Convocation Remarks
Good Morning.
A couple of years ago as we were addressing some of the early budget cuts, I began to realize that we were witnessing more than just a temporary shortfall in State resources. The magnitude and duration of the unfolding economic challenges along with the changing attitudes about government services and related costs, convinced me that we in public higher education were witnessing a more far-reaching and probably permanent shift in our circumstances.
While discussing the potential impact of the at-that-time recently announced budget cuts with our academic deans and department heads, I told the group, somewhat jokingly, that our “cheese” had been moved.
By the looks on their faces, like some of you now, it was clear to me that some of them didn’t know what I was talking about. However, I’m sure some of you are familiar with the book, Who Moved My Cheese. Written by Spencer Johnson, who also authored The One-Minute Manager, Who Moved My Cheese is one of the all-time best selling small business books, with well over twenty million copies sold.
It’s a very short but powerful story, really a parable, about life in a maze. The characters who live in the maze grow very comfortable with their circumstances because day after day they find all of the cheese they want at the same convenient place in the maze.
To their dismay, one day they discover their cheese is gone, and turmoil ensues - the story is really about how the characters deal with change.
I’ve taken the liberty of borrowing a few lines from the book at the point in the story where the cheese goes missing ...
“What no cheese? No cheese? No Cheese? Who moved my cheese? It’s not fair! How could this have happened? It’s not right. It’s not the way it’s supposed to be.”
Day after day they keep going back to the same place in the maze where the cheese had always been, and eventually the following exchange between the main characters takes place....
“Things are changing around here - maybe we need to change and do some things differently.”
“Why should we change? We’re special. We didn’t cause this problem - somebody else did this. This sort of thing should not happen to us. Or if it does, we should at least get some benefits.”
I am confident that we have all had our moments over the last couple of years when we reacted to the budget cuts and resulting changes very much like these characters reacted to the loss of their cheese. I certainly have at times felt angry and frustrated, sometimes abandoned and deserted - and sometimes afraid of the change unfolding around us.
Of course, even if you haven’t read the book, you could probably predict that one of the characters finally comes to accept change, the loss of cheese, and ventures forth into the maze in search of new cheese. Ultimately, he finds an even better source of cheese, and along the way has learned some valuable lessons.
I believe the most important lesson - and it certainly applies to me, is that change has to be confronted and dealt with head on. Things are not going to return to the way they were - no one is going to just put our cheese back where it was before. We have to accept reality and directly address the resulting changes.
Obviously, we have been through a challenging couple of years - for our institution and for all of us as members of the Southeastern family.
Dramatic, and sometimes abrupt, reductions in operating resources have left a mark on all of us. The budget cuts precipitated many hard decisions - layoffs, furloughs, no raises, program eliminations and widespread reductions in operating resources. These decisions were extremely difficult for me and other members of the administration to make, and sometimes very hard for many members of our Southeastern family to understand and accept. But unfortunately, drastic events sometimes require drastic measures.
Today, we begin a new academic year with financial circumstances that thankfully are much better than might have been.
Despite a very difficult budget year for our State, I am pleased to report that additional budget reductions of the projected catastrophic magnitude did not occur. Through the efforts of our Governor, his Administration and the Legislature, additional significant reductions to higher education, including Southeastern, were averted.
We have several members of our legislative delegation with us this morning, and I would like to thank them for their hard work and service through a very difficult legislative session, and for their ongoing strong support of Southeastern - we certainly hope it will continue.
So what does this year’s budget news really mean for us? It is an extremely important opportunity - an opportunity for us to re-direct our energy from merely reacting to budget cuts to instead developing and implementing new strategies and plans that will help us meet our new performance goals; specifically, those of the LA GRAD Act.
As you well know, the GRAD Act Legislation links institutional autonomies, including tuition authority, to achievement of specific performance goals, which include:
- increasing the retention and graduation rates of our students
- partnering more closely with K-12 schools and community colleges, and
- aligning our academic programs more closely with regional workforce and economic development needs
Now let me be very clear about a couple of extremely important points:
First, meeting our GRAD Act performance goals in coming years remains critical. Both in terms of maintaining tuition authority and the performance component of the higher education funding formula, our future resources will be tied to achievement of our GRAD Act performance goals.
Second, while we are pleased that our net operating resources were not significantly reduced further in this new fiscal year, there certainly was no growth. As a result, in order to ensure that we continue making progress in meeting our performance goals we must continue to be smart and efficient in how we prioritize, allocate and utilize our financial and human resources.
In keeping with this, we have evolved our budget planning and resource allocation processes to prioritize initiatives and activities aligned with GRAD Act performance goals. In addition, we will ensure that faculty and staff evaluation processes are aligned with GRAD Act performance expectations.
Put simply, the GRAD Act ties our resources to our performance, and these types of changes are essential to ensure that we meet our performance goals. Like the characters in the book, we really have no choice but to continue to find new cheese by continuing to be more productive, efficient and accountable.
And in order for this to happen, every individual member of the Southeastern family and every single organizational unit must contribute to meeting these goals.
So what specifically are we as a university currently doing to ensure that we meet our performance expectations? While there are many initiatives being discussed, and there will be many more in the weeks and months to come, I want to mention three of the most significant that are already well under way.
First - increased admission standards. In fall 2010, we implemented the fourth increase in admission standards since the initial adoption in 2000.
As a result of enrolling more well-prepared students, we are projecting an increase in our retention rate, and we believe the higher standards will be a significant factor in realizing higher graduation rates in the future.
The second significant initiative is our new and rapidly growing partnership with Northshore Technical/Community College.
We piloted a program this past spring and summer where students who did not meet our new higher admission standards enrolled with Northshore to complete their developmental course work. The classes were taught on our campus with the students having access to our Library, student union and other facilities.
This program will grow significantly as our admission standards become more selective and Northshore transitions to offer a full array of community college services.
As their partner, Southeastern will work diligently to help Northshore grow and evolve. Their success is essential to ensure access to public post-secondary education in our area for students who are not ready to enroll at Southeastern, and to ensure an opportunity for these students to gain the ability to transfer into our baccalaureate programs.
The third significant initiative is our rapidly growing Early Start program. This fall we expect well over 2,000 students to pursue college-level credit through our partnerships with high schools across southeast Louisiana.
Students who earn college credit through Early Start can complete their college degrees more quickly. In addition, we gain an advantage in recruiting these students to enroll full time at Southeastern after they graduate from high school.
This is going to be a very busy year, but I am confident it holds much promise for Southeastern. I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to focusing on projects that advance the success of our institution rather than having to focus on what must be cut in order to balance our budget.
Despite the challenges - and changes - we have faced, our institution continues to enjoy many successes. I hope you noticed those depicted on the screen behind me as you entered the performance hall this morning.
These successes, along with the many others both large and small, reflect the hard work and dedication of our faculty, staff and students.
Although a little bruised and battered from the last couple of years, Southeastern remains a great university with a beautiful campus and many caring faculty and staff who are committed to the success of our students. I hope each and every one of you has a productive and enjoyable year. GO LIONS!
-John Crain