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This is a must-read. Kevin Kiley thinks and writes well, and there is a great deal in this piece of interest and value to those who plan for the future of higher education. 

What are they thinking, over there where the purse strings are? Here’s what:

Public university employees can expect two things from their universities over the next few years: new programs with an emphasis on increasing tuition revenues, and a whole host of “operational efficiency” initiatives designed to get more bang for each buck.

Much of the focus here at the annual meeting of the National Association of College and University Business Officers has been on how public universities, particularly large research institutions, can change their underlying financial models to accommodate a "new normal” of decreased state appropriations and increased emphasis on tuition revenue, while dealing with increase political pressure to constrain tuition prices.

“If we are going to change how we deliver higher education, it is going to require new ways of thinking,” said Elson Floyd, president of Washington State University, at a session entitled “The Changing Financial Model of Public Universities.”

These just a couple of the issues Kiley identifies and writes about in his excellent coverage of NACUBO’s annual meeting.

• Carefully define objectives at the outset.

• Consider transferring the risk of building and operations to a third party; this can lead to significant value.

• Work with your private-sector partner to identify best-in-class developers who will compete for a new project, yielding the most innovative design options possible.

• Realize that the level of experience of the team and the personalities of the contractors chosen by the developer can influence project outcomes.

[T]o dismiss 2008 to 2010 as an aberration of market performance would be a due-diligence mistake. Risks are real and are here to stay, they noted, and failing to recognize the warning flags can take an unfortunate toll on the day-to-day financing of institution operations.

Trainor and Wetzel walked attendees through a tiered approach to managing working and long-term capital, offering tips for understanding the relationship between risk and returns, cost and rewards, and liquidity within the context of cash cycles, marketplace options, concentration risks, and organizational objectives.

So, how well do you know your CFO? A recent survey by NACUBO, reported on in Inside Higher Ed by Jack Stripling, finds that they are mostly white and male and a lot have MBAs. They consider not having enough money and "the belief that you are infinitely available" as their two most vexing problems. About one-third say that coping with deans is a problem.

“The tough part for us is we have to be the people willing to say no,” [Bob] Keasler said.

As the survey suggests, deans are the administrators who are often on the receiving end of that tough news. But that’s as it should be, Keasler said.

“It’s a dean’s job to lobby for his area, and that’s one of the things I tell new people in this business is to expect that and to be glad when you have a dean who’s passionate about what they do and passionate about their programs,” he said. “If you don’t have one like that, then worry. They might not be much trouble, but that’s not a good sign.”

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!

Click on the title, Shaping the Higher Education Cloud, to access the resource described, below.

As well, this recent issue of EDUCAUSE Review is focused on higher education's computing cloud, including these two feature articles:

• Cloud Computing and the Power to Choose
• Looking at Clouds From All Sides Now

Read all of this and you will be a cloud computing expert!

Is collaborative planning regarding the shape of the higher education information technology "cloud," possible? What should we plan to put on the cloud? What should stay out of the cloud? This white paper, the product of a joint project of EDUCAUSE and NACUBO, should be required reading for anyone who might be part of campus teams considering IT planning issues:

The unsustainable economics of higher education’s traditional approaches to IT, increased expectations and scrutiny, and the growing complexity of institutional operations and governance call for a different modus operandi. So too does the mass consumerization of services, for which students and faculty are more likely to look outside the institution to address their IT needs and preferences, noted James Hilton, vice president and CIO, University of Virginia. Cloud computing represents a real opportunity to rethink and re-craft services for the academy. Among the greatest benefits of scalable and elastic IT is the option to pay only for what is used. Robust networks coupled with virtualization technologies make less relevant where work happens or where data is stored. Cloud computing allows the flexibility for some enterprise activities to move above campus to providers that are faster, cheaper, or safer and for some activities to move off the institution’s responsibility list to the “consumer” cloud (below campus), while still other activities can remain in-house, including those that differentiate and provide competitive advantage to an institution.

Rethink financial models. "Financial forecasts and scenarios will need to be refined because of the broad impact of current economic conditions as well as the rising cost of financial aid and how it will be funded," says Mattie. "Tuition-dependent institutions, in particular, may not have the financial flexibility to increase payouts from their endowments, yet will need to address how to fund increasing levels of financial aid going forward."

Expand matriculation agreements. Undergraduates, especially those with fewer financial resources, don't always stay at the same institution to complete a four-year degree. Bert Scott speculates that this dynamic will increase among families of first-generation college students. "Based on student mobility patterns," he notes, "institutions will need to determine the requirements that would allow students to complete their educations, but not necessarily in one place."

Respond to calls for increased accountability. The public's demand for financial transparency and good fiduciary conduct may intensify over the next 12 to 24 months, predicts Mattie. "In addition, government officials, federal agencies, and donors all want to know that institutions are operating responsibly, both fiscally and operationally. They will continue to hold business officers and others to a higher standard of reporting and compliance responsibility."

Mattie stops short of predicting that educational institutions will need to meet the rigid control regulations that now apply to public companies. Still, he foresees that standard setters and regulators will continue to focus on financial-reporting transparency and control and compliance accountability.

Reassess strategic approaches. What has worked in the past may no longer apply in an environment of increased costs and competition coupled with decreased financial aid and staffing.