BLUEPRINT FOR ACTION - Chicago business & financial news

MAY 2012

BLUEPRINT FOR ACTION

THE STRATEGIC PLAN OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE CHICAGO

May 22, 2012 Focus 2016: Blueprint for Action 1

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The Strategic Plan for Columbia College Chicago

Focus 2016: Blueprint for Action

Warrick L. Carter, President


Table of Contents�Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ 7

Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 9

Blueprint | Prioritization .............................................................................................. 11

Strategic Issues ............................................................................................................ 12

“One Columbia” Integrated Student Centered Learning ....................................... 12

Admissions Standards and Enrollment ................................................................... 14

Graduate Education ................................................................................................. 15

Tuition Pricing and Student Financial Aid ............................................................... 16

College Revenues ..................................................................................................... 17

Academic Instructional Programs ................................................................................... 20

School of Fine and Performing Arts ............................................................................ 21

Anchor Graphics ....................................................................................................... 22

Art + Design .............................................................................................................. 22

Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management ....................................................... 24

Dance ........................................................................................................................ 25

Dance Movement Therapy ....................................................................................... 26

Fashion Studies ........................................................................................................ 27

Fiction Writing ........................................................................................................... 28

Music ......................................................................................................................... 28

Photography .............................................................................................................. 29

Sherwood Conservatory ........................................................................................... 30

Theatre ...................................................................................................................... 31

School of Liberal Arts and Sciences ............................................................................ 32

American Sign Language/English Interpretation ................................................... 35

Creative Writing ........................................................................................................ 36

Education .................................................................................................................. 39

English ....................................................................................................................... 40

First-Year Seminar .................................................................................................... 40

Humanities, History, and Social Sciences .............................................................. 41

Science and Mathematics ....................................................................................... 42


School of Media Arts .................................................................................................... 43

Audio Arts + Acoustics .............................................................................................. 45

Columbia Chronicle and Echo Magazine ................................................................ 45

Film & Video .............................................................................................................. 46

Interdisciplinary Arts ................................................................................................. 48

Interactive Arts and Media ....................................................................................... 48

Journalism ................................................................................................................. 50

Marketing Communication....................................................................................... 51

Television and Radio [Internet Broadcast Media Production] ............................... 53

Academic Centers ............................................................................................................ 55

Office of Academic Research ...................................................................................... 56

Book and Paper Center ................................................................................................ 56

Center for Black Music Research ................................................................................ 56

Center for Community Arts Partnership ...................................................................... 57

Chicago Jazz Ensemble ................................................................................................ 57

Columbia College Chicago Press ................................................................................. 58

Dance Center ................................................................................................................ 59

The Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and

Media ............................................................................................................................ 59

Museum of Contemporary Photography ..................................................................... 60

Library ........................................................................................................................... 60

Institutional Support, Operations, and Organization ..................................................... 61

Office of the President and Board of Trustees/President’s Cabinet ........................ 61

Academic Affairs ........................................................................................................... 63

Business Affairs ............................................................................................................ 66

Budget ....................................................................................................................... 67

Information Technology ............................................................................................ 68

Payroll ........................................................................................................................ 69

Student Financial Services ...................................................................................... 69

Campus Environment ................................................................................................... 70


Space Planning and Utilization ................................................................................ 71

Facilities and Operations ......................................................................................... 72

Safety and Security ................................................................................................... 73

General Counsel ........................................................................................................... 73

Human Resources ........................................................................................................ 74

Institutional Advancement ........................................................................................... 75

Marketing .................................................................................................................. 75

Alumni Relations ....................................................................................................... 77

Fundraising ............................................................................................................... 78

Foundation and Government Grants ...................................................................... 78

Research, Evaluation, and Planning ........................................................................... 78

Student Affairs .............................................................................................................. 80

Enrollment Management ......................................................................................... 81

Graduate Office......................................................................................................... 83

Student Development/Student Health and Support/Student Life ....................... 83

Appendices ....................................................................................................................... 86

Appendix 1: Organizational Charts .............................................................................. 86

Appendix 2: Concept Maps .......................................................................................... 89

Appendix 3: Glossary .................................................................................................... 92


Acknowledgements Faculty, staff and students across the college participated in Blueprint |

Prioritization. Faculty and staff contributed to the Program Information Reports

(PIR’s) for their departments. At each level of recommendations, faculty, staff and

students provided valuable feedback. The Student Government Association

organized venues for student participation and for that reason the faculty, staff and

administrators give thanks to this group.

Two prioritization teams, nominated by their peers, undertook the massive and

demanding job of assessing and prioritizing all of the college’s degree programs,

academic centers and support and operations functions. Two other teams provided

support to the prioritization and to the departments.

The college gives a special thanks to these team members who volunteered so much

time and effort toward this process.

Academic Team

Shanita Akintonde, assoc. prof., Marketing Communication

Suzanne Blum Malley, assoc. prof., English

Jan Chindlund, director, Library

John Green, chair, Theatre

Darrell Jones, asst. prof., Dance

Terri Lonier, asst. prof., AEMM

Brian Marth, director, College Advising

Murphy Monroe, exec. director, Undergraduate Admissions

Larissa Mulholland, Sr. lecturer Michael Niederman, chair, Television

Betsy Odom, adjunct faculty, Art and Design

Dominic Pacyga, prof., HHSS

Don Smith, assoc. prof., Film and Video

Support and Operations Team

Donyiel Crocker, asst. to the assoc. VP of facilities and construction, Facilities and Operations

Dick Dunscomb, chair, Music

Mindy Faber, academic manager, IAM

Aldo Guzman, director, Student Engagement Marsha Heizer, director of applications services, IT

Abbie Kelley, director of communication, School of FPA

Eric May, assoc. prof., Fiction Writing

Nancy Rampson, director of development, Institutional Advancement Amy Stewart, assoc. director of undergraduate admissions/HSS, Undergraduate Admissions

Derrick Streater, training and development manager, Human Resources

Jennifer Waters, exec. director, Student Financial Services

Andrew Whatley, asst. dean for faculty advising and LAS initiatives, assoc. director of the honors program, School of LAS


Expert Resources Group

Peter Bouchard, space manager, Campus Environment Robert Dale, exec. director of institutional effectiveness, REP

Royal Dawson, asst. VP for planning and director of institutional research, REP

Maryam Fakouri, reference/instruction librarian, Library Elizabeth Herr, director, enrollment management research, Enrollment Management Jonathan Keiser, director of evaluation and assessment, Academic Affairs

Bernadette McMahon, assoc. VP and CIO, IT

Patricia Olalde, director, Human Resources Paula Scheiwe, director, Budget and Reporting

Communications Advisors

Diane Doyne, assoc. VP of public relations, marketing and advertising, Institutional Marketing

Kathy Jordan-Baker, web applications administrator, business processes, IT

Kristi Turnbaugh, director of communications, Institutional Advancement

Project Managers

Louise Love, VP for academic affairs/interim provost Anne Foley, VP of planning and compliance


Introduction In 2015, Columbia College Chicago will celebrate its 125th birthday – and we will have

a great deal to honor. During its history, our institution has never lost sight of our

founders’ belief that we should be student-focused and “stand for high ideals, for the

teaching of expression by methods truly educational [and] for the gospel of good

cheer.” Innovation in the visual, performing, media and communications arts truly

defines Columbia College, and our students experience this creative inventiveness

every day.

Like any college or university that plans for the future, Columbia College must

periodically assess its programs in depth. We must ensure that these programs reflect

current realities and that they are, indeed, innovative and will meet our graduates’

needs in their respective disciplines. Our programs must be technologically rich and

offer our students – whose careers will be much more global than those of their

predecessors at Columbia – inspired and productive pathways to future success. In

order to ensure our students’ success, we must develop and offer fresh programs that

capture and deliver tomorrow’s artistic and communication needs — and, yes, make

certain that they are fiscally viable.

So how do we continue developing and offering innovative programs that prepare

students to be leaders in the arts and media professions while bolstering our

institutional leadership position? In order to help the institution to continue to thrive,

the college created Focus 2016, our second-ever strategic plan, in 2010.

Focus 2016 is an ambitious endeavor. It is the roadmap that will help us strengthen

our academic offerings, rebuild and further diversify our enrollment, and ensure we do

all we strive to do — within the framework of current financial realities, fiscal

responsibility, resources and abilities.

Now, in May 2012, we are in the stage of Focus 2016 that provides the blueprint for

our path ahead. With any such plan, we must establish priorities.

Blueprint|Prioritization is the process specifically designed for us to assess, adjust,

and strengthen academic offerings and to recalibrate our financial oversight. The

process is essential to maintaining the vitality, longevity, and excellence of Columbia

College Chicago. During the previous stages of the process, our community

collaborated like never before to self-manage a comprehensive analysis of our

programs and operations.


As we now move toward the implementation phase of the process, we are fortunate to

have a veteran change agent and long-time Columbia trustee to oversee the

implementation of our priorities over the next two years (spanning the close of my

presidency and the arrival of a new president). Dr. Warren Chapman, currently vice

chancellor for external affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago, will join Columbia

on June 1 as senior vice president.

Understandably, our students, faculty, and staff are very much interested in (and

perhaps disquieted by) the uncertainties that a major strategic reappraisal such as this

can unleash. But, let me be very plain: We fully recognize the mission of our urban

institution to educate and encourage our students and graduates to author the culture

of their times. We will never harm that overall mission that we have spent nearly 125

years nourishing. As the academic prioritization team reminded us, now, more than

ever, we are One Columbia.

As you will read later in a following section, there are specific curricular and

administrative decisions as well as decisions and/or direction about some exceedingly

complex issues that need to be made in order to position the college for future

challenges. These decisions include admissions standards, tuition pricing and financial

aid, college revenues, graduate education, and the support of the centers. For some of

these areas, current and new policies need to be examined and developed. This

analysis will be conducted with the help of the interim provost, the vice presidents and,

where needed, special task forces. As with the academic and the support and

operations areas, additional review will take place within the context of supporting

enrollment, student learning, and financial strength.

In making these decisions, I have carefully considered Columbia’s best interests as

well as the community’s recommendations, concerns, feedback and PIR data, and I am

confident that the board of trustees will do the same with my decisions. We truly are

One Columbia and I hope you, too, will review and reflect upon these decisions with

Columbia’s best interests in mind.


Blueprint | Prioritization

The learning, enrollment, and finance objectives of Focus 2016 compelled the college

to identify its priorities. An approach developed by Robert C. Dickeson, a president

emeritus of the University of Northern Colorado and respected higher education

consultant, provided the methodology. Over the course of the fall 2011 and spring

2012 semesters, the college undertook a comprehensive evaluation of all of its

academic, research, and outreach programs, as well as all of its support and

operations functions, working from the methodology presented in Dr. Dickeson’s book,

Prioritizing Academic Programs and Services: Reallocating Resources to Achieve Strategic Balance. Faculty and staff across the college were engaged in all phases of

the project, as prioritization team members, as program information report

contributors, and through several in-person and online feedback venues.

Blueprint | Prioritization has unfolded in four main phases: design, information-

gathering, analysis, and decision-making. The process will continue into an

implementation phase. Two teams of faculty and staff members directed the first three

phases. Those teams, for example, identified the criteria for the college to use in

evaluating the programs, determined what information to gather, guided a series of

analyses that included the deans and vice presidents, and conducted the final analysis

from which I made my decisions. Throughout Blueprint, data, information about the

programs, and general information about the process was made available to faculty

and staff through the online portal, IRIS. This portal also published the

recommendations from the interim provost, deans, vice presidents, and the teams. A

similar group of materials was made available to students through the college’s

student portal, OASIS.

Twelve faculty members and 13 staff members served on the academic team and the

support and operations team. In order to make their recommendations, the teams

worked for hundreds of hours. Their hard work and leadership formed the core of the

Blueprint process.

The process began with a college-wide search to find qualified members of the

community to serve on two separate teams. Faculty and staff nominated colleagues to

be potential team members based upon criteria developed in consultation with faculty

leaders and staff managers. The consultants from Academic Strategy Partners gave us

technical support throughout the process. These consultants have worked with many

colleges, and they informed us that Columbia is their first client to engage the college

community directly in the selection process for team members. In fact, our selection

process was so community-oriented that the consultants asked our permission to write

a white paper on Columbia’s team selection experience to share with other clients.


As of this writing in mid-May 2012, Blueprint | Prioritization is heading towards the last

steps in the decision phase of the process. Between now and the end of June, I will

take feedback from the faculty, staff, and students. At the end of June, I will present my

final plan to the board of trustees for their endorsement, after which the college will

begin its journey towards accomplishing the goals of Focus 2016 and adopting the

“One Columbia” principles.

Strategic Issues

As mentioned in the introduction, Blueprint | Prioritization is the college’s first major

step towards accomplishing Columbia’s strategic objectives for learning, enrollment,

and finances: the three elements of Focus 2016. (The Focus 2016 concept maps

appear in Appendix 2 for reference.) The Blueprint process brought four strategic

issues to the forefront. Each of these interrelated issues ties back to learning,

enrollment, or financial strategies in Focus 2016, and we will address them together

as we move forward.

“One Columbia” Integrated Student Centered Learning

The opening paragraphs of Columbia’s vision of itself in 2016 express our aspirations

for the students and the institution, which as the academic team states is “a model of

sustainable excellence in arts and media education for the 21st century.” The vision

begins:

Looking back from fall 2016

Columbia College Chicago enjoys a well-established national, and growing international, reputation as a first-choice school for creative individuals preparing for a life and career in the arts, media, and communications. In these fields, the college offers multidisciplinary, technology infused programs of study aligned with cutting edge practices and emerging social values, for example in the area of environmental sustainability. Students pursue their creative passions in a student-centered learning community led by engaged faculty who exemplify contemporary practice and innovation in the arts, media, and communications.

Preparation for life and a career are inseparable concepts at Columbia. Active integration of learning in the arts and media with learning in the liberal arts and sciences is a hallmark of a Columbia education. Building a body of work that documents artistic, intellectual, and professional growth is at the heart of every student’s Columbia experience and is a signature element of Columbia’s educational brand. Students cultivate their body of work through a wide and varied range of curricular activities, many of which simulate the dynamic global environment of contemporary professional practice in the arts, media, and communications fields.


In their report, the academic team proposes a concrete and coherent pathway towards

improving student outcomes and accomplishing this vision, which they refer to as “One

Columbia.” One Columbia calls upon every faculty member, staff person, and unit to

act as stewards for the success of our students and for the future of the college.

Explaining the genesis of the “One Columbia” concept, the team states that the college

needs,

…an evolution in the philosophy and practice of leadership at every level of the college, with the college supporting and nourishing the schools and academic departments, who in turn are fully engaged in the recruitment, retention, education and graduation of our students.

And they prescribe,

… an extraordinarily collaborative leadership model [that] puts our promise to our students and an evaluation of how we deliver on that promise at the center of our thinking …a collaborative model [that] shifts from framing our schools, offices, departments and programs as separate entities with distinct goals to an understanding that we are ONE Columbia and that we succeed or fail together.

One Columbia is a powerful concept, and as the team observes it represents a

radical change in the college’s organizational culture. Given profound changes in

the environment in which we operate and an ethical imperative to improve

student success and retention, these are changes we must make. The college

will take up the team’s “One Columbia” recommendations in the implementation

of this plan. We will also take up recommendations from the team on specific

education practices including:

x Planning curriculum collaboratively; sharing and building together at the program,

department, and school levels; preventing duplication; getting rid of the credit-hour

land grab mentality that is still pervasive across the college;

x Using the prioritization process as a springboard for discussions of when and where

facilities and faculty can be shared;

x Examining curriculum, first year programs and advising practices to improve

persistence and success;

x Ensuring that all students can reasonably complete all programs in four years, i.e.,

eight semesters;

x Identifying potential areas for shared curriculum, and collaborating to create and

develop effective and coherent means for students to take advantage of that

sharing;

x Moving ahead purposefully on low residency, e-learning and similar program

options for students;

x Acknowledging effective collaborative efforts and best practices.


The magnitude and complexity of these changes gives us no choice but to move

forward as “One Columbia.”

Admissions Standards and Enrollment

The academic team recommends that the college adopt a more selective

undergraduate admissions policy and allow some undergraduate programs to limit

enrollment and to make admissions more selective. Speaking of college admissions

they state:

We [the college] need to reconsider our current “Generous Admissions Policy” and adopt a more selective policy for undergraduate admissions. Our current policy should be reconsidered to ensure that we are ethically and responsibly admitting and enrolling students who are not only academically able to succeed but also financially able to meet the demands of a college education. We believe this change in policy is necessary and will result in a student body that is more academically prepared to meet the expectations of Columbia’s academic programs and more likely to succeed, persist, and graduate.

At various times over the last two decades, Columbia has struggled to balance its

fundamental mission to extend educational opportunity on the one hand with its

ethical and educational responsibilities to admitted students on the other. In recent

years, the stakes for students and for the college have escalated. Nevertheless, in

responding to these pressures, the college must not lose sight of its core values or the

richness of a truly heterogeneous community of learners.

The last comprehensive examination of the college’s admissions policy took place

about 10 years ago. I will organize a research based re-examination and college-wide

discussion of this complex issue and the related question of enrollment size. In the

short run, the interim provost and the vice president of student affairs should consult

and propose changes to admissions practices, such as application deadlines, and

minor adjustments to admissions criteria that, in their judgment, will improve the

outcomes of generous admissions.

The admissions and enrollment research discussion will include the issue of selective

admissions and limited enrollment in some specialized undergraduate programs. If the

college pursues such an option, the programs must make a clear and viable distinction

between a BA option and the specialized degree, such as a BFA or BMus, and students

must be selected for entrance into the program after their second year of study.


Graduate Education

Off and on in recent years the college community has discussed the place of graduate

education at Columbia without reaching an actionable conclusion. Focus 2016, the

college’s strategic plan, gives some direction on this issue, and Blueprint |

Prioritization speaks to individual programs. Nevertheless, as an institution we still

cannot clearly and consistently answer the question, “What is the purpose of graduate

education at Columbia College Chicago?”

Therefore, I direct the interim provost to convene an ad hoc task force to propose a

policy statement on graduate education before the beginning of the spring 2013

semester and a graduate studies operational plan before the end of the fall 2013

semester. The policy statement must address how graduate education will advance the

mission; enrich undergraduate education; advance the college’s reputation; and

contribute to the college’s long-term institutional viability and financial sustainability.

Additionally, the policy statement should align with the Focus 2016 strategies for

graduate education, which are as follows:

Learning

x The college will deliver undergraduate and graduate programs well aligned with

contemporary practice and leading-edge trends in the arts, media, and

communications fields.

At the graduate level:

x The programs will integrate aesthetic, intellectual, and applied knowledge and skills

developed through individual and collaborative research and creative activities that

yield new knowledge and artistic perspectives.

x The programs will give graduates credentials for professional advancement and will

expand career and leadership opportunities for arts, media, and communications

practitioners, e.g., in the areas of management, education, or therapy.

Enrollment

x The college will moderately increase overall graduate enrollment based on market

opportunities, opportunities to build the college’s reputation, and the college’s

financial goal for graduate education.

x The college will limit enrollment in resource intensive programs and will manage

growth in less resource intensive programs.

x The college will strive to raise the profile of the applicant pools for all the graduate

programs.


Finances

x Positioning graduate education to reach and maintain budgetary break-even by

September 2015.

We will develop guidelines for the operational plan when the policy statement is

finished. In the policy statement, and the subsequent operational plan, the task force

should give particular attention to programs focused on career advancement with

potential as low-residency or online programs.

The task force membership will include: the deans of the three schools; two

chairpersons nominated by the Chairpersons’ Council from departments with graduate

programs; three faculty members nominated by the Faculty Senate from departments

with graduate programs; a member of the interim provost’s staff chosen by her; the

director of the Graduate Office; and the vice president of planning and compliance.

Tuition Pricing and Student Financial Aid

The entire college community is deeply concerned about student costs at Columbia as

well as across the country. The stakes of these costs for our students and for the

college are huge. Over the past few years, the college has significantly increased

institutional student aid and has worked with other institutions and higher education

organizations to increase, or at least maintain, state and federal financial aid.

Is the work that the college has done to increase student aid enough? Unfortunately,

costs to students are still high. Therefore, the college has a plan to increase aid levels

and will develop a plan to manage tuition rates. The college has also identified

scholarship funds as one of three objectives for the new major gift campaign.

Furthermore, I will convene a working group to consider alternative tuition pricing

models such as fixed four-year tuition rates and differential tuition increases for

entering and continuing students, as suggested by the academic team. The Student

Government Association specifically asks that the college consider a fixed-tuition

model. The problem of high student costs for attending college is a much larger social

and cultural issue, and the college cannot resolve the issue by itself. The college will

continue to join with other institutions to seek answers at the state and local level. I

encourage the whole community to stay informed on the trends shaping access to

college in the coming years.

Historically, Columbia kept tuition costs – the “book” price – low and provided

relatively low levels of institutional aid, or discounting, which is aid paid for from tuition

income or from endowed scholarship funds. (Unfortunately, Columbia has very limited

endowed scholarship resources.) For many years, Columbia’s “book” price remained

near or below the discounted price of peer institutions and, in general, students and

their families were able to pay for a Columbia education without accruing large debts.


Because institutions with higher discount rates typically must charge some portion of

their student population a higher “book” price to cover the cost of the aid, Columbia’s

low cost/low aid strategy allowed us, for many years, to keep our education affordable

for students within a wide range of family incomes. Secondarily, through this strategy,

Columbia avoided problems other colleges and universities encountered when they

overextended themselves on aid costs.

The college affordability picture was already changing when the recession hit in 2008.

The impact on students and on colleges escalated quickly after that. Columbia

responded decisively. Between fall 2007(fiscal year 2008) and fall 2011 (fiscal year

2012), the college increased the number of scholarships it awards from 870 to 2,900

and the amount it awarded from $5.2 million to $18.9 million. For fiscal year 2013, the

college plans to award 3,600 scholarships valued at $23.5 million. In addition to

scholarships, the college spends about $5.5 million annually on student employment.

Looking past fiscal year 2013, the college’s current multi-year budget plan anticipates

tuition increases in line with the Higher Education Price Index (HEPI), plus 1 percent

that the college will use to build institutional student financial aid up to 15 percent of

overall tuition income by 2018 (not including student employment). (Actual tuition

rates are set annually.) The plus 1 percent of tuition increase will provide enough

funding for institutional financial aid to approximately double the current amount of aid

the college awards. HEPI is a commonly used financial benchmark for the cost of

goods and services typically purchased by higher education institutions. The HEPI is

calculated annually by Commonfund Institute, which is a branch of Commonfund, a

nonprofit organization devoted to the management of college and university

endowments.

College Revenues

Focus 2016, the college’s strategic plan, acknowledges the factual reality that for the

foreseeable future, Columbia will rely predominantly on tuition and related fee income

to pay for its operating costs. Such practice is typical among private colleges and

universities.

The academic team exhorts the college to make improving retention and graduation

rates a priority. I wholeheartedly agree with this recommendation and I am sure that

the entire college community will continue to work toward this goal; the educational

and ethical imperatives for doing so are compelling.


I am less optimistic, however, about retention as a revenue strategy, which some have

suggested. In recent years, the college has increased the number of students who stay

in college and graduate, but retention rates have changed slowly and vary from class to

class. The overall financial impact of the college’s improved retention is important, but

modest.

Furthermore, the team suggests greater selectivity as one of several strategies to

address the issues tied to retention. As I discuss in another section of this plan, the

college needs to revisit its admissions standards and, in doing so, must consider many

issues. In the context of revenues, however, I caution that (at least in the short-term),

increased admissions selectivity would potentially reduce tuition revenue.

With all of these factors in mind, the administration has changed its multiyear budget

plans to include a small increase in revenue resulting from continued, incremental

increases in retention.

Focus 2016 sets very ambitious fundraising goals for scholarships, capital projects,

and to build the endowment, but for reasons discussed below, such fundraising will

have limited impact on funding for operating costs. (Operating costs refers to annual

expenditures to run the college, personnel, benefits, supplies, utilities, insurance, etc.)

In the discussion about prioritization, the academic team, the Faculty Senate, and

others have questioned why the administration and the board have not anticipated

accessing non-tuition based revenue for operating expenses. It is a good question, one

that I will try to answer. The short answer is that Columbia does not have predictable

access to revenue other than tuition that it can spend on annual operating costs. It is

not prudent, for example, to count on donations to cover salaries or the cost of running

our buildings.

The longer answer must consider three revenue sources: contributions, income from

the endowment, and other earned income. In thinking about each of these sources, it

is relevant to keep in mind that, although the college has existed for over 100 years, it

is only within the last 20 years that the college has actively pursued these revenue

sources, which sets us apart from many of our peer institutions that have been

developing such revenue streams for much longer.

Columbia recently completed its first ever major gift campaign which raised more than

$70 million over 4 years. Most of the money in this campaign came in for scholarships,

construction of the Media Production Center, or special projects. A modest amount was

raised for the endowment. None of the contributions were open-ended grants for

general expenses. Typically, donors do not contribute to general expenses.


Focus 2016 commits the board and the college to a second $100 million major gift

campaign to raise funds for scholarships, capital projects, and to build the endowment.

Toward that end, we have already begun an effort to raise money to build a new library

within the 800 S. Michigan Avenue building and to fund a scholarship in honor of John

and Eunice Johnson. I fully expect the college will meet the current $100 million goal,

and funds secured for scholarships and capital projects may give us choices to offset

expenses we would otherwise pay for with tuition revenue.

Regarding the endowment, the college has recovered all of the value the endowment

lost during the recession. Because Columbia’s endowment history is short, the value of

the endowment is about 33 percent of what it should be. Best practice in higher

education recommends an endowment equal to at least three years of operating

expenses. The value of the endowment in relation to operating expenses is a crucial

measure of an institution’s financial stability that affects our standing with government

and accrediting agencies and is a major factor in the college’s ability to borrow or raise

funds through bond issues.

On the other hand, allocating a percent of endowment income to annual operating

expenses is also a common practice in higher education. At present, the board has not

authorized using that income for two reasons. First, securing the college’s long term

financial stability is one of the board’s fundamental responsibilities. In doing so, they

must weigh the comparative risks and benefits of adding value to the endowment

versus funding near term expenses. Second, reinvesting rather than spending

endowment income positively affects the college’s current relationship with banks and

other financial institutions.

Colleges and universities often earn income from auxiliary operations and intellectual

property rights. In fact, Columbia derives a modest amount of earned income from

sources such as the bookstore and the cafés, which contributes to the operating

budget. The college breaks even on its largest auxiliary operation, the residence halls.

As for intellectual property, I have championed this cause throughout my tenure at

Columbia, and I hope the college keeps an eye out for future opportunities. In the near

term, however, I have reluctantly concluded the college is unlikely to earn an

appreciable income through intellectual property rights. The main problem is that the

areas in which we excel are not easily monetized.

Finally, Focus 2016 envisions launching an adult education program focused on career

development degrees or certificate programs for working adults. The college will

undertake this initiative with the intent to realize a profit within the first few years of

operation. Because detailed research and planning for adult education has not yet

begun, it is too early to anticipate income from such a venture.

Academic Instructional Programs


Academic Instructional Programs In my decision about the academic programs, I was informed by the recommendations

of the academic team and of the interim provost and deans. In addition, I referenced

the data and other information assembled through the PIR process. The academic

team employed a clear, evidence-based set of criteria for their evaluation and ranking

of the instructional programs. The team’s report and related materials, all of which are

posted on IRIS, document these criteria which are summarized on page six of the

report:

Academic Team Guiding Principles for Program Ranking

x Increasing graduation and retention rates;

x Effective collaboration (actual or potential);

x Efficient and effective use of resources;

x Clear connection between pedagogical intention, faculty expertise, facilities,

and current industry standards;

x Improving market attractiveness, positioning, and differentiation on program

level;

x Strong value to community (where community = world, society at large);

x Visible mission alignment in relation to:

o Real-world application;

o Enlightened liberal arts context;

o Clarity of a program’s mission and goals relative to the Columbia College

Chicago mission;

x Energizing vision and opportunities for the future.

I used these criteria in making my decisions and in many, but not all, cases I reached

the same conclusion as the team.


School of Fine and Performing Arts

The college will somewhat reduce resources for the Office of the Dean of Fine and

Performing Arts, but will give increased priority to developing facilities for the

performing arts.

The School of Fine and Performing Arts (FPA) has evolved into a well-organized unit. It

has developed new leaders across the school who are forging new directions for their

school and for the college. Departments such as Music, Theatre, Arts, Entertainment

and Media, Management, and Dance have redesigned curricula, increased enrollment,

launched innovative programs for freshmen, built cooperative relationships with other

departments, and led the implementation of the new faculty-advising system. The

curricular changes have reduced the number of required credits in many of the majors,

thereby making it possible for students to take electives in other areas and complete

their degrees in a timely manner. The school’s strategic plan establishes priorities and

a clear direction for the school and for each department.

Over the last several years, the Office of the Dean has grown significantly. The dean

explains that the office grew to centralize many functions previously carried out in the

departments. Although this seems to work effectively, the expense of running the

school office has increased substantially between 2005 and 2011. Given the college’s

overall position, this increase is disproportionate and the Office of the Dean will

decrease its base expenses accordingly.

The age and condition of Fine and Performing Arts’ facilities represent a major

challenge given enrollment trends in the school and the nature of its disciplines. The

college has begun to address this; for example, we have planned and completed

upgrades in the Art + Design facilities.

Nevertheless, work remains. The dean, the interim provost and academic team

highlight a particular concern with facilities for Dance, Music, and Theatre. In the past,

the college made it a priority to upgrade teaching, laboratory and office spaces for the

media arts. This resulted in the purchase of the 916 -1000 S. Wabash building and,

the 1104 S. Wabash building; the refurbishing of the 33 E. Congress building; and the

construction of the Media Production Center. Therefore, now I direct Campus

Environment to make teaching and performance spaces for Theatre and the other

performing arts a priority and ask Institutional Advancement to watch for fundraising

opportunities for the performing arts.


Lastly, departments in the School of FPA manage a number of galleries on campus that

exhibit student and faculty work. The academic team recommends that the college

consolidate the management of these programs and reduce resources for them

overall. I concur with these recommendations and direct the dean to develop a plan for

the consolidation of the galleries, including any now managed by Interdisciplinary Arts,

by the end of the fall 2012 term.

Anchor Graphics

The college will phase out Anchor Graphics. As the dean stated, “Anchor Graphics has

not been integrated into the curriculum sufficiently to warrant continuation in Art and

Design.” As valuable and important as the work done by Anchor Graphics may be, I

share the deans concern about the value the program adds to student learning.

Art + Design

The college will reorganize the current department of Art + Design into a Design

department and a Fine Arts department. The Fine Arts department will include the

programs that are currently in the Photography and Interdisciplinary Arts departments.

Several programs will be phased out or reconceived. In the implementation phase of

the prioritization, the dean and the interim provost will determine if the college should

maintain resources for this group of programs, or if the college can reduce

expenditures.

In the past, Art + Design was one of the college’s three largest departments. Now the

department is significantly smaller, partly because of the spinoff of the Fashion Design

program to a new department, but also as the result of declining enrollment in its other

programs. The dean and interim provost recommend a group of changes to revitalize

this area and to position the visual arts for enrollment growth. In addition to those

recommendations, the dean and interim provost recommend that these programs

must implement more transfer-friendly policies and practices. Current policies restrict

and discourage qualified transfers from attending Columbia.

Based upon the recommendation of the dean and the interim provost, the college will

reorganize Art + Design into two departments: Design and Fine Arts. The new Fine Arts

department will include Photography, Fine Arts (the existing Art + Design program), and

Art History. In addition, the graduate programs currently housed in the Interdisciplinary

Arts departments in the School of Media Arts will relocate to the new Fine Arts

department.


The new Design department will encompass Art + Design (the current Art + Design

program), Interior Design, Illustration, and Visual Communications. The dean and the

provost, in consultation with the faculty, will decide whether to phase out or integrate

Graphic Design, Advertising Art Direction, and Product Design into the new Visual

Communications degree.

As recommended by the dean, the school and departments will work toward a clear

differentiation between the BA and BFA degrees offered in these programs. As

described elsewhere in this plan, both the Fine Arts and the Design departments will

work with the Education and Arts Therapies departments on possible new degree

offerings.

President’s Rankings:

Major Art + Design BA combine/restructure resources

Major Illustration BFA combine/restructure resources

Minor Art History Minor combine/restructure resources

Major Fine Arts BFA combine/restructure resources

Major Interior Architecture BFA combine/restructure resources

Major Art History BA combine/restructure resources

Major Advertising Art Direction BFA combine/restructure resources

Major Graphic Design BFA combine/restructure resources

Major Product Design BFA combine/restructure resources


Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management

The college will continue all the current programs in Arts, Entertainment, and Media

Management (AEMM) and increase resources to the department. The department will

pursue two new collaborations: one with Marketing Communications and a second with

Film & Video.

Over the last two and half years, AEMM has transformed itself. The department is now

one of the most nimble, collaborative and student-centered departments in the college.

Since fall 2009, the department has restructured all its degree programs and

developed a new pedagogy. The Focus 2016 plan and a number of the Blueprint |

Prioritization documents speak of the value of business education for arts students

across the board. The dean notes that courses designed for non-majors are among the

innovations in the new AEMM curriculum.

I have identified two new initiatives for AEMM to pursue with colleagues in the School

of Media Arts. First, at my request, the dean of media arts will organize an ad hoc

committee to investigate a new master’s degree in the business of film and related

media. This degree would draw upon the expertise and resources of the Film & Video

department and AEMM. To our knowledge, the proposed Master’s of business in the

fine arts degree will be the first of its kind with strong enrollment potential and the

potential to expand Columbia’s reach and reputation in the film community.

Second, at the recommendation of the dean, the interim provost, and the academic

team, I direct AEMM and Marketing Communications to work together on collaborative

opportunities to enhance programs in both departments. More specifically, AEMM

should work with Marketing to redesign the Sports Management program. An

interdisciplinary initiative between these disciplines creates opportunities for a more

robust and attractive program, as well as potential cost savings. Lastly, AEMM should

develop on online MA program for one of its degrees.



Graduate AEMM MAM increase resources

Major Arts Management BA increase resources

Major Music Business Management BA increase resources

Major Advanced Management BA increase resources

Major Live and Performing Arts BA increase resources

Major Visual Arts Management BA increase resources

Major Media Management BA increase resources

Minor Management Minor increase resources

Major Sports Management BA

combine/restructure

resources

Dance

With one exception, the college will maintain all of the Dance programs at their current

level of resources. The college will seek opportunities to improve facilities for the

performing arts in general and Dance in particular. Dance programs, however, should

understand that, due to the expense, improvements to the performing arts facilities are

a longer-term objective.

The Dance department is one of Columbia’s premier programs thanks to growth and

increased visibility in recent years. The department holds a national reputation as a

leader and innovator in dance education. With the exception of the pedagogy program,

which should be phased out, all of its other programs are healthy and strong.

Furthermore, I note that I have not accepted the interim provost’s recommendation to

relocate the Dance Movement Therapy programs to the Dance department.

The dean, the interim provost, and the academic team all cite the importance of better

facilities for Dance. In fact, they argue convincingly for an overall upgrade of

performing arts facilities on campus. I agree with the caution that such facilities involve

considerable investment and maintenance. I direct Campus Environment to include

among its priorities the acquisition, renovation or construction of space for the

performing arts and to revisit the place of a performing arts center in the current

campus master plan. More immediately, I ask Campus Environment to work with

Dance and Music on the possible use of the building at 14th and Wabash as rehearsal

space for those departments.



Major Dance BA maintain resources

Minor Dance Minor maintain resources

Major Dancemaking BFA maintain resources

Major Pedagogy BFA phase out or eliminate

Dance Movement Therapy

The college will expand the scope and programming of the Dance Movement Therapy

(DMT) department to incorporate other arts based therapy. The department, which will

continue to report to the dean of FPA, will change its name to Arts Therapy.

The dean and the interim provost recommended merging DMT with Dance. I carefully

considered their arguments, as well as the counter-position of the DMT faculty. The

dean and interim provost saw a common thread in dance; the DMT faculty emphasized

the focus on therapy. In the end, I believe the college has a greater opportunity to

develop new high-quality, financially viable graduate and undergraduate programs by

building upon the existing DMT programs and by partnering these programs with others

in FPA. In addition to enrollment opportunities for the college, these programs will

provide alternative career paths for students with an interest in the arts.

I direct the provost and the dean, working with chairs and faculty, to investigate the

feasibility of programs in music, theatre, and art therapy, including curricular

requirements, facilities and other resource needs, competition, and market potential.

These programs should draw upon the existing arts courses in the appropriate

departments and upon the course work and expertise of DMT in the history, theory,

and practice of therapy. I request a preliminary report by February 1, 2013, and plans

for at least one new program starting in fall 2014.



Graduate

Grad Laban Certificate in

Movement Analysis CERT combine/restructure resources

Graduate DMT ALT Route Certificate CERT combine/restructure resources

Graduate

Movement Pattern Analysis

Consultant CERT combine/restructure resources

Graduate DMT and Counseling MA combine/restructure resources

Fashion Studies

The college will increase resources for Fashion Studies, specifically faculty. The

department will investigate opportunities for collaborative programs with other

departments.

Within the last few years, the School of FPA created the Fashion Studies department by

combining curricula and resources from AEMM and Art + Design. The new department

offers one course of study in Fashion Business and another in Fashion Design.

Together, these programs constitute possibly the largest fashion studies program in

the country and demonstrate strong potential for enrollment growth. Drawing on its

existing strengths, the department should investigate opportunities to collaborate with

other departments on new curricular pathways such as fashion photography [see

discussion in the Photography section] and costume design and makeup in partnership

with Theatre.

Lastly, the dean, interim provost, and academic team all recognized a need for

additional resources in this department and, most notably, the need for more full-time

faculty. As part of the implementation of Blueprint | Prioritization, I am giving the

provost control of all full-time faculty vacancies, with the expectation that the provost

will reallocate full-time vacancies to the departments with the greatest needs and

highest priorities. I recommend that Fashion Studies receive three re-allocated faculty

positions.



Major Fashion Studies BA

combine/restructure resources, this is being

replaced with Fashion Business and Fashion Design

Major Fashion Business BA increase resources

Major Fashion Design BFA increase resources

Fiction Writing

The Fiction Writing department will be incorporated into the new department of

Creative Writing. See the section on Creative Writing.

Music

The college will continue all of the current Music programs. As positions become

available, the provost will reallocate two full-time faculty positions to Music and work

with Campus Environment to explore possibilities for providing additional financially

feasible rehearsal space for both Music and Dance. The department needs to work to

improve its retention and graduation rates.

Music is one of the few academic programs that have experienced healthy growth in

the last three to four years. Therefore, this department can sustain its current level of

programming. The dean rightly celebrates the department’s “aggressive recruitment

and marketing” campaign which has yielded this impressive growth. Music, however,

has one of lowest retention and graduation rates in the college. The department must

bring the same energy and commitment to improving graduation and retention rates as

it does to recruiting and marketing.

The academic team recommends phasing out the Composition for the Screen program.

Music developed this program at the request and in partnership with the Film & Video

department in order to fulfill a need for original music for student films and to provide

more dynamic career options for artists drawn to screen media. The program has

succeeded at that purpose and has built a strong national reputation. That said, the

program’s expenses, however, are too high for the size of its enrollment. In order to

help reduce its costs, the program was recently restructured. The program must

continue to reduce costs and must increase the size of its entering classes from 14 to

20 students.

The academic team also recommends combining Instrumental Performance and

Instrumental Jazz Performance. Based in part upon the feedback from the Student

Government Association and others, I do not concur because of significant differences

in the performance genres these programs represent.


In addition to maintaining its current programs, Music must partner with Education and

Arts Therapies (currently DMT) to explore the creation of joint degrees in these areas.

Lastly, enrollment growth in Music has strained its resources, notably ensemble

rehearsal space, as well as technology and faculty. Facilities represent significant and

ongoing expenditures. Therefore, the college must proceed cautiously on acquiring new

space. With both of these factors in mind, I direct Campus Environment and FPA to

investigate the possibility of using the 14th and Wabash building for music and dance

rehearsal space.


Major Composition BA maintain resources

Major Instrumental Performance BA maintain resources

Major Composition BM maintain resources

Major Vocal Performance BA maintain resources

Major Instrumental Jazz BA maintain resources

Major Contemporary Urban and Popular Music BM maintain resources

Graduate Music Comp for the Screen MFA decrease resources

Photography

The college will maintain all of the programs in Photography at the current level of

resources. The department, however, must take a more active and aggressive role in

recruiting undergraduate and graduate students. The college expects enrollment

increases in the Photography programs. As the interim provost and the dean of FPA

recommended, the college will combine the Photography programs with some of the

programs currently in Art + Design to create a new department of Fine Arts.

Photography is one of the most prestigious departments at the college. Student,

alumni, and professional peers respect and celebrate the Photography faculty. For

example, eight of the faculty members hold Guggenheim fellowships. The graduate

program is recognized as one of the best in the country. Nevertheless, despite these

accolades, the department’s enrollment has declined significantly. Additionally,

internal and external observers have raised questions about how well the program has

kept up with contemporary trends in photography, particularly the slow pace at which

the department has embraced digital photography.


The dean and interim provost point out the department’s need for new, more

appropriate, and technologically sophisticated facilities. They therefore recommend

combining the department’s offerings with some of the offerings in Art + Design to form

a new department; Fine Arts. I accept this recommendation and direct the dean,

interim provost and chairs of the affected departments to begin that process.

At present, the college will retain all of the current programs in Photography. One

existing program, however, and one potential program require serious discussion. First,

Photography and Journalism need to collaborate and develop a degree in

photojournalism. Second, Photography should investigate the possibility of a fashion

photography concentration in collaboration with the Fashion department. The dean

notes that a fashion photography concentration will require new facilities. The

departments must consult with Campus Environment and the interim provost on the

feasibility of new spaces.


Major Photography BA maintain resources

Major Commercial BA maintain resources

Graduate Photography MFA maintain resources

Major Fine Art BA maintain resources

Minor Photography Minor maintain resources

Major Photography BFA maintain resources

Major Photojournalism BA combine/restructure resources

Sherwood Conservatory

The college will maintain the Sherwood Conservatory and expects the conservatory to

continue to improve its programming and income. The conservatory must work more

closely with the Music department to provide teaching and rehearsal space for enrolled

Columbia students during day hours.

The academic team recommends the elimination of the Sherwood Conservatory, which

was also the initial recommendation of the interim provost. After the listening session

and additional research, the interim provost changed her recommendation to maintain

with continued monitoring of the conservatory’s income and expenses. I concur with

the recommendation of the interim provost. At present, the conservatory’s income

covers its expenses with a modest surplus. This is a result of new programming,

marketing and leadership. The college expects even better results in the future.


Theatre

The college will continue most programs in Theatre at the current level of resources

and will work toward improved facilities for the performing arts, including facilities for

Theatre. Additionally, the college will continue the joint program between Theatre and

The Second City and, if possible and financially viable, expand this program.

Over the last few years, enrollment has begun to stabilize and the department has

developed a model program for improving the first-year student experience and,

consequently, first-to-second year retention. The “One Tribe” initiative engages new

students from the first day of orientation in a theatrical experience that connects them

immediately to faculty, staff, and students in their department. I hope that other

departments will copy Theatre’s impressive success with One Tribe.

The dean, the interim provost, and the academic team recommend phasing out the

Acting BFA and the Directing BA and Minor. The Theatre faculty strongly disagrees. The

dean and the interim provost should continue a discussion with the Theatre chair and

faculty and submit their decision to me no later than the close of the fall 2012

semester. The final decision is at the discretion of the dean and the provost. In making

their decision, the parties should consider the contribution of these programs to

student learning and enrollment, and the impact of continuing these programs on the

department’s resources, including faculty workload.

In addition to serving as a model for working with first-year students, the Theatre

department has many opportunities to collaborate with other departments in FPA and

across the college. In other parts of this plan I propose collaborations with a new Arts

Therapies program and with Fashion Studies. I strongly encourage the department to

pursue these and other interdisciplinary partnerships.

Finally, in recent years the Theatre department has demonstrated much inventiveness

and adaptability in working with less-than-ideal facilities. Music and Dance have also

shown similar adaptability. I direct Campus Environment to make teaching and

performance spaces for the Theatre department and the other performing arts a

priority, to the extent that is financially feasible. As discussed in the Music section, I

also ask that Campus Environment revisit the place of a performing arts center in the

current campus master plan and ask Institutional Advancement to watch for

fundraising opportunities for performing arts facilities.



Major Directing BFA maintain resources

Major Music Theatre Performance BFA maintain resources

Major Musical Theatre BA maintain resources

Major Acting BA maintain resources

Major Technical Theatre BA maintain resources

Major Theatre Design BA maintain resources

Major Theatre Design BFA maintain resources

Minor Acting Minor maintain resources

Major Acting BFA possible phase out or eliminate

Major Directing BA possible phase out or eliminate

Minor Directing Minor possible phase out or eliminate

School of Liberal Arts and Sciences

The college will maintain resources for the Office of the Dean of the School of Liberal

Arts and Sciences (LAS). The school will lead or participate in initiatives to accomplish

four college objectives for undergraduate education: (1) redesign of the undergraduate

core curriculum beginning in the academic year 2012-2013; (2) development of a

comprehensive operational plan for the first-year experience; (3) full integration of the

LAS faculty into the faculty-advising program; and (4) expansion of the Honors Program

into the Schools of FPA and Media, Digital, and Creative Technologies. The School of

LAS must set an example for the college of the potential of cross-disciplinary

collaboration to improve student learning and student success.

The School of Liberal Arts and Sciences stands at the center of Columbia College

Chicago’s mission. The LAS core disciplines embody a key college value and distinguish

the college from other arts- or media-focused institutions. The academic team hit the

nail on the head with their observation that:

“the entire community must come to terms with the reality that Columbia College Chicago is not a conservatory. Our liberal arts curriculum is a crucial recruiting tool as parents weigh the value and the expense of their children’s college educations. Moreover, in our increasingly connected digital and global world, we have the great responsibility of educating students in the arts and media – students who are to become the voices and leaders of the “culture of our time.”


To succeed as artists and communications professionals in today’s fast moving,

global environment, our graduates must be better educated and more

knowledgeable than their peers about the world and how it works. Parents know

this; employers know this; and our alumni tell us about how crucial it is for our

students to be better educated than their peers from other institutions.

Throughout its history, Columbia has espoused the value of the liberal arts in the

education of artists, but we have not always practiced it as vigorously as we should.

Focus 2016, the college’s strategic plan, and the recommendations of the academic

team exhort the college to fully integrate rigorous learning in the liberal arts and

sciences with rigorous learning in the arts, media, and communications. This is a job

for every school, department, and faculty member that should be accomplished

through thoughtful dialogue and shared planning.

About a decade ago, the college adopted the current LAS core curriculum, which was a

major step forward from the previous LAS credit-hour distribution structure. Now, the

School of LAS will lead a multidisciplinary task force composed of faculty from the

three schools and charged with creating a “Columbia Core.” This new undergraduate

core curriculum will incorporate the following recommendations from the academic

team:

x “Mov[ing] away from the ‘cafeteria’ model of loosely connected LAS

requirements to the creation of meaningful curricular pathways.”

x “Incorporat[ing]LAS pathways into the ‘body of work’ and ‘project-based’

learning so that it becomes an expected and valued part of the student

educational experience.”

x Making meaningful interdisciplinary connections in rigorous ways.

x Applying standards to all required and elective courses for rigor and for learning

outcomes that prepare students, “as creative communicators who are engaged

in social events and issues and have a sense of civic purpose” and

engagement.”


Second, the School of LAS, with guidance and support from the provost and the vice

president of student affairs, will lead a collegewide initiative to develop an operational

plan for a seamless, fully integrated first-year experience that builds upon the

Integrated First-Year Experience conversations that the college undertook in academic

year 2010-2011. Those conversations were robust and produced a clearly defined set

of principles for student success. The academic team, however, concludes that the

college has not yet realized the full potential of the ideas that emerged from that year-

long discussion. They note, and I concur, that through the Integrated First-Year

Experience, we have told the students what we expect of them, but we have not yet

clearly stated and made a commitment to what the students can expect from us during

their first year. In response, the team recommends creating a well-defined, community-

embraced first-year experience that fosters improved student success measured in

student learning outcomes, student retention, and ultimately graduation. I agree with

the team’s recommendation.

The School of LAS is an obvious choice to lead this initiative as the school houses two

keystones of the first-year experience: the First-Year Seminar and the initial writing and

rhetoric courses required for all undergraduates. Although the School of LAS will lead

this initiative, this is a responsibility for the faculty and programs of all three schools

that must also be integrated with the programs and services for first-year students

provided by Student Affairs. The School of LAS will engage faculty and staff across the

college in developing a plan that should include specific and measurable goals, an

implementation structure and timeline, as well as an evaluation and assessment

component.

Third, the School of LAS, working with the deans and faculty of the other two schools,

will propose a plan to make full use of LAS faculty expertise in student advising. The

academic team notes that the college underutilizes a valuable resource by largely

omitting the LAS faculty from student advising. The team observes, and I agree, that

although the arts, media, and communications faculties have specific knowledge about

their disciplines, the LAS faculty, with appropriate training, will make the advising

process even more effective.

Fourth, the School of LAS launched the college’s first-ever Honors Program. By all

indicators, the program is a success. Students report high levels of satisfaction with

the variety and quality of classes. The process for admitting students to the program or

classes appears equitable. The program attracts good numbers of new and continuing

students. The interim provost notes that, beginning in academic year 2012-2013, the

departments in the schools of FPA and the Media Arts will offer courses in the Honors

Program. LAS should lend its experience with developing and assessing honors

offerings to the faculties in the other two schools.


Finally, LAS administers the college’s “Bridge Program” for students admitted

conditionally who show potential to succeed at Columbia, but whose previous

academic performance does not meet the college’s regular admissions criteria. The

academic team recommends phasing out the Bridge program.

The Bridge Program serves a dual purpose. First, it provides students with intensive

college readiness preparation prior to the first semester of classes. Second, it gives

faculty who teach in the undergraduate core curriculum an extended opportunity to

assess each individual applicant. As such, the Bridge Program is an important element

in the college’s undergraduate recruitment and retention strategies. The college will

continue the Bridge Program and will re-evaluate its purpose and effectiveness when

the review of admissions standards is complete.

American Sign Language/English Interpretation

The college will decrease resources for the current undergraduate American Sign

Language (ASL)/English Interpretation program and relocate the program to a new

Humanities department. The LAS dean will also lead a feasibility study of a one-year

graduate program in ASL.

The interim provost initially recommended that this program be eliminated. She had

indicated that, although the work done by this department is very important, she stated

that “[i]t is not centrally aligned [with] Columbia’s mission; and it has been costly to the

college up to this time.” I share these concerns, especially the concern related to cost.

The program is one of the most expensive at the institution because of the manner in

which instruction is organized and delivered. In response to the interim provost’s

concerns, the department has agreed to reduce costs and to increase revenues. The

latter will be accomplished through larger student enrollment and a deaf study option.

The former will be accomplished by increased class size, the discontinuation of one-on-

one tutoring and an adjustment to the curriculum made possible by the new licensing

requirements in the State of Illinois.

The department should show evidence of these changes beginning in fall 2012 and

the college will re-evaluate the overall changes in fall 2014. The department should

plan to reduce expenditures by 25 percent.


Minor ASL Minor decrease resources

Major ASL/English Interpretation BA decrease resources


Creative Writing

The college will combine existing programs in English and in Fiction Writing, including

the playwriting program now taught jointly in Fiction Writing and Theatre, into a new

writing department, tentatively named Creative Writing. The faculty, deans, and the

provost will develop a plan for the new department that builds upon the strengths and

expertise of both departments. As the Student Government Association (SGA) and

others have recommended, the Story Workshop method will continue as a learning

approach within Creative Writing.

The planning process for the Creative Writing department will determine in which

school the department will reside. Inclusion in this section of my plan is not an

endorsement for placing it in one school or the other.

Main elements of this plan were recommended by the dean of the School of LAS, the

dean of the School of FPA, the interim provost, and the academic team. The college

expects an overall decrease in resources allotted as a result of reduced administrative

costs and reduction of instructional redundancies in the creative writing programs.

The present Fiction Writing program has a long and storied history at Columbia. The

program is well respected in the professional writing community for its innovative Story

Workshop approach and for the accomplishments of alumni and faculty. The program

has attracted students to Columbia throughout its history. More recently, the Creative

Nonfiction and Poetry programs have built good reputations in the professional

community and contributed to enrollment growth. The time has arrived in the

maturation of Columbia to bring together the collective expertise of these two faculties

primarily for the benefit of the students and secondarily in the best interests of the

college.

The combined faculties of English and Fiction Writing will determine the disposition of

the current writing programs. The college, however, expects that the departments will

approach this task as an integration of their programs and will seriously evaluate the

contributions of the various programs and courses to the mission and objectives of the

new department. The faculties should use this opportunity to pursue the student-

centered goals of the academic team’s “One Columbia” report and to model a large-

scale, collaborative initiative.


Specifically, I charge the chairs and faculty of English and Fiction Writing, working with

the deans and interim provost, with: (1) developing a core curriculum for writing

majors; (2) strengthening the writing requirements for the entire college; (3) developing

programs and curricular pathways that provide students with alternative approaches to

teaching and learning writing, including the Story Workshop approach; (4) collaborating

with colleagues in other schools and departments to develop courses or curricular

pathways that serve students in other majors such as screenwriting and journalism.

Fiction Writing and English should immediately start working on a consolidation plan

that will provide the benefits of this new approach to teaching and learning writing for

students entering in the fall of 2013. The departments should plan for a full

organizational consolidation by no later than fall 2014.

Regardless of the final configuration of the new writing department and its programs,

the college will discontinue the graduate program in the teaching of writing and the

undergraduate program in professional writing. Furthermore, the faculty should

seriously consider the need for both a BA and BFA program in playwriting.

The department will reduce its publications from the current seven titles between the

two departments to three in the new department, allowing the publications, as the SGA

notes, to cater to different genres and readers. Finally, the new department should

streamline its lecture series and public programming.

Fiction Writing - President’s Rankings:

Graduate Creative Writing-Fiction MFA combine/restructure resources

Major Fiction Writing BA combine/restructure resources

Major Fiction Writing BFA combine/restructure resources

Major Playwriting BA combine/restructure resources

Major Playwriting BFA

combine/restructure resources; possibly

phase out one of two UG degrees

Minor Fiction Writing Minor combine/restructure resources

Minor Playwriting Minor combine/restructure resources

Graduate The Teaching of Writing MA phase out or eliminate


English - President’s Rankings:

LAS Core First-Year Writing (EN)

LAS

Core combine/restructure resources

LAS Core Literature (HL)

LAS


LAS Core Oral Communication combine/restructure resources

LAS Core ESL combine/restructure resources

Minor Literature Minor combine/restructure resources

Minor Professional Writing Minor phase out or eliminate

Graduate Creative Writing-Poetry MFA combine/restructure resources

Graduate Creative Nonfiction MFA combine/restructure resources

Major Poetry BA combine/restructure resources

Major Creative Nonfiction BA combine/restructure resources

Minor Poetry Minor combine/restructure resources

Minor Creative Nonfiction Minor combine/restructure resources


Education

The college will decrease overall resources for the instructional programs in Education

unless the department increases enrollment. In addition, the department must align its

programs more closely with Columbia’s arts and media focus. The department and the

school should reallocate resources within the department to meet these objectives.

The provost and the dean of the School of LAS should schedule a review of Education’s

progress within the next few years.

In recent years, Columbia’s education programs have delivered mixed results. In

academic year 2005-2006, Educational Studies (graduate programs) and Early

Childhood Education were consolidated as the Education department, and a new

chairperson was appointed in July 2011. With new leadership, the college holds high

hopes for improvements in the existing programs and foresees promising opportunities

for new programs. The Head Start Degree Completion program is a good example of

the type of programs and initiatives the department should pursue because it is

collaborative, it brings outside funding into the college, and it offers a specific and

specialized curriculum for a target group of students. Columbia partners with Chicago

Public Schools on this program and the college will continue the program through that

partnership. Chicago Public Schools is pleased with the outcome of the Head Start

program and has agreed to fund new cohorts for the next few years.

Education must find and pursue other collaborative opportunities inside and outside of

Columbia to increase enrollment, improve student outcomes, and align itself with the

mission of the college. Regarding enrollment, I am well aware that there are external

standards for student-to-faculty ratios. Education, however, has the lowest student-to-

faculty ratio in the college. Therefore, to remain sustainable, the department must

increase the number of students it serves, within State of Illinois requirements. At the

graduate level, the department should re-evaluate the currency and mission-

connectedness of it programs. At all levels, the department should develop arts- and

media- linked curricular pathways for new and existing student populations. There are

a myriad of opportunities within the college for collaborative initiatives. As a first order

of business, the department should partner with the School of FPA on art, music,

theatre, and dance education curricula.

Lastly, the college is relocating the Center for Community Arts Partnerships (CCAP) to

the dean of the School of LAS. In general, Education should take maximum advantage

of collaborative opportunities available through CCAP. More specifically, Education will

share responsibility for the Teaching Artist Journal with CCAP.



Major Early Childhood Education BA

decrease resources unless

enrollment increases

Minor Teaching Artist Minor



Graduate Elementary Education MAT

maintain resources; review

curriculum

Graduate Art Education MAT

maintain resources; review

curriculum

Major

Teacher Certification Head

Start BA maintain resources

Minor Education Minor



English

The English department will be incorporated into the new departments of Creative

Writing and Humanities. The Creative Writing and Humanities History and Social

Sciences sections provide details about this change.

First-Year Seminar

The college will continue the First-Year Seminar and maintain its level of resources. As

part of the college first-year retention initiatives, LAS must work to fully integrate the

First-Year Seminar, First-Year Writing and the programs in Student Affairs for first-year

students.

Specifically, the First-Year Seminar and First-Year Writing programs should collaborate

on developing first-year learning cohorts of students co-enrolled in the two classes.

This collaboration would preserve the autonomy of each course while creating

opportunities for robust learning experiences for students and faculty.


LAS

Core First-Year Seminar

LAS



Humanities, History, and Social Sciences

The college will divide Humanities, History, and Social Sciences into two departments:

the Humanities department and the History and Social Sciences department. The new

Humanities department will incorporate ASL/English Language Interpretation and the

programs in First-Year Writing, English as a Second Language, Foreign Languages, Oral

Communications and Literature, now housed in English. The college will maintain

overall resources for the programs in humanities and in history and social sciences.

Both new departments will collaborate with other departments in LAS and across the

college on the newly conceived “Columbia Core” which will replace the current LAS

Core curriculum and the department will adopt the academic team’s recommendation

to merge the current Cultural Studies program into a wider-based Interdisciplinary

Studies Program. In addition, both new departments will continue current minors.

As described elsewhere, The Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and

Gender in the Arts and Media will be closed as a free-standing entity. The Institute’s

director will become a non-tenured faculty member in Humanities, and the Humanities

department will incorporate the Institute’s outreach work into its Women’s and Gender

Studies minor.

I accept the academic team’s recommendation that the college merge the Cultural

Studies program into an Interdisciplinary Studies program with a wider base both in the

Humanities and across the college curriculum. Cultural Studies will remain as a

concentration within the new Interdisciplinary Studies program and a minor. The new

Interdisciplinary Studies major will create additional concentrations that allow students

to pursue various interests determined by an interdisciplinary faculty committee

chosen from all of the schools of the college. The program will draw upon the resources

of the various centers as a base for student research in their areas of concentration.

The program will also offer a minor in interdisciplinary studies to students in other

majors. The Interdisciplinary Studies major, minors, and concentrations must

encourage a truly interdisciplinary approach and reflect opportunities for study and

research across the college. The Interdisciplinary Studies program will provide a

leading example of how the liberal arts and sciences can take its rightful place across

the college.



Minor

Women’s and

Gender Studies Minor maintain resources

Minor Black World Studies Minor maintain resources

LAS

Core History (HI) LAS Core maintain resources

LAS

Core Humanities (HU) LAS Core maintain resources

LAS

Core Social Sciences (SS) LAS Core maintain resources

Minor Cultural Studies Minor combine/restructure resources

Minor

Latino/Latin-

American Studies Minor maintain resources

Major Cultural Studies BA combine/restructure resources

Science and Mathematics

The college will maintain resources for the programs in the Science and Mathematics

department, with the possible exception of the Institute for Science Education and

Science Communication (“Science Institute”). Science and Mathematics contributes to

the LAS core curriculum and the interim provost reports that the department

demonstrates “a strong commitment to collaboration, innovation, and student-

centeredness.” Additionally, Science and Mathematics recently initiated its first major

program, “Arts and Materials Conservation,” which is the only undergraduate program

of its kind in the Midwest. The program enrolled an initial cohort of 10 students in fall

2011, exceeding the target of six to eight students, and shows great promise for the

future. The college has invested in facilities that support this program and the LAS

core.


Regarding the Science Institute, the interim provost recommends assessing the

viability of this program when LAS completes a financial analysis now in progress. I

concur with that recommendation and add that the Science and Mathematics

department must present a compelling case for the value of the Institute to the college

as well as demonstrate a sustainable financial scenario. Otherwise, the college will

discontinue this program. I direct the department and the school to undertake a

serious investigation of these issues and submit a report to me by March 2013.


LAS

Core Science (SC/SL) LAS Core maintain resources

LAS

Core Mathematics (MA) LAS Core maintain resources

Major Arts and Materials Conservation BA maintain resources

Minor Environmental Studies Minor maintain resources

Minor Mathematics Minor maintain resources

School of Media Arts

The School of Media Arts must recapture its momentum and embrace new media.

Following the lead of the recently appointed dean, the departments and programs

must, in the dean’s words, “[direct] their resources to undertake transformations in the

use of new media platforms and technologies,” and in the process take down

disciplinary silos. To accomplish these changes, the school will need to reallocate

resources, and the college may need to make some investments in new and

redesigned programs. In return, however, the college expects to see enrollment growth,

strong student outcomes, and improvements in cost-effectiveness. To mark its new

direction, the college will rename the school: the School of Media, Digital, and Creative

Technologies.


In the last several years, enrollment has decreased disproportionately to the overall

college downturn since 2008. Before the recession, 56 percent of undergraduates

majored in programs housed in the School of Media Arts. Now that share has fallen to

48 percent. In addition to the impact of the economy, Media Arts faced specific

challenges. The media industries and the markets for media professionals have shifted

dramatically, particularly in long established areas such as journalism. As a result, the

knowledge and skills needed to build a career in media have changed rapidly. Other

colleges and universities, including some of our competitors in Chicago, have

responded with new and innovative programs that compete with our media programs.

Unfortunately, as I have observed before, too many of our media programs were

“asleep at the wheel” while enrollment was growing. Programs did not keep up with

changes in media practice and, more damaging, some programs displayed negative

attitudes toward increased enrollment. Eventually, students voted with their feet. In fall

2011, Media Arts enrolled 4,533 students, down from a high of 5,217 in fall 2008.

With the exceptions of Television and Interactive Arts and Media, all of the

departments in Media Arts have lost enrollment.

The dean of the School of Media Arts, the interim provost and the academic team

recommend significant changes in the school. I concur with many of those

recommendations, which are detailed in the following sections for each of the

departments in the school. Across the school, the dean has directed many of the

programs to:

“undertake transformations in the use of new media platforms and technologies. [This] will require an internal shift of resources from established to new instructional methods and materials, while maintaining overall levels of service to students and instructional activity.”

I agree and add that the school and the college have an opportunity to reclaim our

place at the leading edge of media education. The media industries for which we

prepare students abandoned their silos some time ago; we have made a start at

deconstructing our silos, but we need to move forward more aggressively.

Lastly, at my request, the dean of the School of Media Arts has organized an ad hoc

committee to develop a position paper on a new master’s degree. This new degree will

use the expertise of the Film & Video department and the AEMM department. The

Master’s of business in the fine arts degree will be the first of its kind, and we all

believe, will be an attractive and important program for those wishing to straddle the

disciplines in media, business, and the arts.


Audio Arts + Acoustics

The college will continue all but one of this department’s current programs and, with

the introduction of a Bachelor of Science degree, will phase out the Bachelor of Arts

degree. The department should continue to collaborate with other departments on

courses and curricular pathways that support programs in related disciplines.

Last fall, enrollment turned around in Audio Arts + Acoustics (AAA). Prior to last year,

AAA was losing enrollment, as were many other departments in the School of Media

Arts. As the result of revising the curriculum, developing a new Bachelor of Science

degree, and undertaking outreach activities that gained financial support and expertise

from the industry, AAA experienced a small uptick in students. The department must

continue to work toward building and sustaining enrollment.

The department will phase out its BA program in Acoustics for Visual Media. The

department will collaborate with Film & Video and Interactive Arts and Media on

courses and curricular pathways that will replace the existing sound design programs

in those departments.


Major Acoustics BS maintain resources

Major Audio Design and Production BA maintain resources

Major Live and Installed Sound BA maintain resources

Major Acoustics BA

phase out or eliminate;

replaced by BS degree

Major Audio for Visual Media BA phase out or eliminate

Columbia Chronicle and Echo Magazine I do not concur with the team’s recommendation to eliminate the hard copy of the

Columbia Chronicle within the next two years. After reviewing the current circulation

and distribution to targeted communities as well as potential students and their

parents that visit the campus throughout the year, we derive a large return on dollars

spent. We also have created an income stream -- staffed by marketing communications

majors and designed by Art + Design majors -- that brings in over $330,000 dollars per

year to offset costs.


Because of this, I am recommending a reduced print run for the Chronicle over the next

two years during which time we will re-evaluate the program. In that review, we will

consider the observations of the Student Government Association about the potential

benefits to journalism students of moving to an online publication. They note, for

example that, “journalism is moving to online publications, so [going online] would

keep the Chronicle in line with the majority of the industry.”

I do, however, agree with the team that we should maintain resources for Echo Magazine as it is student-generated and is also a great piece to hand out to

prospective students and their parents.

Film & Video

Film & Video must continue to incorporate new technologies and media into its

programs and reverse its declining enrollment trends. The department must continue

working on redesigning, consolidating or phasing out some of its programs. Overall the

college will maintain resources in Film & Video, but the department must redirect those

resources to redesigning curricular pathways and improving enrollment.

Film & Video is one of Columbia’s signature programs. Even with recent enrollment

declines, the Film & Video department is still the college’s largest department and is

among the largest film programs in the country. Nevertheless, the loss of more than

400 students over a few years is cause for serious concern. The department must put

aside any remaining perceptions of growth as a negative force and focus on the

currency and viability of its programs and on attracting and retaining students.

Film & Video has already embraced some of these challenges. For example, the dean

and interim provost note with pleasure that the department is in the process of

creating new curricular pathways in traditional animation and computer animation.

Taking that idea, I strongly encourage the school to develop a strong collaboration with

Interactive Arts and Media around animation for games. The implementation of a

common first-year core represents another laudable curricular, initiative that will also

improve retention.

As a department that depends greatly on technology, the programs within the

department must continue to embrace emerging forms of internet-based media, as

they apply to all film genres, not only documentary film. Along with new media

applications in film, the department should seek collaborations with the new Internet

Broadcast Media Production department, and with Journalism, AAA, and Interactive

Arts and Media.


Specifically, the department should work with AAA to phase out Film & Video’s stand-

alone Sound for the Cinema program. Lastly, the department should carefully consider

the ongoing role of Cinema Studies, including the possibility of eliminating it. Although I

understand the department’s argument for retaining it as a generalist degree, I remain

skeptical of its value to student learning and to the department.

Finally, and related to recruitment and retention, the dean and the academic team

recommend more rigorous screening of students seeking to enroll in programs of

specialized practice. The school should investigate this option in consultation with the

interim provost. I advise extreme care and thought in designing the screening

mechanisms and planning for the consequences. If the school and the department

ultimately propose such a system, it must guarantee students who are not involved in

specialized programs will still have access to a curriculum path that will help them to

“develop unique combinations of skills across the industry fields.”


Graduate

Film & Video: Creative

Producing MFA maintain resources

Graduate

Film & Video:

Writing/Directing MFA maintain resources

Major Cinematography BA maintain resources

Major Directing BA maintain resources

Major Producing BA maintain resources

Major Screenwriting BA maintain resources

Major Post-Production BA maintain resources

Major Cinema Visual Effects BA maintain resources

Major Documentary BA maintain resources

Major Cinema Studies BA possibly phase out or eliminate

Major Animation - Traditional BA combine/restructure resources

Major Animation - Computer BA combine/restructure resources

Major Film & Video BA maintain resources

Major Sound for Cinema BA

phase out or eliminate; replace with coursework

in AAA


Interdisciplinary Arts

The college will disband the department of Interdisciplinary Arts and relocate its

instructional programs to other departments in the School of FPA with related

undergraduate programs. The college expects the recipient school to redesign these

programs to make them more cost-effective. Consequently, the college will reduce

resources for these programs.

Interdisciplinary Arts is clearly no longer viable as a stand-alone department. The dean

and the interim provost note that the programs are hurt by being disconnected from

related undergraduate programs and that their enrollment-to-cost model is not

financially sustainable. The academic team concurs. The programs have small

enrollments, a large faculty, and a labor- and materials-intensive curriculum, which

make these among the most costly programs at the college. Therefore, the college will

relocate these three graduate programs to the School of FPA. The dean of the School

of FPA will determine the departmental placement. Although the Book and Paper

program has maintained enrollment, the dean must work with the program to reduce

costs.


Graduate Interdisciplinary Arts MA

combine/restructure

resources

Graduate Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts MFA

combine/restructure

resources

Graduate Interdisciplinary Arts and Media MFA

combine/restructure

resources

Interactive Arts and Media

The Interactive Arts and Media department (IAM) is one of the college’s most forward-

thinking and forward-moving departments. The department leads the college in

creative use of digital media and has gained a strong national and international

reputation. Overall the college will maintain resources for IAM, recognizing that some of

its programs warrant additional investment, but others should be trimmed back. As a

college leader in the adoption of digital media, IAM will participate in several of the

innovative collaborations planned in the newly named School of Media, Digital, and

Creative Arts and will work with the School of FPA on a new MFA in Interactive Design.


In 2005, IAM formed as a department, bringing together elements from two prior

academic departments. Since then, IAM has experienced growth and thrived, primarily

in the game-design area. The department has also attracted over $5 million in

government grants to develop interactive tools for emergency first-responders.

Interactive Arts and Media offers eight programs of study associated with two majors,

one in game design and one a general degree in IAM. A preponderance of students

identify with one of three programs, including animation, which overlaps with programs

in Film & Video. Other IAM programs overlap with AAA, Fine Arts, and (to a lesser

extent) Science and Mathematics. IAM should replace its stand-alone program in

sound design with collaboratively developed course-work with AAA.

Furthermore, the school and the department should review the current roster of

programs to determine if the number and configuration of majors/concentrations

provides coherent curricular pathways for the students and are cost-effective.

I concur with the dean and the interim provost’s recommendation that IAM pursue a

number of specific opportunities with other departments within and beyond the school.

The department has potential as a hub of cross-disciplinary collaboration. On the

undergraduate level, the department will work with the newly created Internet

Broadcast Media Production department (formerly the Radio and Television

departments) on programs in social media communication and with the Film & Video,

Journalism, and Internet Broadcast Media Production departments on documentary

practices. This work on documentary practices will include the emerging forms on

interactive documentary. On the graduate level, Interactive Arts and Media will work

with the School of FPA on a collaborative, cross-disciplinary degree in Interactive

Design.


Major Game Development BA increase resources

Major Programming BA increase resources

Major IAM BA maintain resources

Major IAM BFA maintain resources

Major Sound Design BA

phase out or eliminate; replace with

coursework in AAA

Major Game Art BA maintain resources

Minor Web Development Minor maintain resources


Journalism

Journalism must undertake a serious and thorough examination and regeneration of

its programs in light of the game-changing developments in the industry. The

department must redesign, consolidate, or phase out several of its current programs.

Overall, the college will maintain or moderately reduce resources for Journalism. The

department, however, must reallocate those resources to curricular pathways that

reflect the future of journalism and will grow enrollment.

Journalists and journalism education have received a loud and resounding wake-up

call over the last few years as newspapers and other media outlets across the country

have shed jobs and seen opportunities move into new media. Like many journalism

programs around the country and in Chicago, Columbia’s program was caught by

surprise. After many years of healthy growth driven by a strong national reputation, the

department has experienced a significant enrollment decline.

The dean and the interim provost recognize that business as usual is not an option.

They correctly direct the department to develop programs and curricular pathways that

give students “broad exposure to multiple platforms for new media.” Although a

traditional journalistic foundation may well remain the basis for their programs, the

department must work to reconceive its various individual programs – without delay.

The Publication/Production minor and the Science Journalism major enroll very few

students. The department should eliminate the latter and should give serious

consideration to phasing out the former, along with the undergraduate magazine

programs and graduate magazine and broadcast focuses. Journalism, along with

television and radio, must redesign the jointly offered broadcast journalism programs.

Finally, the School of Media Arts and the School of LAS must work together to

encourage writing and journalism students to take advantage of courses and minors in

each other’s departments. The creation of the new Creative Writing department

presents an excellent opportunity for greater collaboration between these schools.



Graduate Journalism MA maintain resources; curriculum redevelopment

Major

News Reporting and

Writing BA maintain resources; curriculum redevelopment

Major Science Journalism BA phase out or eliminate

Major

News Reporting Writing-

Sports BA maintain resources; curriculum redevelopment

Major Magazine Program BA possibly phase out or eliminate

Major

Broadcast Journalism

Radio BA combine/restructure resources

Minor Journalism Minor maintain resources; curriculum redevelopment

Graduate Magazine Focus MA phase out or eliminate

Major

Broadcast Journalism

Television BA combine/restructure resources

Graduate Broadcast Focus MA phase out or eliminate

Major Broadcast Journalism BA combine/restructure resources

Minor Publication Production Minor phase out or eliminate

Marketing Communication

The college will invest additional resources in Marketing Communication and re-

envision its programs with a focus on new media and cross-disciplinary learning.

Although this department has lost a significant number of students, the dean, the

interim provost, the academic team, and I believe that, with new leadership and

revamped programs, marketing is a growth area for the college. The college will

support co-curricular learning experiences for students through internships in the new,

centralized, institutional marketing and communications unit reporting to the senior

vice president.

Opportunities exist to put the college’s marketing programs at the leading edge of

professional practice and grow enrollment by embracing new technologies and cross-

disciplinary collaboration. Following the recommendations from the deans, the interim

provost and the academic team, Marketing Communication shall work with AEMM on

programs and curricular pathways, that in the words of the dean of the School of Media

Arts, “bridge the two departments and two schools [to] bring innovative and

complementary benefits to students.”


Specifically, I direct the two schools and departments to collaborate on redesigning the

Sports Management program located in AEMM. The primary purpose of this initiative is

to offer more robust and attractive programs; the secondary purpose – as with all the

proposed program and department collaborations and restructurings – is to hold down

costs.

Within the school, the dean envisions Marketing Communication as a partner in an

innovative collaboration between several departments on a new social media program.

Other potential partnerships exist with IAM, Journalism, and the new department of

Internet Broadcast Media Production that will bring together the current Radio and

Television departments. The school and the departments should explore opportunities

in new media and other areas of contemporary practice for distance learning and low-

residency graduate programs for working adults.

The college anticipates changes in the programs offered in Marketing Communication

as a result of the curricular redesign initiative. For now, I have identified one program

to phase out: the minor in creative advertising.


Major

Marketing

Communication BA

increased resources with curricular

restructuring

Major Public Relations BA

increase resources with curricular

restructuring

Major Advertising BA


restructuring

Major Marketing BA


restructuring

Minor Marketing Minor


restructuring

Minor Public Relations Minor


restructuring

Minor Creative Advertising Minor phase out or eliminate


Television and Radio [Internet Broadcast Media Production]

As recommended by the dean, the provost, and the academic team, the college will

combine the Radio and Television departments into a new department of Internet

Broadcast Media Production. In response to major changes in the media environment,

the new department will focus on forward-looking programs of study in contemporary,

multiplatform broadcasting, such as mobile and social media that incorporate

elements of the traditional radio and television curricula. Overall, the college expects

enrollment growth and greater cost-effectiveness in these areas of study.

The dean and the faculties of the two departments should immediately begin working

on a detailed proposal for the transition to the new department, including curricula,

leadership, and facilities. At present, the television department retains and graduates

proportionally more students than any other department in the college. Therefore, the

transition to the new department must retain the traits that have created such a

successful student-learning environment. Co-curricular activities are an important

element of student learning. Consequently, plans for the new department must

consider the future of Frequency TV and WCRX in the context of its new focus and

learning goals.

Although we do not yet know what form of organization and mix of programs the

Internet Broadcast Media Production department will take, the department must make

a few specific changes. The department must combine offerings in broadcast

journalism into a single program, delivered as now, in collaboration with Journalism.

The department must phase out the television programs in non-linear editing and

motion graphics. Finally, the department must resolve the status of 30-some radio and

television students currently enrolled in inactive programs. These may be legacy

students of discontinued programs, or clerical errors; nevertheless, Television must

ensure that all of these students are properly advised and enrolled in a program from

which they can graduate.


Television - President’s Rankings:

Major Internet and Mobile Media BA combine/restructure resources

Minor Writing for Television Minor combine/restructure resources

Minor Motion Graphics Minor phase out or eliminate

Major Writing/Producing BA combine/restructure resources

Major Production/Directing BA combine/restructure resources

Major Post-Production Effects BA combine/restructure resources

Minor Non-Linear Editing Minor phase out or eliminate

Radio- President’s Rankings:

Minor Radio Minor combine/restructure resources

Major Radio BA combine/restructure resources

Academic Centers


Academic Centers

The academic team observes that Columbia has not succeeded in bringing the various

research and outreach centers into the educational mainstream of the college and

concludes that this is a missed opportunity to enrich student learning. The following

excerpt from the team report eloquently presents their rationale:

If a central tenant of Columbia’s mission is to educate students to “author the culture of their times,” then as an institution we must have a vision for that future. We must position ourselves as the academic and artistic leaders of a global culture that focuses on the immediate, the immersive, and the interactive. We must harness the energies and agencies of this hi-tech, spectacle-rich world, and empower our students to employ them as a generative force to create change. To achieve this, we must place innovation, entrepreneurship, service learning, and applied research at the heart of the new Columbia

The interim provost and I have had the same concerns as the team for some

time. My plan addresses the very issue the team raises, but from a different

direction. Like the team, I am concerned about the disconnect between the

activities of some of the centers and the college’s students, faculty, and degree

programs. My plan retains most of the centers and places them in an academic

department, in a school, or in the Office of the Provost. I strongly believe that

embedding the centers in the college’s academic structure—where they will

naturally interact with faculty and students — s the surest way to bring the

centers into the educational mainstream. I have charged the deans and the

interim provost with making those connections happen.

The academic team proposes bringing the centers together in a new Center for

Applied Research and Civic Engagement. Although the college will not pursue

that option, I agree with the team that, in addition to grounding each of the

centers in an academic “home base,” the college needs structures that create

robust interaction and collaboration across disciplines, departments and schools.

I charge the interim provost to work with members of the academic team and

other faculty and staff on a plan to accomplish this.

Finally, like the academic team, I evaluated each of the centers on their

demonstrated potential to contribute to student learning. In addition, I evaluated

each of the centers on their potential to become more self-supporting and set

specific goals for each center. Although all of the centers have intrinsic value, in

today’s economic climate, I am more mindful than ever of how the college uses

student tuition income.


Office of Academic Research

The office of Academic Research will be eliminated as an independent department. All

of its units are to be placed within appropriate academic departments or will report to

the dean of a school. The Library will report to the provost. The academic team has

recommended creating, in the office’s place, a Center for Applied Research and Civic

Engagement. Although the ideas for and the work of such a center are both important

and laudatory, the concepts envisioned for this new center must, at this time, be

carried out by the schools.

Book and Paper Center

The college will relocate the Book and Paper Center to the department of Fine Arts and

continue its functions at a reduced level of support. In keeping with an overall

decrease in tuition funded support for centers’ activities, the department and the

school will review all of the Book and Paper Center’s non-degree granting activities with

a mandate to scale back those activities and the resources needed to support them.

Please see the section on Interdisciplinary Arts in the School of Media Arts for the

college’s plans for the Book and Paper graduate degree.

Center for Black Music Research

The college will continue the Center for Black Music Research (CBMR) at a reduced

budget and with a tighter focus on key activities. Management of the CBMR archives

will be combined with the college archives and the overall staffing of the two archives

will be reduced. The CBMR will report to the director of the library.

The CBMR was founded in 1983. Since then, the CBMR has risen to become

internationally renowned for its scholarship, publications, performances, recordings,

and conferences preserving and disseminating global music with roots in the African

diaspora. As the Student Government Association notes, the CBMR’s services and

cultural programs are truly unique. For many years, this unique organization did an

excellent job supporting itself with federal and state grants, foundation support, and

private donations. Unfortunately, over the past five to six years, outside financial

support has decreased. In recent years, the CBMR has raised less than 10 percent of a

$1 million plus operating budget. In fiscal year 2012, the college significantly

decreased its contribution, and the center spent down its reserves of contributed

income. Going forward, the college will continue to support the center at the fiscal year

2012 level with the expectation that the center must raise at least $200,000 annually

to augment the college’s support.


The CBMR staff will focus its work on three activities, the Black Music Journal, the

biannual conference, and the archives. The center will discontinue all other activities,

unless these activities are sponsored 100 percent by outside funding. The CBMR

archives will be joined and managed with the college archives. The college will reduce

the combined staff of the two archives from nine to five, with at least two of the

archivists coming from the CBMR.

Finally, some time ago, the college asked the CBMR to develop a proposal for an online

graduate degree in black music research. The School of FPA and the Music department

should complete the proposal for this program no later than the end of the 2012-2013

academic year. If and when this degree program is operational, the CBMR director will

support the program in partnership with the faculty of the music department. The

director’s other responsibilities will include the management of the journal and the

planning and execution of the biannual conference.

Center for Community Arts Partnership

The college will continue the Center for Community Arts Partnerships (CCAP) and will

relocate the center to the School of LAS to deepen the links between Columbia’s

community outreach and its academic programs.

The CCAP has built and sustained very successful reciprocal partnerships with schools

and community organizations with a focus on arts education. In keeping with

Columbia’s mission and values, the CCAP focuses on programs for underserved

communities. Because CCAP’s mission and activities align well with the programs

offered and communities served by the Education department, I propose moving CCAP

to the School of LAS, and I direct the center to work in close partnership with Education

to foster arts education at all levels, from early childhood through college.

Chicago Jazz Ensemble

The college will continue the Chicago Jazz Ensemble (CJE) at a reduced level of budget

support and with closer affiliation to the Music department. The CJE will report to the

dean of the School of FPA. The CJE will go on hiatus during the academic year 2012-

2013. During that time the college will hire a new artistic director and the CJE staff and

advisory board will plan for a 2013 performance season within the college’s new

budget guidelines. The CJE’s budget for the planning year is $200,000. The 2012-

2013 season may proceed if the Ensemble raises sufficient funds in advance to fully

cover the season’s costs.


The CJE has a long and celebrated history at the college. In 1965, former music chair

Bill Russo founded the CJE. Since then, the ensemble has gained both national and

international respect. Until 2002, the CJE’s budget was included within the Music

department’s budget, and the true cost to the college of supporting the ensemble was

not well understood. At one point, the college was spending $500,000 to $600,000

annually in support of the ensemble. When the cost became evident, the college

instructed the director of the CJE and the CJE advisory board to trim expenses and

increase external funding. Specifically, I asked the advisory board to raise $2 million to

$5 million to endow the ensemble. A fund of this size would yield $100,000 to

$250,000 annually for ensemble operations. Over the past three years, a new

management team has moved the CJE’s finances in the right direction, but not far

enough.

Currently, the college is subsidizing $300,000 of the CJE’s $600,000 annual

expenses. Beginning in fiscal year 2013, the college will support the ensemble up to

$200,000 per year. The CJE board has developed pledges of $100,000 annually for

the next five years to replace the reduction in college funding. Under the leadership of

the dean of the School of FPA, the CJE will further strengthen its ties to the degree

programs in the Music department. The artistic director will be hired as a full-time

faculty member with teaching responsibilities, and the members of the ensemble

should be chosen both to perform in the ensemble and to teach as adjunct faculty

members. (The college will reallocate an existing faculty position to Music for the

artistic director.)

Lastly, the college will rename the ensemble as the Chicago Jazz Ensemble at

Columbia College Chicago, and will include the CJE in a campus-wide marketing

consolidation. Four marketing positions currently located in four centers, including one

in the CJE, will be reduced to two and reassigned to a new centralized marketing

department. The two remaining positions will serve two centers as well as performing

other general college marketing and public relations activities.

Columbia College Chicago Press

The college will continue to operate the Columbia College Chicago Press for two years,

during which time the press will complete existing publishing commitments and the

college will evaluate its future potential. The unit will report to the associate vice

president for academic affairs.

The Columbia College Chicago Press evolved from the earlier imprint, the Center for

American Places. In the last few years, the press has aligned its publications with the

mission and history of the college and demonstrated potential for increased sales and

contributed funding.


The academic team recommends eliminating the press. With the press’s recent history

in mind, the interim provost recommends continuing operations for at least two years

to determine its potential and meet its current contractual obligations. I support the

recommendations of the interim provost, but direct the press not to accept any new

assignments until the present ones are completed and the college has made a

decision about press’s future. In 2014, the college will reevaluate the press based on

its financial performance and alignment with college objectives

Dance Center

The college will continue the Dance Center, which is largely self-supported, at the

current level of resources.

The Dance Center is a premiere dance performance venue in Chicago and one of

Columbia’s most respected presenting entities. The Dance Center attracts nationally

and internationally renowned dance troupes and choreographers. In addition to public

performance, the artists who visit the Dance Center work directly with the college’s

students in master classes and workshops, demonstrating a strong and ongoing

interaction between outreach and undergraduate education.

Finally, as described in the marketing section in Institutional Advancement, the college

will create a single, collegewide marketing unit. The marketing director for the Dance

Center and its marketing budget will relocate to the new centralized unit.

The Ellen Stone Belic Institute

for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media

The college will discontinue the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and

Gender in the Arts and Media as a stand-alone entity and incorporate elements of its

original mission into the undergraduate minor in Women’s and Gender Studies in the

School of LAS.

The Institute has deviated from the vision and direction of its founder and from the

college’s goals for the program. Most notably for the college, the Institute has not

connected its activities with the minor in Women’s and Gender Studies. Therefore, the

college will consolidate this program with the Women’s and Gender Studies minor at

half of its current operating budget. The program head will receive a non-tenure-track

faculty appointment in the School of LAS and will teach one course in the minor each

semester. The rest of the director’s time will be focused on research, fundraising,

seminars, programs, and workshops.

The college asks that the existing advisory committee for the Ellen Stone Belic Institute

continue its services in support of fundraising for the research, presentation, and

workshop activities.


Museum of Contemporary Photography

The college will continue the Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) at a

decreased level of support and expects the museum to increase fundraising and other

revenues. The museum will report to the provost.

The museum enhances the college’s public reputation and brand, and its activities

enhance student learning in several programs across the college. MoCP is one of only

two photography museums in the Midwest certified by the American Association of

Museums. The museum presents important and critically regarded exhibits from its

permanent collection and visiting exhibits of leading contemporary photographers.

Finally, as described in the marketing section in Institutional Advancement, the college

will create a single, collegewide marketing unit. The marketing and public relations

associate for MoCP and its marketing budget will relocate to the new centralized unit.

Library

The college will increase its investment in the Library to develop it as the campus hub

for research and learning. The library will report to the provost.

I charge the library to re-invent its services and re-position all of its activities as a full

educational partner for 21st-century, student-centered learning in the arts and media.

Through its services and activities, the library will help students learn the purpose,

value, and conduct of applied research in arts and media practice. In support of the

college’s mission and educational objectives, the library will partner with the Center for

Innovation and Teaching Excellence to create a central repository for faculty work. The

repository will support student learning, facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration, and

bring faculty achievements into the public eye.

The library will consolidate management of the college’s archives and the CBMR. The

library will reduce the current combined staff of the two archives from nine positions to

five. [See also my recommendations for the CBMR.]

Institutional Support, Operations and Organization


Institutional Support, Operations, and Organization

Office of the President and Board of Trustees/President’s Cabinet

The Office of the President and the Board of Trustees will continue in its current

organization with the addition of an events unit that will manage and coordinate events

across the college. Issues raised by the support and operations team about the

President’s Cabinet, authority in my absence, operation of the board of trustees

website, and maintenance of the president’s residence are addressed below.

The support and operations team reported a perception that events management

within the Office of the President currently is not well integrated with other support and

operations offices and suggested establishing a centralized events management unit.

Although the perception about current operations is misplaced, this is a great

recommendation that the president’s office will actively pursue.

The proposed unit will coordinate the responsibilities for events with staff from

Institutional Advancement, Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, and Campus

Environment. Additionally, the unit will facilitate understanding and management of the

number, type, and purpose of the many annual events offered by the college. A

member of the president’s staff will lead the new unit. Perceptions notwithstanding,

the staff of the president’s office has extensive experience working with offices across

the college on presidential and board events on campus and in the president’s

residence.

Regarding the President’s Cabinet, the academic team recommends reconfiguring the

Cabinet to include administrators whose positions have a direct relationship to the

student-learning environment. Those people, in the team’s opinion, are the provost, the

deans, and the vice presidents of Business Affairs, Campus Environment, and Student

Affairs. The Cabinet serves at the discretion of the president. For the remainder of my

tenure, the membership of the Cabinet will include the vice presidents and the chief of

staff. It will not include the deans.

The President’s Council -- a group composed of the cabinet, deans and associate vice

presidents -- gives voice to administrators across the college whose leadership strongly

influences college decisions that affect student learning, retention, and graduation.

The council will now meet monthly, and I will use this group as a venue for discussing

and sharing information about key college issues.


I also plan to reconfigure the senior administration of the college as diagrammed

below. I have chosen a configuration that is common in higher education. This

configuration groups together functions with close operational links, thereby

encouraging greater collaboration and interconnectivity. Furthermore, it limits the

range of internal functions that report directly to the president and allows a president

to give greater focus to critical external relationships.

The new configuration includes a senior vice president who will lead the

implementation of Focus 2016 and this Blueprint for Action and the college’s new

centralized marketing approach. Consequently, the vice president of planning and

compliance and the associate vice president of institutional marketing and

communication will report to the senior vice president. Additionally, as detailed in other

sections of this report, at the appointment of a permanent vice president of business

affairs/CFO, Campus Environment and Human Resources will report to that VP.


It is important to note that the vice president of campus environment, the vice

president of planning and compliance, and the past vice president of human resources

each have exemplary performance records as the leaders of their departments and as

members of the senior leadership of the college. As with all my prioritization decisions,

the decision to change the configuration of the Cabinet is structural; it is not related to

the individuals in these positions or the quality and value of their work.

The team raised a question about college leadership when I am away from campus.

Normally, the provost would act in my stead. Because at present the provost is an

interim appointment, I designate operational authority on a case-by-case basis. In

summer 2011, for example, the vice president of student affairs and the vice president

of institutional advancement shared operational authority for the college while I was on

a short sabbatical. In addition, whenever I am away from campus, I remain in regular

communication with my office and senior administrators.

Lastly, the team expressed concerns about management of the board of trustees’

website and of the president’s house. The board website is separated from the college

website because of the amount of confidential material it contains. The board site is

managed by my office with technical support from IT as needed. As for the president’s

house, like all campus facilities, repairs and maintenance functions are handled by

Campus Environment. Because it is both a residence and an event facility, the

maintenance needs of the house are somewhat different than other campus buildings.

Regular maintenance of the house is the responsibility of Campus Environment.

Specialized vendors are hired as needed.

Academic Affairs

The vice president of academic affairs/interim provost manages a number of academic

support functions in addition to managing the schools, centers and the library. The

Office of Academic Affairs has recently reorganized a number of these functions that

directly serve students and faculty in order to improve their effectiveness and

efficiency. Going forward, Academic Affairs should investigate opportunities for

streamlining management of faculty and course information. As the college gives more

emphasis to international recruiting, Academic Affairs may need to shift more

resources to support international initiatives. Overall the college will maintain

resources for these functions.


The provost will take a major role in the implementation of Focus 2016 and the

Blueprint for Action. As discussed in the introduction, the interim provost will lead the

development of “One Columbia” initiatives recommended by the academic team. She

will guide and support the deans in carrying out the plans for the academic

departments and centers, including reallocating funds among the schools and

departments to accomplish the college’s strategic goals. More specifically, all vacant

full-time faculty positions will revert to the provost for allocation.

Three of the support and operations units in Academic Affairs provide academic

support to the faculty and the academic departments: the Center for Teaching

Excellence, the Center for Instructional Technology, and Office of Academic Evaluation

and Assessment. Consistent with the recommendations of the support and operations

team, the Center for Teaching Excellence and the Center for Instructional Technology

are currently in the process of merging into a new entity; the Center for Innovation in

Teaching Excellence. The proposed technology strategist will reside in Academic Affairs

and will partner with the Center for Innovation in Teaching Excellence on learning

technologies, including the questions raised by the team and others about learning-

management systems.

Both teams recommend creating an entity, in addition to the Center for Innovation in

Teaching Excellence, to support faculty research. The college will not pursue that idea

now. I have, however, directed Institutional Advancement to work with the Center for

Innovation in Teaching Excellence to provide better service to faculty seeking research

grants. I ask the interim provost to consider other ways the college might support

faculty research within existing structures and funding constraints.

Critical Encounters, which is a collegewide curricular and co-curricular program, resides

within the Center for Innovation in Teaching Excellence and was recently reorganized.

Academic Affairs is now in the process of determining how to build wider campus

participation and curricular relevance. When a plan for Critical Encounters is ready, the

interim provost should share it with the college community. The academic team

recommends aligning Critical Encounters with the Learning Studio as a student support

function. Although Critical Encounters serves students, because it is primarily a

curricular initiative, it is more appropriately placed in the Center for Innovation in

Teaching Excellence.


In regard to Academic Evaluation and Assessment, the provost and the support and

operations team recommend bringing the various research and evaluation functions

(including compliance and accreditation) back together. I concur with this

recommendation and plan to reconstitute Research, Evaluation, and Planning (REP) as

configured prior to fall 2009, when enrollment research and academic evaluation were

moved to other areas of the college. As discussed elsewhere in this plan, REP will

report to the senior vice president.

The Learning Studio, which includes the Conaway Achievement Project/TRIO program,

serves students directly. The interim provost notes that the Learning Studio is

professionally managed and has a well-documented record of meeting student needs

and contributing to stronger retention. I agree with her that this is an area to which

Academic Affairs should allocate more resources. Additionally, I suggest that Academic

Affairs and Student Affairs look to the example of the Learning Studio to develop solid

evaluation systems for student support functions across the college.

International Programs straddles institutional administrative and student support roles.

Since its inception, International Programs’ purpose and responsibilities have evolved

with the college’s objectives for international study. As the interim provost notes,

International Programs’ role continues to change as the college moves more

aggressively into international recruiting. I agree with her that this is an area to which

Academic Affairs should allocate more resources.

The support and operations team questions whether International Programs can

effectively advise students about study abroad as well as fulfill its administrative

functions, and they recommend moving responsibility for the student-advising

component to Student Affairs. Given the specialized nature of study-abroad advising,

the college will not pursue that recommendation. I will, however, ask the interim

provost and the vice president of student affairs to investigate how well study- abroad

advising is coordinated and supported by college and faculty advising.

The support and operations team raises some good questions about the college’s

management of faculty and course information and the impact on other functions such

as hiring and classroom scheduling. Specifically, the team recommends creating a

centralized Registrar’s Office. This is not a recommendation the college is ready to

pursue; however we will investigate both opportunities for improving effectiveness and

efficiency within the current structures, as well as the possibility of a new structure.


Lastly, the provost manages a group of centers with instructional missions. The

Semester in LA, program serves enrolled students. The program, which was launched

in fall 1999 by the School of Media Arts for, has proven very successful at enriching

student learning and as a networking opportunity for students and alumni. Originally,

the program served Film & Video students and now also serves students in Music,

Theatre, Television, Marketing Communication and Fashion. The college has

successfully used Semester in LA as a catalyst for developing its alumni base in Los

Angeles and the West Coast. The program has created more job opportunities for our

graduates, giving rise to one of the colleges largest and most active alumni chapters.

The college will maintain resources for Semester in LA.

The other centers in this category serve external audiences. Those centers are the AP

Summer Institute, Summer Arts Camp, High School Summer Institute and the Upward

Bound. The college will continue these programs at current resource levels provided

the programs remain financially viable and project a positive image of the college,

particularly to prospective future students for Columbia College Chicago. If it is not

done already, the Office of the Provost should establish and implement a regular

schedule of program reviews for these units to ensure that they remain financial viable,

educationally sound, and that they offer a unique experience not available at other

colleges.

Business Affairs

During fiscal year 2011, Business Affairs undertook a major reorganization that

eliminated 25 positions and removed about $5 million from the college’s ongoing

operational costs. As part of this prioritization, over the next few years Business Affairs

will further reduce its overall expenditures for current operations primarily through

technology-driven improvements in productivity. As part of a reorganization of the

upper administration of the college, Human Resources and Campus Environment will

report to Business Affairs when I appoint a permanent CFO.

Twenty-seven distinct programs and departments reporting through three associate

vice presidents — business affairs, information technology and accounting/controller —

currently comprise Business Affairs. Because of the extensive review and restructuring

undertaken last year, implementation of Blueprint | Prioritization in Business Affairs

will focus on further improvements in service delivery and operational systems.

Business Affairs will experience a major change with the incorporation of Human

Resources and Campus Environment.


The following discussion highlights improvements I expect to see in Business Affairs

and responses to major recommendations from the support and operations team. In

addition, I will ask the new CFO to review all of the recommendations from the support

and operations team and report to me any further improvement opportunities he plans

to pursue.

Budget

The support and operations team and the academic team reported concerns within the

college about the transparency of the budget planning process and recommended a

more participatory planning cycle. The college will not pursue this recommendation. I

will, however, direct the CFO to improve the quality of information provided to

departments’ faculty, staff. and students about annual and multiyear budget plans,

including information about the criteria and rationale for budget decisions.

Business Affairs and the senior administration need the freedom to entertain a variety

of scenarios when discussing future budgets. Holding those discussions in open

forums would undermine the responsibility of those charged with and held accountable

for the college’s financial position. The outcomes of these college-level discussions are

shared with all responsible budget officers (i.e., deans, chairs, managers, directors,

and vice presidents) along with the detailed information they need to develop and

manage their units’ budgets.

Likewise, the support and operations team raises the issue of long-term budget

planning. Developing three- to five- year budget plans at the institutional level is a long

standing practice of the college, although the college does, and will continue to,

allocate budgets on an annual basis. The team, however, makes a valid point that the

college should share more information about longer term planning with the college

community. Therefore, in the future, the college will include two year projections in its

annual budget reports.

The academic team raises important questions about how the college tracks financial

information about the programs. The college tracks this information at the department

level, but not at the program level. The college, the schools, and the departments can

no longer manage their financial commitments without such information. This has to

be changed. Therefore I direct Business Affairs to work with Academic Affairs to

develop program level budget tracking.

Lastly, the academic team requested changing the fiscal year from September 1

through August 31 to July 1 through June 30. I will ask the new CFO to investigate the

feasibility of this proposal.


Information Technology

I have concerns about the college’s use of technology, and although I do not accept all

of the conclusions of the support and operations team about technology, I direct

Business Affairs to take several steps to improve technology performance at Columbia.

First, Business Affairs will reposition the Chief Information Officer’s (the associate vice

president, information technologies) position. The CIO will focus on college-wide

technology strategy, while greater responsibility for running information technology (IT)

operations will devolve to the three directors. In actuality, the CIO’s current job

description includes strategic development; now it needs to become the CIO’s primary

focus.

Second, the college will create a technology strategist position in Academic Affairs,

reporting to the provost. The technology strategist will focus on developing technology

systems that effectively support Columbia’s educational mission and objectives,

student learning and the student experience. The CIO and the technology strategist will

work in close collaboration with each other, the schools and the academic and student

support operations of the college.

Third, the college will establish an Institutional Technology Group that will develop and

guide the implementation of a strategic technology plan. This group will include the

CIO, the technology strategist, the chief of staff, the college’s planning officer, and

other major technology stakeholders in the college. As part of developing the strategic

technology plan, the group will review the technology evaluation the college conducted

in 2007. At the time, there was some controversy about the validity of the results. The

group will determine what the college has accomplished to date and what outstanding

recommendations the college should continue to pursue. In addition, the group will

investigate opportunities for the college to reduce expenditures through technology

such as automated services, system upgrades, paperwork reduction, and online

instruction.

Fourth, the CIO, working with Human Resources, will develop more effective end-user

training for faculty and staff. Specific training needs called out by the prioritization

teams include OASIS, PeopleSoft, listservs and electronic document sharing.

Finally, the support and operations team recommends returning the management of

the PeopleSoft system to IT, as it was until last year. I am not taking this

recommendation because the Controller’s management of the system has proven very

effective and economical. In the past, IT devoted three staff members to maintaining

PeopleSoft. Following a recent upgrade and with an external support system, the

controller is able to manage the system with one staff person.


Payroll

The support and operations team recommends placing the payroll function in Human

Resources. In fact, some years ago, the college separated payroll from Human

Resources at the express recommendation of the college’s external auditor. The

auditor stated:

“An important aspect of an effective system of internal controls is proper segregation of

duties. The basic premise of segregation of duties is to prevent situations where an

employee has the ability to perpetrate an error or irregularity and to conceal it as well.

Proper segregation of duties provides for a system of checks and balances such that the

functions performed by one employee are subject to review by performance of the

interrelated functions of another employee. We recommend that the college implement

changes in the human resources and payroll system that would restrict access to add

new employees and access to change employee pay rates and other sensitive

information to human resources personnel only.”

As this statement indicates, maintaining a firewall between Payroll and Human

Resources is considered best practice.

Student Financial Services

Lastly, I concur with the recommendations of the support and operations team

regarding Student Financial Services (SFS). It is very clear that the recession has

adversely affected the SFS workload. More students and their families need financial

assistance and advice and, therefore, SFS needs more staff. In addition, SFS and the

departments with whom they most often interact need to streamline operations

wherever possible. For example, established admissions and applications deadlines

will enable more informed use of scholarship funds and earlier aid awards.


Campus Environment

The college will retain Campus Environment (CE) as an operational department

reporting to the vice president, business affairs/CFO. The department will reduce

expenditures for consultants, personnel, and supplies. The department will improve its

space management and planning systems, and will eliminate recycling as a separate

program.

The support and operations team recommends dissolving CE as a department and

reassigning its functions to other departments. I am not pursing these

recommendations. I am, however, restructuring the department and addressing a

number of the team’s concerns.

First, the team suggests that some CE functions could be relocated to other

departments, but these recommendations represent misperceptions of CE’s

responsibility. Campus Environment is responsible for executing the physical branding

of college facilities, but brand marketing is a responsibility of the Marketing,

Communications, and Public Relations department located in Institutional

Advancement. Campus Environment works with Marketing and Creative Services on

the branding of our buildings. Similarly, CE is not responsible for community relations;

that function lies in the Office of the President and Institutional Advancement.

However, because the current head of Campus Environment has ties to various

community organizations, I have asked her to represent the college in some instances.

Lastly, CE provides various support services for event planning, but the department is

not responsible for event planning and management. The support and operations team

raises good questions about event management, collegewide, and elsewhere in this

report I propose creating an events management process, led by the Office of the

President that will, of course, coordinate with CE and other service units.

Second, the team recommends changing the name of the unit back to Facilities and

Services. The college changed the name of the department to Campus Environment

because the scope of its responsibilities is broader than facilities. Campus

Environment better reflects the breadth of the department’s role in creating a student-

centered learning environment, and in the college’s stewardship of the natural

environment.


Space Planning and Utilization

Campus Environment has established a systematic approach to the development of

college facilities that was lacking in the past. In the 2004-2005 school year, CE

developed the college’s first strategic plan for physical resources: the Campus Master

Plan. The Master Plan identified boundaries for the college’s development, and current

and future needs for classrooms, laboratories, residence halls, and other facilities.

Since then, the Master Plan has guided the acquisition and development of land and

buildings across the college as well as aspects of the physical branding of the college.

Furthermore, CE has developed a comprehensive schedule of maintenance and

routine upgrades and has developed multiyear major capital construction plans and

budgets. In addition, CE had successfully dealt with a number of major safety and code

issues, such as the recent work on building facades.

Ongoing space planning is managed through two committees. One committee that

includes the deans and the provost focuses on academic and student spaces. A

second committee, composed of members of the Cabinet, including the interim provost

and the vice president of student affairs, deals with broader issues of space

management and development. The head of CE chairs the first group, and co-chairs

the second (with VP of planning and compliance). The support and operations team

reports some ongoing confusion among faculty and staff about how space planning

functions. I direct CE and Research, Evaluation and Planning to work on improving

communication in this area.

I concur with the support and operations team that CE should take better advantage of

technology to manage and schedule classrooms and other spaces for academic and

student purposes. The team also reports problems with the assignment, progress, and

tracking of work orders. Therefore, I direct CE to partner with the CIO to determine the

sources of the problems and to pursue appropriate solutions for space and work order

management. This might include new systems or system upgrades, training, or

adjustments to current workflow and policies. I am therefore requesting that such

software be installed. Reference has been made to the inadequate and ineffective

systems of R25. If this indeed is true, this office needs to research what systems would

be appropriate and make the recommendations accordingly. Some may suggest,

however, that the problem may not lie in the system, but in the inadequate training of

those assigned to work with it. The leader of this area needs to work with the CIO to

determine what the appropriate solution should be.


Facilities and Operations

Facilities and Operations, which encompasses building services, engineering,

construction, housekeeping, and recycling, is Campus Environment’s largest area of

responsibilities. The maintenance needs of the college’s buildings have not lessened

with the economic downturn. Consequently, the college has reduced spending on

renovations and upgrades in order to maintain safety, security and basic operation of

its facilities. Although the funding outlook is unclear, Campus Environment should work

with the space-planning committees to develop a prioritized schedule of academic and

student space renovation and upgrade needs. The college may not be able to pursue

these projects aggressively, but it is important to understand and set priorities to such

needs.

Additional funding for capital projects from the State of Illinois is possible. The state

awarded Columbia a $5 million construction grant. Due to the current economic

situation, the college has received only $1.2 million. The college remains hopeful that it

will receive the balance of that funding, and plans to use that funding for projects on

the multi-year construction plan already approved by the Campus Environment

Committee of the board of trustees.

Campus Environment makes significant use of consultants, which is both good and

bad. Consultants give the college access to experts and specialized skills without

adding permanent staff. The financial advantage, however, dissipates when the college

employs consultants for the same services on a regular basis. Campus Environment

must evaluate its use of consultants versus staff and reduce its current overall

expenditure for consultants by $1 million per year.

In regard to housekeeping, I note that the contract for housekeeping services is due to

expire. Therefore, CE should investigate other options and invite other companies to

respond to a Request for Proposal. The Request for Proposal process should focus on

improving services and lowering costs.

Lastly, Campus Environment has led the college’s “green efforts.” They established the

practice of applying LEED standards whenever possible to campus construction

projects and secured the college’s first LEED-certified renovations and its first LEED-

certified building, the Media Production Center. The department has fostered many

other green initiatives including a campuswide recycling program. However, recycling at

the college has matured to the point where housekeeping can assume the duties of

the stand-alone recycling unit. Regarding recycling of electronic equipment and

supplies, housekeeping will work with IT on this state-mandated initiative for which the

college has obtained state funding. These two units will bear responsibility for meeting

all relevant state and federal regulations and for all related reporting.


Safety and Security

The Office of Campus Safety and Security utilizes contract services to carry out one of

its major responsibilities. As these contracts are due to expire, CE should investigate

other options and invite other companies to respond to a Request for Proposal (RFP).

The RFP process should focus on improving services, using technology more

effectively, and lowering costs. CE responded quickly in the aftermath of the tragedy at

Virginia Tech and developed a comprehensive campus emergency response plan. CE

should review that plan, now in its seventh year, and update it to reflect current

emergency needs and best practices. CE should give particular attention to

opportunities to use technology to reduce response time and lower costs.

General Counsel

The college will maintain the Office of the General Counsel (GCO) with its current

responsibilities and organization. In response to the support and operations team’s

observation that the college community does not understand the purpose and

priorities of the GCO or the office’s value to the college, I will direct the GCO to take

specific steps to improve communication with faculty and staff about its roles and

responsibilities.

In broad terms, the Office of the General Counsel has responsibility for managing the

legal aspects of the college’s contractual relationships: litigating on the college’s

behalf: working with administrators, faculty, and staff to limit litigation: and advising

the administration and the board on a wide range of legal issues. A primary goal of the

office is to minimize the college’s financial exposure on legal and regulatory matters. I

will not ask the GCO to “devise a strategic plan that addresses their objectives in

addressing key litigation matters,” as requested by the support and operations team. It

is not possible for the GCO to devise such a plan since the office cannot plan for

litigation and the office’s priorities change with the business at hand.

I will ask the GCO to continue offering a variety of workshops and seminars for

managers regarding issues of law and college policy that govern relationships with

faculty, staff, and students. The purpose of these workshops is to ensure that

managers understand and follow the law as well as related college policies and

procedures. The workshops are offered in conjunction with Human Resources and

Student Affairs.


Lastly, I will direct the GCO to complete its work on two outstanding matters as

promptly as possible. Work continues on an employee handbook and an intellectual

property policy. Regarding intellectual property, a basic difference of opinion exists

among various offices in the college about sharing these property rights between the

college and its faculty and students. That is not a legal question for the GCO to resolve.

As president, I will review the proposed policies and approve a final plan before the fall

semester.

Human Resources

The college will maintain the Office of Human Resources (HR) with its current

responsibilities and organization. The college will not consolidate HR and the Payroll

Office; however I will direct the two departments to work together more closely to

streamline operations and delivery of services. IT will address the need for upgraded

technology in HR. The head of HR position is now vacant. The new head of HR will

serve as an associate vice president reporting to the vice president of business

affairs/CFO.

Human Resources at Columbia is a relatively small operation with three main areas of

responsibility: benefits, training, and development. Because these functions are linked

and the staff is small, each staff member has multiple responsibilities and is cross-

trained. The support and operations team reports that the larger campus community

does not understand HR functions very well. Therefore, the office must provide more

training and improve communications to faculty and staff. The support and operations

team recommends relocating the Payroll Office from Business Affairs to Human

Resources. Although that appears logical at face value, the college’s external auditor

advocates keeping these functions separate. (See the Payroll section for more detail.)

Both the office and the team expressed concerns about the IT systems used in HR and

the impact on HR operations. For example, improved IT support will facilitate the

development of standard job category definitions and pay scales. IT must work with HR

to upgrade or replace the technology that supports this critical area of college

operations. More specifically, the team raised questions about HR’s ability to maintain

the PeopleSoft IRIS system. Business Affairs will address these questions as part of a

comprehensive review of the college’s use of PeopleSoft systems that is now

underway. Within the next six months the college will decide whether to upgrade its

PeopleSoft systems or replace them. HR and Campus Environment are part of those

discussions. Either way, IT will provide appropriate training to staff in the end-user

departments.


Finally, in response to expressed concerns, the Office of the General Counsel will give

the staff in Human Resources additional training in employee and labor relations.

Institutional Advancement

Institutional Advancement (IA) serves three major functions for the college: marketing;

alumni relations, and fundraising, including grants. In the area of marketing, the

college will consolidate marketing activity collegewide with a small reduction in overall

resources and a strong focus on student recruiting. This new centralized marketing unit

will report to the senior vice president. (See Office of the President and Cabinet.) The

college will build a strong collaboration among alumni relations, career initiatives and

internships. Regarding grants and fundraising, the college has set ambitious goals for a

major gift campaign and will hold IA accountable for its responsibilities to the

campaign. In addition, the college will restructure its grants function to operate more

effectively in a new environment.

Columbia came late to the arenas of development (i.e., gifts and grants), institutional

marketing and alumni relations. Until very recently, the college gave little attention to

these functions. Historically, the college attracted students and gained recognition for

its outreach programs with a minimum of marketing. Development and alumni

relations, on the other hand, were largely overlooked. Within the last eight years the

college consolidated a full suite of services — marketing, alumni relations, creative

services and fundraising — into a single unit responsible for the overall advancement of

the whole institution. Since then, the college has experienced significant improvements

in fundraising activity and alumni outreach, yet much remains to be done.

The support and operations team recommends restructuring and changing the name

of the Office of Institutional Advancement. They argue that advancement is only one

area of responsibility whereas the other areas concentrate on external communication.

Although I concur with their recommendations regarding how these two emphases

should be organized, industry practice points to the use of the term “advancement” as

the umbrella for all the activities for a unit of this nature. The common thread is that all

the activities under this umbrella advance the interests of the college among its

external constituents.

Marketing

At present, marketing responsibility is split between units in three vice presidential

areas, Institutional Advancement, Student Affairs, and Academic Affairs. That division

is a point of contention and lost opportunities. The rationale for decentralized

marketing rests on the argument that each unit serves a distinct audience with specific

marketing needs. In Academic Affairs the focus is public engagement with performance

series, attendance at the museum, and participation in the activities of the centers and

institutes. In Student Affairs prospective students and their parents are the focus.


Institutional Advancement focuses on general public perception of the college “brand,”

friend-building, and development. The argument runs that, because the audiences are

different, the messages must be different and, therefore, only specialized staff can

deliver the message. In essence, each unit believes that it is promoting a different

version of the college.

I reject this notion. Decentralized marketing has fragmented the college brand and

limited the impact of our marketing investments. Many departments, institutes, and

centers use marketing materials that do not reference the college and some sponsor

activities only tangentially related to Columbia’s mission. Therefore, the time has come

to centralize all of our marketing and public relations responsibilities into one unit.

The college will consolidate the marketing staff and functions in Institutional

Advancement, Enrollment Management, CJE, MoCP, Dance, and the Glass Curtain

Gallery into a single unit reporting to the senior vice president. Creative Services will be

part of the new college marketing department. The college will combine the marketing

budgets of these units, and the consolidated unit will make all marketing decisions on

the understanding that student recruitment is the top priority in all endeavors.

This new marketing unit will reduce the current college-wide marketing staff by two

positions. The new unit will assign staff to support specific entities in the college as

well as general institutional marketing support. In addition, the new unit will expand

web development support for the schools and academic departments. All members of

the unit will collaborate on the placement, cost, type, frequency, etc. of all marketing

and PR efforts.

The consolidated marketing unit will work closely with Enrollment Management on

marketing to prospective students and their parents. Specifically, the associate vice

presidents of enrollment management and of institutional marketing and

communications will meet annually to plan the student-recruitment portion of the

budget.

Finally, to ensure the best understanding of how and where to best reach prospective

students, the new marketing unit will employ 10 student interns from the Marketing

Communication department at Columbia. Institutional Marketing and Communications

will work with faculty members in Marketing Communication to choose students for

these positions.


Alumni Relations

Columbia is more engaged with its alumni than at any time in its history, but we still

have a long way to go toward state-of-the-art alumni relations. In recent years, the

college has built a national alumni organization with a board of officers representing

each region of the country. The college has also initiated annual alumni weekend

events; launched an alumni publication (DEMO); and held meetings for the alumni

leadership at least twice a year. Nevertheless, a significantly smaller percent of our

alumni contribute to Columbia as compared to alumni giving at peer institutions.

Similarly, an extremely low number of our alumni participate in alumni activities.

I charge Alumni Relations with the following three-prong purpose: (1) support new

alumni in their transition from students to alumni; (2) helping mid-career alumni

connect and network and in some cases upgrade skills and; (3) engaging alumni of all

ages in an ongoing relationship with Columbia that builds alumni giving. Regarding the

last item, the college expects a serious improvement in the percentage and amount of

alumni giving over the next five years.

In addition, the college has an opportunity to engage recent alumni, who have the most

current experience with the college, in student recruiting. Alumni Relations should work

with Enrollment Management to create an alumni recruiting corps to augment the

professional recruiting staff. Columbia alumni live in all fifty states. With the proper

training, our alumni can reach out to prospective students, participate in recruitment

fairs, and present real-world examples of the value and benefit of a Columbia

education. This is an opportunity to save on travel and other expenses, but more

importantly, it is an opportunity to bring prospective students face-to-face with one of

our best marketing tools – the success of our alumni.

To serve the career interests of our alumni, the college will form a working partnership

between Alumni Relations and Career Initiatives, which includes the Portfolio Center

and the Internship Office. Career Initiatives supports students in their transition from

college to work and supports alumni in their post-college lives. Alumni Relations brings

outreach knowledge and networks to this partnership; Career Initiatives brings career

building expertise and contacts. The college will create a welcoming, full-service alumni

“hub” on campus by bringing these units physically together at a central and visible

location. The units will retain their current reporting relationships to Institutional

Advancement and Student Affairs, respectively. Through this partnership, the college

will break down a silo and improve service for current and future alumni.


Fundraising

Three units within IA have responsibility for fundraising: Alumni Relations, annual and

special campaigns (primarily individual gifts), and Foundation and Government Grants.

I direct the vice president of institutional advancement to set specific annual goals for

each unit and to evaluate the units throughout the year, as well as during annual

reviews, on their achievement of those goals. For example, Prospect Management and

Donor Relations should provide a minimum of 10 vetted and qualified prospects for

each of the campaigns.

Foundation and Government Grants

Institutional Advancement must give particular attention to foundation and government

grants as the environment for government grants has changed radically in the past few

years. The college has a good history of securing federal and state grants. For example,

over the past four years the federal government provided approximately $5.5 million of

research support to Interactive Multimedia. The federal government, however, has

suspended earmarks, at least temporarily. Similarly, the college secured approval of a

$5 million State of Illinois capital construction grant. However, to date, the college has

only received $1.2 million capital construction grants from the State of Illinois. Clearly,

Columbia, along with other institutions, must rethink its strategies for obtaining federal

and state grants.

Lastly, Institutional Advancement should investigate restructuring the grants unit to

provide better grant-writing and development support to the academic departments.

Working with the Center for Innovation in Teaching Excellence, the unit should improve

service for faculty seeking restricted research grants. In addition, the unit must build

more effective relationships with educational, cultural and other types of foundations

to obtain grants for technology and innovative programs.

Research, Evaluation, and Planning

The Office of Research, Evaluation, and Planning (REP) will report to the senior vice

president and will reintegrate the functions of enrollment research and academic

evaluation and assessment. The office will establish a strategic planning council to

work with the administration on the development and implementation of college plans.

The college will maintain resources for REP.


REP’s responsibilities encompass institutional research, planning, evaluation,

compliance, and accreditation. In fall 2009, the office was reorganized. As a result, the

office’s research and evaluation functions were decentralized across the college. The

interim provost observes that this decentralization has resulted in duplication of effort

and has caused issues related to the consistency, validity, and relevance of

information provided to the college by research staff. Since REP was reorganized, staff

from the decentralized research units have tried to coordinate their efforts.

Nevertheless, the split resulted in fragmented knowledge about critical college issues.

The interim provost recommends reuniting these functions within the Office of the

Provost. The support and operations team, on the other hand, recommends “dissolving

the Office of Research, Evaluation, and Planning and dispersing its functions to already

existing areas of the college to promote efficiency and effectiveness.” Reunifying the

college’s research and evaluation functions within REP will best serve the college as it

responds to the urgent and complex challenges in its educational, financial and

regulatory environment. Consolidating the college’s research functions in REP will be

most effective because the office functions from an institutional perspective and its

work transcends silos. The reunited Office of Research, Evaluation, and Planning will

best support and empower the college from an institutional perspective by reporting to

the senior vice president, the office responsible for carrying out the college’s strategic

plan. As the vice president of planning and compliance comments, “synerg[y] between

planning, research, evaluation (i.e., effectiveness), and by extension compliance and

accreditation are well established as good practice in higher education.”

Enrollment management is an area of great importance and urgency to the college and

therefore, REP will give particular attention to this area. The office will dedicate specific

staff to focus on enrollment issues and will form an enrollment research advisory group

that will include staff from Enrollment Management. The assistant vice president of

planning/director of institutional research and the associate vice president of

enrollment management will set an annual enrollment research agenda. The two

departments will collaborate to present the results of enrollment research to the

college community.


Student Affairs

The vice president of student affairs manages a wide-ranging group of services to

students before and after matriculation. Enrollment Management works with students

from initial inquiry through admissions. The Dean of Students Office works with

enrolled students from new student orientation through graduation. As the support and

operations team observed, Student Affairs is the common thread in the full “life cycle”

of the student experience. The college will retain the current structure of Student

Affairs, but will study the issues raised by the team about continuity of service

throughout students’ Columbia experience and about overlapping functions. The

college will reduce somewhat the overall funding for Student Affairs. The vice president

of student affairs should review the allocation of funds within Student Affairs when the

Strategic Enrollment Plan is complete. Development of that plan, which is based upon

the recommendations of the Maguire Report, is now in progress. (See Enrollment

Management for more on the Maguire Report.) The college will track the progress of

international recruiting, particularly in China, and may add resources in the future as

warranted.

Please see the introduction of the Blueprint for Action for discussion of the related

topics of admissions standard, enrollment size, tuition, student aid, and graduate

education.

Student Affairs was organized as a stand-alone entity a little more than a decade ago.

In that time it has grown rapidly and made an immeasurable impact on the quality of

the student experience at Columbia. Student Affairs can claim a long list of

accomplishments including creating an vibrant campus life for students; launching

Manifest and Industry Night; redesigning new student orientation; creating services

and a response system for students in crisis; revamping communication with students

using the web and social media; championing the body of work concept; guiding the

creation of a student government; co-leading a college-wide retention initiative and the

list goes on. On the enrollment side, Student Affairs led a long period of sustained

enrollment growth and geographic expansion and introduced many nationally

recognized innovations in student recruitment. Their record of accomplishment is truly

remarkable, and the pace of change is breathtaking.


Blueprint | Prioritization gives us a much needed opportunity to breathe, reflect, and

take stock of which programs and services have the greatest impact on student

success. This will allow Student Affairs and the college to identify successful activities

that other programs might emulate, and on the other hand, identify less successful

activities to consolidate or phase out in order to focus resources on the most impactful

programs. The support and operations team did a very good job of painting the big

picture of the opportunities and challenges as Student Affairs moves forward. They

raise important questions about clarity and continuity of service and about duplication

of effort. Although at this time the college will not pursue the reorganization, or

renaming, of Student Affairs that the team suggests, their recommendations bear

further thought. I ask the vice president of student affairs to lead an assessment of

Student Affairs’ activities referencing the support and operations

team’srecommendations, and prepare a brief report to the college by summer 2013.

Enrollment Management

As mentioned above, Enrollment Management, which includes Undergraduate

Admissions, Enrollment Management Research, Records and the Graduate Office (see

below for the Graduate Office) led a period of sustained growth that reached a historic

high in academic year 2008-2009. Since then, Enrollment Management has continued

to draw increasing numbers of applications, but the college now faces significant

challenges in converting those applications into enrollments.

The challenges are well known. The economy makes it harder for students and their

families to afford private colleges. The number of college age students has declined

among Columbia’s historic Midwestern enrollment base, and the college faces greater

competition from other colleges and universities with programs in the arts, media, and

communications. Columbia has responded with an aggressive increase in student aid

and expanded out-of-region recruiting, including an exciting new partnership with a

university in China. (See the discussion of aid in the introduction of this plan.) Out-of-

region recruiting has yielded promising results; both applications and enrollments are

up. However, the yield rate for out-of-state applications is notably lower. This fact is not

surprising or atypical, but it does mean that the return on our recruiting investment is

lower.


Clearly, the college has more work to do in this area, and the old adage that you can’t

keep doing the same thing over and over and expect different results applies.

Consequently, in academic year 2010-2011, the college undertook a review of

undergraduate recruiting and admissions, commonly referred to as the “Maguire

Report.” Maguire Associates, a nationally known consulting group that specializes in

enrollment issues, conducted the review for the college. The Maguire Report makes

recommendations in the areas of market position and communications; strategic use

of aid; transfer student recruitment; recruitment strategies and tactics and retention

strategies and tactics.

At the beginning of the current academic year, I charged a Strategic Enrollment Team

led by the vice president of student affairs and the vice president of planning and

compliance with developing a comprehensive undergraduate enrollment action plan

based upon the recommendations in the Maguire Report. I expect to receive that plan

before the end of this summer. In the meantime, the college has already begun to act

on some of the recommendations, for example in web based communication and

transfer-friendly recruiting and admissions practices. Additionally, the college adopted

a plan to make more strategic use of student aid beginning with the class entering in

fall 2012.

In their report, Maguire Associates lauded the college, and more specifically Enrollment

Management, for its many innovative recruiting and retention initiatives. However they

recommended a thorough evaluation of the outcomes of all the various activities. For

both recruitment and retention, Maguire saw opportunities to accomplish more through

a smaller number of proven, and more focused, activities. In the area of recruitment,

for example, one of their recommendations was to, “create an organic enrollment

operation by trimming away 10 percent -15 percent of the least effective current

practices to invest in proven programs and new ideas.” They also noted that, after such

a consolidation of effort, the college might determine that it should increase its overall

investment in recruiting. The vice president of student affairs will examine the

allocation of Student Affairs resources to recruitment when the strategic enrollment

plan is finished.


Regarding admissions marketing, the Maguire Report observes that,

An observation of concern is that the level of communication between the Marketing and Enrollment divisions is limited. Columbia’s ability to recruit students from the combined efforts of these operations is curtailed as a result. Overall brand management, which should reside in the office with an institution-wide focus (Marketing), is similarly compromised by the decentralized model. The messaging systems should be closely integrated and mutually supportive. And the needs of the enrollment effort should be seen as a high priority, since Columbia is so tuition dependent.

I agree with their observation and a similar analysis by the support and

operations team. Therefore, as described in the Institutional Advancement

section of this plan, the college will create a centralized Institutional Marketing

and Communications unit reporting to the senior vice president. Direct and

indirect support for student recruitment is the new units’ highest priority.

Graduate Office

The vice president of student affairs notes that the Graduate Office, which includes

graduate admissions and graduate services relocated to Student Affairs about three

years ago. In that time it has transformed how the college recruits and works with

graduate students. He notes, as I do elsewhere in this document, that the college lacks

a clear and consistent vision for graduate education. I agree and have asked the

interim provost to convene a task force to address this issue. The task force will

include a member of the Graduate Office staff.

The support and operations team recommends splitting the functions of the Graduate

Office between Admissions and Student Development. However, the college will keep

the current Graduate Office structure. I understand the team’s logic, but graduate

admissions and services are sufficiently unique from their undergraduate counterparts,

that a separate graduate office is the more effective approach.

Student Development/Student Health and Support/Student Life

Reporting to the Dean of Students, the areas of student development, student health

and support and student life encompass more than twenty programs including critical

functions such as advising, student health and career services, plus the full gamut of

student life activities, events and spaces. In the support and operations team’s “life

cycle” concept, the office of the Dean of Students takes students from orientation

through to graduation and beyond. This area of Student Affairs, even more than

Enrollment Management, has transformed dramatically over the last dozen years. The

improvements in the student experience are impressive.


I agree with the support and operations team that, after many years of growth and

expansion, and given the college’s changed circumstances, it is time for assessment,

reflection, and refocus on programs with the strongest impact on student outcomes

order. The Student Government Association, for example, raises serious questions

about how well advising works for students. Unlike the support and operations team, I

do not believe that the college has enough information yet to make substantial

changes. More study is needed. The vice president of student affairs and the dean of

students should organize such a study and report back to the college within the next

academic year.

Two areas stand out for immediate consideration. First, there are four student

communications directors: print, on-line, web and regular communications. In today’s

multiplatform communications environment, some consolidation of these functions is

called for. Second, the support and operations team concludes that student health and

support services are not delivered in a holistic manner and they recommend a

consolidation of functions. Because all of these services already report to the same

assistant dean, and serve different, if related, purposes, I do not agree with the team’s

recommendation to consolidate. However, the four units should develop better lines of

communication for seamless delivery of their services.

Other sections of this report discuss changes in the delivery of career services and the

management of college events, including student events. First, to serve the career

interests of our alumni, the college will form a working partnership between Alumni

Relations and Career Initiatives, which includes the Portfolio Center and the Internship

Office. Career Initiatives supports students in their transition from college to work and

supports alumni in their post-college lives. Alumni Relations brings outreach knowledge

and networks to this partnership; Career Initiatives brings career-building expertise and

contacts. The college will move all of these functions to the same physical space, but

will retain the current reporting lines to Institutional Advancement and Student Affairs,

respectively. For a longer discussion of this item, see the section on Institutional

Advancement.

Second, the support and operations team recommends more centralized management

of events and “a pared down slate of college-wide events for all audiences.” This

recommendation applies to departments and offices across the college, including

some in Student Affairs. To manage the overall scope of events at the college and help

coordinate event planning and support, the college will establish a centralized events

management office within the Office of the President. See the section of this plan on

the Office of the President for more information.


Finally, a note about student activity fees: Some of the programs in Student Affairs are

funded by fees designated for particular purposes. These fees are recommended by

the SGA. The college has an obligation to use revenue from these fees for the intended

purposes. Nevertheless, Student Affairs and the college have an obligation to ensure

that these fees are supporting effective and efficiently managed programs.

Consequently, Student Affairs must evaluate these programs as rigorously as it does

other functions.

Appendices


Appendices

Appendix 1: Organizational Charts

Support and Operations Senior Level


Instructional Programs


Centers


Appendix 2: Concept Maps

Engagement Collaboration w/ Faculty &

Peers

Flexible Curricular Pathways

Trans-disciplinary Multi-platform Programs

Distinct Learning

Environment for Creative

Individuals

Integrated Learning Within and Across Domains

Leading - Edge

Student Centered

Arts, Media and

Communications

Learning

Simulated Professional

Working Environment

[Facilities &

Community]

Arts, Media

Communications

Learning Outreach

and Partnerships

Pre-K-12 and Community Based Arts Education

Robust E-learning &

E-inquiry

New and Re-designed

Programs

Robust E-empowerd

Collaboration, Communication

& Support

Research & Information

Skills

Building a Body of Work

Programs for Adult

Learners

Exemplar Faculty

Practitioners & Scholars

Critical Career Skills

Co-curricular Learning

Global Perspective

FOCUS ONE: STUDENT LEARNING

March 2011

Integration UG LAS

Core


Rebuild UG to at Least 2008 Level

Strengthen Regional

New Freshmen

Base

Increase Persistence

to Graduation

Pursue Market Opportunities: Out-of-region, International,

Transfers, Adult Students

Moderate Grad Growth/

Enhanced Reputation/

Financial Sustainability

Small High Resource Programs

Improve Applicant

Pool Profile

Larger Low Resource Programs

Maintain Diversity

Build Reputation and Value

Proposition

March 2011

FOCUS TWO: ENROLLMENT


Student Recruiting & Persistence

Facilities Development

Academic Program Development

Adult Education

Student Learning Experience

Strategic Productivity Initiatives

Competitive Student Costs

Strategic Use of Aid

Moderate Inst’l Aid Increases

Moderate Tuition Rate Increases

Funding Priorities Driven By

Plan

Decreased Institutional

Program Commitments

Strategic Reallocation

Increased Operating

Productivity

Increased Fund Raising

[Scholarships,Facilities,

Endowment]

Moderate Tuition Revenue Growth

March 2011

FOCUS THREE: FINANCES

Strategic Expenditure Priorities


Appendix 3: Glossary

American Sign Language/English Interpretation ASL Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management AEMM Audio Arts and Acoustics AAA Bachelor of Arts BA Bachelor of Fine Arts BFA Business Affairs BA Campus Environment CE Center for Black Music Research CBMR Center for Community Arts Partnerships CCAP Center for Instructional Technology CIT Center for Teaching Excellence CTE Chicago Jazz Ensemble CJE Chief Financial Officer CFO Chief Information Officer CIO Dance Movement Therapy DMT English as a Second Language ESL Higher Education Price Index HEPI Human Resources HR Humanities, History and Social Sciences HHSS Information Technology IT Institutional Advancement IA Interactive Arts and Media IAM Master's Degree MA Museum of Contemporary Photography MoCP Program Information Request PIR Request for Proposals RFP Research, Evaluation and Planning REP School of Fine and Performing Arts FPA School of Liberal Arts and Sciences LAS Student Financial Services SFS

PHOTOGRAPHY: Tim Klein

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