September 18, 2024
Dear Colleagues,
Universities frequently face rapid and, at times, conflicting shifts in technology, societal expectations, workforce needs, and economic pressures. To me, this statement seems truer now than perhaps ever before. At Kent State, we recognize the changing nature of higher education and strive to provide our students with the knowledge and skills for jobs and careers of the future. And to do so, we must be prepared to change, too—to thrive in a changing world and embrace the future by being proactive today. Our graduates will be prepared to lead in this rapidly changing world because of the actions we take now.
We will be ready for the next generation and ensure we have the distinctive programs, supports, and technologies our students and communities need as we balance a financial reality that requires us to be strategic in our use of our decreased revenues and resources.
To that end, we have implemented a process for initiating change in the Division of Academic Affairs called Transformation 2028 (T28). In preparation for our Academic Affairs Community Forum (Thursday, September 19th at 12:30pm) about T28, I am sharing responses to several frequently asked questions that I have received over the past few months. I look forward to speaking with you tomorrow and encourage you to share your questions in advance at provost@kent.edu.
What is Transformation 2028?
Transformation 2028, or T28 for short, is an overarching initiative in Academic Affairs to strengthen our division by strategically reorganizing and reducing our academic structures (e.g., colleges, departments, schools) so that we can not only decrease our expenses but also have opportunity to invest in new, important programs to enhance our revenues. T28 is our roadmap to how we achieve this dual focus on the future and our fiscal health. It is an initiative that will better prepare Kent State not only for the immediate future, but for years to come. This roadmap will allow us to be more nimble and reshape our institution to address the educational needs of tomorrow to ensure our vibrant, thriving future.
Certainly we must always position the University to be financially sustainable—not just for now, but also for the long-term. Currently, each Vice President is examining their division to identify opportunities to strategically reduce expenses for the greater good of the organization. And that includes the Division of Academic Affairs.
Why do we need to do this now?
What you have heard from President Diacon and Senior Vice President Polatajko is that to balance our budgets each year, if all things remain the same, we will need to reduce expenditures by approximately $9 million per year through 2028. That is if all things stay the same, which is a big caveat knowing what we do about the upcoming demographic shifts within Ohio and our surrounding states from which we recruit the majority of our students. In addition, our state funding models increasingly provide less financial support than in the past, and costs for necessary, big-ticket expenses such as upgrading Banner, classroom technology improvements, and elevator repairs will be required.
I know the President has shared examples of universities and colleges around us cutting staff and faculty, programs and degrees, and even closing down all together. Not only is this happening across the country, it is happening in northeast Ohio.
At Kent State, we have been reducing our expenses in Academic Affairs since 2017 and, frankly, have little more basic trimming we can do. Making such slight reductions will not prepare us for the anticipated financial needs over the next 4 years, nor position us for the educational opportunities of the future.
Instead, we need to transform Academic Affairs to work within the new challenges posed by our financial outlook. Specifically, we need to transform in such a way to reduce our administrative overhead. By strategically transforming our colleges and academic organizations, we can not only reduce expenses and share resources, but we can also create synergies that will allow us to seek new programmatic opportunities to make us even stronger for the years to come. Doing so is a necessary component of multiple actions we must take to ensure our relevancy and distinction, as well as maintain our financial sustainability.
But didn't we do OKAY with enrollment this year?
Yes, we did well with enrollment this year. We increased enrollment of first time freshmen on the Kent Campus because our international undergraduate enrollment grew enough to offset the decline we experienced from domestic student enrollment; we declined a bit in our numbers of Graduate Students on the Kent Campus; and, we remained somewhat flat in our number of degree-seeking students on our Regional Campuses. We really did a great job with retention, as well. Thank you for your efforts in achieving our students’ success!
Yet, even with positive news on enrollment this year, our state-mandated tuition model and decreased state funding does not keep pace with such expenditures as inflation in pay, costs of services, and expenses of facilities and technology maintenance. Moreover, the expected decline in enrollment due to the demographic cliff will be recognized next academic year, when high schools will graduate significantly fewer students. And this decline of high school graduates will continue for the foreseeable future.
Not only will we have fewer students graduating high school in Ohio, but of those who do graduate, we expect to continue to see fewer choosing to attend college. Taken together, we are facing an ongoing challenge to our enrollments and we must prepare now for the decline by becoming more nimble, which means streamlining our expenditures in Academic Affairs.
I get that we have to cut because of the financial challenges we are facing, but why can’t we keep all of our colleges just as they are right now?
Our biggest expenditure in Academic Affairs is our personnel. We have been doing a lot to minimize our personnel costs over the years. For example, across the colleges, deans, department, and school directors have been engaged in specific actions to reduce costs over the past three years, including:
- Ensuring that workload assignments are appropriate for every faculty member
- Making certain that class sizes are maximized for the instructional method
- Only scheduling the necessary number of sections of courses
- Reviewing the financial and enrollment health of all programs of study and
- if curricular changes are needed, implementing them. OR
- if students are not choosing specific majors, minors, cognates, or certificates beginning actions to sunset them
- Reviewing programs of study to reduce the complexity and the number of choices for specific requirements
- Identifying opportunities for cross-disciplinary courses
- Consolidating roles of faculty, staff, and administrators and sharing resources within and among colleges
The deans have been diligently working on these tasks and this work will continue to be THE priority within colleges to continue to curtail costs into the future—even after new college structures are implemented.
It is imperative that these actions continue as we simultaneously imagine and build a reorganized Academic Affairs. I have instructed the deans to remain focused on this priority because our organization needs efficient and sustainable expense reduction to meet this challenge. We recognize that change and uncertainty are difficult but we must come together throughout the entire university community to help achieve our collective goal.
What do you mean when you say we have to strategically transform our colleges and academic organizations?
What I mean by this is we must find meaningful ways to create fewer, and in some cases larger, colleges that have less administration within those colleges to reduce costs as well as to promote new opportunities for collaborations and innovations. We need to bring programs together that can benefit from their synergies—creating new programs across multiple disciplines, applying for grants cooperatively, providing communities services that address their comprehensive needs, and creating innovations and arts that are enhanced by many perspectives. Thereby aligning with the needs of the future.
We will also have to consolidate our operations within our colleges that do not offer degrees (i.e., Graduate College, Honors College, University Libraries, University College) and within our academic service areas (e.g., Curriculum Services, Global Education, Institutional Effectiveness, Kent State Online, Outreach and Engagement, Strategy Management). Aligning our resources and sharing administrative support will help us eliminate redundancies as well as share and leverage better the strengths among our colleagues while identifying opportunities for reductions of no longer needed tasks.
How will transforming our colleges and academic organizations affect our students?
We are, and will continue to, work diligently to minimize the impact to students. Most importantly for our students is their ability to complete their degrees. The degree programs to which students have been admitted will continue to be their degree programs. We will not abruptly close down programs. Closing programs require a set of actions over a period of time which allows us to work closely with students to ensure they are able to progress appropriately to complete their degrees. The first step of that process is to suspend admissions so that we have time to teach-out students enrolled in any programs that will be sunset or to revamp the program appropriately. At this time, we only have a few programs that have suspended admissions, but there may be more in the near future.
On the other hand, aligning programs differently could help students tremendously. For example, students may see how different fields of study can foster interdisciplinary thinking, they may discover new interests and skills, they may be exposed to minors and certificates that complement their majors and make them more adaptable in their careers, and they may broaden their perspectives and benefit from different social networks.
Will people lose their jobs?
It is implicit in such a reorganization that we will have fewer administrators, require fewer staff, and sunset some academic and service-related programs. As President Diacon has said, our sincere hope is that we will be able to reduce our workforce through attrition. And that remains our hope. However, there are current positions that likely will not remain in any new organizational structure within Academic Affairs; consequently, some of our colleagues may change positions (if they choose) and some may not continue with the university.
We are working with the Division of People, Culture, and Belonging to identify ways to support all of our colleagues as we transform Academic Affairs. For those who may be moving into new roles, we will offer trainings and ensure they have the skills necessary for new or expanded roles, and for those transitioning out of the university, we will do all we can to provide professional development and a phased, soft landing.
Will the university offer another separation incentive/buy-out?
No. It is important for you to know clearly that we are not able to offer buy-outs to faculty and staff as we have in the past. We cannot afford this option again as the four previous separation agreements have depleted our resources. And, because of the upfront costs of such retirement incentives, I do not see this as an option in the near future.
What’s the timeline to do all of this?
In the next few months we will present several options for reorganizing our programs into colleges based on the suggestions we have received through our annual Academic Affairs Leadership Retreat, your responses to prior surveys, and from the discussions occurring within the colleges, departments, and schools.
We will use the most endorsed configurations to create a number of options for reorganized colleges to send out to all faculty, staff, and student leadership for comments and suggestions.
Our goal is that these options will then be narrowed down as guided by your feedback, recommendations from academic leaders, and logistical considerations (e.g., size of programs, accreditation rules) until we have a final option to present to Faculty Senate for consideration in February 2025. We will do a similar consultation process with our non-degree offering colleges later in the semester.
After determining the possible ways Academic Affairs could be transformed, we will identify the steps necessary to realize the new organizational structure by 2028. We will create a ‘playbook’ that will identify each consultation and each action that will occur, establish the order of occurrence, and determine the steps required to implement.
The playbook will be vetted by various groups, including the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, leadership of AAUP-KSU (to ensure actions are in compliance with the CBA), and academic leaders. Faculty consultation will occur with the appropriate faculty advisory and curricular committees at the college, department, and school levels.
The first step is to determine how our academic homes (e.g., colleges, departments, schools) will be restructured for the future. Once we know the new organization, we will begin a phased plan to implement the changes. It cannot happen all at once. The implementation steps to realizing the new organizational structure of Academic Affairs will occur over several years. Some changes might be easy to implement and have strong agreement on moving forward; other actions might be more complicated, require much discussion, and take multiple steps to implement. Then, by 2028, the new organization will be completely implemented.
If it all won’t be in place until 2028, why does this feel like it is happening so fast?
Change takes time to implement, and time is not our ally. What is happening fast right now is deciding on the specific reorganization and restructure of our academic colleges, and the location of departments and schools within those colleges. We need to know our new Academic Affairs organization and structure before we implement changes—changes that will be driven by our shared vision that will not only support our financial health, but also the long-term distinction of Kent State.
Therefore, to make decisions about our reorganization, we will continue to ask for your input often, meet with the leadership from colleges at least once a week, talk with Faculty Senate and faculty leadership regularly, and hold unit level discussions frequently. This certainly feels fast and urgent—and it is. It must be if we are to implement all changes by 2028 so that we can impact our future.
Because shared governance is important in all we do, we want to make sure we have time to properly consult and provide opportunities for input, and simultaneously, be able to identify actions that will make us a more vibrant, future-facing, financially sound institution. We created this process with timelines that would allow for engagement and for engaging in the necessary steps for implementation so that we could be in an increasingly better fiscal place each year.
We do not have the option of remaining the same. We cannot continue to ask colleges, departments, and schools to reduce their operating budgets by a set percentage and remain sustainable. We must change our overall organization.
Knowing how we will do this as quickly as possible allows us all to know our path forward so that we can advance together. I understand the stress and worry that discussions about change bring for everyone personally and professionally. The best way to help is to provide honest, direct plans so that you will know as soon as possible where we are headed.
Haven’t you already decided what to do?
I have absolutely not decided what the transformation of Academic Affairs will look like in the future, but I do know that the result will be a better positioned Kent State University based on the work that we will do together. I continue to seek your feedback and suggestions and I have reviewed every single response that has come in through our surveys, as have the T28 Leadership Committee and the T28 Communications Committee. Your knowledge and preferences for organizational change are important to ensuring that we are able to move forward together.
How do I find out more, provide feedback, and keep informed?
On Thursday, September 19th at 12:30pm, I am holding an Academic Affairs Community Forum during which time the T28 Communication Committee will present the results to date of the surveys that you have completed and I will answer questions you have. You can submit questions to provost@kent.edu and join the Forum using the link below.
Academic Affairs Community Forum
Thursday, September 19, 2024
12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Microsoft Teams Live Link
We are also creating a website through the Office of the Provost where you will be able to see organization suggestions and provide feedback on options. That link will come to you soon.
Thank you.
I know this is hard. And not knowing all of the answers right now is stressful. Resources are available to you should you wish to talk to someone about your stress on the Division of People, Culture, and Belonging Website.
My promise to you is to do my best to keep you informed and updated, to listen to your feedback, and to consider your suggestions fully. As we work together during this challenging time, it is important that we remain focused on our shared goals of preparing for the next generation and remaining fiscally strong. Thank you for all you are doing to keep us moving forward.
My best,
Melody Tankersley, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President and Provost