You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
sshepard/E+/Getty Images
Sustainability is far more than survivability.
As private college administrators, we have become adept at curating a positive and hopeful report for the trustees while managing to survive on the thinnest of margins. But being sustainable is about far more than whether an institution can survive year to year. Sustainability first requires defining our current mission in relation to what our world needs. Then we are tasked with determining whether we can fulfill that mission in a robust and sustained manner.
A venerable history is not a substitute for a current and compelling mission. As the higher education landscape changes—as the college-going rate declines along with the annual number of new high school graduates, as more high school students earn college credits through dual-enrollment programs, and as the advancement of technology opens up new opportunities for online learning—every postsecondary institution must ask the following questions: What does our world need? Does the world need us? What would happen if we no longer existed? Do we have the capacity and resources to substantially meet those needs?
If it is evident that the life cycle of our mission has reached its end, do we have the courage to bring about an orderly closure and a decommissioning, or maybe a recommissioning, of our facilities?
If it is evident the world needs us and our mission, then are we willing to place that mission above everything else, including the institution’s identity? Are we willing to do what is necessary to preserve, sustain, enhance and expand that mission, even if it means merging and/or consolidating with another private or public entity?
Once we determine if our mission is a needed one, we must determine how it can be fulfilled in a robust and sustained manner. While many colleges have managed to survive year to year for a century or more, the more important question is whether they are sustainable. When evaluating an institution’s sustainability, we must consider a number of vital signs that can be overlooked and/or ignored in considering the overall health of an institution.
Compensation Plans
Are your faculty and staff receiving cost-of-living raises? An institution is not truly sustainable if it cannot afford to address the increased cost of living.
Each of the private institutions that I led was not able to adjust salaries to keep up with the cost of living. Faculty who had been at the institution for decades and reached the rank of full professor had higher salaries but lower buying power than when they started.
While we rely on the mission-driven nature of our staff and faculty, we must address fair compensation in any attempt to reach sustainability. When presented with a financial sustainability plan, the trustees must ask how compensation is being addressed.
Plant Maintenance
Deferred maintenance can cover up a multitude of sins. Many institutions are managing to show marginal net revenue while falling deeper and deeper into increasing liabilities of deferred maintenance. In many cases, maintenance is done in reaction to a critical need rather than in a proactive manner. But proactive plant maintenance is not a luxury. It is critical. Many institutions, including ones I have served, are or were one major physical plant failure away from financial exigency.
Athletic Student Recruitment
Small private colleges are steadily increasing their reliance on athletics to increase enrollment. Recent additions include electronic sports, beach volleyball, bass fishing, bowling and on and on. Some have added junior varsity teams. While increasing enrollment numbers, these sports come with a cost that reduces net revenue per student. The costs of expanding athletics programs—maintenance of venues, equipment costs, travel expenses and compensation for coaches—diminishes that net revenue. In addition, athletic scholarships further increase the discounting of tuition, leaving even less possibility for net revenue. This is a revenue model that is unsustainable.
Academic Student Recruitment
By contrast, recruiting nonathletes generally leads to higher net revenue per student. However, attempting to recruit students to academic programs is a steep climb when an institution has underresourced programs, outdated equipment and academic facilities, and tired residence halls. The competition for academically talented students is fierce. There is still a place for colleges that can take underperforming students to greater academic heights, but this requires resources and services.
The Amenities Race
The campus amenities race has left many institutions far behind. One Tennessee public university has an aquatic and recreation center that has 14,000 square feet of exercise space, an indoor track, a rock-climbing wall, a cool water spa, a hot water spa, a lazy river and a two-story-tall, 156-foot-long water slide. A private college in North Carolina boasts of a high-end steak house and a first-run movie theater. We can certainly decry this reality, but it remains and the pace of the amenities race mounts.
Hyperpersonalization
Small private colleges had cornered the market on providing personal care and knowing each student. This value-added proposition is less relevant as artificial intelligence has brought extraordinary capacity to larger institutions that can afford to be at the forefront of the trend of hyperpersonalization. Meanwhile, small private colleges may be operating with outdated customer relationship management software that puts them at a further disadvantage.
Academic Support Services
Often, it is the colleges living on thin financial margins that are tasked with serving the least prepared students. In an effort to boost enrollment, colleges are tempted to drop admissions standards even further at the same time they may not be able to afford investing in the resources that are essential to help these students have even a chance to succeed. If it is our mission to serve these students, then we must truly be able to provide them with the resources and opportunities they need.
As we evaluate these vital signs, we must do so in the context of asking whether we truly have the capacity to provide what our world needs. Are we able to adapt and expand our mission to meet the needs of our students and the areas that we serve? Do we provide the access, affordability, variety and quality of programs and services to effectively respond to the needs of the region we serve?
A Mission-Driven Acquisition
In 2021, I shepherded the rebirth of Martin Methodist College as the University of Tennessee Southern. As the only four-year institution in the 13 counties of southern middle Tennessee, the 151-year-old Martin Methodist had a critical and compelling mission. The world we served needed us, but our capacity to meet the needs of our region and students was severely lacking. While we were managing year to year, we were falling behind in our capacity to carry out our critical mission. The COVID pandemic presented an existential challenge and widened our vision for sustaining our mission to include acquisition and merger. We were a private college serving a public mission, so why not consider becoming a public institution?
At the same time, the University of Tennessee system was not fully realizing its mission as a land-grant institution when a region of the state lacked any four-year public option. With Martin’s rebirth as the University of Tennessee Southern, higher education in southern middle Tennessee is now more affordable and accessible than ever. The institution’s capacity to serve its students and its region is growing exponentially. Faculty and staff are benefiting from increasing compensation and state benefits. Millions of dollars are being apportioned for upgrades to campus. Partnerships are being formed with other UT campuses to enhance the college’s offerings.
This is only one example of one compelling mission that went beyond survivability to a thriving sustainable model. A merger or acquisition may or may not be the right choice for every institution, but it’s imperative that the possibility of one be evaluated as part of a strategic planning process. If your institution is making it year to year in this environment, congratulations! That is a wonderful accomplishment. But it’s not enough.
