Higher Ed Demographics Demand Connected Planning
By: Kim Fisher
If you watch the 1999 version of Anna and the King featuring Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-Fat, you’ll reach the pivotal scene where a hostile takeover is underway. (Watch the Director’s cut version with comments about how the film was made. You will learn so much about the complexities of filming it.)
The King’s brother says, “You said my instincts were good.” The enemy answers, “And what are they telling you?”
So higher ed financial leaders, I say the same. Your instincts are good. But what they are telling you? How are you turning your instincts into facts your institution can base decisions on? That’s the challenge we at Allitix are here to help you solve.
What Problems are you Trying to Solve or Anticipate?
The California State institutions are facing a predicament – “California has more eligible students for admission to the state’s public universities than those campuses have space for.” That’s an enviable problem from the perspective of many in higher education. But the implications are far-reaching, and unfortunately, affect Latino and Black students disproportionately. They hear how hard it is to get into the UC or CSU schools, so they don’t even apply.
Here we are entering 2022, and the legislature and governor’s office have committed to enrolling at least 20,000 more students by 2030 (8 years away) and the goal is for the legislature to ask for 30,000 more. Think about this. We have students eligible to attend state schools graduating today, but the goal is to up the numbers 8 years from now. One problem? Declines in state funding. That has been the ominous bell that has tolled for more than a decade. So where is the confidence that it will ever change or reverse course?
The Answer is Planning. Connected Planning.
Surely, California leaders knew this was coming. But here’s my question. How far ahead did they see this coming? (The Campaign for College Opportunity saw it in 2002 – almost 20 years ago.) And what did the conversations look like at that point? If you anticipate a surge in students, do you know the levers and drivers, the “if-then-elses” of your plan for a surge? How adeptly could the institutions define the issues they would be facing, the funding they would need to make it happen? There are consequences to the state as a whole if students don’t continue their education. That’s actually why the Campaign for College Opportunity exists – to provide a broad-based coalition of “organizations all working together to ensure that California’s next generation of students had the opportunity to attend college.”
The EdSource article makes it clear that there are smart leaders in California. These problems that higher education in the U.S needs to solve are not simple. As the article says, creating more capacity to admit students is “just one piece of the puzzle.” There are housing, financial aid and other non-tuition costs that must be considered.
It’s Time for a New Master Plan
California has a Master Plan for Higher Education that was developed in 1960. It’s time to revisit the master plan and ensure that every student eligible to go to college gets to college. That’s not simple but higher education is full of very smart people. Michele Siqueiros, president of the California-based campaign organization, outlined that “Institutions need to be able to plan,” she said. “They can’t hire faculty overnight to teach more courses, they can’t provide adequate and affordable housing overnight or build buildings overnight. How are we going to be strategic and intentional about expanding access and just as intentional and thoughtful about closing persistent inequities?”
At Allitix, we have outlined specific types of planning that higher education needs to prioritize. Things like Workforce Planning that Michele Siqueiros mentions above because faculty cannot be hired overnight. Or Academic Program Analysis because the programs that institutions offered years ago might not be the best choices for today’s students. And as the pandemic persists, many institutions are talking with us about Financial Impact and Scenario Planning. Learn more about all our recommended solutions here. And if you want to hear from a highly respected higher ed CFO, listen to Get started today with higher ed CFO, Rush Sherman at Spalding University, as he shares how he uses Connected Planning to “resource the university” and make it wildly successful.
Gartner has said that by the year 2024, 70% of all enterprise will be planning with extended planning and analysis or Connected Planning. 2022 is here. It’s time to get started and Allitix can help. We have a proven track record of helping institutions, city, state and county governments, hospitals and global companies turn their instincts into facts that drive decisions and arm CFOs with the ability to teach their leaders around them how to anticipate what is needed for success in the coming decade.