CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

December 10, 2004
 

TO:	The CMU Community
FROM:	Michael Rao
SUBJECT:	CMU Update 47

Happy holidays! I thought you might appreciate a final update for this semester.

Thank You for Your Help with Advocacy!

There are many indications that the Governor and Legislators are beginning to receive a significant number of letters advocating for more equitable per-student funding for CMU. If you have written your letter(s), thank you! If not, the university continues to need you to write letters of support to the Governor and her education staff and members of the Legislature who serve on the appropriations committees. Please write in support of equalizing funding on a per-student basis across the state’s public universities. To view important talking points that you may wish to include in your letter, please click on http://www.cmich.edu/govrelations/state-funding-tp.htm. More general information, including addresses for government officials, a sample letter that you may wish to consider, and other information can be accessed by clicking on http://www.cmich.edu/govrelations. Again, thank you for supporting Central Michigan University.

Board Chair Elected

Congratulations to Trustee John Kulhavi, who was elected Board chair at the December 2 meeting, to be effective in January. Trustee Kulhavi has expressed an interest in opportunities to interact with a range of organizations and programs at the university. Presentations by particular academic and administrative programs will be scheduled in conjunction with future Board of Trustees meetings. If you have ideas for program, faculty, or student presentations to be considered, please send them to president@cmich.edu.

National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) Results

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) annually assesses the extent to which undergraduate students are involved in educational practices empirically linked to high levels of learning and development. For a fourth consecutive year, CMU has participated in the NSSE study and survey results are available at: http://www.ires2.cmich.edu/Students/NSSE_2004_freq_dis.pdf.

While the university has documented improvement between 2001 and 2003, the 2004 results suggest a return to the 2001 level. The 2004 results indicate that while the university is engaging students in challenging intellectual pursuits and providing a supportive campus environment, our expectations are not being met. As a member of the university community, I am very concerned and disappointed about this decline. Certainly, it is antithetical to our shared initiatives to raise academic standards and increase academic expectations.

I urgently call upon all faculty, staff, and students to review these results, consider how the university may more effectively improve CMU’s academic profile (particularly in the context of the vision planning currently underway), and send your suggestions to aaffairs@cmich.edu before the close of this semester. We must address this now.

December Commencement

CMU’s fall semester concludes on December 18 with two commencement ceremonies in Rose Arena that include 2,785 prospective degree and certificate recipients. Each ceremony will feature a guest speaker. The 10 a.m. speaker is Rebecca Humphries, director of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources; the 2 p.m. speaker is Michael O’Donnell, founder and managing director of Protiviti, a leading international consulting firm.

Future of the Budget Review Advisory Committee

The Budget Review Advisory Committee (BRAC) is in a time of review and possible transition. Feedback from several constituencies, including academic senate leadership (chair and past chair), deans, and others who serve on the BRAC, is that the committee is not as useful as it once was given the environment of budget reductions in which we have had to operate in recent years. With the budget system of responsibility center management (RCM) put in place at CMU prior to my arrival, most of the budget is already allocated and there is not much room for further recommendations when there is no new revenue. Suggestions regarding BRAC have ranged from placing it on hiatus to eliminating it completely. I am interested in hearing other thoughts about the future of BRAC.

Whatever the final decision, I remain committed to gathering input into the budget process. Some ideas I have considered include asking colleges to hold budget forums (since RCM places budget responsibility within the colleges) and to sponsor a university-wide budget forum in the spring. These forums could review major portions of the budget and seek input related to priorities and spending. I would also continue to seek student input through meetings with SGA. If you have other ideas on how to gather input on budget matters, please send them to president@cmich.edu before January 31.

Department Meetings Providing Useful Information

This fall, Provost Storch and I have met with nearly half of the academic departments to discuss a range of issues, including the effect of the significant budget cuts that the university has experienced. While there are many other units with which to meet (including both academic and non-academic), these meetings have been very productive. The deep cuts were necessary given the substantial reduction in revenues from the state, and they have impacted the university significantly. I am just as frustrated with the cuts to the university as most of my colleagues seem. More visits are planned next semester and will include meetings with some administrative areas. I am planning to meet with as many areas as I can, knowing it will not be possible to meet with everyone.

ProfEd Update

As discussed in an earlier update, ProfEd, the university’s off campus program unit, was created this year by reorganizing the former College of Extended Learning (CEL). Interim Dean Terry Rawls reports that an accelerated pace of change has led to the implementation of a new organizational structure that implements several new functions, including call centers to aid in recruitment of prospective students and a new unit focused on working to bring new academic offerings to the market. Enrollments in CEL were projected to decline and did decline. The reorganization was directed toward meeting the challenges of intense competition and a rapidly changing environment, aiming to reverse the decline. This is important given that the university’s mission includes a focus on outreach to working professionals and also because the university currently receives more than $18 million in total revenues from off campus programs.

The College of Education and Human Services has worked hard to offer several new programs to off-campus students, including the Educational Specialist degree in Atlanta, the M.A. in Reading and Literacy in Traverse City, and soon will offer an online master’s degree in Educational Administration focused on charter school administration. New partners with which ProfEd is working include the United States Postal Service, Gordon Food Service, Henry Ford Healthcare and others. Finally, significant progress is being made in creating new models for cooperation between campus units and ProfEd. Terry Rawls expects to be able to share more about revenue sharing in the upcoming year.

Reminder of Energy Efficiency and Other Cost Saving Ideas

Please help conserve energy and save costs. Though seemingly repetitive and simplistic, I ask that you work diligently to turn off lights when not in use and adjust thermostats to 68 degrees in the winter and 76 degrees in the summer. Update 28 has a more complete list of suggested actions.

In addition to the energy saving suggestions included above, please help the university by reviewing and complying with the following cost-saving suggestions (previously mentioned in Update 39):