May 10, 2024
Dear Colleagues,
I am writing to you today to ask for volunteers to lead the organizational sustainability efforts for the Division of Academic Affairs.
In February, President Diacon presented you with Kent State’s financial forecast during his “Talking with Todd” session. He has since given the same information to Faculty Senate and our Boards. Clearly, we are confronting the same financial struggles that most U.S. universities are also facing. Simply put, our annual expenses are increasing at a level that we cannot keep up with and still deliver a balanced budget without making significant changes. Factors contributing to our annual expenses include Ohio’s cohort tuition model, state support, and competition over a smaller enrollment class.
President Diacon has charged University leadership with ensuring the organizational sustainability of the university. These financial shortfalls must be addressed throughout the university, including our colleges and academic units of The Division of Academic Affairs. Although we have had countless accomplishments and achieved growth in many areas of the division, we need to plan for a significant decrease in funding over the next 5 years. We will make changes to how we operate, how we offer academic programs, and how we choose to invest in order to reduce the academic costs of Kent State University.
As you have seen, our Regional Campus System, under the leadership of Vice President Peggy Shadduck, has worked tirelessly to restructure the regional system to become more efficient. Through these efforts, the system was able to reduce their expenses and will continue to work toward greater efficiencies as they create a centralized approach to course scheduling, marketing, budgeting and providing student services.
The same conversations and consultations are now occurring on the Kent Campus. Consolidating, combining, and eliminating programs, services, and resources are important actions while we also consider how we need to invest in our future and look for new streams of revenue generation.
Consultation is at the forefront of our guiding principles for creating change. As change occurs, we want to ensure that policies and procedures are being followed, including regular and meaningful consultation and collaboration with faculty. Every dean and unit leader has been charged with engaging with their colleagues using the guiding principles created by our academic leaders: Students First; Respect the Individual, Serve the Institution; Think Beyond the Silo; Listen to Our Entire Community; Give the World What it Needs; Thoroughly Assess the Impacts of Change; and Keep Us All on the Same Page.
To be able to meet our budgetary challenges using our guiding principles, I am creating the Transformation 2028 Task Force, or T28 for short, who will be tasked with overseeing the processes and procedural steps necessary to respond to the financial realities for the Division of Academic Affairs. Members of T28 will be tasked with creating standards and ensuring processes are met consistently across colleges and academic affairs support units. Kevin West, Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs, and Scott Sheridan, Interim Associate Provost for Academic Affairs will be leading this change group.
As a member of the Division of Academic Affairs, I invite you to participate on the T28 team. Please indicate your interest by filling out the T28 volunteer form. We will bein reviewing expressions of interest next week.
Work will begin immediately Summer 2024 with the development of a process plan for organizational change. By Fall 2024, T28 will distribute developed resources, tools, and guides to academic leadership to ensure consistency in consultation and implementation procedures are being followed. In February 2025, plans for academic changes will be announced university-wide followed by the difficult work of implementing systemic changes in Spring 2025 and beyond.
Throughout this process, we invite you to provide feedback and suggestions to how the Division should consider making changes and increasing revenue. You will receive an invitation to take a survey later this month where we ask for your ideas. This survey will be open all summer and into the beginning of Fall semester. Throughout the summer, we will keep you engaged through progress updates as well as additional opportunities for your input.
While we are calling our working group Transformation 2028, we do not intend to convey that 2028 represents the end of any budgetary concerns. Future budgets depend upon many factors, including enrollment trends and state support, that cannot be predicted precisely years out. Rather, we use 2028 as the benchmark for when we intend to have enacted the difficult but necessary transformational changes to the way Kent State operates to position us to continue to excel in the years to come.
Through consultation, collaboration, and shared governance, I am committed to continuing to work together to find approaches that allow us to persist in providing excellent educational opportunities to our communities in our region.
My best,
Melody
Melody Tankersley, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President and Provost