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Evans School of Public Affairs

Evans School of Public Affairs. NASPAA: October. MPA Under Attack. How to foresee such attacks Strategies Employed Assessment of Outcome “Should haves”. Foresight in hindsight. FORMAL PROCESS AND TIMETABLE—STAY AHEAD OF

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Evans School of Public Affairs

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  1. Evans School of Public Affairs NASPAA: October

  2. MPA Under Attack How to foresee such attacks Strategies Employed Assessment of Outcome “Should haves”

  3. Foresight in hindsight FORMAL PROCESS AND TIMETABLE—STAY AHEAD OF • UW undertook centralized “Two-Year/ Two-Decade” planning process with administrators, stakeholders and a few faculty and administrative representatives (FALL 2009) • All colleges required to undertake rigorous program review to service as planning baseline (DUE JAN 2010) • Campus-wide discussion of goals and priorities (SPRING 2010 INFORMAL CHANNELS AND TIMETABLE-PAY ATTENTION • “Rumors” of consolidation strategies emerging from Evans Advisory Board (NOV) • Provost refers to “small non-medical schools” in meetings • Distributes informal spreadsheets with aggregate SCH/$ per student ranked by college to the Senate Planning and Budget • Direct conversations with Provost and President denied strategy (DEC) • Fuzzy update from Provost regarding consolidation as a strategy (FEB first week)

  4. HOW I LEARNED SCHOOL CONSIDERED FOR CONSOLIDATION • Interim President schedules 8AM phone call (FEB 15) • Seattle “snow event” results in rescheduled call for 9AM • Dean colleague phones at 7:30 AM to report he learned from the UW Media Represent in the parking lost that two schools were named in the Seattle Times for elimination/consolidation. • Seattle Times article published morning of FEB 15 • Connected with the Interim President late on the 15: a DIFFICULT UNSATISFYING conversation • Conversations that day with campus leaders: “politics,” “no intention to close the school”, etc.

  5. STRATEGIES PURSUED • Must state that the extant strategy for the School was to grow in scale and scope to increase access, reduce costs , increase productivity, achieve greater impact regionally and nationally and become recognized as a top school nationally. Had been increasing enrollment, raising tuition, recruiting nationally for past several years (2003 90 to 150 by 2010) • Strategy designed to put the School in a financial position that the introduction of “Responsibility Centered Budgeting” or “Activity Based Budgeting” would be to our advantage • We had implemented programmatic changes, a separate tuition category, a more aggressive recruitment strategy, a strong faculty growth strategy and other revenue enhancing and cost cutting ahead of the 2Y2D Planning Process • We had begun our program evaluation and the preliminary design for a sustainable model which we were expecting to have to complete in 2011

  6. Strategies Pursued RAPID RESPONSE TO THREAT (FEB15) • Informed key stakeholders (Governor Evans, Visiting Committee, donors); started communication channels • Sought advice from NASPAA Colleagues (Brint/Angela) • Collaborate with other Deans threatened with consolidation • Held an all School Town Hall meeting with faculty, students and staff to tell them what I knew and that I had to work within the constraints of my role. I would give them information but they had to carry to external messages • (FEB 15) ASKED FACULTY TO VOTE A RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF INDEPENDENCE AT THE TOWN HALL MEETING.

  7. Stakeholders mobilized School Faculty :Used Senate Governance: School Faculty Engaged • Read Evans School Resolution at Faculty Senate (FEB) • Developed a longer position paper on the value of independence to distribute widely • Participated in all Senate debate where Provost was trying to impose complex UW processes and procedures on Reorganization, Consolidation and Elimination of Programs • Argued their case with colleagues across the campus (most wanted to keep their head down—very revealing!) • Faculty worked with students on their strategies

  8. Stakeholders Mobilised Engage Visiting Committee Leadership • Chair carried the argument • Kept them informed • Provided them with all program and financial information • Held a meeting to explain our position • Letter-writing to Administration and Regents • Phone calls to key administrators and Regents • Contacted other “friends of the School” Governor Evans as Namesake: Quietly firm • Very involved in making the case for independence with anyone who would listen!!! Seattle Times, Regents, President

  9. Stakeholders Mobilized Alumni Self-organized • Passionate about independence • Provided same information to Alumni Council • Someone started a “Save the Evans School Website” • Letter writing • Spread the word to their alumni networks

  10. Stakeholders Mobilized Students applied their skills: Lead the Charge with Analysis, Advocacy and engagement in the political process • Provided them with all financial and program evaluation information and the “case for independence” the faculty had prepared • Students prepared their analysis “Preserving the Independence of the Evans School” which carried our program evaluation on School quality across the State and made the argument for independence from their perspective • Developed a “campaign” : had Evans School T Shirts; made buttons “I AM THE EVANS SCHOOL” widely worn around campus

  11. Students • Overwhelmed the Provost’s Town Hall Meeting (read faculty resolution; read a statement from Governor Evans; 1/3 of the audience stood on their feet to identify themselves as Evansers: (FEB 20) • Lobbied in Olympia during the Legislative Session • Wrote articles for the UW Daily Newspaper • Visited EVERYONE of their legislators local town hall meetings • Wrote a compendium of letters to the President and Regents • Obtained time on the MARCH Regents agenda and as a group (dressed in t-shirts and buttons) presented their case to the Regents respectfully and well

  12. Dean’s Strategy Concentrate on meeting budget and planning requirements • Near daily changes in how much the cuts were, what tuition would be, what formula were being used to allocate incremental funds, what the “tax” rates would be. An ongoing analytic and simulation effort that I led personally with my finance administrator, policy analyst and data specialist. Communicate personally with key stakeholders 24/7 • Chair of VC, Evans Student President, etc. Develop Plans to meet 20% budget cut • Required to do so in open process with faculty and staff • Plans posted on UW website • Worked with faculty on guidelines for cuts (e.g., preserve staff jobs, don’t impact student services, don’t change workload) • Kept faculty Council as updated as possible in changing world of assumptions and decisions • Developed a FINANCIAL ANALYSIS to demonstrate that even after a 20 percent budget cut the UW “owed” Evans more than that as a “lagged” budget allocation to meet our enrollment growth and increase in tuition realized over the past budget biennium. LOTS OF ARGUING OVER DATA

  13. Changing Parameters:Financial Sustainability Demonstrated Capacity to meet 20% Budget Cut Provost required Long Term Plan for Sustainability with No State Resources (end of March with mid April deadline) Developed a 5 Year Sustainable Financial Plan • Had the beginnings of a plan we had been developing to meet 2011 expectation. Worked 24/7 for 10 days to develop a sustainable realistic plan to independence by FY 2014 • Required us to increase FTE MPA by 20%; 30% increase in tuition; 10% increase in faculty and must fund all salaries and pay 30% tax rate; assumptions about endowment and fee-based income and all expenditures.

  14. Decision Time • Distributed the Sustainable Financial Plan widely to students and stakeholders; met with Visiting Committee • Met with Provost who listened and prior to any decision (mid-April) required that Faculty sign off on the planned strategies • Faculty signed off on the Sustainable Plan in writing (mid April) • April 22 Regents Meeting Provost announced consolidation was off the table (Interim President was in China)

  15. Next Steps • Started our 50th Birthday Celebration as an Independent School across campus and the community the next year • Executing our plan --raised tuition 30 percent over two years k --met our target of 170 FTE MPA this year --increased fellowship funding to offset tuition increases by -- redirecting endowment (fewer resources for other activities) -year of consolidation lost applications and admits among instate students (50 percent fall off in final week applications) ; ---met revenue targets because mix of in-state/out-state changed --next year applications largest we ever had; students stronger; acceptance rates high • Updating Strategic Plan

  16. In Retrospect • A test of character for leadership, faculty, staff and students –can say that two years out • We are a stronger organization and have widespread vocal support from stakeholders and donors • Short term impact on donors (back in the fold); embarking on $100m capital campaign (in the “silent period.”) • We discovered very strong alumni and stakeholder networks • Lawyers and doctors don’t understand Public Affairs programs—our responsibility • PRACTICE WHAT WE TEACH

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