s Circle webinar on May 29 at 7 pm eastern. Details and login instructions to come.
Thank you.
Debbie Sopczyk
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