California Lutheran University hosted a Town Hall Meeting last Tuesday, led by Interim University President John Nunes and his cabinet in Ullman 100/101, and was standing room only. Nunes also said the meeting was preceded by a Board of Regents meeting that took place the evening prior.
“I’d say it was a very positive meeting,” Nunes said. “I began by thanking faculty and staff for all they do to serve our community, to serve one another, and to serve our students, which are our priority.”
Nunes said that low enrollment and retention issues is what has caused financial problems for the university. Rick Ysasi, vice president for Administration and Finance said the sudden and significant loss of students during the COVID-19 pandemic has made higher education more volatile, and that it’s difficult for Cal Lutheran to maintain consistency in what it offers to students, both current and prospective.
Ysasi also said the university is working to balance its function on both a business side and as an educational institution.
“We’re in the business of higher education, but we’re not a for-profit organization,” Nunes said. “That’s the balance that Mr. Ysasi is talking about.”
Nunes said Tuesday’s Town Hall focused on discussing how to improve the overall student experience at Cal Lutheran, and how solutions could be implemented to both attract and retain prospective and current students. He said the cabinet has seen evidence that the university is “heading in the wrong direction” when it comes to the current student experience.
Matt Ward, vice president for Enrollment Management and Student Success, shared detailed reporting on enrollment numbers during the meeting, and provided The Echo with the same presentation he delivered.
Ward said Cal Lutheran’s Net Promoter Score, a metric used to measure customer loyalty and how likely a surveyant is to recommend an institution by word of mouth, declined for all three surveyed groups.
According to the presentation provided by Ward, scores of 9 or 10 are called ‘promoters’ while scores of 0-6 are called ‘detractors.’ The NPS score is equal to the difference between promoters and detractors. A score of 7 or 8 is considered passive, and is ignored from the solution.
The traditional undergraduate group’s NPS was a -1 out of 100, down from last year’s score of 5, the graduate group scored a 15, down from last year’s score of 22, and the professionals group scored a 55 NPS, down from 65 in 2023.
Nunes said the university is currently in the process of forming two “Innovation Task Forces,” one short term, and one long term. Nunes said that the latter, named the “moonshot” group after President John F. Kennedy’s long term goal of putting a man on the moon, aims to focus on big differences the university can implement to give the university an innovative and “compelling” edge in higher education.
“He had this visionary, encompassing, galvanizing goal for the nation,” Nunes said. “We’re trying to create that also here for California Lutheran, a vision that’s a long term vision, and a vision that’s a short term group.”
Nunes said the short term group will examine more immediate ways to increase revenue, cut university spending, and think about how the university operates to make a difference in the current budgetary situation.
Nunes said there are 20 members of the short term group and 17 members of the long term “moonshot” group, including faculty, staff, Board of Regents members, and members of Nunes’ president’s advisory council from across the country.
Nunes said the groups will focus on creative opportunities for students in order for the university to be less reliant on enrollment and retention revenue, including looking to form partnerships with other business sectors, such as Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington.
“They have a very robust health sciences and nursing program, and they’re building a medical complex on their campus,” Nunes said.
Nunes said he’s not proposing Cal Lutheran pursue the same idea, but said it can be looked at as an example for Cal Lutheran to pursue creative partnerships that align well with the university’s current body of programs.
“Maybe we take some of the programs we have, which helps us keep our identity, and figure out a creative partnership like that,” Nunes said. “Look at some of the areas where we’re strong, and create something that will be a pathway to employment, will be a pathway to revenue.
Ward also said Cal Lutheran has a strategy to avoid delaying financial aid offers, an issue Ward said hurt enrollment last year as a product of the effort to streamline the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Ward said the university is working with an outside partner, to ask the same questions as the FAFSA in order to get an estimate of the financial need for students’ and their families, independent of the federal government.
Ward said he hopes to have financial aid packages to students by December 2024.
“It will require a little bit of extra work on the back end because data will have to be validated with what comes through the federal government, but it will allow us independence from the federal government’s timeline on delivering the needs analysis process,” Ward said.
While student needs remained the main focus of the meeting, Ysasi said the cabinet is also looking at ways to increase faculty employment and retention.
“We talked about the time, effort, and resources that go into recruiting and retaining students. It’s the same for faculty,” Ysasi said. “Significant amounts of time, efforts, resources, and energy goes into building programs here and identifying the best people to run those programs. It is not a flippant discussion.”
Ysasi said an annual compensation pool for faculty, as well as a “modest increase to the university’s retirement contributions,” were announced during the meeting.
“It’s really hard when you don’t have enough money to pay for all the things that matter to you, it’s really hard, and that’s the situation we’re in,” Nunes said. “That’s why we’re creating these task forces, to try to figure out new ways of generating revenue.”
