Support Services
Delivered by President Dixie Lund
I’m here today to bring you up to date on the response from the Oregon State Board of Higher Education to the presentation we gave to them last Friday of EOU’s Budget Reduction and Repositioning Plan, and to answer any questions you now have about the Plan. We were presenting the Plan to a sub-committee of the Board called the Finance and Administration Committee. There were two other items on other subjects on that Committee’s agenda before our’s.
As I listened to one of those other presentations that focused on funds for emerging businesses established by minorities and women, I heard them identify three characteristics that were of utmost importance to them--flexibility, accountability, and transparency. I'm one who tends to learn and retain information by either making up acronyms or tieing information into a jingle of sorts--thus the acronym FAT came to mind as I thought about those three characteristics. And, in fact flexibility, accountability, and transparency can perfectly describe what Eastern Oregon University's Plan for the Future entails. Thus, I started with that “segweigh,” and then began our presentation as follows:
Chairman Blair, Chancellor Pernsteiner, members of the Board, and colleagues: What you earlier received just before the holiday was a document our team at EOU completed on Friday, December 21, and had sent to Chancellor Pernsteiner shortly thereafter. Over the last two weeks, working around the holidays and team members' availability, we continued to edit this document for additional clarity, grammatical revision, and some overall cosmetic improvements. Your copy is slightly different--but not in real content--from the recent copy that was posted to our University's web site Wednesday evening, after those individuals whose positions were being eliminated had been properly notified earlier in the day. Copies of that document are available today, and we'll distribute those to you at the end of my comments, plus we'll place additional copies on the back table.
I wish to take a moment to publicly thank 3 of my team who are present today for their incredible work in helping me and 5 others prepare this document--Dr. Michael Jaeger our Provost and VP for Academic Affairs, Ms. Virginia Key, our VP for Finance and Administration, and Mr. Tim Seydel, our Associate VP for Marketing, Development, and Public Affairs. In the process of working on the repositioning of EOU, we realized that the unit which had up to this point been called "University Advancement" was not well understood in terms of the variety of functions it serves, and thus one change we've implemented is re-naming that unit to Marketing, Development, and Public Affairs.
I have about 10 minutes of introductory remarks to make and will then be pleased to respond to your questions. I've asked Michael, Virginia, and Tim to join me at the table this morning, as I know they will be able to assist with some of the responses you may seek.
First, I must emphasize that EOU's mission is to be an exemplary student-centered institution and to especially meet the economic, cultural, educational, and social needs and interests of east Oregonians. We are the "hub" of eastern Oregon and an economic engine for the region, an educational, research, and scholarly center for our region, and we provide a regional environment for political and social interaction, debate, and discussion.
Second, we are also very partnership-oriented, and we enjoy many collaborations with several other OUS and community college institutions, plus private industry–either on our own campus or elsewhere when and where we can contribute a particular niche in a fiscally-responsible manner.
And third, our enrollment, instead of continuing a downward trend, has stabilized over the last two terms. We are cautiously optimistic that from all the activities and personnel changes we've already engaged in over the last 6-8 months that our recruiting efforts are working. Our 3-year financial plan, on which we are still confirming 2nd and 3rd year data, will be provided to you on/before the next Board meeting. It will show that we have planned conservatively for any such enrollment growth, and we have also built into our Plan both investment opportunities in new areas where we will require a fiscally-solid business plan, plus gradual increases in our Fund Balance, from its low of 3.2% at the beginning of this fiscal year to a 5.5-6% range at the end of fiscal year 2010.
Our Repositioning Plan focuses on three main areas:
Enrollment management strategies
Increased partnerships with OUS institutions, community colleges and private industry. We are currently engaged in discussion with OIT for exchanging academic programs where we need what they can offer and they need what we can.
Flexibility of modalities for delivery of courses. We are already leaders in distance education, and we will be developing even more flexible opportunities for our students (on campus, online, and on site) to access their needed coursework in formats that address their scheduling needs and, in some cases, may actually accelerate their pace for completing their degrees.
We have invested in additional recruitment and admissions personnel and marketing materials and have received some private, dedicated financial support from various individuals and foundations to do so.
We will invest in our information technologies to further advance our multi-modal approach to reaching students and finding instructional efficiencies.
We have invested in increased efforts at retention by integrating advising staff from our highly successful distance education program into a University-wide Student Success Center.
And we will see improved customer (aka student) service through the Distance Education integration and the location and crosstraining of our reorganized Student Access Center, which will include a Call-In Center with extended hours.
On the savings side, we are moving some tenured and tenure-track faculty to inload instruction of their distance education courses, especially when their on-campus courses are not fully enrolled. The result of this move is significant savings from, unfortunately, the probable termination of adjunct faculty teaching those distance courses as more tenured and tenure-track faculty assume, on an inload basis, this instructional responsibility.
Additionally, we will be consolidating services where there is unnecessary duplication and reducing permanent staff where temporary help can be employed during peak times, such as in the Bookstore and at the Cashier’s Window of the Student Accounts office.
Significant adjustments in the Residence Life program and with the support of our Student Incidental Fee Committee, has reduced dependency on state funds and resulted in our ability to reduce our overall budget cut to $4.1 MM, rather than $4.5 MM.
We have appropriately applied funds from ETIC and Health Initiatives to cover instructional costs associated with increasing the number of sections of pre-requisite courses in demand by nursing, dental hygiene, and computer science/multi-media students. These funds have further reduced dependency on other E & G funds.
We have discovered and are applying for specific grants to fund a popular non-credit program called The Community School of the Arts that will continue this program but will remove it from any administrative dependency on state funds.
We have received notice of several retirements beginning this coming July and will not be refilling those positions.
We will use Rural Access Funds to enhance and stabilize what is referred to as our First-Year Experience Program, which is populated mainly by students from rural areas of Oregon who are at risk due to insufficient preparation to attend college-either academically and/or socially. From our pilot program, our experience thus far shows that retention of such FYE students into their sophomore year is significantly higher (80%) than it is for students in general at EOU which is roughly (64%).
We will engage in frequent and regular Program Reviews of all academic programs for relevance to our mission and for fiscal sustainability. The Chancellor has asked that each major we have retained and is mentioned on p. 54-56 of our Implementation Plan be identified with an aspect of our mission statement or be shown as meeting a strong student demand. I will bring that addendum to this document to the next Board meeting or have it sent electronically to you before then.
We believe in this Plan. We believe in the approaches we have taken to return EOU to financial stability and to prepare it for enrollment growth. We believe in Eastern Oregon University's ability to move forward with an increased focus in the area of program review, effectiveness, and fiscal accountability. We will no longer operate on "build it and they will come" mentality, but rather on data-driven decision making.
I ask for your approval of this Plan. I ask for your trust in me and in our current leadership of the University, in the students, the faculty, and the staff of EOU and in our community and political supporters. I thank you for your attention and am now ready, along with Dr. Jaeger, Ms. Key, and Mr. Seydel to respond to your questions.
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What followed that short introduction was not questions, but rather strong endorsement from various Committee members about where we are headed with our Plan. There was a vote to accept our Plan and it was approved unanimously.
The next step was to place this approval by the F / A Committee as a "consent item" on the full Board agenda. However, one Board member, Jim Francesconi (who some of you met when he visited the campus last Spring), stated that he thought the EOC Plan was too big of an issue to just be on a consent agenda, and so it was moved to a regular agenda item for the full Board. I admit to becoming a bit anxious at that point, as I wasn't sure why Jim felt it couldn't "just" be handled, especially now upon approval of the F / A Committee, as a consent item.
So, when we got to its place on the full-Board agenda, I was trying to gear up for the next round. But, to our delight, the next round only provided another opportunity for Board members to positively comment on the Plan. In addition to very supportive comments, we also heard expectations that this would be a living document, that the work wasn't just completed, but rather starting and ongoing with continuous assessment as to how we are doing. I have offered to provide a monthly update at each of the next Board meetings.
So, now we must move forward. We have a lot of work to do, but at least we now have a green light to proceed with it. As my letter in the Plan indicates, I received over 250 emails and all were read by each member of the Budget and Repositioning Team over the course of a three-week period, November 26 through December 14. In addition, we received helpful input from a summary of the AAP Retreat held at Cove the 1st weekend of December and found common ideas and ideals to incorporate into this Plan. We read, we listened, we incorporated.
The proposed mission statement is just that – proposed. Oregon Revised Statutes direct the State Board to assign missions and roles for the institutions under its jurisdiction. The Board, in its own changes over the last 3-1/2 years, has recently realized that there are inconsistencies in which mission statements of the OUS have changed, have been approved, and which are in use but have not been approved by the Board. To that end, the Board is undertaking a review of steps at the February Board meeting to discuss guidelines for mission review/approval, and expects from March-November to schedule campus mission statement submissions and approval such at the meeting following the Board meeting when an institution's submission is discussed. It is imperative, from numerous references I and others have received from the Chancellor and other Board members, to make sure that our mission statement--but even more importantly, the goals we identify that line up with that mission statement--respond to our region's needs.
There are some physical relocations that have already taken place, others that are underway, and others that will continue through the next several weeks. For the moment, please know that:
The Provost's Office is now co-habitating with the President's office! Yes,
Michael Jaeger is moving into what has previously been called the President's Conference Room. His assistant, Kris Olson, is sharing the office space with my assistant and together they will be able to provide back-up for each other as needed. The Conference Room table and chairs have been moved into my office which, as many of you know, is big enough to accommodate such. We still have extensive meeting space in Inlow in both 201 and the underutilized 115. My office, when I'm not in, is also available for meetings. In addition, Sarah Witte and Andy Ashe are being relocated to space on the 2nd floor of Inlow in what was formerly the Office of Grants and Sponsored Programs offices.
The Student Affairs offices, previously occupied in Inlow by Mike Daugherty, Colleen Cascio, and Heather Cashell, are all relocated to Hoke Hall.
As the Distance Education organization is integrated into Academic and Student Affairs over the next month, various individuals will be relocated to Inlow and Loso. Dean Cannon, who is now Dean of Enrollment Services, will be relocated to either the former Provost's Office or the former Student Affairs VP Office.
The services of the Student Access Center (Admissions, Financial Aid, and Registrar) will remain in Inlow, and we are most pleased to welcome back to EOU, and to the Admissions efforts, Ms. Jackie Grant, who will be with us on a half-time basis with specific responsibilities for recruiting and counseling Native American students. The services of the Student Success Center (Career and Academic Advising, International Student Services, and the Learning Center, including testing) will be split between Inlow (Career and Academic Advising) and Loso (Learning Center and Testing. DDE's Mary Koza and Ellen Krieger will co-direct the Career and Academic Advising Center. Sharon Nelson will have a split assignment with 50% in Advising as the Union Co. non-traditional student advisor and 50% in Marketing with the former University Advancement area, now called Marketing, Development, and Public Affairs.
But, finally, I remind you that we are still in transition--not just with physical relocations, but with some changes in assignments due to SEIU bumping that has occurred with the individuals displaced by positions that were terminated, as well as by the assumption of additional duties by some employees who are being asked to absorb some new assignments. In addition, in about 18 months, we will temporarily need to relocate 1st floor employees officed in Inlow Hall, to other campus locations, as the seismic retrofitting and other remodeling that has already been approved in capital allocations is required to take place on that floor. From that remodel, we will have an even better configuration for our Student Access and Student Success Centers than what we will experience over the next year and a half.
I know there is specific interest within your Colleges, Divisions, or Units as to who is staying, who is going. Your Deans or VP have that information, but in summary I can tell you the following – a total of 21 positions (14 full-time and 7 part-time) have been eliminated. Specifically:
On the La Grande campus where no current re-assignment is available, we have already in the last two months or at the end of this school year eliminated 5 full-time administrative faculty positions and 3 full-time, fixed-term teaching faculty positions.
In addition, there are 3 SEIU fulltime positions and 1 SEIU part-time position being vacated where the individuals currently in those have not yet exercised their bumping rights which may see them occupying 2-3 currently open positions on the La Grande campus. In addition, on the La Grande campus, 5 part-time fixed term teaching faculty positions have been eliminated. At our regional campuses, 4 positions have been eliminated, including 3 full-time and 1 part-time.
This concludes my remarks. Members of the BART team and I are now ready to respond to your questions. Thank you.
Office of the President
Inlow Hall, Suite 216
Eastern Oregon University
One University Boulevard
La Grande, OR 97850-2899
phone: 541-962-3512
fax: 541-962-3113
Eastern Oregon University is a member of the Oregon University System