For the past three months, Emporia State University has been discussing the need for strategic reinvestments for the future. The reasons behind the reinvestment process and a progress report was discussed at length on KVOE’s On-Air Chat.
Chief Marketing Officer Kelly Heine was among several guests on the program. She says conversations about future direction started as current President Ken Hush took over in an interim role from prior leader Allison Garrett just over a year ago — notably by bringing the entire campus leadership together into a full leadership team for weekly meetings instead of monthly gatherings. Heine says the team grew as the year progressed with the Faculty Senate and Associated Student Government added by the start of the fall semester this past August.
The conversation changed tone — from what needs to happen by department to what needs to happen at the university.
Course offerings for students became the next conversation with businesses moving to a degree away from the longstanding practice of bachelor’s degrees as a baseline requirement.
Underpinning the need for change was a 29-percent decline in on-campus enrollment since 2017 and a 7-percent overall dip despite an increase of nearly 30 percent in graduate students the past five years. Heine says the university faced more “non-strategic” budget cuts as was the case the past 20 years, or it could develop a game plan to solidify the university for the future. Plans for what ultimately became the Framework for Workforce Management began in February with a meeting between university officials and the Kansas House Higher Education Budget Committee.
The Framework was approved in early September and included layoffs of over 30 faculty and staff, including several tenured faculty, and the upcoming end of the debate program. Interim Provost Brent Thomas says the adjustments are painful but needed.
Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Success Shelly Gehrke says the process behind the Framework for Workforce Management highlights the need for a range of community partners. She says ESU has been looking at a strategic enrollment management plan since fall 2021.
Emporia State’s new competitive disc golf club, another recent addition, is the top-ranked team in the country. ESU took another step towards building enrollment by offering in-state tuition across the continental United States.
So far, Emporia State has made six reinvestment announcements, including new or reopened positions and new programs for teachers education, music, nursing and business, and a reconfigured set of history and government majors through Social Sciences, Sociology and Criminology.
