Executive Workshop Outlines Provost's Strategic Growth and Investment Plan for 2019–2020
On Friday, Aug. 23, chairs, deans, and associate deans representing the College’s Schools and Departments met in the East Dining Room for a full-day executive workshop on a new initiative called the Strategic Growth and Investment Plan (SGIP) led by Lehman College Provost Peter Nwosu.
The SGIP aims to strengthen Lehman College’s long-term health and financial sustainability through innovative means informed by the College’s 2019 Self-Study and the 2019 Thematic Priorities from Direct Reports to the Provost, among other planning documents.
While Lehman is currently thriving financially, the national and local budgetary context for higher education funding suggests that allocating new and realigning current resources is necessary to achieve strategic growth in support of our mission and vision.
The workshop featured presentations from President Daniel Lemons; Provost Nwosu; Rene Rotolo, vice president for Administration and Finance; and Pamela Mills, dean of the School of Natural and Social Sciences, among others. Members of the President’s Cabinet and the Provost’s/Deans’ Council were also in attendance.
The context for discussing the financial realities of Lehman College presently and in the future, President Lemons said, is simply to assess the resources we require to further the mission of the college to educate, empower and engage.
“We are constantly seeking to do a better job achieving our mission,” he said.
The main pillars of SGIP include implementing:
These efforts, combined with seeking a broader array of external partnerships and funding support as well as the strengthening of data and technical infrastructures, are expected to ensure that Lehman remains a model of financial stability in the CUNY system while expanding revenue streams that further help the College to advance its transformative mission.
The SGIP aims to strengthen Lehman College’s long-term health and financial sustainability through innovative means informed by the College’s 2019 Self-Study and the 2019 Thematic Priorities from Direct Reports to the Provost, among other planning documents.
While Lehman is currently thriving financially, the national and local budgetary context for higher education funding suggests that allocating new and realigning current resources is necessary to achieve strategic growth in support of our mission and vision.
The workshop featured presentations from President Daniel Lemons; Provost Nwosu; Rene Rotolo, vice president for Administration and Finance; and Pamela Mills, dean of the School of Natural and Social Sciences, among others. Members of the President’s Cabinet and the Provost’s/Deans’ Council were also in attendance.
The context for discussing the financial realities of Lehman College presently and in the future, President Lemons said, is simply to assess the resources we require to further the mission of the college to educate, empower and engage.
“We are constantly seeking to do a better job achieving our mission,” he said.
The main pillars of SGIP include implementing:
- A Decentralized Approach to Adjunct Budgeting – For the first time in the College’s history, School deans will be offered the autonomy to manage adjunct funding. Any money that is leftover from the adjunct budget, deans can keep and use to reinvest in their schools.
- Strategies to Build, Increase and Improve Efficiencies in Curriculum and Schedule Planning – The development of courses in a variety of modalities, optimized for larger class sizes, along with degree maps and course rotation plans are meant to give deans flexibility to implement school and program-appropriate innovations in curriculum development that also allow deans to stay within budgetary limits.
- A Reimagining of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS) – A renewed SCPS program could enhance revenue sharing opportunities and heighten collaboration between SCPS and the four other schools (Arts & Humanities, Natural and Social Sciences, Education and Health Sciences, Human Services and Nursing).
- An Increase in the Number of Matriculated International Students at Lehman College – In recognition of the global reach of our campus, Lehman seeks to increase the number of international students who earn degrees and credentials to between 3 percent to 5 percent of the total student population.
- An expansion of Lehman’s Online Footprint through Graduate Programs – With approval from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, Lehman can proceed with creating graduate programs in accelerated and cohort-based models, as well as offering adult learning in blended (hybrid and residential) modalities.
These efforts, combined with seeking a broader array of external partnerships and funding support as well as the strengthening of data and technical infrastructures, are expected to ensure that Lehman remains a model of financial stability in the CUNY system while expanding revenue streams that further help the College to advance its transformative mission.