2007/2008 Initiatives Task Force Group
November 14, 2007
Download the 2007/2008 Initiatives Task Force Group (PDF).
To further the tactical side of our strategic planning this year, three Task Force teams were commissioned out of the President’s Leadership Team (Executive Committee of the University planning process) to assemble a representative team and process to provide scenarios, formal recommendations, and challenges (to be processed by the Initiatives Task Force Group and the UPG), in response to the questions in the March 2007 document, “Foundational Decisions Needed to Accomplish the Initiatives and Move Biola Forward.” The starting presupposition is to grow at 2.6 percent, annually. The three teams and the questions they are to answer during this fiscal year are as follows:
Growth/Enrollment and Academic Programs (emphasis on new markets).
Leadership: Chris Grace, Irene Neller, Todd Pickett, and Greg Vaughan.
Other committee members: Roy Allinson, Ana Becerra, Andre Stephens
Foundational questions to answer, related to Growth/Enrollment:- What is Biola’s philosophy on growth? What are the annual enrollment targets for traditional undergraduate, graduate, and degree-completion students for the next five years?
- Will our traditional undergraduate enrollment targets be established primarily by regional demographic predictions? Or, will we establish University-wide targets and develop means to achieve them in a way that overcomes these trends?
- Is capping enrollment an option we will consider?
- Should planned enrollment growth be focused on the La Mirada campus, or on other sites?
- What programs should be added, enlarged, reduced, or eliminated in order to support the enrollment targets for the next five years?
- How can the mechanism and criteria for adding, enlarging, reducing, or eliminating programs be accelerated to support enrollment goals?
- What is the role and priority of the sciences in the undergraduate curriculum?
- What is our target for faculty/student ratios, stated in terms of full-time faculty and FTE faculty?
- What should be the role and priority of distance learning as an alternative delivery method for current programs and the expansion into new programs and markets?
Facilities and IT.
Leadership: Ken Bascom and Gary Wytcherley, co-chairs
Other team members: Jared Gibo, June Hetzel, Dave Koontz (present for the parking portion only), Doug Pennoyer, Brian Phillips, Jack Schwarz, Don Sims, Walt Stangl, Doug Tarpley, Greg Vaughan.
Foundational questions to answer, related to Facilities:- What are the next five buildings to be built, renovated, expanded, or acquired?
- What strategies will we use to meet city parking requirements for fall 2008 and beyond?
- Should we create a more representative University-wide space allocation decision-making process? If so, what will be the process?
Finance/Fundraising.
Leadership: Dave Koontz and Adam Morris, co-chairs; Ron Mooradian, secretary.
Other team members: Rick Bee, Joyce Brooks, Irma Hill, Patricia Pike, Sandie Weaver, Don Sims
Foundational questions to answer, related to Finance/Fundraising (the goal is to set an ambitious/comprehensive fundraising (campaign) goal and a responsible financial model to resource these bold initiatives):- What is a realistic fundraising goal and timetable for the next five years and ten years that can be used for facilities (capital) planning and announcing an intention to build?
- What are realistic fundraising goals for the operating budget and for the endowment?
- What additional funding sources, over and above traditional fundraising, are available for non-revenue generating buildings?
- What are the philosophy and guidelines for assuming additional institutional debt?
- Should all schools and academic programs operate by the same budgeting and other operational rules and guidelines? If there are exceptions, what criteria are used to grant the exception?