At a recent forum on Northern State University’s budget process, NSU President Dr. Tim Downs encouraged the campus community to think like entrepreneurs when it comes to future growth, including new academic programs at Northern.
“Let’s think revenue generation,” Downs said. “Let’s be entrepreneurs.”
About 40 people attended the forum, held in the Johnson Fine Arts Center’s Red Room on Wednesday, April 10. President Downs and Vice President for Finance and Administration Veronica Paulson shared information on Northern’s revenues and expenditures, and Downs discussed the university’s direction moving forward.
Downs said Northern’s composite financial index, which essentially measures how viable an institution is financially, has risen. In 2009, that number was very low, negative 0.2, but it has spiked the last couple of years, now 7.8. This is now at a point that allows experimentation with new initiatives.
“We’re in a position right now to say, ‘Where can we invest some resources to grow areas of the university?’” Downs said.
In fiscal year 2018, Northern’s revenue was $43.4 million, up from $42.3 million in FY17. That comes from sources including 33 percent in tuition and 34 percent state appropriations. Expenditures in FY18 were $44.1 million.
Credit Hours Need to Increase
Northern’s cash reserves sit at 25.7 percent – well above the state’s 10 percent minimum requirement. Northern is in a good position, but spending reserves isn’t a long-term solution. With state aid not going up, the university must be entrepreneurial when it comes to future revenue generation, Downs said.
Increasing Northern’s number of credit hours per student is critical. The university has gone from 59,481 credit hours in 2009 to an estimated 57,526 credit hours in 2019. On-campus credit hours have gone from 52,000 down to 33,000 in that time period.
“That’s where our problem lies,” Downs said. That number needs to be at 39,000-40,000.
The good news is Northern is expanding off-campus – 6,900 to 24,000 during that time. But the university needs to start turning more of its high school dual credit students into on-campus students – Northern is the lowest in the state for yielding students from high school dual credit.
“We have to keep working on all the projects on campus to increase student populations and credit hours per student,” he said.
Increasing FTEs is Also Crucial
The number of full-time equivalent students also needs to go up. Right now on campus, Northern has 1,913 FTEs.
“We’ve got to increase our full-time equivalents,” Downs said. “It’s got to be above 2,000.”
But the university must do so while maintaining its quality academics standards – it’s a delicate balance, he said.
“We’ve got to start driving ourselves, whatever methodology – grabbing the dual credit students and converting them; bringing in bigger freshman classes, which we’re doing; and growing our graduate population,” Downs said. “It’s no one thing. It’s all of them. We’ve got to get aggressive to generate revenue.”
Because doing so, he said, will allow the ability to invest in new programs.
New Program Ideas Encouraged
Downs encouraged everyone to come forward with their ideas for future academic programs – but to do research first. Questions include:
- Is the program viable?
- Are students interested?
- Can we afford the infrastructure?
- Can those students get jobs after graduation?
Ideas proposed at the forum include an M.A. in art education, M.A. in higher education and a bachelor’s in communications. Anyone with additional program ideas should contact their supervisor. This conversation will be ongoing; ideas to continue enhancing revenues at NSU are encouraged.