After a full year of 2030 strategic planning campus conversations – over coffee and lunch, during Town Hall sessions, through surveys and emails and listening sessions – seven core strategies have emerged as the driving forces behind the next decade of success at UCCS.
Communique will inform you weekly about each of the seven core strategies, which are not prioritized in any way. These updates will continue over the next three weeks, culminating in the next Town Hall on September 3, to which the entire campus community is invited.
This week, Communique will give an overview on intentional revenue viability. This core strategy working group was championed by Chuck Litchfield, vice chancellor for administration and finance. Elissa Unger, associate director of development, and Brooke Koenig Allen, program manager of processing for financial aid, served as team leads.
The names of the team members, all of whom volunteered for the working group, are provided here.
Intentional revenue viability
The charge of the fifth core strategy in the UCCS 2030 Strategic Plan: To expand revenue sources to strengthen financial sustainability and improve student affordability and access.
”UCCS will expand revenue sources to strengthen our financial sustainability and improve student affordability and access.”
Working group
After Chancellor Venkat Reddy’s Town Hall sessions in March, faculty, staff and students formed and joined working groups for each of the plan’s seven core strategies. Core strategy working groups were tasked with identifying the priorities, initiatives, anticipated outcomes and measures of success for each of the strategic themes.
Litchfield took charge of the core strategy working group, with Unger and Koenig Allen taking on roles as team leads. Faculty, staff and student volunteers rounded out the group.
According to Koenig Allen, “I jumped at the opportunity to be involved with the core strategy on revenue diversification and affordability. This core strategy is critical to student affordability and broader, untapped funding streams that are independent of tuition revenue and state funding.”
She continues, “UCCS is an asset to the Colorado Springs community, southern Colorado and the state. This core strategy addresses not only the long-term financial success of UCCS, but also the critical component of affordability to students and families. By pursuing these two points, our efforts are focused on ensuring that UCCS remains an asset for decades to come.”
Outcomes
By strengthening and expanding revenue sources, the core strategy working group envisions the following outcomes:
- Planning and implementation of incentive-based budget model.
- Cultivating, building and increasing strong, steady streams of revenue from a more diversified collection of sources.
- Improving student affordability and access within all student populations.
Measures of success
As the strategy moves into implementation, the core strategy working group will measure success by the following criteria:
- Implement an incentive-based budget model within three years.
- Decrease the percentage of education and general expenses budget funded by tuition.
- Increase institutional aid streams, measured by both dollars and head count.
- Increase the total share of budget provided by other sources.
Initiatives
To translate vision into practice, the core strategy working group recommends the following initiatives:
- Restructure tuition tables to an activity-based model.
- Commercialization of partnerships and undeveloped campus lands.
- Shared service agreements.
- Decreased cost to students through outside means, such as third-party payments, internships and new scholarship opportunities.
- Research funding that increases indirect cost recoveries and decreases base funding.
Next steps
With a draft strategy in place, there are limited opportunities for further refinement. Campus community members with thoughts on how to fine-tune the existing strategy are welcome to submit suggestions on the strategic plan website. They will be passed to the designated core strategy working group for review, and appropriate changes will made.
Faculty, staff and students will have additional opportunities to participate in the strategic planning process as teams tasked to each core strategy form in the fall semester. Continue to check the strategic plan website for updates.
Chancellor Venkat Reddy is grateful to the active participation of faculty, staff, students, alumni and community members in helping to shape the future of the UCCS campus.
Read additional deep dives:
Strategic Plan Deep Dive Week 1: Excellence in research and creative works
Strategic Plan Deep Dive Week 3: Learning, engagement and inclusive belonging
Strategic Plan Deep Dive Week 4: Optimization of capabilities
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