Annual seminars for ACM faculty sponsored by the Institute on College Futures (ICF) are designed to:
- Build a deeper knowledge of the economic and other strategic challenges facing liberal arts colleges;
- Become more aware of sound strategies for managing college finances; and
- Develop a better understanding of how to use this knowledge to foster timely and wise decisions through the roles they play in the shared governance on their own campuses.
Professional Development for Faculty
A total of 250 faculty and administrators from across the ACM participated in the five ICF college finance seminars held each summer from 2013 through 2017. Faculty were nominated by their academic deans to participate in the seminars.
Go to the webpages of previous ICF seminars for program schedules, speakers, lists of participants, readings and assignments, and seminar bibliographies.
Past ICF Seminars
A total of 250 faculty and administrators from across the ACM participated in the five ICF college finance seminars held each summer from 2013 through 2017. Faculty were nominated by their academic deans to participate in the seminars.
Go to the webpages of previous ICF seminars for program schedules, speakers, lists of participants, readings and assignments, and seminar bibliographies.
2018 ICF Seminar - July 13-14, 2018 in Chicago, IL
The 2018 institute focused on shared governance, offering sessions designed to help ACM faculty build a deeper knowledge of the issues that complicate strategic decision and strategies for enhancing shared governance outcomes.
Seminar Program and Schedule
FRIDAY, JULY 13
11:00 a.m. – Registration
11:45 a.m. – Welcome and Introductions by Sonya Malunda, President, ACM
Noon – Keynote Address: The Current Landscape of Shared Governance Structures — Liberal Arts Colleges in Context
Presenter: Steven C. Bahls, President, Augustana College
1:15 p.m. – Lunch
2:15 p.m. – Framing the Sessions: Issues that Complicate Strategic Decision Making and Strategies for Enhancing Shared Governance Outcomes
Presenter: Brian Williams, Vice President and Director of Faculty and Grant Programs, ACM
2:30 p.m. – Issue #1: External and Internal Pressures that Complicate Strategic Decision Making in the Context of Shared Governance Structures
Facilitator: Ed Wingenbach, Vice President and Dean of the Faculty, Ripon College
Framing Questions:
• What is the right balance between “faculty voice and participation” on the one hand and the “workload of governance” on the other?
• What are the incentives/motivations supporting (and impediments to) faculty service in governance roles?
• What capacity do faculty have to participate in governance roles?
• What should faculty be able to expect from administrators and Board members to ensure effective and efficient shared governance structures?
• In what ways do the increased economic challenges under which higher education operates complicate shared governance?
• What other external or internal pressures also present challenges to effective shared governance?
3:45 p.m. – Break
4:00 p.m. – Issue #2: Locus of Authority in Various Forms of Governance on Liberal Arts Campuses
Facilitator: Teresa Amott, President, Knox College
Framing Questions:
• What is the relationship between faculty governance, administrative governance, board governance, and shared governance?
• What is the faculty role in defining strategic institutional priorities as the first step toward their implementation?
• What are the pinch points in shared governance structures that impede effective decision making?
• What issues/decisions are delegable to others on campus (or to the Board) and what would encourage faculty, administration, and Boards to redistribute authority?
• Representative bodies for faculty and how they are used (or not used) effectively
• Lack of effective participation in governance structures
• Lack of effective communication and sharing of information
• Lack of understanding of distinctive challenges and constraints faced by decision makers
4:45 p.m. – Wrap-Up
5:00 p.m. – Dinner
SATURDAY, JULY 14
8:30 a.m. – Breakfast
9:00 a.m. – Issue #2 (cont.): Applied Locus of Authority
Facilitator: Sandi Wong, Dean of the College and Dean of the Faculty, Colorado College
10:00 a.m. – Break
10:15 a.m. – Strategy #1: Necessary Pre-Requisites to Effective Shared Governance
Facilitator: Michael Latham, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College, Grinnell College
Framing Questions:
• How to achieve a foundation of mutual trust between faculty and administrators?
• What is it reasonable for faculty to expect from administrators and Boards to ensure effective shared governance?
• What responsibilities do faculty have in terms of making shared governance effective – e.g., faculty responsibilities for making representative faculty bodies speak for full faculty?
11:30 a.m. – Lunch
1:00 p.m. – Strategy #2: Enabling a Flexible Approach for Issues and Crises that Require Agile Decision Making
Facilitator: Ed Wingenbach, Vice President and Dean of the Faculty, Ripon College
Framing Questions:
• In what ways might the principles of “shared governance” provide more flexibility in situations that require administrative decision makers to be agile in their decisions?
• The appropriate participation of faculty, administrators and the Board.
2:15 p.m. – Break
2:30 p.m. – Lightning Round Presentations from Case-Study Groups
Facilitator: Brian Williams, Vice President and Director of Faculty Development and Grant Programs, ACM
Framing Question:
• What are the main takeaways that the break-out groups have discovered while working with their case scenario over the course of the institute?
3:30 p.m. – Short Case Study Group Reports Out to the Whole
4:45 p.m. – Conclusion
2017 ICF Seminar - June 22-23, 2017 in Chicago, IL
Watch four brief videos with excerpts from the ICF presentations, plus links to full-length presentation videos!
Seminar Program and Schedule
THURSDAY, JUNE 22
11:00 a.m. – Registration
11:45 a.m. – Welcome and Introductions by Christopher Welna, President, ACM
Noon – Keynote Address – The Dialogue Begins: The Economics of Higher Education
Presenter: Jill Tiefenthaler, President, Colorado College
1:00 p.m. – Lunch
2:00 p.m. – Keynote Address – The Economics of the Liberal Arts Colleges
Presenter: Scott Bierman, President, Beloit College
3:00 p.m. – Q & A for Keynote Presentations
3:45 p.m. – Break
4:00 p.m. – 1st Breakout Group — Common Challenges and Themes for the Liberal Arts Model
Resources:
Overview of the Academic Enterprise:
• Ben Wildavsky, “Reinventing the Academic Enterprise: College Leaders Consider the Challenges of the New Era,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2016.
• Matthew M. Chingos, “Don’t forget private, non-profit colleges,” February 16, 2017
Endowments:
• David Oxtoby, “Endowments Are Financial Pillars, Not Piggy Banks,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 21, 2015
Discount Rates:
• Rick Seltzer, “Discount rates rise yet again at private colleges and universities,” Inside Higher Education, May 16, 2016
• Peter Schmidt, “Is Tuition Discounting Leading Some Colleges off a Cliff?”, The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 28, 2017
Goal: Building on content from keynote presentations and selected readings, faculty participants will identify the common challenges that all liberal arts colleges face in today’s competitive environment and discuss the themes around which subsequent conversations can proceed.
Approach: In small groups composed of faculty from multiple campuses, discuss and report back on the following prompts:
• Based on the keynote presentations, what do you perceive to be two or three themes related to strategic financial planning that are relevant to ACM colleges?
• What are the challenges and/or opportunities that ACM colleges face in strategically managing their financial resources to maximize the quality of teaching and learning on their campuses?
• Where are the areas of overlap and difference with respect to the challenges and opportunities that ACM colleges face?
4:45 p.m. – Plenary Session — Debrief on Breakout Group Discussions
5:30 p.m. – Dinner in small groups, with suggested discussion topics
FRIDAY, JUNE 24
8:00 a.m. – Breakfast
8:30 a.m. – Brief discussion of Thursday evening dinner conversation topics
9:00 a.m. – Presentation – The Liberal Arts College Financial Model
Presenter: Michael T. Orr, Krebs Provost and Dean of the Faculty, Lake Forest College
10:00 a.m. – Break
10:15 a.m. – Presentation – Financial Challenges for the Future
Presenter: David Wheaton, Vice President for Administration and Finance, Macalester College
11:15 a.m. – Liberal Arts College Scenarios
Presenters: David Wheaton and Michael Orr
1:00 p.m. – Lunch
2:00 p.m. – 2nd Breakout Group — Application of New Financial Insights to Case Studies re Liberal Arts College Operations
Resource: Case Study Handout
Goal: Provide faculty participants an opportunity to apply strategic financial planning knowledge to operational decisions/issues that liberal arts colleges face. Create scenarios that reveal the complexity of financial planning and how decisions about one challenge can create unintended financial challenges elsewhere in the college’s business model.
Approach: In same small groups, faculty will consider the following operational case studies and accompanying discussion questions.
Alpha College Case Studies:
• A suggestion to grow student enrollments by 5% year-over-year for 3 years as a strategy to address and stabilize annual budget deficits.
• A suggestion to borrow $5M at prevailing interest rates to help fund the construction of a new library/academic commons that will better support teaching and learning and possibly enhance student recruitment efforts.
• A suggestion to enhance socio-economic diversity among the student population as a strategy to ensure that the educational experience reflects and acknowledges emerging student demographics.
Discussion Questions:
• What is the full range of financial and non-financial issues/considerations that such a decision raises?
• Of the financial issues, which are operational in nature – i.e., addressed by the annual operating budget? Which issues present questions related to capital expenditures? Which issues create recurring expenses? One-time expenses?
• What additional information will you need to make a recommendation to the administration?
• Thinking back on what you just learned during the Wheaton/Orr presentations:
• How sustainable is the approach that Docking describes?
• What, if any, are the constraints of Adrian’s Enrollment Growth approach?
• What other outcomes and/or parameters, not explicitly described by Docking, might need to be in place for Adrian’s approach articulated to work over the long run?
3:00 p.m. – Plenary Session to Debrief on Breakout Group Discussions
3:30 p.m. – Break
3:45 p.m. – 3rd Breakout Group — Campus-Based Group Work on College-Specific Questions
Resource: College-specific data from pre-institute homework assignment
Goal: College-based teams apply concepts learned to contribute, through shared governance structures on their campuses, to the varied financial/economic circumstances that their institutions face.
Approach: Campus-based work groups discuss the following questions in the context of college-specific data (via homework assignment) and then report back to the group.
• What are the real-life decisions and choice sets about financial and budget priorities that the president and faculty at your institution will need to address?
• What information would you need to thoughtfully contribute to the conversations about these issues?
• How do you see what you learned at the ICF helping to address the highest priority choices and real-world decisions on your campus?
• Where in the decision-making process on your campus might this new knowledge about the economics of small, residential colleges be useful and how might you ensure that this information becomes part of that process?
4:45 p.m. – Conclusion
2016 ICF Seminar - June 23-24, 2016 in Chicago, IL
Seminar Program and Schedule
THURSDAY, JUNE 23
11:00 a.m. – Registration
11:45 a.m. – Welcome and Introductions by Christopher Welna, President, ACM
Noon – Keynote Address – The Dialogue Begins: The Economics of Higher Education
Presenter: Jill Tiefenthaler, President, Colorado College
Slides for Jill Tiefenthaler presentation
1:00 p.m. – Q & A for President Tiefenthaler presentation
1:15 p.m. – Lunch
2:15 p.m. – Keynote Address – The Economics of the Liberal Arts Colleges
Presenter: Scott Bierman, President, Beloit College
Slides for Scott Bierman presentation
3:15 p.m. – Q & A for President Bierman presentation
3:45 p.m. – Break
4:00 p.m. – 1st Breakout Group — The Higher Education Business Model and “Innovative Responses” to Financial Strain
- Reading: Lucie Lapovsky, The Higher Education Business Model: Innovation and Financial Sustainability (TIAA CREF Institute, November 2013)
- Goal: Give participants an opportunity to use and interact with the concepts and ideas they just learned through interaction with each other, readying the group to absorb the Orr and Wheaton presentations on Friday morning.
- Approach: Building on content from keynote presentations, introduce the notion of business models through a discussion of the following questions in small, multi-campus groups.
• What are the basic business models across the ACM – i.e., endowment driven, tuition driven, hybrid, other? How would you describe each of these models in layman’s terms?
• What are the group’s impressions of the Innovative Responses (Pricing and Discounting, Increase Access and Enrollment, Increase Operational Efficiencies, Improve Student Outcomes, Add Online Programs, Think Globally) that Dr. Lapovsky describes? Which seem most compelling? Under what circumstances?
• What are examples of other “innovative responses” not identified by Dr. Lapovsky?
• Questions of Scale: Is bigger necessarily better? What are the tradeoffs between large and small scale? What is an optimal size and what does that optimal point depend on?
5:30 p.m. – Dinner in small groups, with ICF-themed conversation topics assigned
FRIDAY, JUNE 24
8:00 a.m. – Breakfast
8:30 a.m. – Brief discussion of Thursday evening dinner conversation topics
9:00 a.m. – Presentation – The Liberal Arts College Financial Model
Presenter: Michael T. Orr, Krebs Provost and Dean of the Faculty, Lake Forest College
Slides for Michael Orr and David Wheaton presentations
9:45 a.m. – Break
10:00 a.m. – Presentation – Financial Challenges for the Future
Presenter: David Wheaton, Vice President for Administration and Finance, Macalester College
11:00 a.m. – Liberal Arts College Scenarios
Presenters: David Wheaton and Michael Orr
1:00 p.m. – Lunch
2:00 p.m. – 2nd Breakout Group — A Case Study re One College’s Response
- Reading: Chapter 4 (pp. 35-49) of Docking, Jeffrey R., Crisis in Higher Education: A Plan to Save Small Liberal Arts Colleges in America (Michigan State University Press, 2015) and Congressional testimony offered by President Docking to the Committee on Higher Education and the Workforce on September 18, 2013.
- Goal: Give participants an opportunity to apply what they have just learned during the Wheaton/Orr presentation and spreadsheet in order to assess the approach and long-term sustainability of a case study that implements one of the proposed “innovative responses” – i.e., increase access and enrollment – from Dr. Lapovsky’s article on The Higher Education Business Model.
- Approach: In his book Crisis in Higher Education, President Docking (Adrian College) describes an enrollment growth model that has had positive results over the past ten years. The group will use President Docking’s example as a prompt for small-group, cross-consortial discussion of the following questions.
Thinking back on what you just learned during the Wheaton/Orr presentations:
• How sustainable is the approach that Docking describes?
• What, if any, are the constraints of Adrian’s Enrollment Growth approach?
• What other outcomes and/or parameters, not explicitly described by Docking, might need to be in place for Adrian’s approach articulated to work over the long run?
3:15 p.m. – Break
3:30 p.m. – 3rd Breakout Group — Campus-Based Group Work on College-Specific Questions
- Goal: College-based teams apply concepts learned to contribute, through shared governance structures on their campuses, to the varied financial/economic circumstances that their institutions face.
- Approach: Each college team will explore the following questions in the context of college-specific data (via pre-Institute homework assignment) and then report back to the group.
• What are the real-life decisions and choice sets about financial and budget priorities that the President and faculty at your institution will have to address? What information would you need to thoughtfully contribute to the conversations about these issues?
• How do you see what you learned here helping to address the highest priority choices and real-life decisions on your campus?
• Where in the decision-making process on your campus might this new knowledge about the economics of small, residential colleges be useful and how might you ensure that this information becomes part of that process?
4:30 p.m. – Report to the whole by campus teams
5:15 p.m. – Conclusion
2015 ICF Seminar - June 22-23, 2015 in Chicago, IL
ICF seminar on June 22-23, 2015
What is the “big picture” view of the economics and finances of higher education today? How can independent liberal arts colleges thrive in this economic environment?
Through a combination of presentations by experienced ACM administrators, the 2015 Institute on College Futures (ICF) gave 48 faculty from across the ACM an overview of the economic challenges that liberal arts colleges face today.
Discussion sessions provided opportunities for participants to actively engage with their faculty colleagues in developing presentations to give to groups on their home campuses.
Seminar Program
MONDAY, JUNE 22
11:00 am – Registration
Noon – Welcome & Introductions
Christopher Welna, ACM President
12:15 pm – Keynote Address
The Dialogue Begins: The Economics of Higher Education
Presenter: Jill Tiefenthaler, President, Colorado College
1:15 pm – Lunch
2:15 pm – Presentation
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Merit Awards: The Tuition Driven Schools’ Dilemma
Presenter: Scott Bierman, President, Beloit College
3:15 pm – Break
3:30 pm – Breakout Groups
Framing Responses to Commentaries on Higher Education Economics
5:30 pm – Dinner in thematic groups at city restaurants
TUESDAY, JUNE 23
8:00 am – Breakfast
9:00 am – Presentation
The Liberal Arts College Financial Model
Presenter: Michael T. Orr, Krebs Provost and Dean of the Faculty, Lake Forest College
9:45 am – Break
10:00 am – Presentation
Financial Challenges for the Future
Presenter: David Wheaton, Vice President for Administration and Finance, Macalester College
11:00 am – Interactive Liberal Arts College Scenarios
Facilitators: David Wheaton and Michael Orr
1:00 pm – Lunch
2:00 pm – Bringing It Back Home: Campus Teams Draft Presentations
Facilitator: Brian Williams, ACM Vice President and Director of Faculty Development and Grant Projects
3:00 pm – Break
3:15 pm – Campus Teams Share Draft Presentations in Small Groups
Facilitator: Brian Williams
4:00 pm – Sharing “Best of” Ideas to Larger Group
Facilitator: Brian Williams
5:00 pm – Conclusion
This seminar was made possible by generous support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
2014 ICF Seminar - June 18-20, 2014 in Chicago, IL
The goal of this Institute on College Futures (ICF) seminar was to inform the participants about the economics of the liberal arts colleges so they would leave the Institute prepared to talk about these issues with colleagues on their own campuses. Following the seminar, each campus team was expected to make a presentation to its institution’s president or dean and to an appropriate campus group.
The 2014 seminar offered a blend of informative presentations by experienced ACM administrators together with opportunities for participants to actively engage with their faculty colleagues in developing materials to take back to their home campuses.
Seminar Program
Wednesday evening, June 18
Registration & Reception
Welcome by Christopher Welna, ACM President
Dinner
Thursday, June 19
Session 1 – The Economics of Liberal Arts Colleges
- Presentation & Questions: The Dialogue Begins: The Economics of Higher Education
[View a copy of the presentation]
Jill Tiefenthaler, President, Colorado College
- Presentation & Questions: The Economics of Liberal Arts Colleges
Scott Bierman, President, Beloit College
- Breakout Groups
David Schodt, ACM Senior Program Officer
Each group will discuss a brief case and prepare a response to the situation posed by the case.
- Reports to the Plenary
Breakout groups will present their responses to the plenary group of participants.
Lunch
Session 2 – The Liberal Arts College Financial Model
- Presentation & Questions: The Liberal Arts College Financial Model
Michael T. Orr, Krebs Provost and Dean of the Faculty, Lake Forest College
Session 3 – Financial Challenges for the Future
- Presentation & Questions: Financial Challenges for the Future
David Wheaton, Vice President for Administration and Finance, Macalester College
- Liberal Arts College Scenarios
David Wheaton and Michael Orr
Participants work with representative data to explore several scenarios about the economic future of the liberal arts colleges.
Friday, June 20
Session 4: Bringing It Back Home
- Work by Campus Teams
Brian Williams, ACM Vice President and Director of Faculty Development and Grant Projects
Each campus team will prepare a short presentation on the economics of higher education and the liberal arts colleges for colleagues at its home institution.
- Campus Team Presentations
Brian Williams
In groups of three to four campus teams each, the teams will deliver their presentations to each other. Each of the groups will prepare a brief summary of the main issues and best questions raised by the individual campus team presentations.
- Report Out by Campus Teams
Brian Williams
Summary reports to the plenary group from each of the groups.
- Conclusion and Lunch
This seminar was made possible by generous support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
2013 ICF Seminar - June 19-21, 2013 in Chicago, IL
The 2013 Institute on College Futures (ICF) seminar gathered faculty participants from each ACM institution, particularly drawn from campus leadership and committees that participate in budget and planning processes. The campus delegations were nominated by the presidents and chief academic officers at ACM colleges.
Following is the seminar program, including the list of faculty participants, readings and assignments, descriptions of the sessions and links to presentation materials, bios of the presenters, and a bibliography.
Seminar Program
Ronald Ehrenberg
Wednesday, June 19
Keynote: Is the Golden Age of Selective Liberal Arts Colleges Over? – [see the video]
Speaker: Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Irving M. Ives Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Economics, and Director, Cornell Higher Education Research Institute, Cornell University
Reception & Dinner
Thursday, June 20
Session 1: Economics
Among the issues addressed in this session, led by Jill Tiefenthaler and Scott Bierman, were the reasons for the steady increase in tuition during the past 30 years; the central role played by perceptions of quality in the economics of higher education; the economic benefits of degree attainment; what it really means to be a tuition-dependent institution; and how game theory and the prisoners’ dilemma can explain why competition between schools results in the escalation of merit aid awards despite the negative impact such awards have on institutional net revenue.
Presenter: Jill Tiefenthaler, President, Colorado College
- How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Merit Awards: The Tuition Driven School’s Dilemma – [see the video]
Presenter: Scott Bierman, President, Beloit College
Session 2: Finance
The session began with an overview by Michael Orr of the basic financial model for ACM institutions, analyzing the major categories of revenues and expenses and explaining concepts such as the discount rate, endowment draw policies, and the components of financial equilibrium. The second part of the session dealt with the dynamics of the financial model. Using an operating statement representative of a typical ACM college, David Wheaton mapped out the impact of a variety of growth scenarios on revenues and expenses and demonstrated the difficulty ACM institutions face in keeping the growth of expenses in balance with revenue increases so as to balance the budget.
Presenter: Michael T. Orr, Krebs Provost & Dean of the Faculty, Lake Forest College
Presenter: David Wheaton, Vice President for Administration & Finance, Macalester College
Friday, June 21
Session 3: Governance
Using a case study approach, Elizabeth McKinsey and Frank Boyd engaged the seminar participants in considering how ACM institutions can best utilize the principals and practices of shared governance to respond to institutional challenges during a time of constrained resources.
Presenter: Elizabeth McKinsey, Professor of English & American Studies and former Dean of the College, Carleton College
Presenter: Frank Boyd, Associate Provost, Illinois Wesleyan University
Concluding Remarks: David Schodt, Senior Program Officer for Faculty & Staff Development Programs, ACM
This seminar was made possible by generous support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
