ESU pushes for improvement after audit
Friday, October 16, 2009
Looking for ways to improve the school’s efficiency, Emporia State University president Michael Lane addressed a group of staffers regarding the state’s recently-released legislative post audit report.
The report, covering the five school years from 2003 to 2007, is intended to find precisely how tax dollars are being spent in each of the state’s universities.
“We’re here to talk about opportunities we have to improve things as we move forward,” Lane said before highlighting specific issues the report brought to light.
One issue Lane addressed was the total cost of attendance at ESU compared to the state’s three other regional universities. The report showed that the cost of attending ESU had the highest percentage increase for in-state and out-of-state students from 2003 to 2007, going up from about $10,000 per year to over $13,000 per year.
ESU also showed the highest expenditure per FTE student among the regional universities. The average for regionals was $9,330; ESU’s expenditure per FTE student stood at $10,781.
Staffing levels per 1,000 at ESU also are the highest among the regionals, and also are high compared to the school’s out-of-state peers, the report found.
With the state’s schools already having to cut deeply into budgets and the possibility of further cuts due to revenue shortfalls, the report is important because it could show schools where they can work to become more efficient.
The committee offered some actions universities could take to become more efficient.
One suggestion ESU already is implementing is to cancel courses where enrollments are too low to justify the cost of the course.
“Last year the faculty senate adopted a low enrollment course policy,” Lane said.
Other suggestions were to combine small sections and to collaborate with other universities. ESU has programs in place to work with community colleges, and also offers pre-degree courses for students wanting to transfer to KU or K-State. The school also could increase its offering of online and distance courses and work to consolidate administrative functions.
Major expenses could be cut by reducing energy costs, an issue ESU is currently addressing with recent HVAC work at the William Allen White Library and the Science Hall. The upcoming Memorial Union renovation will help increase energy efficiency as well.
The biggest inefficiency on campus, Lane said, is in faculty reassigned time.
“There are a lot of things that we ask faculty members to do that in previous administrations they’ve decided that the best way to handle that is by reducing their teaching load by one class,” Lane said. “... There are a lot of kinds of things for which the reward over years has been indicated with reassigned time. ... Some of those things, we need to be looking at whether it needs to be done with reassigned time. We can put a stipend on that and pay somebody a little extra to do it.”
Reassigned time also is used for research, which Lane said will need to be closely monitored for outcomes to ensure the time is being used productively.
One difference between ESU and the other regional universities is the number of graduate students here, a situation not taken into account by the legislative post audit committee when figuring educational costs. At ESU, graduate students make up 24 percent of the student population, comparable to a larger university like Wichita State.
“What you’re seeing in this whole report is the changing world in which we’re living,” Lane said. “Legislators and governing boards are looking at a variety of issues related to the cost of higher education.”
Lane stressed that any changes that are made need to take into consideration that the quality of education cannot be lowered.
“We need to be looking at maintaining our quality first,” Lane said, “... We need to refocus so that we’re doing the greatest good for the greatest number. That’s what efficiency creates in the educational environment. That does not mean a reduction of quality. It may mean a reduction of options, but not a reduction in quality.”
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