Lessons of My First Year and Our Next Steps at UHD

Over the past year, I've shared some of the key lessons we've learned at the University of Houston-Downtown that might be shared with other universities.  I started the blog when I began as president at UHD.  For new followers, I encourage you to read some of the earlier posts.

In my last post, I mentioned efforts by President Obama, Lumina Foundation, and others to increase the percentage of adults with college degrees.  The University of Houston-Downtown is the 13th largest public institution in Texas and the second largest university in Houston. Over 80% of our students work 30 hours or more and about a quarter of all students work more than 40 hours or per week, often in two jobs.  The average age of our students is 28 years. So, our students are predominantly working adults, many of them have children and families to support.

UHD has been nationally recognized as a Top 100 university in producing minority baccalaureate students.  We rank 33rd in the country in awarding baccalaureate degrees to Hispanics and 47th for awarding baccalaureate degrees to African Americans. This past year we graduated over 2,400 students with bachelor's and graduate degrees. We are determined to increase these numbers.

Followers of this blog have asked me to briefly summarize some of what occurred in my first year as president at UHD.  When I arrived in Houston and at UHD, I began my presidency by walking around and listening.  I visited with students, faculty, alumni, regents, members of the President's Advisory Board, and elected officials. I spoke before most colleges at UHD and several departments.  I held focus groups and distributed a survey online and via email asking five very simple questions: 1) What does UHD do very well and where could we excel? 2) In what areas does UHD pretty good and with a different emphasis could be very good? 3) What areas should UHD stop doing? 4) What resources does UHD leave on the table (grants, foundations, corporations, partnerships, etc.) and, lastly, 5) If you were UHD president for one day and could make one change, what would it be?

We put together a team of faculty and staff to summarize the survey results.  We then held several leadership retreats, built around the Good to Great model, and used the survey results as a starting point.  We revised our mission, established goals, and this summer decided upon a single big goal (BHAG in the Good to Great vernacular): UHD will be known as a premier city university engaging every student in high impact experiences.

We also agreed on preliminary goals and metrics for 2020.  For example, we want to dramatically grow graduate programs and expand our research.  We project that UHD will have over 22,000 students by 2020 with roughly 8-10 per cent of total student enrollment coming from graduate programs.  We will greatly expand the number of online degrees with roughly a quarter of all enrollment online by 2020.  We have already launched discussions among the faculty on steps we can take to implement these ambitious goals.

But key to our focus is building strong undergraduate degrees developed around a culture of high-impact experiences.  What are high-impact experiences and why do we want all UHD students to receive these experiences? They include learning communities, undergraduate research, peer mentoring, first-year experience programs, service learning, internships, work teams, capstone courses, etc. These activities engage students in experiential learning and provide them opportunities to work closely with faculty.  Research nationally and our own experience show that students who participate in high-impact experiences are more likely to graduate than those students who don't receive such experiences.  They are also more likely to graduate on-time.

UHD has a long history of such programs, including the Scholars Academy which has been recognized by the NSF and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for their success in graduating students from underrepresented ethnic and racial groups in STEM fields.  UHD also has a long history of providing high-quality internships with corporations, non profits, and public agencies, as well as service learning courses that address issues affecting the Houston area.  In the course of the planning retreats, we decided to build off this strength, expand it, and make it a cohesive part of the UHD learning experience.

But, we also want to ensure our students are prepared for 21st Century jobs. Technology is changing rapidly and industries are developing new jobs and requiring new skills. Most of the top 10 jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004 and many companies in the Fortune 500 did not exist in 1990.  One of the nation's largest public agencies did not exist in 2000.  So, we must not only prepare students for jobs that exist today, we must provide them with skill sets they can use to solve problems that don't yet exist with technologies that haven't been developed for industries that now seem only distant dreams.

I have asked our faculty and the provost to work together to decide on what every UHD graduate should know in the 21st Century.  They will be using as starting points the work of national higher education organizations, such as AAC&U, AASCU, ACE, and others, along with recommendations of the U.S. Chamber and American Association of Manufacturer's. These groups recommend that all college students graduate with critical thinking skills, analytical and problem-solving skills, global understanding, team work, and excellent communication skills, among others.  Our faculty will decide on appropriate competencies.  We will then integrate these competencies into every major UHD offers and assess learning to those competencies.

We are also working hard to retain and graduate students.  This year we launched a common reading program with 800 freshmen students receiving the book Outliers by Malcom Gladwell. Nearly 60 faculty and over 600 students participated in a special session a week before classes to discuss the book.We made a pledge to the students: if they agree to work hard, take the required courses, and regularly meet with an adviser, we will mentor them and help them to graduate on time.  Faculty are now following up with those students to ensure their success. 

Finally, we are meeting with community colleges throughout Houston to re-affirm and re-sign joint admission and reverse transfer programs so that students from community colleges will earn full credit at UHD.  More than three-fourths of our students are transfer students, so it is important that we build strong partnerships and full articulation with the major community college districts that surround UHD.

UHD will do everything it can to increase the number of degrees we award.  We want to be part of the national effort to increase the percentage of adults with college degrees.  I will keep you informed of our progress.

Our Approach to Cutbacks: Tough Choices, Hopefully to Make Us Stronger

Making cuts are difficult for anyone, especially for a new president.  They are particularly hard when you had hoped to recommend pay raises.  In fact, that's just what we were prepared to do here at the University of Houston-Downtown. We had planned on giving a mid-year raise conditional on increased enrollments and growth in the economy. And, enrollments have gone up.

So, we were in the process of preparing our budget submissions for the UH System and to the UH System Board of Regents with a 2% merit increase, when we received notice from the Governor, Lt. Governor, and the Speaker of the House requiring all Texas public universities to prepare for a 5% rescission for each of the two years of the budget cycle. The budget reductions are necessary because of declining state revenues from sales tax and declining revenues from oil and natural gas (prices dropped dramatically, but are heading upwards again).

UHD must now prepare for budgets cuts of nearly $1.4 million for each of the two years in the biennium (a total of roughly $2.8 million).  Add in the amount of money that came from stimulus funds, about $1.2 million (which will disappear in 2012), and we must prepare for various cuts which total about $4 million.  That may not sound like a lot, but we depend on state appropriations to fund our basic operations.

Nor do we have much turnaround time. As a system, we have to submit our plans by February 15th.  Campuses have to submit their plans to the UH System office even earlier.  So, we are already putting together plans for the first round of cuts.

At this past Friday's Convocation with faculty and staff,  I assured everyone that we will pursue and an open and inclusive process in making these decisions. While we will not be able to give pay raises this year, it is important that we undertake the reductions in a careful, reflective, and planned way, securing jobs as much as possible, and expanding services to our students so that we can continue our growth.  UHD currently has just under 13,000 students and we are growing every year.

The new base period begins this summer.  Enrollments achieved during the base period will drive funding for the upcoming FY 2012/2013 biennium. So, UHD will continue to grow its enrollments and we will qualify for more funding through state appropriations.  We will hire new faculty and we will hire the staff we require to support student success.  UHD is known for its small classes, for the attention students receive from faculty and staff, and for our focus on helping students succeed.  That won't change.  If anything, we intend to do an even better job of retaining and graduating students.

Also, we will do everything we can to provide pay raises next year. Going two years without pay increases damages faculty and staff morale.  It would undercut our efforts to recruit top talent and hurt our ability to retain our highly committed and high-performing faculty and staff, who are the heart of UHD and who are critical to our success. 

Our situation reminds me of comments by John F. Kennedy made in a speech in Indianapolis on April 12, 1959.  JFK pointed out, that the Chinese character for the word 'crisis' (wei ji) contains two concepts. One represents 'danger,' while the other represents 'opportunity.'  In times of great difficulty, whether severe crisis or simply difficult challenges, some recoil from fear of danger, while others prosper by pursuing opportunity.

At UHD, we will grow stronger, for we have a strong foundation to build upon.  We have already begun a planning process to decide on areas of strength we want to expand.  These discussions will guide us as we begin to make the tough decisions ahead. 

We are not going to take across-the-board cuts.  Rather, we will pin-point reductions.  While cuts for the current year (FY2010) won't be easy, they should be relatively straight forward.  We will use savings from lapsed or vacant positions, unallocated funds that would have been distributed later this year, along with the monies that would have gone to pay increases.  That just about gets us to $1.4 million.

Reductions for FY2011 will be more challenging.  This year enrollments are projected to grow over last year by about 4%, so we need to provide sufficient class sections, advisers, transcript evaluators, and support staff.  Also, we are initiating classes in a new educational facility at the HP campus near Hwy. 249 northwest of Houston. The University Park, owned by Lone Star College System will house several universities, including UHD. We will begin classes there this summer and expand classes in the fall and spring.

Moreover, it is very important that we begin some of the initiatives identified through the planning process, particularly those that will help retain and graduate more students, ensuring that they receive the high-quality education for which UHD is known.

So, we actually need more money and more positions at the same time we will have less.  This is a conundrum confronting many higher education institutions throughout the country.  How you do provide more with less?

Clearly, we can't do it the same way we've done it in the past.  We have to change our processes, find efficiencies, reduce low-enrolled courses, expand enrollments for some classes without affecting quality, provide more classes in the evenings and weekends, offer more online and hybrid courses, institute cost savings, etc. And, we will accomplish these reductions while also improving the quality of student learning.

We have decided to institute two approaches to help us decide on the budget reductions.  First, I will appoint an Efficiencies and Budget Reductions Task Force composed of representatives from faculty, staff, and some students.  I have already asked constituent groups to submit nominees.  The Task Force won't have enough time to draft the Feb. 15th response to the Governor and the LLB.  That will be developed by the vice presidents with me and shared broadly throughout the campus.   Rather, the Task Force will review the budget, examine data on space and staff utilization, cost centers,  expenditures per area relative to peers, etc.  The Task Force will recommend short and long-term solutions that we can take as a university to reduce costs while also expanding services and pursuing new initiatives and priorities.

Secondly, we will ask employees to submit their suggestions for cost savings.  We hope to receive many helpful recommendations.  We will implement all those that reduce costs and strengthen the institution.  The faculty or staff member who submits the idea which results in the most savings will be honored next year.

The U.S. economy will pick up and the state budget will improve. On Friday (Jan. 29), we learned that nationally the  economy grew by 5.7% in the fourth quarter.  This is the second quarter in a row that we have had some growth. The previous quarter the economy grew by 2.2%.  So, we are seeing good signs.

The Dallas Fed predicts that by the end of 2010 Texas will have a net increase of 100,000 new jobs (over and above those lost during the recession).   According to projections by the Greater Houston Partnership, Houston should complete the year with a net increase of 10,000 new jobs.   

Houston is doing well and so is UHD.  We may be making reductions, but we will use them to grow stronger.  As we embark on the cuts, I suggested to our faculty and staff  that we consider a basic principle from Jim Collin's book, Good to Great, which is that you must focus your resources for success.  As anyone who has ever grown roses knows, you can't just let them grow unattended.  To produce strong, healthy roses, you must prune the bushes from time-to-time.

That's what we will do.  We will trim the bushes.  And, I assure you, we will produce beautiful roses here at UHD.   It is an opportunity to examine the institution and make improvements.   And, we will grow stronger and better in the process.

Going Good to Great II

On Friday of this past week, UHD held a second retreat. We expanded from 50 to roughly 70 faculty, staff, and students. This retreat applied the concept from "Good to Great" to UHD. Our faculty led the workshop and preparation. Doug TeDuits moderated, Akif Uzman (Natural Sciences) and Rob Jarrett (English) co-chaired.

In preparing for the workshop we had several work groups meet. One reviewed the UHD Mission, a second looked at possible Peers, a third examined Issues identified at the last retreat, and I prepared a few PowerPoint slides summarizing the G2G concept and how we might apply it to the University of Houston-Downtown.

If you know about Jim Collin's book, Good to Great, the Hedgehog concept is key. (See my earlier blogpost on Good to Great) You draw three circles. In the first is the organization's passion (or its mission). The second houses its resources and economic engine, and and the third circle lists where the organization excels and has the potential of being best in class. Where the three circles overlap, you find your potential BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals).

In goal-setting, an organization can't set goals that are easy to attain, even if you have to stretch. You need to set goals so high (like reaching for the stars) that you must transform the organization to attain them. Here is a summary:

In the first circle, "What is UHD Passionate About?" groups came up with: student access, student success, community engagement, engaged citizens, diversity, high quality education, and student-faculty interaction.

In the second circle("What Can UHD Be Best At?") groups listed: having a holistic approach, student engagement, best Hispanic education, experiential learning, top unique academic programs, international education, best at educating non-traditional and diverse students, and student access.

In the final circle, "What Drive's UHD's Resource Engine?" the groups listed: funding (including all money inputs), partnerships, student success, faculty/staff, diversity and location, branding, graduate programming, effective data, technology and community.

In the final session of the day, groups listed possible BHAGs: leading in student success through experiential learning; becoming a 'communiversity' which links learning and engagement in all aspects of what we do; creating engaged citizens; leading in graduating minority students, particularly in the sciences; increasing retention and graduation rates by 3-5% a year through various interventions; creating a university where everyone can graduate; becoming the best darned public undergraduate university in Texas!

The process is not finished. And these are still very rough goals. But the discussions were lively and the groups engaged. So the process has begun for UHD. In the coming months, we will refine the process further, involve more faculty, staff, and students, and sharpen our circles and goals. I will describe what we are doing, as it unfolds, in future posts.

By the way, in our poll, nearly three-fourths of those who responded felt that UHD should focus on helping students to succeed.

Building a Team

A central tenet of the book Good to Great is "First 'Who' then 'What'." Or put another way, you have to work on the team. Wednesday and Thursday a little more than 50 University of Houston-Downtown leaders (faculty, staff, and students) met to discuss the issues affecting UHD, to discuss their views of leadership, how they might be better leaders, and how all of us might work together for a common purpose--making UHD a better university.

We were fortunate to have a nationally-known higher educational leader serve as our facilitator and guide, Dr. Tom Meredith, who served as president of Western Kentucky University, as president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, as state Commissioner of Higher Education for Mississippi, and was Chancellor of the University System of Georgia. He understands higher education and colleges likes ours.

Tom was energetic and a helpful guide to our discussions. He also has a great sense of humor and a patient and calming attitude. He built in exercises to engage participants and kept us on schedule. But, I was most impressed with the attitude and energy of the participants. They worked hard, had many suggestions, and committed to continue to work together to extend the discussions throughout the campus and to lay basis for focus on where we go from here, the 'What' of Good to Great.

We identified barriers that hold back the university, issues that we have to address, and identified some priority areas which we will address in a follow-up retreat.

As we formally summarize the discussions, I will share them with the campus and on this blog. I am pumped.

Going 'Good to Great'

Charlie Rose - JIM COLLINS - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

I am attaching an interview of Jim Collins that appeared on Charlie Rose some time back. I purchased a stack of 'Good to Great' and this week distributed the books and other materials to 50 people and various groups on campus to begin a discussion at UHD. The discussion and survey (see "What Do You Think?" below) are part of a broad process to better know the campus and the community.

I am asking UHD students, staff, faculty, alumni, and supporters to help us better understand the areas in which we excel, those where we are doing pretty good, and those areas where we are doing poorly or should stop doing. In the survey and focus groups, I am asking, "If you were president of UHD for one day, what one thing would you do to improve UHD?"

I think the University of Houston-Downtown is a very good university, doing a very good job. Our students, for the most part are the first in their families to go to college. The student body is very diverse. UHD is 31% Hispanic and 26% African American, with a large number of foreign-born students from many countries in the world.

UHD is a commuter campus and a majority of the students work 30 hours or more. Most of our students transfer from community colleges or from other four year institutions. They take courses that fit into their schedules. Many students take years to earn their degrees.

I've been very impressed with the commitment of faculty and staff. They work hard to help our students succeed. And, the faculty and staff do a wonderful job. But, every institutions can improve, every institution can get better.

The book "Good to Great" essentially argues that you have to understand your core values and your mission. It urges organizations to stare in the mirror and examine the "brutal facts"--where you are strong, where you are weak, and where you have serious problems; and, then, decide what you are going to do better than anyone else.

Collins urges organizations to examine the facts, decide where their passions lie, and what they can be the best in the world at doing. In his research, he found that similar companies often proceeded on very different trajectories. Some became great organizations, while others floundered or even withered and died.

The great organizations had strong teams, selected a singular focus, concentrated their energies and resources, and became great at what they did. The others didn't. Even in turbulent times, some universities will flourish and become great, others will not. If you fail to adjust to changing world, students and faculty may pick other institutions. Foundations and donors may decide to put their money elsewhere.

Before I came to Houston, I witnessed a sad event--a very good private Liberal Arts college, the College of Santa Fe, closed its doors. I was part of the Task Force put together by Governor to try to save the college. As a result, the state and city stepped in and are trying to buy the land. The hope is to preserve the facility both as a city-run learning center (with the community college and four-year institutions offering degree programs). The city is negotiating with a private, for-profit which is interested in leasing some of the facility. But, the College of Santa Fe no longer exists.

Public universities face turbulent times. Several states are dramatically cutting back on funding for higher education. Universities have raised tuition, reduced faculty and staff, cut programs, and, in some cases, stopped funding new facilities. Every institution has to take a good look at itself. What we are doing? Where are we headed? How can we do a better job?

Over the next few months at UHD, we will examine what we do and how we can do it better. Listen to the interview, read the book, participate in the survey, and help us as we take the journey to become the very best at what we do.