chuckstaben Uncategorized

National Meetings

National meetings are useful and renewing, for presidents and for other cabinet members. Of course, there is a bewildering array of meetings, so I wanted to share impressions and some observations, as well as how a Cabinet might use them.

I found it useful to report back on meetings that I attended-perhaps just 10 minutes at a Cabinet meeting. And, encourage your VPs to do the same. Keeps them focused, but leverages each meeting for the whole group.

Most universities will belong to one or more national societies; as a land grant university, the natural for the University of Idaho was the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities. The Council of Presidents meetings are very useful-fast paced, focused presentations. Because this organization springs from the Land Grant community, there is strong participation from Agriculture Deans and Extension. The Research VPs are also very active. The Council on Academic Affairs is for Provosts-the summer meetings are less formal, more focused, and more productive. Spend some time meeting with colleagues. Few attendees tour the vendor hall, but I have always found this very productive…and one of the other presidents I usually see there is Michael Crow, from ASU-one of the most innovative and respected of university presidents. Hint.

ACE, the American Council of Education, draws a very wide audience from small privates to large publics. The sessions tend to be very diverse in topics and applicability; I found them somewhat repetitive of APLU but generally less useful because they were less focused. The adjunct meeting for NAPAHE is a good one for your chief of staff or assistant. I often participated in a session with my chief of staff-very worthwhile and few presidents do that. The other ACE session that is lightly attended by male presidents is the session on Women’s Leadership. If we are serious about moving the gender needle in higher education, I think both men and women need to attend such sessions…and what better place to recruit women interested in leadership positions at your university?

A “once-hidden” gem that I urge anyone to attend is the ASU-GSV conference. The conference has grown exponentially. Definitely a Michael Crow brainchild, but a great place to meet innovators, see new trends…and some wonderful plenary sessions. Not that expensive for academics. I see few fellow presidents there, but the ones who do attend include those I most respect for innovation. If you have not tried this one, put it on your list.

AGB (Association of Governing Boards) runs several conferences. I think attending with your Board chair or members is the way to go-never did this with my governing board, but I did with my Foundation Board chair, VP Advancement, and Foundation Executive Director. Great way to hear talks, compare notes-get new ideas and have someone objective (or at least outside your foundation) provide perspectives you may want the Chair to hear.

I know that there are many other meetings, but I can personally vouch for the usefulness of these. Enjoy…and feel free to email me additional suggestions.

chuckstaben Uncategorized

Ethnic Diversity Goals and Metrics

The Chronicle of Higher Education analyzed diversity of the freshman class at the flagship university in each of the 50 states, comparing the domestic student population to the ethnic composition of each state. The bottom line is that the domestic student population of most flagships shows significant underrepresentation of American Indian/Native Alaskan, Black, and Hispanic students (URMs) when compared to the demographics of the state population. The difference in URMs at flagships ranged from +0.7 at the University of Maine to -37.4 at the University of California, Berkeley with the overall national average at -22.2%.

Is this an appropriate, or the only appropriate measure of ethnic diversity? And, curiously, the Chronicle left out a large and important group, Asian American students.

I think that the ethnic diversity of the student body reflects several priorities. First, does the flagship enroll an ethnically diverse reflection of the resident students of the state? Second, do students attending the university receive the benefits of attending an ethnically diverse university, even if the ethnic diversity of their state may be limited? Though the diversity of the freshman class is important, the success of enrolled students by ethnicity is certainly also very important.

Let’s look at #1 (Maine), #50 (UCB), and my own university, University of Idaho (#11). Maine enrolls almost 50% out-of-state students; Idaho 25%, Berkeley is capped at 18%. I was not able to tease out ethnicity by resident status for Maine and Berkeley, but there may be surprises embedded in the data. At Idaho, for example, more than 1/2 of all black students are out of state, student athletes…hardly a representative sample.

Second, look at a table that compares these three states, their flagship URM data to their state and national data.

 State PopulationFreshman Domestic StudentsTotal URMDifferences
 %Black%Native%Hispanic%Black%Native%HispanicStudent-StateStudent-Nation
Maine1.30.61.6214.94.4-21.9
Idaho0.71.312.41.10.8130.5-14.9
California6.51.7391.70.117.6-27.8-10.4
National12.60.916.35.20.510.9-13.2-13.2

Though the table is a bit tough to read, I think that one can see that Berkeley underrepresents its state population, but closely reflects national diversity…more closely than even that national flagship average. And, though Maine is “more diverse” than its state…the student body does not reflect the experience of our nation.

Numbers alone can’t tell the diversity story…but let’s be clear about what the numbers we collect mean.

chuckstaben CollegeAccess, Diversity, Uncategorized

4H College Pipeline and Diversity

  • Broadening the concept of the land grant university and its programs

4H was founded in 1902 to instruct rural youth in improved farming and homemaking practices.  In the 1960s and 1970s, 4H broadened its mission to serve urban youth and life experiences unrelated to agriculture that encourage positive youth development.  4H is housed in the Division of Youth and 4H in the National Institute of Food and Agriculture within the USDA. State programs have extensive ties to, and are usually administered by, extension offices at land grant universities. Can 4H programs serve universities as pipeline programs, especially for diverse or disadvantaged youth?

The University of Idaho initiated a college pipeline program oriented towards LatinX youth via an internal mechanism, but has realized the value of associating that program with 4H in a way that may benefit other college pipeline programs. Perhaps a more intentional approach to using 4H to enhance college-going and youth development, on either a state or national basis, could address today’s college educated workforce and social mobility challenges.

The most extensive recent study of 4H’s effects on youth is that of Lerner and colleagues. The study clearly demonstrates many positive youth outcomes of 4H participation, including higher rates of academic achievement as well as lower frequency of negative behavior, but the study does not directly address college going outcomes and diversity issues.  

Finding national participation rate data for 4H programs proved challenging (and my queries were never answered by the USDA 4H office), but the Lerner study included survey data of this sort.  Comparing the survey data to census data is a bit challenging as the data definitions and survey differed. Nevertheless, as one might expect, rural students are currently overrepresented in the sample; over 46% of respondents of known living environment were rural while only 14% of the US population is rural.  4H also has significant underrepresentation of Asian American, African American, and LatinX youth. Regionally, the Midwest is overrepresented and the South underrepresented. 4H also engages over 60% young women. College-going rates generally follow similar trends with some exceptions. LatinX and African American students are underrepresented in US colleges as they are in 4H; the Midwest has a generally high college attendance rate.

Idaho has one of the lowest per capita incomes in the nation and this is directly correlated with low educational attainment of the adult population. The state hopes to radically increase education attainment to support an emerging high technology economy. Idaho has one of the lowest rates of college attendance in the nation. That rate is particularly low among its LatinX and rural populations (which overlap significantly).  In fact, Idaho has the lowest postsecondary attainment of any LatinX population, only 10.7% of LatinX adults in Idaho hold a postsecondary degree.

As a model program, the University’s Latino Advisory Council and Office of Equity and Diversity in 2017 developed a deep engagement model in which programs were embedded in a rural, heavily Latino high school in Jerome, Idaho.  The program engaged 8th grade students and their families, and was named by the families “Caminos al Futuro.” This Road to the Future already seems to have changed student perception of career options and brought the students experiences well beyond those offered by the school, but, nonetheless, a challenge emerged concerning the sustainability of the program..

Our Extension Office stepped forward to write a USDA CYFAR grant that will allow us to not only sustain the program but to double it in size. In addition to this support, the engagement with Extension opened our eyes to the Youth Development Curriculum already developed by 4H, Juntos.  Juntos programs are operating across the country; I note that Oregon State University’s program engages over 30,000 students. The success of the first grant encouraged us to successfully apply for a second, allowing another program doubling. Additionally, students and some family members from Caminos participated in the on-campus summer meeting program; again opening eyes to new possibilities and engaging students and families in seeing the potential of college-going in general, and especially at the state’s land grant, research university.

How can 4H be leveraged even farther?  The cultural relevancy of materials and programs must be increased.  To address the cultural gaps, materials should be available in Spanish, for example, so that families who may be less bilingual than the students understand the value and nature of the programs.  Volunteers play an important role in 4H; 4H alumni are a rich source of volunteers. Bicultural volunteers must be recruited, many of whom may not have traditionally participated in 4H themselves (4H alumni are the richest current source of volunteers).  Addressing the gender gap in 4H participation may also require a much broader approach to activities and intentional engagement of male students and volunteers.

The 4H and Extension programs of our universities have extensive infrastructure and capacity to address some of the central issues facing postsecondary education in rural and other communities.  Just as land grant universities helped the United States economic transformation to an industrial society and a world leader in agricultural productivity, we can use this same system to ensure that our underserved communities are not left behind in the knowledge economy.

chuckstaben Athletics, Uncategorized

Attending Athletics

Athletics is usually a few percent of the University budget, even at large public universities, but demands a good deal of time and attention…and attendance.  Athletics offers major alumni and donor engagement opportunities.  And, I think it can provide an opportunity to celebrate the non-athletic parts of the University in a very visible way. My spouse, not a sports fan, also came to games when she was able to do so, and enjoyed the atmosphere, without alot of involvement in the actual athletic contest.

For schools with football programs, home games are occasions and generally cannot be missed.  The University of Idaho has a fairly small football program, but even so, games provide an opportunity to entertain friends of the University and to be seen quite publicly. 

We were fortunate to have a box on the 50 yard line.  Advancement and the President’s office collaborated to fill the box-bringing in donors, Board members, and legislators.  Be careful not to let the box become a hangout spot for staff.  We did not stay in the box the entire game, but visited other boxes, always said hello to the small contingent of visiting parents, dropped in on the visiting team box, and thanked our extraordinary marching band.  Though I enjoy watching football, I did not see the game in any continuous fashion, but kept myself generally aware of what was going on.  Some presidents get very involved in the game, going on to the field, talking to players…I always felt some separation was better. The football coach is hired to do that!

I enjoyed traveling with the team upon occasion to away football games, usually participating in about ½ the away games.  Traveling with the team can also be an important perk to share with program donors-though this perk has a value that must be accounted for and deducted from the value of gifts they make.  For a program like Idaho’s, guarantee games are a chance to visit much larger programs and gain an understanding of a larger university.  We scheduled successful alumni visits to several programs, in our case centered around our engaged agriculture alumni and visits to large land grant schools.  Away games are also an opportunity to network with other conference presidents.

Use halftimes, timeouts, and media to message about the University.  I introduced to Idaho the idea of an academic honor-to students, student athletes, faculty or staff at a first quarter timeout.  Games at that point are likely to be competitive and fans still engaged.  This is an idea I borrowed from the University of Kentucky, which always brought academics to football or basketball timeouts-and I recall how incredible being on the floor of Rupp Arena was with some of my students as a young faculty member, with 22,000 rabid Kentucky fans clapping for us.  Faculty don’t get that sort of opportunity often, and you can provide it.

Basketball is usually a more personal, shorter timeframe except at the biggest schools like the SEC.  Sit in the stands, cheer for the team, and say hello to the fans.  We have used basketball for special events, like a Native Nations night, that has been very successful.  Be sure to attend both men’s and women’s basketball.

I also recommend scheduling an appearance at one event for each sport per year, though I admit I was not able to do that for all sports.  The swim team parents really will remember that you cared enough to watch the meet.

chuckstaben CollegeAccess, Higher Education Policy, Uncategorized

Medical School Application

Let’s level the field!

Medical schools have made great efforts and important strides in becoming more inclusive.  Nevertheless, the physician workforce of the United States does not yet reflect the racial/ethnic composition of our country.  Many factors undoubtedly contribute to the underrepresentation of black, Hispanic, and American Indian physicians.  Ethnic underrepresentation may in part be a proxy for low income status; ethnicity, income, and parental education all correlate in the US.  A recent “Analysis in Brief” by the AAMC shows that 3/4 of all medical school matriculates come from the top two household-income quintiles and that this distribution has been unchanged for 3 decades.  As income stratifies even more in the US and our population becomes more diverse, we must consider approaches beyond those employed and contemplated in the last 30 years.

As medical schools consider how to increase representation, they may partially have overlooked the process and expense involved in the application and matriculation to medical school.   In addition to discouraging successful application to medical school by low income students, an expensive or unclear process may especially discourage lower income students from seeking placement at very selective medical schools, leading to what is termed “undermatching” in undergraduate education.

There are simple steps that universities preparing medical students and medical schools themselves could take that could address some of this unintended financial bias.  My perspective on this issue arises from years as a Biology faculty member, advising hundreds of premedical students, as a university leader, and as the father of 3 recent (successful) applicants to medical school.  Let’s examine the application process stepwise to identify potential improvements.  I will focus on the schools that use the AMCAS application system, the majority of US medical schools.

              According to AAMC (https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/) data, non-white applicants and matriculants to US medical schools have lower GPAs and lower MCAT scores than white (and generally wealthier)  applicants.  A large percentage of wealthier students are using MCAT prep services, financially inaccessible to lower income families.  Universities should consider whether test preparation is something that they should do at reduced cost in a more extensive and intentional way.  Additionally, if such courses were offered for credit within a degree program, financial aid could be applicable.  Test prep materials could be a target of OER (open educational resource) development, as well.  The financial playing field may never be level, but it need not be quite so steep a hill.

              The MCAT test itself costs $315 for a single administration, but the AMCAS Fee Assistance program reduces that and the costs of application significantly.  To qualify for Fee Assistance, a family of 4 in the contiguous US would need an income below $73,800; fortunately many applicants would be eligible for this assistance as it aligns with the upper end of the third economic quintile.  In such cases, cost is reduced to $125 and students receive access to preparation materials and other support.

The cost of application can also be a barrier.  Again, the Fee Assistance program is a major help.

AMCAS supports free application in the case of need for up to 20 medical schools, a $930 value.  AMCAS estimates that 15 is the average number of schools to which students apply, so Fee Assistance provides good support for the average student.  But, applicants are applying to many more schools if they hope for a selective placement, often 30 or more.  An application costs about $100 for each school…so a marginal cost of $1000 would be a big bite for low income families, many of whom have an EFC (Expected Family Contribution) of $0 per year.  AMCAS and schools could support more applications, or free applications, for low income students or perhaps offer more free applications to applicants with higher GPA or MCAT scores that might be more competitive at selective schools.  Additionally, medical school application costs could become eligible for aid or loans from the federal government.

The next step in medical school application is secondary screening.  Typically, medical schools charge $0-200 to submit a secondary application that provide some supplementary information about the student.  A common charge would be $75.  Surprisingly, few medical schools screen primary applicants very stringently before collecting secondary applications.  Therefore, most students must pay the secondary to have their application considered in any detail.  Though many schools will waive the secondary fees for those who qualify for Fee Assistance, this could be a barrier, particularly if seeking a selective placement.  Medical schools could simply be more selective based on primary applications, or consider adding the information they feel they need from secondary applications to the standard AMCAS primary application to eliminate this step and associated charges.

Our student has now reached the most exciting and potentially most expensive stage of the process:  the interview.  Students generally get short notice of interviews, meaning they must schedule travel immediately, often expensively.  Though many students will interview and attend in-state medical schools that pose lower travel costs, some students-perhaps especially those seeking placement in very selective schools- will need to travel.  Many schools support the visit by offering that students can stay with a host student, but airfare, hotel and meals could be prohibitive for many students.  Interviews would be more convenient and much less expensive if conducted as video interviews.  This stage could probably replace the evaluative portion of the interview, though a visit for an admitted student who is choosing placement is likely to remain valuable to the applicant.

If the process continues with in-person interviews, a problem for some students  is the expected dress-suit and tie for men and women’s business suit.  Though professional appearance is important, cost could readily be reduced by asking that everyone dress in a business casual fashion (such as khakis and a polo).

Some aspects of the application and interview process could incorporate real or implicit biases based partly in applicant financial situation.  For example, many essays and applications ask for medically-relevant experiences like volunteering.  Many lower income students work while enrolled and do not have the luxury of volunteer time.  Some students lack the health insurance or personal contacts that have become more important in securing shadowing experiences to demonstrate a motivation for medicine.  Essays on applications often speak to experiences like a parent being a physician, a sibling… a preference for which could perpetuate the profession from “legacies” rather than drawing our new physicians from the general population of intellectually and emotionally qualified students.  Many lower income, first-generation families and their students are simply daunted by processes unfamiliar to them, such as college application or completion of FAFSA forms, that are central to success for lower income students.

Liz Bryant, the University of Idaho’s Premedical Advisor directed me to a more personal perspective.  Liz was immediately familiar with each of these difficulties and said that numerous students contacted her each year for advice and help.  I spoke with Megan Schlusser, a recent University of Idaho student, Pell Grant eligible, who will matriculate into our WWAMI program in summer 2019.  Megan is a first generation student, who received fee assistance.  Megan enrolled in a $900 MCAT prep course; multiple family members chipped in to make this happen.  Fee assistance enabled her to apply to the 10 medical schools she felt would offer her the best chance of acceptance.  Megan received multiple interviews, but travel was a very difficult barrier for her.  She laughed when I asked about a business suit-saying she is the first in her family to own one, and that she had to ask Liz what to buy and where to shop.  Megan felt very conscious of clothing and status on her interviews.  And, like many students, Megan worked throughout college and had limited time to shadow or volunteer.  Fortunately, she landed a job as a medical scribe in her senior year.  As our conversation evolved, Megan had clearly just accepted these difficulties and surmounted them, not considering how barriers could be lowered.  But, as we discussed alternatives, such as video interviews or business casual dress, she quickly realized that the world does not have to accommodate the wealthy at the expense of the poor.  Megan, of course, is a lucky and plucky survivor, but how many other students don’t succeed or persist?

Medical schools, prospective medical students, and the public of the United States share the goal of ensuring access to the medical profession for the best doctors.  Let’s examine each step of that pathway to ensure success depends on those qualifications rather than the financial resources of the applicants.

chuckstaben Athletics, Uncategorized

Athletic Program Goals and Expenses

              Intercollegiate athletics is almost unique to American higher education.  Few programs at most universities, particularly those in NCAA Division I, are as visible as our athletic programs.  At a personal level, my decision to move the University of Idaho football team from the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) to Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) was one of the most visible decisions that I made as president.  This move has been interpreted by many as a downgrade to our program due to my lack of interest in sport; in fact, I feel that intercollegiate sports has an important role at our University and that expanding our programs selectively could confer considerable benefit.

Although the value of intercollegiate athletics to the mission of universities is passionately debated, and universities face decisions about whether to invest in athletics, decrease expenditures, add or discontinue sports, change conference affiliation, or invest in facilities, few general principles have been described to guide decisions for boards and presidents.  A complete accounting of revenues and costs, as well as a consideration of intangible benefits would at least form a basis for this discussion.  The major point that I wish to make in this article is that while discussion of Athletics often focuses on operating expenses and revenues, these are only part of the discussion.

              Athletics programs vary greatly in terms of size, costs, and benefits.  The NCAA oversees 1102 athletic programs, spread fairly evenly among Divisions I, II, and III. The greatest contrast is between Division 1 and Division III.  Division I programs, on which I will focus, represent 32% of all programs.  Median undergraduate enrollment is just under 10,000 and about 1 in 25 students is a student athlete in Division I.  The median Division III school enrolls just over 1700 undergraduates, but 1 in 6 students is an athlete.  Revenues and costs vary greatly, even within Division I.  In 2016-17, for example, USA Today reported that for public schools in Division I that must report such data, the University of Texas topped the revenue list at $215 million and the expense list at $207 million.  The lowest expenditure reported was Mississippi Valley State just over $4 million.  In this article, I will focus on the bulk of programs in which generated revenues from athletics are lower than operating expenses, with some general comments applicable to all athletics programs.

              Student athletes may enjoy both tangible and intangible benefits from participation.  A very small minority of student athletes will go professional (1.2% in Men’s basketball and 1.6% in football) and enjoy large salaries.  Many student athletes in Division I benefit from athletic scholarships-over 3000 athletes in FBS football each year, about 4000 in each men’s and women’s basketball, for example.  Athletes, particularly in Division I, have Federal graduation rates 2% higher than the general student body.  Black student athlete graduation rates are 15 percentage points higher for males; 19 percentage points higher for females.  These rates may reflect academic and other support that athletes receive, but certainly constitute a tangible academic benefit.  Student athletes also belong to a team, a multi-age cohort.  And, athletes benefit from close adult supervision by coaches, as well as training and nutrition advice.  Student athletes may also benefit from publicity or notoriety on campus, though they are also more subject to public scrutiny than most other members of the student body.

              Universities also enjoy intangible benefits from their athletic programs.  Most obvious is the publicity accruing to a successful program.  The “Flutie Effect” describes the rise in applications and gifts that can accrue to a school with a successful athletic program.  Named for the rise in applications seen by Boston College after Doug Flutie’s “Hail Mary” pass defeated the national champion University of Miami, this effect is more generally seen by schools that place a team in March Madness.  Gonzaga University is the classic, moving from struggling with enrollment prior to their 1998 success in the NCAA tournament to record enrollments with new facilities paid for by donations after their run of entries in the NCAA tournament.  An article by Silverthorne in Forbes indicates that either basketball or football success may benefit a school; but that sustained effects in football are more likely in Power 5 conferences than in lesser football conferences.  Participants in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, according to a 2009 study, typically saw a 1% increase in applications the following year.  Even modest Division I programs, like the University of Idaho, enjoy routine mention in the local sports papers.  Athletics is often a key to alumni engagement, which is difficult to value.  Though donations directly in support of Athletics may only be a small part of university advancement (about 5% at the University of Idaho), many alumni and donors are aware of the athletics program.  Another benefit often overlooked is that Athletic Departments are typically among the most diverse parts of campus; if these programs were viewed as diversity programs, they would often be the most successful on campus in terms of student retention and graduation.

              Intangible benefits or those difficult to value should not be ignored as we shift attention to revenues and expenses that can be calculated more clearly.  Athletics program revenues are usually classified into generated revenues and institutional support (or allocated revenues in NCAA parlance).  A component of institutional revenue that is often ignored in value calculations is the tuition revenue from student athletes who attend a particular university in order to compete and who do not receive full scholarships.  After examining the major revenue and expense categories, we will return to a more detailed examination of institutional tuition revenue.

Generated revenues include TV contracts, game guarantees, conference revenue, NCAA payments, direct donations and ticket sales.  Usually these categories are easy to allocate to Athletics, and even to specific sports-such as a TV contract for football.  These revenues vary tremendously within Division I.  The most comprehensive data on revenues and expenses is that in the NCAA report (http://www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads/D1REVEXP2015.pdf) , though these are not listed by individual university.  The USA Today report cited previously indicates that only about 20 programs generate revenues greater than reported operating expenses.  Typical Division I programs like Idaho supplement their generated revenues with institutional support, called allocated revenues.  Although allocated revenues represented only 28% of the overall total funding in Division I, for non-Power 5 teams this jumps to over 62% (University of Idaho is fairly typical at 55.99%).

Operating expenses include sport-specific items like coach salaries or travel as well as more general expenses like the Athletics Director and staff salaries.  In the university world, these might often be called direct and indirect costs.  I have not been able to find detailed information, but it is likely that indirect expenses are a larger portion of expense in more modest programs; the high salaries of prominent football or basketball coaching staffs can swamp almost all other expenses in very prominent programs.  Often, facilities expenses themselves are not included in these calculations unless they are directly attributable.  For example, at our university, there is no charge for the use of the swimming pool or the basketball court, though there are charges for moving bleachers for specific game setups.  There is little standardization in how facility expenses are calculated, but in most cases it is likely that expenses are underestimated.  A 2003 NCAA report concluded that the primary expense of capital stock in Athletics programs was facility replacement.  The major driver of this cost in Division I was the capacity of the football stadium.  In larger universities, this cost was, at that time, nearly the same as all other operating costs in toto.  A part of this cost is often borne by donors during capital campaigns, but usually some of the cost is shared by the University.  For example, the University of Washington recently completed a $280 million football stadium renovation for which UW hoped donors would provide $50M.  The roughly $250M loan needed to undertake projects like this probably adds about $10 million yearly to athletics expenditures that is sometimes only indirectly accounted for.

              For most of the 351 Division I programs and the hundreds of other NCAA and NAIA athletics programs, the gap between generated revenues and allocated expenses is filled with institutional support.  This institutional support can be in the form of student fees, tuition, or government appropriation in the case of public universities.  And, for the non-Power 5 conferences, that institutional support averages over 60% of all revenue.

The sensitivity of using student funds to support Athletics motivates concern about overexpenditure on Athletics.  Faculty most often see this as an emotional issue, “wasting” money on Athletics.  Boards and the taxpaying public should be primarily concerned about how Athletic costs are borne by the overall student body, and whether there is a way to optimize tangible and intangible benefits while minimizing the costs that might increase tuition, for example.

At several universities, including all public universities in Idaho, institutional support is limited by an athletics cap.  Other universities, such as Eastern Michigan University and the University of New Mexico, have proposed to cut sports programs to reduce Athletics budgets.  The most common Athletic budget strategy seems to be small incremental increases, often while observing conference norms in expenditures.  And, a few universities, primarily in the Power 5 football conferences, have opted for an “All-in” strategy.  How can presidents and boards overseeing the bulk of Division I programs guide their programs to optimize benefit and minimize institutional cost?

The general philosophy of setting an athletics cap is to set the cost of athletics that is borne by all students at an appropriate level.  Caps are set in a variety of ways, and caps are inflated or adjusted in quite a variety of ways.  For example, in Idaho caps were set more than 20 years ago, apparently at the institutional support level then in place.  Caps in Idaho were adjusted first to ensure gender equity in spending, and have been inflated by the percentage that state employee salaries have grown.  Of course, defining an appropriate cap and inflator is the core of the difficulty.

Due to our expenditure patterns and our athletics caps, the University of Idaho found itself in violation of the cap, which we refer to as being in an athletic deficit situation.  Though we have been striving to increase Athletics revenue, primarily in the form of increasing donations, we have found our generated revenue quite stagnant.  Therefore, to eliminate our deficit and conform to our cap, our only viable alternative appeared to be to cut expenditures.  This motivated us to examine several strategies, including sports elimination.

To inform our consideration of our Athletics caps and possible sports elimination, the University of Idaho undertook a detailed examination of our overall Athletics revenues and expenses.  We calculated the sport-specific expenses and revenues for each of the 16 sports we offer (consolidating track and cross country programs as these programs share coaches and athletes at our university.)  We also calculated general expenses and revenues, and allocated them by a simple athlete headcount method.  The detailed results are available below.

In each sport, we ignored the cost of scholarships as this was an internal cost transfer.  We did, however, also calculate the tuition revenue that students receiving partial scholarships or who walked on to the team paid to the University.  Though a small number of student athletes might attend the UI even if we did not offer their sport, we believe that more than 90% of our student athletes selected UI in a competitive academic/athletic recruiting situation because they could participate in their sport here.  We make the simplifying assumption that the tuition revenue from all non-scholarship or partial scholarship athletes has been brought to the university by participation in athletics.

In this light, universities can view “nonrevenue” sports as strategic enrollment management programs.  In fact, this is clearly the way that most Division III programs view their athletics programs.  And, perhaps surprisingly,” nonrevenue” sports, for less prominent sports programs like UI, are actually those that generate the greatest revenue.  Although from this perspective, football is essentially break-even at UI; headcount sports like MBB, WBB, and WVB are major loss leaders, required for participation in Division I and our Big Sky Conference.

We did examine cutting sports.  Given a network of intersecting requirements including Title IX, NCAA regulations and Big Sky Conference rules, our options were very restricted.  The scenario we presented to our Board was the elimination of women’s soccer, women’s swimming, and men’s golf with the addition of sand volleyball.  Sports elimination was extremely unpopular and our Board ultimately granted us the financial flexibility to re-examine the situation.

These sport eliminations would have decreased our tuition revenue and actually increased the average cost of education for non student athletes by decreasing total available resources.  We suspect that cutting non-headcount sports at other universities may actually lead to similar issues.  Eastern Illinois University, after examining sports elimination, decided not to do so; the University of New Mexico recently made a different decision and plans to eliminate 4 sports generating a good deal of negative publicity.

How, then, can a university determine the overall cost of its sports programs and choose an appropriate program level that aligns with its mission?  First, one must recognize that universities approach these decisions from a historical context.  In general, if a university has a stable conference affiliation with a presence in its traditional media and student markets, it is likely that the university should maintain that presence, which will also maintain the bulk of the intangible benefits the university receives from publicity as well as the benefits that the student athletes receive.  The university should calculate the full costs and benefits of at least generated revenues, institutional support, direct and indirect costs, as well as non-scholarship student-athlete generated revenues.  We advocate that the university simply calculate whether it has more or less  general education funds per student under any proposed program than it currently has. .  Another means of monitoring this is in terms of overall per capita cost to non-student athletes:  the Athletics institutional support/student. If changing the sports program in a significant way would alter these financial attributes, one must be sure that the intangible benefits to the university will be significant.

Can universities optimize costs and revenues within existing Athletics programs to achieve a better result?  In general, for institutions like the University of Idaho with a presence in an established regional conference, I believe that the key is to invest sufficiently in revenue sports to ensure a winning program.  The university goal should be to appear regularly in FCS football championships and in NCAA basketball tournaments by competing successfully in the Big Sky.  In other sports, the objective should be winning programs but with a hybrid philosophy of competitiveness in the most visible sports and optimal enrollment management strategy in nonrevenue sports, with cost containment including minimizing athletic scholarships.  Coaches can be incentivized to recruit more academically-qualified athletes by encouraging athletes with the academic scholarships that any student would receive.  This holistic revenue approach can actually incentivize the addition of sports, though this would be limited under a cap policy. This is the primary reason that I think cap policies are unsophisticated ways of managing athletics budgets.

And, while considering Title IX considerations, the University has many opportunities to recruit students in additional sports with minimal scholarships and little marginal facility or coaching costs.  For example, Northwest athletes would flock to a men’s swimming team at the University of Idaho (the only Division I program in the Northwest currently is Seattle University), with the addition of modest coaching and no new facilities.  Youth teams are typically coeducational, as are many college teams.  Of course, one would have to add women’s sports under this scenario to ensure equitable opportunities.  Increasing Athletic programming can help sustain sports like swimming, provide wholesome opportunities for athletes to continue their careers in college, and attract students to our universities, though such an approach might pose competitive challenges to some Division III programs.

Athletics-funding-and-spending

chuckstaben On being a president, Uncategorized

Board Governance 101

Know thy governing structure; they vary quite a bit.  Once you’re familiar with the position you’ve found yourself in, you need to cultivate a model that serves the university and your needs, whatever structure you have inherited.  

If you are an experienced president, you may want to skip this post, unless you want to fantasize about what life might be like under a different board structure.  My experience as Provost at the University of South Dakota and as President of the University of Idaho was with a system board.

Every university has some sort of governing board, but they all range in structure, mission, and operation.  Three structures are probably the most common:

  • A university governed by a self-nominating board:  This structure is very typical of private universities.  Board members are often alumni – often donors – but always people interested and invested in the university, usually very accomplished in business, government, or academia.  An advantage of such boards is that they are frequently advocacy boards, meaning that their prime interest is helping the president ensure the success of the college.
  • A university governed by a government-appointed board:  This is a common structure for public universities. Board members may serve because of their position in government, be elected, or be appointed by the governor or the legislature.  Again, members are typically accomplished in business, government, or academia. These boards can unfortunately – and unsurprisingly – be political. Like the self-nominating board, in most instances the primary focus of board members is helping the university succeed, though in this particular scenario that idea of success is often colored by a specific political perspective.
  • A university system governed by one system board:  The most obvious examples are state systems, but there can be systems governed by a religious or business entity.  The most extreme version of a state system is Idaho in which all of public education, K20, is governed by one board.  More common are systems in which higher education is one system and K12 is governed separately. The advantage of system boards is that they can take a very systematic look at the needs of a state; the disadvantage is that these are typically governance rather than advocacy boards.  Presidents may need advocacy help from some supplementary board. Systems usually employ a system officer or executive director and staff to oversee daily operations of the system.

The Board ideally sets priorities, general direction, and hires a president who can execute.  The most important decision that a Board is likely to make will be whom they hire as president.  The Board will decide whether to renew the president’s contract and can help a president set and achieve priorities, so this is definitely a “managing up” situation.

Ultimately, Board relations led to the end of my presidency, so perhaps I can retrospectively give a few pointers on challenges.  Be sure to align your presidential priority with the Board priority. Speak to them frequently about that priority, sharing at least monthly the progress you have made and engaging them for assistance wherever possible.  In my own case, I feel that while I kept the Board informed, I did so too infrequently and with too little positive detail; when you have infrequent communication the tendency is to highlight what needs work rather than what’s going well or improving.  In hindsight, I think all Board members may not be able to separate the daily challenges they have entrusted to you from the bigger picture; they may see small irritations like constituents who resent a tuition increase more readily than they perceive a need to support the university, for example. In many public institutions, Board meetings are highly regulated by public meeting laws. Incredibly, these laws have probably driven significant debate and question underground rather than brought them to light; in my experience many Board meetings are formulaic and not impactful.  The Executive Director in such a situation can be a powerful ally in communicating with the Board; this relationship is worth cultivation.

If you find yourself with a system Board, I recommend that you not only cultivate the Board but also seek powerful advocates elsewhere in a structured Board.  This may be, in some cases, a foundation board that oversees your endowment and is usually composed of accomplished alumni who might otherwise serve on a one-institution board.  If that body does not align with your needs, simply constitute an advisory board of your own. I found interacting with 8-10 influential and intelligent, yet independent people one of the most valuable interactions of my presidency.  I expected more difficulty positioning this advisory board relative to the existing foundation board and state board; in the end there was, unfortunately, remarkably little interest in the workings of this advisory board by other boards or interested parties like faculty.

chuckstaben On being a president, Uncategorized

Presidential Communication

Now that you have established your presidential priority, how do you communicate about it and about the myriad other issues that arise?  I think most freshman presidents will find that communication is a much bigger part of the job than they anticipated. Communication will have multiple objectives, and therefore be multimodal, but it must build your leadership persona and emphasize your priority.

This post will focus on getting one’s message out. The first thing to note about getting one’s message out as a President is that communication is a two-way street; understand the “listening” part of each mode, recognize the opportunity for conversation, and consider means of more specific listening.

As a new president, you may for the firts time be overseeing a Marketing and Communications group.  Ideally, this group works closely with you and your Cabinet to determine the key messages, constituencies, and communications.  I was particularly fortunate to also have a Director for Executive Communications who worked one-on-one with me; smaller universities may not present that opportunity. Time spent with such people to ensure they understand your message and your voice is a valuable investment. Unsurprisingly, the clarity of your goals and mission with your team impacts the efficacy of it’s delivery. If you’re not equipped with your own marketing and communications team, consider whether you should make this investment. In any event, take a very conscious approach to communication.

Additionally, realize that many others speak on your behalf – from your Vice Presidents through department chairs or directors.  Ensure that they have the messages and voice that guarantees effective communication at all levels. In this post, however, we will be focusing specifically on presidential communication and the opportunities most likely to arise.

Public Speaking

  • Programmed Occasions:  Whatever the occasion, identify 1 to at most 3 objectives you wish to communicate and how best to send that message.  Though I am a data guy, I recognize that the most impactful message often involves a more personal narrative.  Is there an example of a student whose life was transformed, or a faculty member who modeled the behavior you wish to motivate that can demonstrate the point you wish to make?
    • Faculty meetings, Senate meetings, Staff Meetings: Craft specific, but consistent messages for each audience.  If you are comfortable with question-answer, these can also provide an element of listening and approachability. As you think about question and answer, be sure you are armed with a few stats and stories that make your main point. If your priority is student success, be sure you know your graduation and retention rates and perhaps those typical of peer universities.
    • State of the University Address:  If you don’t have one, start it and make it an all-inclusive, open event.  Understand that this is a general audience, and the message must be specific and impactful as well as informative.
    • Guest speaking:  Those Chamber of Commerce luncheons can be a bully pulpit for your message.  Think about how the community can engage with the university and help you achieve your goals.
  • Specific events (donor recognition, award ceremonies, welcomes, guest appearances):  You will be at the podium for many occasions. I always found it useful to have the program schedule and prepared remarks so that I did not forget donor names, achievements, etc.  Again, a narrative-perhaps about how the donor embodies something important like student success or community involvement can be a powerful way of illustrating your priority to an important audience.  The risk of prepared remarks is that they can be stiff and unproductive, so do be prepared to go off script if you are comfortable.  

Media Relations

  • Editorial Boards:  schedule at least a yearly meeting with each local editor and/or editorial board.
  • Interviews:  Prepare ahead of time, with talking points and probable questions, especially problematic ones. With this last note in mind, have pivots to use for difficult or unanticipated moments -remember that you don’t have to answer the reporter’s question directly, you can pivot to something else, like…”I think our focus should be on student success, and I’d like to note the 5% improvement in our retention rate…but more importantly the impact that the University’s education had on Ms. Smith, who is now a leader in our community due to her experience.
  • OpEds:  I only wrote about 10 OpEds during my 5 year presidency, and I think that I should have tried to do them quarterly;  start of the semester, before and after legislative sessions, to keep the University positively in the news at local and, ideally, national levels.

Direct Written Communications

  • University email, website:  Don’t expect that everyone reads emails from the President, but reserve this channel for critical commentary, policy announcements, etc.  Make official emails short, informative and, if necessary, refer to more extensive material on the website. You may find yourself commenting on the university’s budget situation or expressing your thoughts on freedom of speech.  Craft these messages carefully, recognizing that they will also go beyond the university community. For example, an email that I sent about freedom of speech and responsible communication was widely quoted on 4chan, a rather reactionary blog site. Moral of the story: when writing or speaking on behalf of the university, expect yourself to be taken out of context to best avoid miscommunication. As President of a university, use your title as a gentle reminder to communicate like a politician!
  • Blogging:  I wrote (with help from my Communications Director) a topical letter published every Friday (Friday Letter) to 60,000 members of the university community-primarily alumni.  This is an excellent opportunity to communicate your priorities because it is a more personal, less official update from the president. The frequency of the letter as well as the format of the correspondence allows one to use the power of narrative and example and to show your engagement on campus and awareness of events on campus from football to academic excellence.  A weekly post is a lot of work, but well worth the opportunity. Consider inviting guest authors from time to time to lessen the burden. We collected comments on these posts; several of the more informative and controversial posts received up to about 50 responses, that gave a sense of alumni concerns and allowed us to more effectively engage with our audience.

Social media

  • Facebook:  Lock down your personal Facebook page and share it only with friends and relatives.  The University almost certainly has a facebook presence; contributing to that may be easiest and wisest course of action.  Your own presidential page will be a good deal of work, and I am not sure it is worth it. I had about 1700 followers on a specific President Chuck Staben page by the end of my presidency.  I approved the postings from my media director, but I think they did not have the substance or information of a blog post nor the immediacy of Twitter. Facebook is passe among students, and probably does not build an audience quickly for most presidents.
  • Twitter:  Increasingly popular-even with the President of the United States!  I have always felt that Twitter trivialized policy discussion, but if used primarily to enhance approachability and engagement, I think this may be a good tool.  Again, only useful if you commit to it and post several times daily. President Santa Ono at the University of British Columbia is often held up as the best example of a Twitter user as president.

chuckstaben On being a president, Uncategorized

Presidential Priorities

Let’s begin this blog as you probably will begin your presidency:  identify your priorities and craft your primary messaging around them. You may have done this during the interview process. Discuss these with your Board and with your Cabinet.

Almost every university or college will have a mission statement.  The problem is that almost all of them fall into a couple of classes.  Large public research universities, particularly the land grant universities where I spent most of my career, almost always have three pillars:  transformative education, innovative research and scholarship, outreach and engagement to constituents.  Smaller universities will generally focus on the education mission.

Radically changing the mission is an uphill push, one I would undertake only with complete Board support and an indication that constituents-from faculty to staff to students-are thirsting for this.  Of course, if all is going well at your university, you can adopt the mission and simply try to improve.  And, in certain settings, you must honor all parts of this mission.  Talking to the faculty without engaging them on scholarship and research will simply lessen your credibility.

I think that the challenge of presidential leadership, and one that I did not understand as well as I should have until the final year of my presidency crystallized this issue for me, is to distill the mission into an important but actionable priority.  This priority should drive allocation of resources, generate institutional success, and align with Board and stakeholder objectives.  I cannot say what that priority will be for your university, but an example, one that I think most presidents should seriously considering adopting, may help you consider this issue.

The wonderful appeal of the classic movie,  “It’s a Wonderful Life”, is that opportunity that I had as a scientist to conduct an experiment and a control.  In real life, we only get to do the experiment.  As President at Idaho, I emphasized the tripartite mission of the University, and though I personally focused on student access and success, I spoke often of our research and engagement missions.  Unfortunately, I think this did not communicate to any audience-Board, students, faculty, staff, or donors that one priority that would truly move the University forward. 

If I had that magical “do-over”, my focus would be student success.  By student success, I mean recruiting and retaining students who enter the university and graduating them to great careers and great lives as citizens.  This priority is extremely difficult to debate or negate from any viewpoint.  Students retained in college pay tuition, the financial lifeblood of even public universities.  And, the success of students assists in recruitment of more and even better students, as well as attracts Board and legislative support. 

Georgia State University may be one of the best, and most recognized, examples of a university that has used this priority to radically improve-both the university and their service to their constituents.  Certainly other universities, such as the University of South Florida and the University of Central Florida have also benefited.

Of course, this focus makes most sense at a “mid-range” university that is graduating about 30-60% of its students; a university graduating >80% of its students will need another focus.  Other foci may be much more mission-specific or particular to an institution : meeting access needs of nontraditional students; educating for a critical industry; research supporting national needs.

Whatever your priority is, ensure that it drives your resource allocation and your messaging.  “We are making this investment to optimize student success.  This policy change will enhance our interactions with industry.”  You may need to adapt the message for a particular audience-as I have said, speaking to a faculty audience at a research university strictly about undergraduate student success will lessen your credibility.  But, every communication opportunity and every decision should be viewed in light of this presidential priority, at least until one can declare victory and simply sustain that mission while perhaps selecting the next objective.