Dear TCNJ Faculty and Staff,
The college community has consistently dedicated itself, and made important investments, to deliver a personalized, collaborative, and rigorous education that engages students at the highest level within and beyond the classroom. This has led to TCNJ being recognized nationally for quality, value, and outcomes. To sustain this model of educational excellence the college must ensure that it is in a position of financial sustainability moving forward. As we have shared in a number of campus presentations over the past 15 months, a range of external pressures – including the global pandemic – have punctuated the need for the college to carefully evaluate our financial drivers and outcomes.
Beginning this week, the college is launching an 8- to 10-week project to help us better understand and improve TCNJ’s overall financial position through a holistic review of our current administrative and academic portfolios and cost structures. Due to the complexity and amount of work associated with this effort, we have partnered with Huron Consulting Group to support the project. Huron has considerable experience with these types of assessments at colleges and universities across the country, and their expertise will support the TCNJ community with this effort.
The administrative assessment will include a comprehensive review of all administrative functions compared to industry best practices, peer benchmarking, and overall effectiveness. The academic assessment will build a cost-to-educate model that connects key components driving the cost to deliver the curriculum across our varied programs.
These two assessments will provide TCNJ with a comprehensive and objective assessment of the college’s administrative structures and academic portfolio. The Huron team will study and use a robust and diverse set of data, including both qualitative and quantitative metrics, in their work with us.
In consultation with the Faculty Senate and Staff Senate leadership, we have established two Steering Committees, one for the academic assessment and one for the administrative assessment, both of which comprise individuals from across campus in various roles and levels at the college. Membership of the two committees is outlined below. We are grateful to these twenty faculty and staff members for their willingness to serve and their commitment to this important work for the college.
We are excited about this opportunity to assess how we currently operate, identify opportunities to improve administrative efficiencies, enhance our overall academic portfolio, and invest in strategic areas. We will be sharing periodic updates and holding a town hall event as the project unfolds. Thank you in advance for your support.
Sincerely,
Kathryn A. Foster
President
Jeffrey M. Osborn
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Lloyd Ricketts
Vice President and Treasurer
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Administrative Assessment Steering Committee
Sharon Blanton, Operations (Cabinet)
Frank Cooper, Records & Registration (Staff)
Katie Hooven, Nursing (Faculty)
Kathryn Jervis, Business (Dean)
Steffen Marcus, Mathematics (Faculty)
Maritza McGraw, Facilities (Staff)
Joe O’Brien, IT (Staff Senate)
Jeff Osborn, Provost (Co-lead)
Taras Pavlovsky, Library (Dean)
Lloyd Ricketts, Treasurer (Lead)
Sean Stallings, Student Affairs (Cabinet)
Kimberly Woods, Human Resources (Staff)
Chuck Wright, Development (Staff)
Academic Assessment Steering Committee
Tim Clydesdale, Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies (Graduate Studies)
Tammy Dietrich, Business (Assistant/Associate Dean)
Lisa Grimm, Humanities and Social Sciences (Assistant/Associate Dean)
Matt Hall, Education (Chair/Faculty)
Maurice Hall, Arts & Communication (Dean)
Mindi McMann, English (Faculty Senate)
Amanda Norvell, Science (Dean)
Natasha Patterson, Nursing, Health, and Exercise Science (Faculty)
Jeff Osborn, Provost (Lead)
Lloyd Ricketts, Treasurer (Co-lead)
Chris Wagner, Engineering (Chair/Faculty)