ESU President discusses budget, student retention
Michael Lane delivers spring 2008 general assembly address
By Russ Morgan (Contact)
Monday, January 12, 2009
Emporia State University President Mike Lane focused on budget cuts and the recruitment and retention of students at Monday afternoon’s Spring General Assembly.
Lane said the school has completed a plan to reduce the 2010 budget four percent, as requested by Governor Sibelius. This comes on top of a three percent reduction that was put in place for the 2009 budget.
In planning for the cuts, Lane said the seven percent total reductions amount to about $2.5 million. Approximately $1 million of that can be absorbed by centrally-funded services, with the balance being distributed to four entities: the president’s office, administration and fiscal affairs, student affairs and academic affairs.
According to Lane, a 4.2 percent cut was allocated to each school and college, with the specific amount for each department to be determined by the respective deans.
Lane said some of the centrally-funded cuts will involve leaving positions open, while the department cuts can take a variety of forms.
“Some of (the cuts) are areas that we will leave jobs open, either for a short term or a long term,” he said. “... Some of our departments have done it through the reduction of graduate assistants and student work as well.”
Lane also addressed the importance of attracting and retaining students at the university. In his address, he proposed the development of a plan and the creation of a University Retention Committee to work on retaining students.
“Assuming we can improve our recruitment and retention, we will improve our graduation rates, and isn’t that what it’s all about? Providing opportunities for our students?” he said.
At the forefront of the effort will be Jim Williams, recently promoted to associate provost for enrollment management.
Lane suggested the school set a goal of 75 percent retention. Using a model to estimate the amount of money those students would generate over the school’s current retention rate, Lane suggested that after three classes were admitted, the school would see an annual increase of over $400,000 for the budget.
“We need to work on improving keeping our freshman students coming back for their sophomore year” he said. “That’s an area where we are kind of average, and I don’t think average should be acceptable for Emporia State.”
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Posted by bobhornet (anonymous) on January 12, 2009 at 7:29 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Reducing the number of graduate assistants in departments is a horrible idea and a good way to kill graduate programs. But I am even more uncomfortable with equating greater student retention with more money. I fear that students at the Regents universities are becoming little more than money for the budget. We want to retain students to raise the bottom line, huh? That indirectly puts pressure on professors to pad grades so that students don't drop out. Retention is an essential goal, but not at the expense of academics and for the mere benefit of the bottom line.
And what's up with all this administrative reshuffling recently? I know that each president wants to reorganize and leave his/her mark, but some of this seems like nonsense. I wish Dr. Lane would focus on more important tasks like fighting for state dollars and increasing the visibility of the university in the state and region rather than constantly tinkering with organizational charts.
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