Early Bird

Trustees approve 2030 Strategic Plan

A new member was introduced at Thursday’s board meeting, along with updates on the state budget, enrollment and more.

By Ashley Hughes

December 8, 2020

Below are the highlights and decisions that came out of the Metropolitan State University of Denver Board of Trustees special Finance Committee meeting Thursday.

2030 Strategic Plan moves forward

Cathy Lucas, vice president of Strategy and External Affairs, and Matt Makley, Ph.D., professor of history, unveiled the 2030 Strategic Plan and gave a presentation on its vision statement, five pillars and 14 goals for the University. The two, who served as co-chairs for the 30-member Strategic Planning Team, noted the finalized version is the result of nearly two years of work and collaboration among faculty, staff, deans, administrators, students, trustees and other University stakeholders. It will serve as a guiding framework for decision-making and provides clear direction for the future. Board of Trustees Chair Barbara Grogan thanked Lucas and Makley for all of their efforts as well as those who participated in the process.

“If we added up all the person-hours that went into this, it would be phenomenal,” Grogan said. “But I think you all have captured not just the essence of MSU Denver but the goals of where we want to go. And you’ve given us a road map to follow.”    

The board voted unanimously to approve the plan. It will go live in January, and from then through April, the team will work on an operational plan to determine strategies and key performance indicators to monitor the Strategic Plan itself. In June, the team will present the operational plan to the Board of Trustees.

New and outgoing trustees

Last week, Gov. Jared Polis selected Michael Kopp, CEO of Colorado Concern, to serve as the newest MSU Denver trustee. His background includes serving as a Colorado state senator and as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division. He attended the meeting, was introduced as an observer and will join the board following confirmation by the state legislature.

The board also bid farewell to Jim Mulligan, who joined in 2017. His tenure included serving on the Finance and Academic and Student Affairs committees and as chair of the Governance Committee. He has additionally been involved with the Health Institute and the C2Hub.

Financial overview and state budget update

As a follow-up to the preliminary fiscal 2020 financial statements that MSU Denver Controller Liza Larsen presented in September, she provided more insight to give a better perspective of the University’s current financial position.

“When you look at our published financial statements, all the required accounting entries that are supposed to be in there are in there,” Larsen said. “And ironically, the accounting entries that are supposed to add some clarity or transparency sometimes cloud our ability to see our true financial performance.”

She noted there were several unique and one-time transactions in FY20, some related to the CARES Act, that create the appearance of a better financial position than the University truly has. While the current net position increased positively year over year from FY19, she anticipates a negative change in FY21. But Larsen also said the current cash balance is adequate and that the University has four times as many current assets as it does current liabilities.

The board also heard from Larry Sampler, vice president of Administration and chief operating officer, and George Middlemist, associate vice president of Administration and chief financial officer, about the state’s FY22 budget. The governor has proposed restoring higher-education funding to the FY19-20 levels, which would result in about $260,000 more in funding for the University, but there would still be an estimated $8 million shortfall.

Following the presentation, there was discussion about what the University’s government strategy should look like heading into the next legislative cycle.

“This is at the point where it’s not going to get any better unless something changes. We’re at an inflection point,” said MSU Denver President Janine Davidson, Ph.D. “So, we champion that we’re very efficient, but what I say is we could do so much more at scale. It’s about the lost opportunity. It’s about the students who slip through the cracks because we don’t have enough advisors. What we do, we do amazingly well. But we could do it all at scale in service to the state of Colorado.”

Davidson said the core piece of the University’s messaging to the legislature will be to use Step 1 of the funding formula because that is the part that allows them to change MSU Denver’s base amount.

Latest on University enrollment numbers

As of Nov. 30, the number of full-time equivalents for the fall semester is down 6.36% from last year, with spring 2021 currently down 18.85%. However, Associate Vice President of Enrollment Management Mary Sauceda pointed out that students often wait until the last moment to register and that that is especially true with COVID-19, so enrollment is projected to increase.

Some of the areas of focus for enrollment are improving transfer-student processes and success, recruiting Black and African American students, partnerships and employer-based programs, reaching rural students through online classes and exploring strategic options for nontraditional students.

Lessons learned from COVID-19

Leone Dick, chief of staff for the vice president of Administration, provided an update on the Roadrunners Safe Return Committee and what has been learned during the fall semester. Through feedback sessions and surveys, some of the key things the committee heard were that regular COVID-19 testing is desired, not all communications efforts are resonating with everyone and there are challenges with teaching platforms, internet reliability and computer-hardware access.

Going into 2021, there are plans to expand COVID-19 testing via community resources, increase communication through myriad methods, make better use of existing resources such as nursing students, use additional funding for loaner laptops and assess teaching platforms.

Overall, the COVID-19 positivity rate at MSU Denver is 4.14% – quite a bit lower than the state of Colorado as a whole, which was 11.63% on Dec. 1. In conversations with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the conclusion is that virus transmission is not occurring in on-campus classrooms. More classes will be offered face-to-face for spring but not at the level the committee had previously expected.