By Kelsi Peace, Managing Editor
Departments campuswide submitted responses to a questionnaire from the Vision Leadership Team on Friday to clarify the departments’ purpose and compatibility with the 21st Century Vision.
“Every couple of years I think it’s good to step back and ask some of those broader questions,” said Phil Schubert, executive vice president. “It helps refine our focus; it helps to align more closely our activities and our investments.”
Schubert said the Vision Leadership Team, which formed in November, met all day Tuesday to assess the responses. The team’s focus, Schubert said, is to look at investments that need to be made and sources for finding funds, all in accordance with the 21st Century Vision.
The responses will help the team determine where the university needs to invest more heavily and where it needs to restructure, Schubert said.
“We’re always looking for momentum,” Schubert said. “We’re looking for things that align closely with where it is we’re headed strategically.”
The momentum Schubert said the team will look for from departments includes areas that demonstrate opportunity and the ability for growth.
But the bottom line, Schubert said, isn’t about funds as much as it is about developing an innovative curriculum.
“We could do a lot of different things if all we were concerned about was the bottom line of the institution.”
The team will also turn to external sources – including alumni, donors and friends of the university – as part of an effort to reallocate funding and “recalibrate,” Schubert said.
With enrollment numbers down by almost 100 students this fall, the university used its contingency funding, and Schubert said in October that a few small changes kept the difference from being noticed by the community. Now, he maintains that it does have an affect but does not pose an insurmountable problem. However, tuition revenue does account for less overall funding, Schubert said.
“It’s certainly a piece of what we’re looking at,” he said. “That will impact some of the overall goals.”
The Vision Leadership Team will meet again Friday to continue reviewing, and Schubert said he expects to have some direction.
