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Notre Dame College Self-Study Report

Chapter 3: Maintaining and Strengthening Quality Programs

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Self-Study Report

• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Criterion One - Mission and Integrity
• Chapter 3
  • Criterion Two - Preparing for the Future
  • Planning
  • Alignment
  • Maintaining and Strengthening Quality Programs
  • Institutional Effectiveness
  • Considerations
• Chapter 4: Criterion Three - Student Learning & Effective Teaching
• Chapter 5: Criterion Four - Acquisition, Discovery, and Application of Knowledge
• Chapter 6: Criterion Five - Engagement & Service
• Chapter 7: Conclusions

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  Higher Learning Commission Final Team Report

Notre Dame College’s resources are adequate for achievement of the educational quality it claims to provide.

Driven by increasing enrollment, especially with traditional full-time students, the College’s financial health has improved significantly. As illustrated by key operating figures shown in Table 3.4, tuition and fees (before scholarships were deducted), nearly tripled between 1999 and 2006, increasing 190 percent. The largest portion of that increase occurred between 2003 and 2006. The growth in traditional full-time students, TEEL^®, and graduate enrollment, which offset declines in WECO, is the key driver to the revenue growth. Virtually all of this growth occurred since 2003 and during the administration of President Roth.

Looking more closely, scholarships increased at a higher pace than tuition, reducing slightly the total impact of the increase in gross tuition. The important message here, however, is that the shrewd use of financial aid in combination with programmatic and recruiting initiatives have fueled the College’s financial recovery. Although the percentage of scholarships to tuition and fees has risen, it is equally important to note that the rate remains below most colleges in the region. Notre Dame, like all small colleges, has been forced to rely on an aggressive use of financial aid to make the College affordable to those who attend it. That the College is one of the most diverse institutions in the Midwest, that more than 20 percent of its students are minority students, that a very generous share of its students are first generation college attendees and, most significantly, that the College’s finances are stronger than at any time in the past 30 to 40 years attests to the success of its financial aid management.

Table 3.4: Key Operating Figures

View Table 3.4: Key Operating Figures
(PDF File Table3.4-Key-Operating-Figures.pdf, 7KB)

Further attesting to the skill of financial aid management is the fact that since 2003 the College’s growth in scholarships has not increased financial aid rate as compared to the scholarship growth during the 1999 to 2003 period. Scholarship levels rose at a greater pace in the period from 1999 to 2003 as the College moved to co-education and began its expansion in athletics. From 2003 until 2006, scholarships closely followed the growth in gross tuition and fees. According to Table 3.4, the average scholarship percent of tuition from 1999 to 2003 was 32 percent, rising to 36 percent from 2003 to 2006.

The resulting increase in net tuition revenues is the primary driver providing the financial resources required to increase instructional and departmental budgets, which are comprised primarily of salaries and benefits. Following the same pattern of increase as tuition and fees, instructional and departmental expense grew at a greater pace from 2003 to 2006 because the resources were available for such investment. Between 2003 and 2006, instructional and departmental expenses increased 85 percent, signifying the College’s commitment to invest in its core educational activities.

While undergoing this significant growth, the College has leveraged its investment in management and general expense. As indicated in Table 3.4, management and general expense only grew 47 percent from 1999 to 2006; more dramatically, during the period of the College’s greatest growth, those expenses declined by 11 percent between 2003 and 2006.

The College’s increase in net assets, the “bottom line” indicator of operating margins, has stabilized and shows strong health, especially when factoring the role of investment earnings into this result. Prior to 2003, investment earnings were heavily relied upon to offset operating deficits, and at times were an unpredictable source of funding. After adjusting for investment earnings, the operating margins declined significantly from 1999 to 2003 as a result of investments made by the College in its co-educational initiative. But clearly, enrollment remained below a normal “break even” point for many years and the inevitable financial distress soon followed. The enrollment growth since 2003 brought improvements that turned around the College’s financial performance and provided the resources to sustain growth and maintain educational quality. In sum, as indicated in Table 3.4, the College’s net assets decreased 11 percent between 1999 and 2006, with all of the loss occurring between 1999 and 2003. Since 2003, the College’s net assets have increased 40 percent, a sure sign of the College’s successful turnaround and improving financial future.

Notre Dame College uses its human resources effectively.

After many years of scarce resources challenging the College’s ability to maintain adequate staffing and provide competitive salaries, the College’s operating success has recently enabled it to attract and pay competitive salaries for talent adequate for reaching its intended goals. For example, the Director of Nursing, the Director of the Academic Support Center, the increased number of full-time faculty members, the Director of Campus Ministry, the new Special Assistant to the President for Mission Effectiveness, the new Associate Dean for Student Affairs, and the soonto- be-hired Director of Campus Safety illustrate the College’s commitment to enhancing its human resources. Staffing changes described in Table 3.5 illustrate that between 2003 and 2006 the College has added 23 new fulltime positions; half of those are full-time faculty members.

To attract skilled staffing, the College relies on the following recruiting techniques.

• Retired individuals seeking supplemental income or retirement programs,

• Tuition stipends for experienced individuals seeking college degrees or having college-aged children, and

• Strategic partnering (outsourcing) to focus on core business and related human resource development. Each provides localized managerial support plus competitive compensation, bringing talent and stability to these functions. Examples are the bookstore, high-tech facility maintenance, janitorial services, information technology (IT), food service, and security services.

Recommendation: For future partnering ventures, core service measurement and evaluation techniques will be required to prevent further dilution of current efficiencies. This will be particularly important in IT, security, and maintenance.

Table 3.5: Human Resource Changes

View Table 3.5: Human Resource Changes
(PDF File Table3.5-Changes-Staffing.pdf, 7KB)

Notre Dame College intentionally develops its human resources to meet future changes.

The College has been unable to afford a college-wide program of human resource development. As a result, no common assessment or approach evolved. Accordingly, development is addressed in each functional group, that is, academics pursue its own path, the Athletic Department its own path and to a large extent each functional area pursues its own professional development agenda. This has resulted in a mixture of techniques, frequently the lack of any developmental activities at all and, in general, uneven performance. Some areas flourish, as for example the reinvented undergraduate admissions operation, while others languish. To meet future changes, such as growing the College to an enrollment base that is double its current size, human resource development will be an important factor. More specifically Human Resources will need the following:

• A performance assessment and management process that links rewards with performance,

• Skills and tools to attract evaluate and retain high performing individuals to grow the College, and

• Special skills for “change management” to assist the organization through a process of rapid change.

Currently, the Human Resource Department is understaffed and focuses primarily on payroll, benefits, and key personnel transactions. Resolving these issues will be an important part of Strategic Thinking and strategic planning processes unfolding at the College over the next 18 to 24 months. Preliminary conversations and the Self-Study process itself have identified the following short term opportunities for human resources improvement:

• Consider a program for graduating seniors (with interest in graduate degrees) for entry level jobs,

• Expand graduate programs to attract Graduate Assistant candidates (key areas are coaching, residence life roles),

• Design development programs in critical areas such as Adult Admissions, Finance, and Financial Aid,

• Implement a performance based compensation system along with an effective feedback and communication process,

• New administrative database system will require new skills and integration,

• Break down and eliminate functional divides in critical areas (follow the example of Admissions and Athletics) to bring about synergy, cross-training and backup skills. Examples include:

– Faculty advising and the Advising Center,

– Admissions and the Advising Center (promote student retention), and

– Student Development, athletics and faculty (promote student retention, development, and discipline).

Notre Dame College’s history of financial resource development and investment documents a forward-looking concern for ensuring educational quality (e.g., investments in faculty development, technology, learning support services, new or renovated facilities).

The College’s commitment to faculty development, the establishment of the Faculty Development Fund and its commitment to learning support services are documented in Chapter One of this Self-Study Report.

The renovation of campus housing, the Keller Athletic Center, the second floor of the Clara Fritzsche Library, Harks Hall and new classrooms and laboratories in the Administration Building are documented in Chapter One of this Self-Study Report.

The College’s continuing investments in technology include:

2002
Notre Dame College entered into a contract with Adventures in Automation to effectively outsource the entire Information Technology (IT) department. This saves the College about $70,000 annually and provides it with improved coverage. Adventures in Automation not only provides a higher quality technician, but it has the flexibility of re-assigning people to other clients during the Summer, thus absorbing training costs that were previously paid by Notre Dame College. Experts in certain fields are brought in on an hourly basis when needed at a deeply discounted rate. The contract was renewed and is currently in effect through August 2007.

The e-mail system was upgraded to allow all users to access their e-mail from the Internet. Users can now access accounts without being on campus.

A public, touch-screen kiosk was installed on the ground floor near the bookstore. This allows users to access campus event information without logging onto a computer.

2003
Computers were added to Joe Beans coffee bar in Connelly Hall as an Internet access point in a recreational setting.

Infrastructure changes were made in the Rinehart Room which allow the campus to host large, computer-based events such as the Summer computer camps. For these camps, a temporary lab is created with Internet access for 50 to 60 simultaneous connections.

2004
As prompted by the College’s auditors, Adventures in Automation installed a storage device on the College’s network that holds all critical weekly backups at an off-site location. The normal weekly backups are also stored off-site.

2006
In anticipation of online learning, Notre Dame College restructured the Internet lines from a shared to a segregated system. The College experienced no unscheduled downtime since the change was made. The capacity of the business side was doubled to two T-1 lines. The residence halls and computer labs were isolated onto a third T-1 line which does not interact with the business side. The resultant decrease in viruses, spam, and malware has been dramatic. The capacity is now available for the anticipated increase in online learning traffic.

The server farm was upgraded from an NT4.0 operating system to an active directory based 2003 server operating system with the exception of the two 2000 servers that are running non-2003 compatible applications. At the time the e-mail server was upgraded, a new firewall on the business side with the capability of spam filtering was also installed. All of the data on the network and the permission structures were re-organized in order to share files among staff, faculty, and students. The system was fully implemented. The result was 90 percent effectiveness of eliminating spam from entering the system.

The student-side firewall is being tuned to allow game playing and legal downloading, but it has been set up to block illegal music downloading for which the College could be held liable based on recent court cases. The labs have been tightened to prevent gambling and other inappropriate sites from being accessed.

The growth of web-assisted teaching is evident as the College now has 38 classes with an online component. Classes are hosted locally running a WebCT program. Growth is about three courses per semester.

The SMART Classroom, complete with two synchronous interactive SMART boards, computer, DVD, VHS, and ports for laptops was first used in 2005. Use has doubled.

The College is in its fifth year of a leasing program for desktops and laptops. The total cost savings is estimated at $10,000 per year and assures that no hardware technology is older than three years old.

The growth of portable projectors connected to laptops as teaching aids in classrooms has grown to five portable projectors, which are scheduled online. The College also has permanent ceiling-mounted projectors in four classrooms and semi-permanent projectors in three others.

The Library’s Falcon Café coffee shop is now a wireless zone for Internet access.

Notre Dame College is currently looking to replace its enterprise software, CARS, with a windows-based product. This system will provide the student to apply, register, take classes, inquire about financial aid, and access grades through the Internet.

Notre Dame College’s planning processes are flexible enough to respond to unanticipated needs for program reallocation, downsizing, or growth.

As a turnaround organization, the College remains flexible in its planning activities. A motto on campus is that the College “plans to act”. Financial planning guidelines seek to:

• Position the College’s tuition and related increases below the national and local level,

• Increase salaries at four percent annually to catch up on competitive pay inequities, with an additional annual supplement embedded in the base salary of each full-time faculty member,

• Invest in new programs (including startup costs) that increase future enrollment,

• Limit spending increases to rates at approximately half the rate of salary increases. In some cases the College attempts to hold spending to existing levels in order to fund new programs, and

• Delay hiring open (budgeted) positions as long as possible to manage budget goals and financial resources.

 

The budget process normally goes through three iterations and clarifications based on a clear connection to enrollment. Although the College operates on a July 1 to June 30 fiscal year, in reality no budget is final until enrollment is established in September. Enrollment projections are monitored weekly at the President’s staff meeting as the first item on the agenda, with a focus on new student recruitment and retention issues. The annual budget cycle is:

1. In December, a planning version of the budget is developed to simulate tuition pricing alternatives,

2. In May, a preliminary budget is presented for Board approval representing provisional operating authority for the upcoming fiscal year, and

3. In September, a final budget is approved that is based on the latest enrollment information and related spending projections.

Notre Dame College has a history of achieving its planning goals.

As enrollment figures (Table 3.1), the statement of activities (Table 3.2), and the key operating figures (Table 3.5) vividly illustrate, the College has developed a history during the past three years of meeting its enrollment, financial, and other goals. All of the enrollment goals save one identified by President Roth in his Inaugural Address for attainment within five to 10 years (i.e. between 2008 and 2013) have already been met or exceeded, the Legacy Walkway is now a reality, the Falcon Café serves coffee daily and new programs planned in nursing, intelligence analysis, learning differences, and online offerings now exist.

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