At the start of the brainstorming session for revenues at the 2014 Planning Implementation Workshop, President Smatresk told participants that revenue was an essential foundation for growth.
“Revenue is critical to how we build on our success and achieve our dreams,” he said. “It’s not just about having more money flowing in, but also about cutting costs.”
During the discussions, several themes emerged as ways to strengthen UNT's revenue streams:
- Improve student and employee retention
- Better leverage summer school and online programs
- Strengthen public-private partnerships
- Build a stronger relationship with alumni so they are more engaged and give back to the university
Focusing on strategic enrollment management and academic programming emerged as the top priority, while other common themes included improving advancement, doing a better job of forecasting enrollment and developing overall budget efficiency.
“No more robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said Jason Simon, associate vice provost of Institutional Research and Effectiveness, referencing his group’s desire to examine the relationship between revenue centers and cost centers at the university.
At the end of the session, President Smatresk encapsulated the discussions, saying what he heard most frequently is that UNT needs to improve retention, more efficiently use its resources and eliminate bottlenecks.
“Everyone said something about better engaging alumni,” he said. “That clearly needs to be a focus.”
Workshop participants at 12 discussion tables outlined their Top 5 priorities for improving operations and infrastructure. All of those priorities were pulled together for participants to vote on the top priorities they would like to see UNT tackle.
Here are the top priorities in order of the highest to lowest vote getters:
- Recruit and retain undergraduate and graduate students; focus on timely graduation; emphasize summer school, certification programs, online courses and entrepreneurial programming
- Recruit and retain in areas that benefit from differential tuition (international, out-of-state, graduate students), developing targeted recruitment strategies to match capacity while building revenue
- Evaluate and add graduate programs based on ROI (return on investment)
- Create more programs such as Eagle Express and accelerated online programs to incentivize four-year graduation
- Expand and offer more graduate scholarships and faculty support to increase research opportunities and retain students
- Budget more efficiently by looking for ways to grow revenue and consolidate expenses across campus
- Improve purchasing efficiency in areas such as travel by encouraging changes in UNT System-imposed policies and procedures that cost more
- Reduce expenditures by tying cost cutting to outcomes and incentivizing savings
- Explore options for revenue opportunities
- Assign duties efficiently
- Consolidate and restructure programs and colleges based on ROI (return on investment)
- Provide incentives to departments/colleges to increase enrollment and shrink costs
- Restructure revenue models for online courses and summer school for more cost savings and efficiency
- Allow areas to roll budgets forward
- Decrease use of consultants and rely on our own expertise
- Eliminate “sacred cows,” pet projects that need to be put out to pasture
- Build a more professional advancement team and correct inadequacies
- Address capital campaign fundraising issues; develop a clear alumni base with long-term relationships; start making new friends; package gifts to be eligible for TRIP(Texas Research Incentive Program) funds
- Raise more money and increase endowment
- Professionalize and modernize advancement operations in areas such as stewardship advancement reporting
- Expand fundraising by building trust and engagement with alumni and other constituents
- Simplify the fundraising process and provide consistent leadership (Ex: A&M Centurion program)
- Develop public-private partnerships with business/industry (Fortune 500, DFW-specific)
- Align academic programs with targeted economic/industry needs
- Build alumni support and engagement
- Grow alumni participation and involvement and target new graduates
- Build alumni association membership and relationships through better programming, as well as Athletics and other events and organizations
- Incentivize innovation (academic venture capital) to leverage cultural and intellectual events to generate revenue; rely on business planning practices.
- Build support in the Legislature for adequate funding, pursue line-item funding.
- Hire senior faculty who would bring existing research funding and grants
- Leverage continuing education and improve efficiency/effectiveness of CALL (Center for Achievement and Lifelong Learning)
- Create more certification programs, summer camps, etc. for better outreach
- Develop stronger relationships with city, county and state for infrastructure improvements
The following priorities received one vote each:
- Leverage technology transfer, patents and commercialization in research
- Grow expenditures through faculty – STEM disciplines and high-quality faculty lead to better reputation and rankings
- Conduct accurate and timely enrollment forecasts to generate more SCH (semester credit hour) production
- Provide incentives to departments to increase SCH
- Examine the relationship between revenue generation and cost centers (facilities), outsource certain facilities’ functions.
- Develop and better use university-wide technology platforms for compliance, training and tracking