Mary M. Barnett, Virginia Community College System, is president of the Association of College and University Auditors. Mark Paganelli, of the University of Tennessee System, is the immediate past president of that organization. In Business Officer they explain and take a look at the growth of Internal Audit Committees and some ramifications.

This is an excellent source of information if your planning role will in any way intersect with these issues, as it most likely will.

These good resources are shared at the end of the article:

To start work on a strategic risk assessment, consider these useful resources:

• Risk assessment toolkit. Click here  to access NACUBO's materials and guidance on risk management. 

• Searchable database. To also assist with ERM, the Association of College and University Auditors (ACUA) has created a risk "dictionary," listing hundreds of risks facing higher education institutions, as well as the corresponding controls to help mitigate those risks. The dictionary (available for ACUA members at the ACUA Web site) is a searchable database that is updated often and is an important resource when implementing an enterprise risk management process at a university or college.

• ERM map. David Crawford, audit manager emeritus for the University of Texas System, has created a risk assessment application. Risks and controls are mapped to the institution's mission and presented in a "heat map," a graphic representation that highlights data with different colors. Such a visual is easy to present to the board and senior management and clearly shows the areas of greatest concern. This methodology has been used at several institutions in Texas and Tennessee and is currently being used at the Virginia Community College System.

• Overview and case study of ERM activities in higher education. Read the cover story, "Ensemble Performance," and a companion article, "Learning to Harmonize," in the December 2008 Business Officer.

NACUBO's Matt Hamill completes a year's worth of Business Officer articles in the series, Catalyst for Change: The Economic Downturn Reshapes Higher Education. Read this latest article here; see links to all the articles in the series here.

To be sure, the recession has forced most colleges and universities to broadly reexamine themselves in an effort to reduce costs and adjust to rapidly changing enrollment patterns. Earlier articles in this series have examined institutional actions resulting from these internal initiatives. As Martin Van Der Werf, former director, Chronicle Research Services, Washington, D.C., observed in the March 2010 Business Officer article, “Regular, Express, or Online,” the changes are too broad and too fundamental to attribute to current economic conditions. “There is a rethinking of the way education is being delivered,” he says, “but I don't know if the financial crisis could be isolated as a single factor producing these changes. The financial crisis is encouraging students and families to question what they were already questioning, such as the delivery model, the cost of college, and the difficulty in obtaining a degree. The recession is merely accentuating what people were already thinking.”

Modified practices. The last several years have seen a wide variety of changes to institutional practices in the areas of resource allocation, budgeting, and budget management, but we have also witnessed more significant changes in educational delivery models. This array of initiatives shares one central goal: to drive down students' cost of getting a degree by taking significant costs out of the model. Examples of creative delivery models include online learning incorporated into the curriculum, adoption of three-year bachelor's degree programs, and programs created to blend an associate degree within a four-year program.

Other initiatives have expanded the use of consortia mechanisms to streamline certain campus functions, such as library services, information technology, and cooperative purchasing. Generally, these programs can be successful because of their cost-saving potential, without fundamentally changing what is unique about each participating institution. Another strategy employed by many institutions has been to adjust the price that students pay by revising their overall pricing and financial aid strategies, and their associated budgets. 

Don't miss out on joining nearly 1,500 of your colleagues and peers at higher education's premier planning event of 2010, SCUP–45. The Society for College and University Planning's 45th annual, international conference and idea marketplace is July 10–14 in Minneapolis!

Here's your SCUP Link to "Back In Line"

The two authors, Marilyn Hansmann and Dave Weber, are part of a team presenting about "Achieving Strategic Alignment" at Rochester Community and Technical College on Tuesday, July 13 at SCUP–45.

This Business Officer article is blurbed, "Despite a history of continuous process improvement, a community college noted some mismatches in its goals and resources. An integrated planning process brought things into strategic alignment." The article includes a handy list of "essential factors" important to understand in aligning resources and strategic planning. 

Since 2006, the Integrated Planning Process has been a coordinated effort, with the chief strategic operations officer facilitating the strategic planning process while the vice president of finance and facilities conducts the annual budgeting process. Together, they build a bridge between the two activities to achieve strategic alignment in an environment of continuous improvement and innovation.

The IPP has evolved into an annual activity that includes: (1) service department and academic program review; (2) identification of overarching college goals and related departmental and divisional strategies in support of those goals; (3) assignment of resources; and (4) tracking of performance.