President’s Update – Paul Pribbenow
President Pribbenow started by welcoming new members of UCC and reviewing purposes of UCC- namely as a place administration can bring in areas which they would like to have a wide range of perspectives on. Among others representation includes staff and faculty senate, students, staff union, and individuals appointed by the President.
Full council not present for today’s meeting due to some positions still in process, but hope will be fully in place by next meeting.
Many committees (both campus wide committees such as Environmental Stewardship Committee and the Equity Inclusion Council Committee, and committees that have shared structure with Faculty such as Budget, Academic Planning, and Admissions Enrollment) will also be sharing reports with UCC; currently working to re-energize these after they took a hit during the pandemic.
President Pribbenow reports that we appear to be starting the semester with strong results in terms of enrollment.
- Total fall 2024 enrollment appears to be 103.1% of our target, with breakdown as follows:
101.7 percent of target for total day student enrollment - 97.8 percent of target for adult undergraduate enrollment
- 109.3 percent of target for graduate enrollment- with majority of this being a very strong showing in returning graduate enrollment which came in 80 students over our target.
- very strong transfer numbers
- retention rate went up 2.5% points from year one to year two-persistence to graduation being a major goal
- 22 high school students this fall have started as part of the new PSEO program (with a goal ultimately to get this to 100 PSEO students on campus and another 500 on line by 2030)
- 2450 undergrads this fall (compare to 1950 total ten years ago). Undergraduate goal for 2030 is 3600
- Grad numbers pretty steady- big improvement from a couple of years ago- we are looking into new graduate programs to continue to grow these numbers.
Adult undergrad is an area we are looking to innovate and expand upon over time “back to where we were 25 years ago when we were a real leader in this.” - President Pribbenow will go into these numbers in more depth at this Thursday’s All Hands meeting
President Pribbenow also shared a reflection he has been hearing from faculty about the classroom feeling different for many this fall- with a lot of enthusiasm, presence and energy from the student body.
Board met over the summer and approved the refresh for Augsburg 150, which basically kept the same three core goals and then added more expansiveness to each of them.
New capital campaign (“Great Returns”) has already raised 10 million.
Finance Update -John Coskran
Things looking generally good in spite of all of the ways the FAFSA situation has complicated things for all.
- We are ahead in gross tuition because of stronger enrollment.
Numbers for net tuition not yet finalized- these dependent on aid numbers still being finalized with lots of moving parts. We know that there is typically a big difference between gross tuition and actual net tuition after we factor in unfunded student aid. - Housing and meal contract met fall budget despite fewer housing contracts- this largely connected to this being first year that first year students were able to choose to move into Anderson and OGC- typically when upperclassmen move into these dorms the increased room is tempered by the dropping of meal plans, but as first year students need to have a meal plan still, this has increased revenues.
- Gain on sale of Augsburg House replaces plan for a higher draw on endowment authorized by board for FY25
- Summer institute for AP educators brought in significant revenue, but majority of that went to pay the consultants who ran the program.
- Academic dept budgets have been voted in and finalized
- Rest of budgets being loaded so still not finalized, but tentatively optimistic- we are not seeing anything that is a “known and negative supply”
Facility costs down a little with warm winter last year - inflation risks mitigated a bit as inflation appears to be cooling
Great to be ahead instead of behind this year, but not yet at a place where we can start investing- need to stay very careful and watch every dime so we don’t end up with a roller coaster situation.
Debt covenant
- Restructured debt with Bremmer Bank, reducing what we are paying annually.
Changes from 12 year to 15 year but got good rate (5%) so less money out per year. - Bank offered a vote of confidence giving us that favorable rate and a longer payment cycle.
(Moving all of our banking business to Bremmer Bank; really nice to be working with a local bank).
There was then some discussion about thinking ahead to options for improving occupancy rates in the residence halls
Current occupancy rates around 70% – not great to have 200-250 empty beds out of 1000.
Lowest point was during pandemic- 55% occupancy
Looking into various creative ways to increase occupancy, such as recent move of StepUp to open program up to students from other institutions, offering housing for out of state students doing internships in MN, some conversations with post graduate programs.
Augsburg 150: 5,000 Auggies by 2030 – Robert Gould
Horrible year as relates to the FAFSA, but during that horrible year we maintained 100% of our financial aid staff as well as graduate admissions and operations!
- enrollment results update: third highest first year class
- exceeded transfer target of 175
- Continuing grad students outperformed assumptions by 82
- late changes to census numbers so don’t have final numbers for net
- last year: down in applications, up in acceptance, down in yield- staff turnover impacted recruitment and yield.
Need to increase applications- form of interest, need to increase to 931 gross deposits to increase that 700 class. Expect for yield to go down for class size.
“Tuition reset”
Over past 10 years, this has been a trend. The more schools that do it, the more pressure there will be for Augsburg to do it as well.
We are getting closer to a reset.
A couple of things to bear in mind while anticipating this…
- Importance of proactively position ourselves and our value, as often there is an association/assumption of institutions being in trouble when they do a tuition reset.
- Importance of transparency: typically actual costs for students do not decrease- there is a lower sticker price, but then aid is also lower. Bethel is an example of a school that has done a good job with this transparency. We would want to do the same to avoid any appearance/student experience of “bait and switch.”
Direct admission this year has resulted in higher level of denied students, but we are admitting higher percentage every year.
SCOTUS ruling on admissions- mostly selective institutions seeing an impact on diversity, we have not seen a decline in our applicant pool or enrollment pool.
nationally NACAC- three initiatives
redesigning structures around academic process
researching alternative for assessment
how to create a healthy workforce
“Doing things differently.” 5000 auggies by 2030
Why?
- if we don’t grow, we won’t be sustainable- we will be forced into a different educational model (growth is to support a margin and new initiatives)
- we have the goods! If we do some work, we can drive demand
- current goal- develop “drawer full of ideas” process with faculty and staff will be done to create a big pool of ideas.
2024 SEP - phase 1- situation analysis- data for context
- Phase 2- ideation (ideas) and recommendations, explore recs, implementation.
5 working groups:
degree competition
planning counseling
in process
student success, enrollment management
2030 goals
3600 undergraduate (+1248 above current)
a big chunk of this will be PSEO- then hopefully keeping them
persistence and student success important
400 degree completers (+283 above current)
1000 grad students (+310 above current)
doctor of medical science launched (15-20 students)
SEP progress – “generating a drawer full of ideas”
SEM machine- taking all of these ideas and being transparent- action and implementation on SEP ideas.
important to think about sustainability of this growth
planning
“60 day process”
inputs and approvals-
These three leading to SEM implementation and growth
Some 60 day actions (9/1-11/1/24)
- Feasibility analysis for BloomBoard partnership fall 2025,apprenticeship models for paraprofessionals in education (how do we relate to mission, being an anchor serving institution)
- Fall 2026- goal 700 first year and 100 PSEO
- Planning for online career course platform- for credit, asynchronous for PSEO dual enrolled students. (Example: computer science online course which would give an overview of what CS entails so PSEO students would be better informed and prepared for going into this major)
all preliminary exploratory at present
Mary Lowe asked- how to support PSEO students?
increase of faculty if increased student body?
Paula: school directors been working on developing a staffing plan for what faculty increases will be needed for various growth models- deadline November. Also will need more student support staff! This is very much on the planning radar.
More fleshing out of PSEO goals:
- 100 PSEO students will basically be treated as first years (but not take AugSem).
Online- allows rural HS students to take classes etc. - 500 PSEO asynchronous courses -can recruit international, out of state students. Will largely be with adjunct to keep tenured faculty for our full time in house day students.
- our PSEO policy will be full time.
Paula and reports work/Student Persistence Action Plan will be featured at Board Meeting next week
1: Augsburg150: Improving Student Persistence – Paula O’Loughlin
Goal- 150 Core Goal ic; unique needs
career pathways, your augsburg plan and support team, milestones, a durable structure of checking in (Art and Sciences- a few years ago).
Not achieving our goals if only retaining 70% of our class.
Last year first year retention stats: for the students we don’t retain, credit completion is a big indicator- tend to have lower gpa and lower retention rating
where do we start:
- data informed
- belonging and small for every student
- student engagement in core groups enhances belonging but is not enough
- credit completion is a core variable- starting first year first term-
- prophylactic or preventative before reactive
- multiple mentors are key
- students’ return on investment and future career opportunities
- New initiatives:
Persistence action steps- plan five core areas:
belonging (e.g. 20 more students on Oyate retreat) - small to every student
- academics supports and planning
- career everywhere
- data informed
one initiative example: Started a relationship with Knack, got rid of Tutor Me
they hire OUR students as independent contractors- good grades and faculty rec
tutor at all hours.
Goal: 50% of our students getting an account.
15% (387) have already signed up
148 classes have a tutor available (17%).
Need more faculty making recommendations for tutors!!! (only 4 have so far). Students don’t have to be work study eligible.
DFW rates-
still have writing center and offering support through writing center
“small to every student” RNL persistence enrollment company- students do surveys before orientation, end of first year, during second year.
78 (47/31) faculty staff do follow up conversations.
all 628 first years should be getting a conversation with a faculty or staff by October
data: our students are worried about making friends, sense of belonging, finances
sense of belonging and mattering important for persistence…
Reaffirmation of Accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC)
Dave Matz
10th year of reaffirmation of accreditation- we have submitted our “Assurance Argument” (e.g. speaking to all of the criteria for continued accreditation) and are currently in 5th step of this long 5 part process. We have a team of reviewers coming to campus on 10/21-22. 1.5 day Site Visit coming up!- they will want to meet with various groups on campus. Split into two teams. Will be open forums for various criteria. Go and be prepared to participate! Be engaged and
prepared to respond to any questions such as “how does this fit with Augsburg’s Mission.
For all:
- Be ready to answer questions
- hold calendar
- make sure physical campus is ready!
All Hands Meeting this Thursday