Effective Strategic Planning in a Time of Crisis
Early this year, we at Optimal Campus began thinking about posting a series of blogs focused on what many perceived as a crisis in higher education. Shifting demographics of potential students, rising costs, challenges to the value of higher edu… [Read More...]
Coping With Our Current Crisis—More Change on the Horizon
The current global public health crisis is creating huge challenges for higher education. Colleges and universities across the globe are closing on-campus activities. Classes–and day-to-day business–are moving online. Higher education institut… [Read More...]
The Nature of the Crisis in Higher Education
There is no question that enrollment and financial issues in higher education had reached crisis proportions prior to the emergence of COVID-19. This new public health and economic challenge has heightened the magnitude and significance of these i… [Read More...]
Coping With Catastrophes—Lessons Learned From Natural and Human-Made Disasters
The COVID-19 pandemic is a natural disaster that has created a crisis for higher education institutions. Perhaps more accurately, COVID-19 has layered an immediate crisis on top of an emerging crisis for higher education. As terrible as the curren… [Read More...]
Planning in an Age of Uncertainty—Part 1: Scenario Planning
Most of us are still reeling from the initial shock of coronavirus. Every element of our being has been upended. As it is for everyone and every organization around the world, we in academe are focused on survival.
[Read More...]Planning in an Age of Uncertainty—Part 2: Tabletop Exercises
In an earlier blog, I looked at Scenario Planning as a strategy for dealing with the gross uncertainty that colleges and universities face relating to the upcoming academic year. We do not know if and when campuses might reopen; and when they do, … [Read More...]
Too Many Buildings, Not Enough Bandwidth
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in numerous immediate changes in higher education—online education only, closed campuses, remote work for faculty and staff. While many may hope these changes are temporary and things will go back to the way th… [Read More...]
What Happens If Students Cannot Return in September?—Defending the Value Proposition of Small Colleges
When colleges expanded spring breaks and then closed campuses for the remainder of the spring term, they felt that this response would get them past the coronavirus crisis. They hoped that campuses would reopen, if not normally in September, at le… [Read More...]
Planning and Budgeting Post COVID-19
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States, most higher education institutions were well into their budgeting processes for the next academic year (2020-21). The pandemic, our collective responses to it so far, and the changes we will contin… [Read More...]
Maintaining the Relevance of Regional Public Universities in the Post-Coronavirus World
Existential crises are not new to regional public universities. Three years ago, an article entitled “Public Regional Colleges Never Die. Can They Be Saved?” suggested that, while regional public universities are the “workhorses of a publi… [Read More...]
Dynamic Modeling for Higher Education Planning
Thoughtful planning has never been more critical for higher education institutions. The COVID-19 crisis coupled with the already difficult enrollment and financial challenges facing higher education is leading many institutions to engage in a deep… [Read More...]