Campus-wide Plan includes Balanced Budget and Strategic Priorities
HELENA – Carroll College President John Cech presented the Realign, Reinvest, and Reimagine for Our Future (RRR) plan to the Carroll College campus on Monday afternoon, December 14, 2020. The plan is the result of a six-month effort which began with a core team of 16 faculty, staff, and administrators who were charged with identifying realistic budget cost reductions, achievable revenue enhancements, and operational efficiencies while maintaining academic excellence.
Like many colleges and universities across the nation, Carroll College has experienced direct impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic as well as challenges from an increasingly competitive undergraduate market. The combination of these factors resulted in a budget gap for this fiscal year which the college needed to address and the need to create a balanced budget for the next fiscal year based on attainable enrollment projections.
To address these challenges, the President launced the Realign, Reinvest,and Reimagine for Our Future task force last July. In addition to identifying realistic budget cost reductions, achievable revenue enhancements, and operational efficiencies, each division leader at the college was directed by the President to identify steps to achieve efficiencies within their operating budgets.
The final recommendations were vetted across several criteria, including:
- Current and future classes (enrollment)
- Service to students
- Student experience
- Reputation, brand, and Catholic identity
- Campus and workplace environment
“COVID-19 impacted every college and university in the nation and we were not immune here at Carroll. It was critical for the college to secure a balanced budget for this fiscal year and next year. This involved some difficult decisions which ultimately impacted our staffing on campus,” said Cech.
Cech noted the RRR task force was presented with the following expectations:
- Grow graduate and certificate programs to enhance revenue and increase enrollment engagement;
- Create new opportunities to increase undergraduate student enrollment;
- Identify potential partnership opportunities within our business community and with other educational entities to provide cost savings and/or additional revenue and increase market share growth;
- Implement strategic efficiencies and reductions as well as evaluating lost opportunity costs within the institution, which will result in reduced and reallocated expenses.
The RRR plan also includes the expansion of the college’s role in serving the needs of students who have already obtained their bachelor’s degree. In addition, it is critical that Carroll moves with a sense of urgency to diversify its enrollment and leverage its national reputation to enter more fully the post-baccalaureate and graduate education space and continue to maintain undergraduate academic excellence. The plan highlights the college’s current efforts to address post-baccalaureate and graduate education, including:
- Certificate in Healthcare Leadership - Started Fall 2020
- Certification in Financial Planning - Starting Spring 2021
- Accelerated Nursing – Starting May 2021
- Master in Social Work - Starting Fall 2021
- Master in Public Health - Starting Fall 2022
- Doctor of Nurse Practice – Pending Business Plan (estimated start of Fall 2023)
In addition, the following program is currently under development:
- 2-2 Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering/Engineering Mathematics
The plan also notes that the college has assigned champions to build business plans for co-curricular activities that have the ability to attract students to Carroll. Programs that will be immediately explored include:
- Enhanced Green Honors Program
- Living Learning Communities
- Marching Band
- Outdoor Recreation Clubs (biking, skiing, etc.)
The following programs have already submitted business plans and the college is moving forward with the process to evaluate and approve them:
- Junior Varsity Sports
- eSports Team
This process involved a comprehensive analysis of positions and personnel at Carroll College. Recommendations to make changes to employee staffing have been proposed through the Realign, Reinvest, & Reimagine for Our Future task force and the Executive Cabinet. “Out of respect for individual privacy, I cannot release the positions impacted by staffing changes. The year 2020 has been difficult worldwide and higher education has been particularly impacted. I am hopeful the action we are taking now will position Carroll for unprecedented success moving forward. Plans are also being finalized for hiring additional staff for the new programs launching in 2021,” said Cech.
Finally, the plan calls for the creation of a new campus committee to review ideas surrounding innovation and growth at the college. The committee will review and recommend for funding proposals around “The Big Idea” where preference will be given to ideas that generate recurring, incremental net revenues to the college as well as provide a distinctive program or service. The funding will come from a special unrestricted endowment at the college.
“My focus is to ensure we make the challenging decisions today to firmly establish Carroll College for continued success for its next 100 years,” said Cech. “I am proud we have followed the shared governance processes, a hallmark trait of colleges and universities, and we have presented a budget to our Board of Trustees for next year based on conservative enrollment figures and balanced to the penny. This places Carroll in a very good position to emerge from this pandemic.”
To summarize, Carroll College is taking robust action now to be ready to meet student needs in the short term and in the post-pandemic future. “I am excited about the direction we are headed and feel very confident about Carroll’s future,” said Cech.
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