Top of Mind with Tambellini Group
Top of Mind with Tambellini Group
Challenges and Opportunities at a Resource-Constrained Institution
The University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, like many other institutions, has seen a decline in enrollment and a rise in competition. Less state funding exacerbates the challenge. In this Top of Mind Podcast episode, hear CIO Jerry Waldron explain how he is challenging past policies and getting back to basics.
Hello and welcome to our Top of Mind Podcast. In this program, we will sit down with the higher education technology thought leader and discuss the projects they are working on now and into the future. I'm your host, Katelyn Ilkani, Vice President of Client Services and Cybersecurity Research at The Tambellini Group. I'm joined today by Jerry Waldron, the serves as the chief information officer at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Over the next few minutes we're going to hear about challenges and opportunities at a resource constrained institution. Let's get started. Welcome to the program, Jerry.
Speaker 2:Thank you Katelyn. I appreciate the opportunity to chat with you and, and uh, and your listeners. Uh, and I, you know, I look forward to kind of exploring, uh, the, the topic and also what we've been, uh, what we've been experiencing, uh, over the last, uh, few years and, and we anticipate we will going forward where a lot like a lot of institutions and, and what kind of drill into that a little bit.
Speaker 1:I understand that the University of Maryland Eastern Shore is a historically black land grant institution with approximately 3,000 students. What are some of your core mission critical imperatives?
Speaker 2:Right. Well, that's a, that's a good question. We, we are an HBCU. Historically black college or university. We're in that category. We are in 1890 land grant institution. Uh, we're, we're small with a total enrollment of about three, uh, 3000 at the moment. Um, at one point we had as many as 4,500 students. So that roam enrollment has dropped in the last couple of years for a variety of different reasons. Um, we're pretty, we have a pretty diverse curriculum where we're a small, but we're also a doctoral research granting institution. So we have that research one, uh, focus as well as the undergraduate programs. You to be a couple of examples. We have traditional programs like education, business, computer science, but we all have some also have some special programs like aviation science and a variety of different, uh, healthcare professions, uh, that serve our region. So we, we are a pretty diverse institution academically. Uh, yes, we're, we're experiencing, uh, you know, some challenges with enrollment. Um, but, uh, if you watched the Chronicle of higher education or LinkedIn or any of the other sources that are out there, this is a lot more common today. I know it's true here in the state of Maryland at public and private institutions as well as institutions across the country. Um, these are, these are times of great change in education and I think, uh, you know, as a CIO or as a CIO at any institution, uh, we, we really need to, uh, kind of hone a new set of skills in my view.
Speaker 1:Jerry, when did you start as the CIO at UMES and what kind of working environment did you find?
Speaker 2:Well, I started as the interim in July of 2018 so it's only been a little over a year ago. They had been without a CIO for two years. Uh, and uh, prior to that that the CIO role was filled by a vice president who had, uh, other responsibilities outside of technology. Um, so it really, the area was run by two directors, uh, one in IT and one in administrative computing. Uh, when I got here, part of the task was obviously, uh, dealing with budget challenges, but also pulling those two groups together to form a, a constructive and effective a IT team. Now, my background in the state of Maryland, uh, it goes back pretty far. Uh, I was the CIO in another institution within the state for 14 years. Uh, and then I went to one of the smaller colleges in New Jersey and another one in Pennsylvania. So I have 17 years as a CIO coming up on 18. Uh, so I've been around the block a few times, but I have to say that every institution is different. And, uh, at this institution, I found that obviously since enrollment, uh, had dropped over the last three or four years, uh, that, uh, we, we're in the middle of some serious budget cuts. We had lost about 20% of our staff and we had lost about 45% of our operating budget. Um, so that's a story in itself.
Speaker 1:I recently read that overall state funding for public two year and four year colleges in the school year ending in 2018. It was more than$7 billion below its 2008 level. After adjusting for inflation, have you been impacted by state budget decisions?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, yes, but this goes back a lot further than 2008 when I started in, in higher education, uh, really three decades ago, um, we, we were in a much better position financially. The States across the country, uh, played a much bigger role in funding higher education within their States. Um, that has been declining for the last two or three decades. And, uh, so there's, you know, w w we're seeing that the state funded institutions are, uh, are, are just having to be more entrepreneurial and more focused, uh, on their own, uh, programmatic, uh, fund generation and, um, and really manage their own destiny a lot more than they used to. And of course, we're dealing with some of the, the criticisms and challenges, uh, from the public because we are, um, you know, we're, we're charging more for more services, but at the same time they may not know that state funding has been, uh, consistently declining. Now. That's, that's part of the issue. But I think a bigger part for a lot of institutions like ours has been the enrollment downturn over the last couple of years. And I'd like to talk a little bit about that cause I don't want to, I want to lean too much on the state funding because that's been kind of a way of life for most of us. You know, we're in, we're in some interesting times. Um, the, uh, the first thing I that I think, you know, everyone sees when they, when they, uh, when they watch the news at night is that we're really in that, in a, in a booming economy right now. Now that's great news for many of us in our 401ks and that type of thing. But higher education is always in sort of an inverse relationship with the economy. And again, in all my years in higher education, I've seen that when the economy is doing well, there are job opportunities. There are, there were places for individuals to go and succeed and grow. Uh, they're not necessarily needing to come to an institution, whether it's a two year or four year school, uh, to get that skill, to prepare for the next opportunity. So that affects your pool of students. Uh, so the strong economy is not necessarily a, a great thing for, for higher education. Uh, there's a lot more competition going on in the space. Uh, just this week, uh, NASDAQ, which is the national association of admissions counselors, uh, actually made a change at their annual meeting in their code of ethics that, uh, if somewhat influenced by the department of justice over the last few years, but they're encouraging competition, uh, to even a greater extent than they have in the past. So it hope there is to drive down costs for consumers. Um, but, uh, kind of lets you know where we're headed over the next couple of years. Uh, you know, w basically institutions that had a student committed to their institution, um, didn't have to be too concerned about competition from, uh, other, other schools. Um, because there was really an ethical code to, uh, to sort of keep focusing in a check. And that's, that's going to be changing over the next couple of years. So it'll be a, a tough market for colleges and universities as the competition is ramped up. Uh, I think, uh, too cost, uh, you know, students are taking a look at a variety of pathways. Those students that are pursuing a degree are looking at a variety of different pathways to getting that degree. They may take some courses online, whether in high school they may go to a community college, uh, they may take a mix of online and, and personal classes. They may take courses over a number of years as a part time student. There's just a myriad of different pathways to a degree that are out there. Uh, and that's great for students, but it can be little challenging for institutions because again, competition is ramped up and you know, that traditional 18 year old who's, who's on your campus from 18 to 22 or something, um, you know, that number is just dropping. Um, and another thing that, that I, I just actually realized over the past, uh, Oh, just doing some research and preparation for this conversation is that really since 2008, you know, when we had the great recession, they, the number of babies being born has actually declined during that period and in subsequent years. And that you'd think that, that may not have much of an influence on us today, but, uh, it will, uh, you know, all the way through 2026 and beyond. Uh, so we will see a smaller population of students, uh, to, uh, to be even be applying to our institution. So there's a lot of demographics that are, that are at play here. Uh, but, uh, you know, I think colleges and universities are, are going to have to, uh, to kind of reinvent themselves, uh, and really kind of hit that target population and be a lot more aggressive about what they're looking for, where they look, how they look. And that has an impact on what we do in IT. I mean, we definitely need to be strategic partners.
Speaker 1:You've brought up this idea of enrollment and enrollment numbers tied to really big demographic shifts out of your control. And I'd like to talk a little bit more about this idea of access and equity and, and dig more into enrollment research shows that both access and equity are threatened when higher education institutions are underfunded. There's separate from some of these larger demographic trends. What do you think IT's role is in supporting access and equity generally?
Speaker 2:Well, I think, you know, having worked on, I've worked at, uh, a couple of public, other public institutions as well as a one private institution for a bit. And you know, w when you are dealing with a, with a campus environment where we're not a virtual campus, we're not an online campus, we're not in an urban center where, where we have a lot of evening students and evening programs. Um, yes, we're research one, but, uh, you know, we, we still are, our big target is, uh, is, uh, students in, in that a younger demographic, uh, for the most part, uh, as well as professional programs. And I think, uh, you know, it, you know, w when you're dealing with that population, uh, the needs and wants of, of, uh, students are similar, uh, in any institution you go to. Um, and I've been in this a long time. Um, you know, I can remember back to, you know, when, when we took legacy systems to the web, uh, when we had, did I even go to white UK? And during that period and, um, after Y2K we ended up putting in a lot of web based systems to do just a whole bunch of things. And the students that, that are here now have grown up in that environment. And the expectation is that we, we will not only be on the web, but we'll be as effective as most of the retailers that they work with on a daily basis or they interact with. Um, so the expectation level has gone up dramatically over the last decade or two. And, you know, I think from its perspective, uh, you know, we, we need to meet those, those requirements. Um, and again, where regardless of your funding level, uh, it is really a, uh, a fixed cost. And, um, you know, if we're going to serve, uh, you know, any particular, uh, group of students, we need to be able to provide the services that they need and they want. Um, so when enrollment, uh, it goes up a little bit or down a little bit or whatever, we still need to be on the job with supporting, uh, the students supporting the classroom, supporting the networks, supporting the software systems that are needed. In a lot of these, if we go up a thousand or down a thousand students, they still need to be, be there. Um, and the accessibility is, um, is really linked to all of that because we know we want our students to have the same experience that, uh, or even better as students at other institutions. So, um, you know, we, we, uh, I think IT really needs to, uh, to do a variety of things to, uh, to help accessibility if they help enrollment. You know, I, I've been talking to people just as recently as today. As a matter of fact about our need to clarify and reestablish our, our commitment and our visions, we, we need to get closer to our core business. In our case, it's enrollment management. Um, we need to, uh, try and hold academics and research harmless if possible. Uh, we need to reorganize, uh, as needed, but maintain a customer service orientation. I think we need to review every single expense and whether it's software, staff or hours, and we need to leverage every it asset. I know these are tough, tough things to say, but they all do. You know, we, we, again, I come back to, to one of the, one of the bullets that I mentioned a moment ago and that's holding academics and research harmless. If we're going to meet our mission, if we're going to to, uh, perform the, uh, the, the tasks and the vision that, that the university expects us to, to, uh, perform on a daily basis, we really need to, uh, you know, to, to be committed to what's happening on the campus. Uh, in my case, I have to be closer to the business and the enrollment management. And the student activities and the student programs that I've ever had to be before. You know, we have to operate as an extremely tight team and all of that affects enrollment. All that affects our ability to provide access. And, uh, you know, it's, it's, it's a, it's a different world when you're, uh, you know, when, when you're under some tight constraints. Um, and I think you grow as a CIO though I don't want it would be all negative. I think there's a lot of upside. Uh, you, you just, uh, you know, I remember years ago, I remember taking a course as an undergraduate that talked a lot about values clarification. And I think that's, that's kind of what we're going through. Uh, and, and a commitment on everybody's part to where the institution is going and who we are serving.
Speaker 1:And Jerry, how are you boosting enrollment with technology today?
Speaker 2:Well, we're doing a number of things. I would say we're, we're, we've aligned ourselves, particularly in the last year or so. We are, our institution went through a pretty dramatic change in leadership, a new president, new cabinet. Um, and our, uh, our whole enrollment enrollment management, uh, effort has been re-engineered. And it is an integral part of that. Uh, we, we are involved by providing data. Um, we provide analytics, uh, uh, platforms for people to answer questions quickly and accurately. Uh, we support, uh, our CRM system, which is customer relationship management. And we've supported it for awhile. But I think again, when you're going through a period of, of re-engineering your enrollment management, you re-engineer a number of these tools and you start asking yourself, you know, whether or not they're effective and how can we use them better. Um, and we're also adding, you know, adding some things like, you know, mobile apps and, and, uh, other web tools that students can access, you know, 24, seven. Um, so, you know, there's a lot going on. Uh, I, I honestly, I think we're more aligned with the strategy and direction of the institution than probably, uh, this organization, uh, this it organization ever has. Um, so it's, it's not a bad thing. I, you know, you really feel like you're, you're tight with your customers and tight with your leadership.
Speaker 1:What kind of creative solutions have you found to help mitigate the impact of budget cuts and this impact of declining enrollment?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I, I don't think that, um, you know, there, there's certainly no magic bullet or, or, uh, you know, I think you'd go back to basics. You know, I know over the years I've, I've pushed for things like, uh, you know, academic technology renewal, uh, you know, laptop and desktop, computer replacement infrastructure, whether it be network or whatever. Uh, and, and, and you know, when you're in the kind of environment that a lot of institutions are in, uh, you need this squeeze the out of every piece of equipment, uh, and you know, whether it be a computer or a network, uh, device, uh, at the same time, you have to make sure that you've got the right, uh, security in place to, to make sure that you're not compromising your network or your ability to perform. Uh, I think the key in, in my case, it was reviewing every single expenditure. Now I say that slowly because I do mean every single expenditure. Uh, I personally approve every dollar that's spent on, I'm not trying to micromanage. We're not a big shop. Uh, but those, those decisions come directly to me. Again, we're, you know, luckily they're coming to me electronically a little at a time. Um, but I get a chance to see who's doing what, both in our department and across the campus with regards to it spending. Uh, we, we have developed standards and we're working with people to, uh, in the various areas, even if they have grant funding or research funding, uh, to, to try to stick to those standards wherever possible. So, again, it's a very active role. We, we cut, well, we went back and looked at our, at our, uh, software expenditures, uh, in detail product by product and, and I would really suggest that, uh, any institution do this. Um, on a fairly regular basis, we were able to cut about 30% of our operating budget by going back and, and really asking the question, who's using this? Why are we using this? How long have we been using this? And is it a part of where we're headed? And we were able to cut quite a bit. Um, so there's a lot more in most institutions budgets than they think. Uh, I, I don't think that I've gone through the exercise, um, as judiciously at other institutions. I mean, I probably would have told you that I did, but honestly, I don't, I don't think I, I did not at this level. Uh, so, you know, again, it's not rocket science. Um, you know, another thing we're doing is reorganizing our staff. If I said it at the outset, we lost about 20% of our staff and we haven't been able to replace them. Um, so we've done some reorganization, we've done some, some, uh, you know, some shuffling of duties and responsibilities and, uh, you know, that's, that's been, you know, a bit of a challenging process because you're, you're having to explain, uh, to human resources and the leadership exactly why you need to make the changes that you need to, to, uh, to make, uh, and you know, compensate people fairly and so on and so forth. Um, again, we're, we're squeezing the life out of every piece of equipment and I hate to say it, but we're probably squeezing a lot out of our staff as well. Um, you know, w I also have, have something set up on my desktop that if a ticket, you know, in any area, u h, comes in and is not attended to in t he two w eeks cycle, I know about it. Um, and we, we can take action. Again, we're trying to hold academics and research and as much as possible administrative units harmless. So it's kind of getting, getting to basics that it honestly, I don't think most CIO's very often get to a, even if you know, if an institution is, is doing okay and the enrollment is okay, and even though they'd like to have more money, um, they don't get to this level of, of really, uh, you know, maximizing every single dollar. Uh, and, and I, I don't think it's a bad thing cause I, I think that, you know, you're really gets you back to saying why or why not, um, all day, every day. And, uh, that's not a bad thing.
Speaker 1:You've given some advice during our discussion to institutions who might also be working within a resource constrained environment. Do you have any other advice that you would give someone else in your position?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I think, um, you know, I think probably the key thing, and I, and I would've said this years ago, but I think it's even more important now. Um, I think IT, uh, we can debate whether or not, you know, it's seen as strategic or operational and on different campuses. But, uh, my focus has been less on where we stand in terms of the hierarchy and a lot more on communicating with my team and communicating with my customers and my customers. Uh, obviously being students and being faculty members, uh, but also being, um, you know, folks in the different offices around the campuses or campus. I want them to know, you know, what we can do and what we can't do and when we can do it. Um, and if we can't do it, then we can't do it. But, uh, you know, we, we don't want to be, you know, uh, considered the black hole of it or, uh, or the, or the tech Nazi or anything like that. And IT sometimes can build up a, a bit of a tough skin because of the criticism that we get. But I think, again, when times get tough and the, the, uh, the communication is, uh, all, all the more important. I mean, I re-established a governance process here. Uh, not so much that I'm looking for the members of the campus community to tell us how to run it or even help us with priorities, but I really want to hear what they have to say. And I really want them to know what we can and cannot do. And, uh, I think they can help us in terms of, uh, identifying priorities but also articulating those priorities applied, uh, and helping cabinet members of the president know, um, what's truly important to, uh, to the community. Um, you know, I mentioned earlier reaffirming the vision and the values. Uh, you know, we, we, we often say we, we need to align it operation with the values of the institution. And, and that's absolutely true. Um, but I think, you know, when you're in a resource constrained environment, you, you need to have those conversations with your people every day and you need to walk the walk and talk the talk, so to speak, so that they know that you're in it too, that you understand the challenges that they have. And you're, you're really articulating or re articulating the vision and the values of the organization. But also with the campus, uh, so that you get, you, you get a level of commitment, uh, or you work towards a level of commitment, uh, that, uh, helps you through the really tough times.I just suggest, and I know a lot of CIOs would say they do this, but a key is to advocate for your team. Um, you know, when you are, uh, in a situation where you're asking folks to, to do more, uh, you, you need to, uh, to support them. Whether it's looking after a, uh, a request for an upgrade or promotion or a realignment or whatever it is, you, you need to advocate for your team, uh, and, and, uh, let them know that you're really, um, you know, you're there for them. Um, because you're, you're, you're not going anywhere if your teams doesn't have your back and you don't have their back. Yeah. And I, I would say one, one piece of advice that we, we should all do on a regular basis is, uh, is ask, you know, why or why not, you know, every day, uh, when you come into an institution as a new CIO, I've been a CIO for years, but I'm new to this institution. You know, to really honor, uh, the opinion of others and ask that question, why have we done this? Why are we not doing that? Uh, but keeping an eye all the time on your vision and values and um, not really get hung up on, on, you know, what was done before or you know, what the previous director, previous CIO, we thought these are different times and we need to, uh, you know, we need to really, really challenge ourselves and challenge the ideas and policies of the past and keep our eyes on the prize as they say.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for your time today, Jerry. I've really enjoyed learning about the work that you're doing at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and how you and your team have gotten so creative.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure.
Speaker 1:This concludes our Top of Mind Podcast. Please check back with us next month for another great topic, and don't forget to purchase your ticket for the Tambellini Cloud Transformation Summit where we will explore trends and core systems, student success, big data, and more.