Reflection paper

HEA-620 Edit Board with Melinda Treadwell CC

[00:00:05.69] MELINDA TREADWELL: So, when I accepted the position as interim president at Keene State, it was very clear to me that the obligation that I was accepting was stabilizing the campus.

[00:00:18.39] And so, in the early briefing packets that I got, it was clear that there were some structural gaps. You've been writing about that. We've all been talking about it, between enrollment decline, and the tuition-derived revenue associated with that decline, and then the operating expenses of campus.

[00:00:31.56] So, in the face of what has been a 29 percent decline in our enrollment over the past five years, we haven't rightsized the campus staff and infrastructure. And so, our costs have not been reduced to reflect that revenue reality.

[00:00:46.51] And so, there's a gap between the operational revenue and the expense of the campus. That is varying right around $7 million when I look at the operational gap for the campus right now.

[00:00:57.17] We had, for this fiscal cycle, my first target was a $2.4 million budget deficit that was approved by the board. So, Keene State, for this fiscal year, July 1, '17, through June 30, '18, had to contain itself to a $2.4 million deficit. And we were running a larger deficit than that, based on our expenses and revenue.

[00:01:20.42] We also had a shortfall in our revenue projections for this year. We didn't meet our enrollment target that was set as part of that budget with the board. So, the deficit grew a little bit more between the time that I accepted the job and actually got on campus.

[00:01:32.88] So the past five-and-a-half weeks, we've been working on what I'm considering phase one, which is adapt, the adaptive phase of Keene State's turnaround. And that is to make sure that we take immediate action in a couple of areas of work, to get us to a $2.4 million budget deficit for this year as a minimum.

[00:01:54.52] And so, we're looking at the revenue enhancement opportunities that we have, as well, to close even beyond this. But my first target was to get us to that $2.4 million deficit.

[00:02:04.95] So in phase one, we have focused on eliminating some cost structures in senior administration, so I've realigned some of the administrative structures of the campus. We've looked at budget cutting by looking at fiscal '17 actual spending rather than budget.

[00:02:23.82] So we went back into the budgets from last year and the spending patterns of last year, and then we tried to rightsize those based on enrollments and make them very measured cuts. What we tried to do was have each department within the campus reflect a 3 to 5 percent reduction from fiscal year '17 actual spending, so that we do a modest reduction.

[00:02:45.06] But I didn't implement that across the board. I wanted the cabinet members to go back in their teams and to try to drive down into their budgets as much as was possible.

[00:02:57.23] In the last five-and-a-half weeks, we've cut back on consultants. We've renegotiated contracts where we can. We've taken open positions on the campus that had been open over the past two fiscal cycles.

[00:03:11.45] I requested that the cabinet members identify critical hires that had to be positions that had to be filled, and I received 15 requests of critical hires that had to be filled. And I've approved 11 of those hires, so we've released search processes.

[00:03:28.40] And I'm eliminating any other vacant positions, and we're recovering the dollar of those wages. We're not eliminating jobs. We're eliminating vacancies within the budget to close this gap, because we haven't had the conversation with regard to our rightsized organization yet.

[00:03:42.83] We're managing our course sections, and we're going to reduce, or manage, the class enrollment more aggressively. This is something a lot of academic institutions do to contain costs.

[00:03:55.58] So we're managing our core sections. We've tightened up travel, and food budgets, supply budgets. And we're looking at some residence halls being mothballed, so that we're shuttering some res halls. And I've implemented this administrative restructuring.

[00:04:12.35] In the employee compensation piece, between the vacant positions, both salary and benefits that have been eliminated and my work that I'll explain in the senior administrative structure, we've netted about $3.8 million in cost cutting. So that's the first cut that we took.

[00:04:28.97] The second was reducing salaries—sorry, supplies and service expenses. Professional service travel, general expenses that aren't directly impacting the student experience on campus, because my commitment is our students must not be affected by these cuts. So, we have to trim in areas of staff experience or expenses that don't undermine our mission.

[00:04:51.86] Those reductions totaled another 3 million in total reductions, and then utilities and other operating expenses, we picked up another $700,000.

[00:05:01.19] So, our total budget reduction that we've put together in the last five-and-a-half weeks is 7.5 million, and that brings us to an approved budget. So, we have an approved budget today that's been loaded for the campus, which was the date that we committed to.

[00:05:15.65] And we have released p-cards, so our purchasing cards have been released to all members of the community who hold them. It's a central concern for me. I communicated this to the campus. They are not directly tied to our budget.

[00:05:26.94] So the use of purchase cards creates an opportunity where we could overspend, if we're not tightly managing those. So, as I released the p-cards, I also implemented an analysis of historic spending trends.

[00:05:39.35] And so, we set some new ceiling limits on spending on day per month, those types of limits that exist on those p-cards. And we also suspended some cards that haven't been used for years or have very infrequent use. And people can open them if they need them, but we're trying to control how many cards are out and the spending limits that present some vulnerability to us to overspend against the budget we just loaded.

[00:06:02.24] My commitment and why the budget was loaded late—and I know this is something The Sentinel has been covering. I did not want, as my predecessor and as a lot of other institutions, including Antioch.

[00:06:12.99] When I led that institution, we would cut a budget, and then we'd go back and cut again. And we'd go back and cut again to get to our target. I did not want incremental impact.

[00:06:23.09] I wanted us to go through the work, identify the cuts, load those in the budget, ensure we had the dialogue at the unit levels over the last five weeks, and then release the budgets. So that we didn't keep going back asking for further reductions to get us to where we need it to be.

[00:06:37.10] AUDIENCE: If I could just ask a quick clarifying question. The reductions that you just outlined, is that you get to a balanced budget or to the two-point whatever—

[00:06:47.17] MELINDA TREADWELL: To the 2.4. We still have—

[00:06:48.41] AUDIENCE: The approved budget.

[00:06:49.21] MELINDA TREADWELL: Yeah, we still have 2.4 million more to go to be balanced, which I have to do by FY19. So that's the phase two, phase three that I just outlined with the campus.

[00:06:57.56] So phase one was to do all that I said as far as cutting, consultants, res halls, all those pieces. And I'm happy to share the slide deck with you if that's helpful, so you have these details. Those pieces got us to an improved $2.4 million deficit.

[00:07:13.85] The phase two and phase three work that we will begin. Now, as well, that I just announced today, is that phase one got us to the $2.4 million deficit. We have to manage aggressively against the budgets that have been loaded. So, I have asked the campus to be aggressive in ensuring that we don't overspend now that we've loaded a budget that's on balance for this year's approved.

[00:07:34.85] And in phase two, we will have two task forces that come out of the cabinet that will be launched in the next week. One is a disappearing task force looking at enrollment strategy.

[00:07:47.52] So for our campus, as I've looked at the data, part of what we've lost is our base. Keene State has not been attracting in the 29 percent decrease that we've seen in our enrollment headcount.

[00:08:01.31] The demographic decline that we keep talking about the Northeast is about 7.4 percent decline over the same period. So, we are far outpacing. And it certainly began with the Pumpkin Fest riots and the reputational harm, which is why I've been so concerned about the Pumpkin Fest, given that we have a contained Pumpkin Fest somewhere else that, I would hope, meet the same celebratory options for the community.

[00:08:24.11] Our decline started then, and we far outpace the demographic drift. And when I look at our enrollment patterns, we've lost the 2.5 to 3.0 students that we used to yield at 40 percent. We're now yielding them at about 28 percent.

[00:08:38.48] The students from 3.0 to 3.5, we used to yield at about 36 percent. And we're yielding them at about 30 percent. And then our high-merit students, where we focused a lot on merit and academic promise, we've not moved. We've stayed about 21 percent, despite shifting our financial aid packaging [? on ?] a lot of issues.

[00:08:55.08] So we haven't shaped our classes as we need to, and declared our demographic, and gone after it, and put merit and need-based awards on the table in scholarships to bring those students to us. So, we have messaging we need to do and enrollment strategies to put into place.

[00:09:10.40] So, one task force will be, by November 1st, giving me a recommendation of enrollment rightsize for Keene State. What is the right target? We've talked about 4,200. That wasn't a campus-determined headcount.

[00:09:22.19] And so, we will have a task force that will, by November 1st, communicate what is the rightsize target, based on our academic programs, our residence halls, our infrastructure, and our student supports.

[00:09:35.24] We'll talk about specific tactical actions, things we can do to get a better yield in shaping that class for fall of '18, the next fiscal cycle. How are we going to make sure we draw and attract more students?

[00:09:46.91] The sad part for Keene this year is our applications were quite strong. So, we had a very large number of applications, bigger than we'd seen in the last three years, but we didn't bring those students to campus. We didn't yield them.

[00:09:58.01] We didn't get them to say, I've been accepted. I really want to go to Keene State. So, we're going to focus very much past acceptance to get the students to make the decision to come.

[00:10:06.61] And so, how do we do that? How do we engage them? So, some tactics around that, and then some specific areas where we can get our academic affairs and student affairs teams working more closely together to talk about the value of Keene State and the experience to parents and families.

[00:10:21.52] By April of this next year, we will set recruitment and retention goals for the next two to five years. So, we're going to set some out-targets. And this task force will recommend those, and some clear collaborative structures, and also advanced tactics to make sure we draw the applications and make the yield.

[00:10:40.38] Just in the enrollment pipeline, how do you do that? So, we've got a lot of experience now. We have a lot of those tactics in place. How do we make them work together?

[00:10:49.18] The second task force is looking at the hard part, which I'm sure going to want to know more about, which is how do I close the $2.4 remaining million deficit for the campus. And that is a disappearing task force that will look at budget development and our organizational structure.

[00:11:04.43] So what I just communicated to the campus was that, by November 15, we'll recommend an academic realignment for the campus. So that doesn't mean program elimination. That doesn't happen in two months or a year. It's usually a multi-year process, if we're going to change our academic portfolio.

[00:11:21.04] But what I am talking about is focusing our academic schools together and eliminating a deanship or a series of associate deanships. So, we rightsized to our student enrollment now with a smaller number of administrative structures.

[00:11:34.69] We had a task force last year that looked at our academic structure. That task force specifically looked at our academic rigor in our academic programs, but they weren't asked, in the face of a financial challenge, what would they do to organize the campus.

[00:11:49.65] So I'm coming back to that group and saying, we have a financial challenge. What would we do if we could organize ourselves in a leaner administrative structure that held those programs together in a coherent way that we could communicate to students?

[00:12:03.19] So I expect we'll reduce the number of schools that we have, but we'll realign the academic programs that we do into that smaller structure. A lot of campuses our size have smaller schools or a smaller number of schools.

[00:12:16.57] We have five deans right now, and we're going to need to eliminate some of that and bring them together. It doesn't compromise programs and doesn't eliminate opportunities for students. It's a way to focus and limit administrative cost.

[00:12:29.17] What it will allow us to do, when we started talking about that today, is identify what is our brand. We've not really changed our academic portfolio dramatically in many, many years.

[00:12:38.63] So what is our brand? What does it mean to be a liberal arts college that has the most employable grads in the state and ranked number eighteen for most employable grads in the country? I think it's the combination of our liberal arts curriculum and our professional programs, and the fact that our students come out ready to move.

[00:12:58.39] So what is that brand? What are the right programs? And so, this task force is going to give specific recommendations by November 1 around that—excuse me, by November 15. And by February 1st, they're going to recommend a college-wide staffing and support realignment to reflect that new structure.

[00:13:15.02] So by the time our budget for FY19 is put together, we will recover the remaining $2.4 million and, ideally, $2.4 million plus another 3 percent, which is the requested margin for a healthy operating number in the university system.

[00:13:29.65] I believe we can get there, and I believe we can get there by some administrative work and by building teams. And if we do work in staff rifts, which is what everyone's worried about, or a faculty program elimination, again, we will do that with heart. Anyone who loses their position with us, and again, we've had no discussions about it.

[00:13:50.05] An easy way for me to have closed this budget in the first phase would have been to have eliminated things we thought weren't needed, personnel in some areas. And I wasn't willing to do that because I don't think we know enough who we are and what we want to be in a year or two years, with regard to our academic structure.

[00:14:07.27] So we need to resolve that first and then staff to it. And so, we'll do that by February and then have a budget that hits target, and that will be also paired with our enrollment strategy.

[00:14:17.84] So I communicated that to the campus. I then gave them some comparator data around student-staff ratio. We're healthy. We're not fat by any extent, but we're also not the leanest in our university system or in our comparator network. So, it's really about focusing investment in the right place, having the right portfolio.

[00:14:38.00] And the phase three of this work is vitality. So, we've got adapt. What was my second phase? Hold on. I don't remember. This is all so very recent.

[00:14:50.39] Adapt—forgive me. I have to look at my notes. Do you remember, Kelly?

[00:14:55.57] KELLY RICAURTE: I'm trying to remember.

[00:14:57.00] MELINDA TREADWELL: Here we go. Adapt, stabilize, and then vitality. So, the stabilization is the realignment. The vitality then is to say, what is our niche as an institution?

[00:15:06.21] I talked about this when I was at Antioch. The greatest vulnerability for a college or university right now is forgetting its history and chasing students, trying to become something it's not. Keene State becoming an online institution, for instance. That is not our history. It's not what we stand on.

[00:15:22.75] So what are the niches that we're going to command? Holocaust and genocide studies, our strong theatre and dance programs, our arts and culture programs, our professional practice programs. Getting a clarity of what is our brand and what is our niche, and then developing our value proposition.

[00:15:38.53] So as we go through these two task forces looking at revenue, and expense, and organization, we're also going to be coming out with, what is our value proposition? How do we define this campus and what it means to this region and to students who come here?

[00:15:52.24] And then, what is our target student demographic? How are we going to shape that class, and how do we speak to the students in the areas we want to draw students from?

[00:16:01.65] I was a first-generation college student who came to Keene State, so I'm an alum who was the first in my family. We have always served first-gen students, typically at 40 percent. We had 51 percent of our students in this year's class that are first-generation college students. So that's a big part of who we are.

[00:16:16.75] And that means something special about how you try to support the students, because I didn't, and they don't, understand what it means to be a college-going student and what college looks like. So, we have to invest in supports. We have to invest in ways to help students navigate college when they have no context for that.

[00:16:33.40] We also have a lot of really incredible academic programs that can draw students from all different caliber. So, we need to decide how many, and in what programs, and what does that class look like.

[00:16:43.08] And how do we ensure we retain them? Because in addition to our demographic enrollment challenges of losing our base a little bit, we haven't retained our students at the highest rates that we once did.

[00:16:53.85] We're still well above our peers at about 76 percent. But at our high point, we were at 85 percent retention. and we're now at 76 percent. So, how are we keeping the students engaged and satisfied with Keene State? So, both from an attraction and a retention perspective, we have to do a better job at sharpening and delivering.

[00:17:13.71] So I asked the campus to be steady. There is no panic. There is no reason for anyone to panic right now. We've hit our budget target for this year.

[00:17:22.10] And $2.4 million out of our total budget, even though it sounds like a lot of money, is not a lot of money for us to get to an operating margin. We can do it. I'm very confident that we can, and we will by next year.

[00:17:34.00] So I asked folks to stay steady. I asked us to—I think I said, community matters. I won't forget that. And then in the second, what I asked of the community was community matters. Let's not forget it. Let's stay together.

[00:17:45.18] And so part of what happens when an institution believes it's in trouble is people start to panic. And part of why I wanted to come here and have a very honest conversation with you is I think I want to answer any questions you have. I need to stop people from panicking that Keene State is going to shutter its doors.

[00:18:03.90] I meet with the board next Monday, and I'll be talking with the board about where we are and where we're headed. We serve 3,800 students right now. And those students, 51 percent of them have very few options, and they selected us because they thought we were the right place to study.

[00:18:19.47] That matters to me that we deliver on that promise. And it's why I'm so fierce, I suppose, about the Pumpkin Fest and other things is that I need our reputation to be strong. We've got a lot of bragging points right now.

[00:18:31.80] And yet, we're not bragging about ourselves. We're talking about the despair, and we're looking in rear-view mirror a lot, and we have to look forward. And that's my central role right now. It's to help that campus look forward and to do what I can to help us be a better community citizen.

[00:18:46.38] So I'm going to do a Main Street merchants tour in the next couple of weeks where I'm going to walk Main Street, introduce myself, and ask what people want to see from our students, and from me, and from the college.

[00:18:56.91] I know we deliver $163 million to this economy. I know we're vital, but I don't know that people really know us. So, we need to work harder at it.

[00:19:06.47] PAUL MILLER: Tell us why it is, again, you haven't had time over the last month to train for a half marathon?

[00:19:10.37] MELINDA TREADWELL: Yeah, I know.

[00:19:10.99] [LAUGHTER]

[00:19:12.16] I got to say it's—I love Keene State, and I came back because I do— I was really enjoying Antioch, and I was having a wonderful experience there. And I feel like we'd just closed their $8.7 million budget gap.

[00:19:25.56] We just were on a balanced budget this year at Antioch for the first time when Todd called. And the reality is I don't think I'm a turnaround president, but I believe that community can make it through these hard times.

[00:19:37.34] PAUL MILLER: So, you're early in this transition process.

[00:19:38.82] MELINDA TREADWELL: Yeah.

[00:19:39.22] PAUL MILLER: What is your sense in terms of how morale is on campus right now?

[00:19:42.54] MELINDA TREADWELL: Morale is improving, and that is my sense. I think that people are waiting to see if—so I'm very blessed that people believe in me and they know me. And I spent 14 years in that community, and a lot of people know me and know of my work style and who I am.

[00:19:58.63] So I'm leaning on that heavily because people are believing me when I'm telling them that I do believe that Keene State is not in peril. We are vulnerable, but we have to do hard work. But we're fine.

[00:20:11.58] The morale, what I mean hearing from people is that they're thrilled that we're addressing these issues head on. We're talking about them in an open way, and they believe that I will continue to do that.

[00:20:24.19] So, I think the morale is up. I think the thing that challenges us is we're not closed on our negotiations with our staff units or our faculty units.

[00:20:34.23] And I have a call today at 4 o'clock to try to move that process and engage directly if I need to. Because I think I might make a difference in that negotiation room that we're not moving past, because there's some trust fracture between the previous negotiating team and the sense that it was formed under a different administration. And there's concern.

[00:20:56.10] But I feel the enrollment this year, we've retained more students than we typically do in the first month, which is great. People seem enthusiastic and positive on campus. And we had a huge turnout today, and people seemed happy and asked hard questions.

[00:21:12.90] And so, from all indication I have, people are trusting that we're going be okay. And they're showing up, and they're participating. And that's the best that I can ask for, but they're scared, frankly

[00:21:23.65] PAUL MILLER: So, when you came before the city earlier this week, you talked about the thrust of the issue as it relates to enrollment decline, and reputations. And how do you correct that?

[00:21:32.90] MELINDA TREADWELL: What I'm doing right now. I've been pushing, with Kelly's help. We're doing a lot more social media. We're trying to push our messages out more aggressively about the very good things.

[00:21:43.18] I mean, 71st in US News and World Report tier one, first for employability, we've got a lot of bragging rights. We're getting a lot of honors, and awards, and other things coming in. And we're not often telling that story.

[00:21:56.38] And so, the story that we're telling is relatively silent. And the story being told—and this isn't about the Keene Sentinel. But the story being told around us, the story in the state, is that we're in trouble.

[00:22:08.38] And so, when the Pumpkin Fest comes up, and I put out a statement, and people write to your Sentinel Facebook page that Keene is a party school. And that's the problem. All the Keene state students are not responsible. And I know that I was only 155 of our students who were involved in that mess in 2014.

[00:22:27.32] BILL BILODEAU: It was 155 who were disciplined for it.

[00:22:30.73] MELINDA TREADWELL: Yeah.

[00:22:30.85] BILL BILODEAU: I find it really hard to believe that there were only 155 Keene State students involved in that.

[00:22:39.57] MELINDA TREADWELL: There were. I asked specifically for these numbers. There were 155 students brought into our conduct process.

[00:22:45.36] BILL BILODEAU: Right.

[00:22:46.01] MELINDA TREADWELL: And they weren't all disciplined. So, in that number of 155 people brought through the conduct process, several were expelled. Others were suspended. Some were put on probation. Others were given warning.

[00:22:56.49] BILL BILODEAU: Sure, but again, that's 155 that were spotted and brought into there for some kind of disciplinary review at least.

[00:23:10.20] MELINDA TREADWELL: Yes.

[00:23:11.22] BILL BILODEAU: That's not to say there were only 155 Keene State students out on Winchester Street that day.

[00:23:18.23] MELINDA TREADWELL: There's no way for me to answer that question. What I know is that the police and Keene State campus safety folks reviewed every evidence piece that we had to identify who was out there, whether it was video, photos.

[00:23:31.68] There were hours spent doing investigative work. News feeds, whatever we had to identify anyone, and we brought them all in. Because I wasn't on campus at the time, but I've pushed on this because I did not want my integrity impugned by stating a number that I couldn't confidently do.

[00:23:46.56] And our campus conduct team, campus safety, assured me that they did everything in their power to identify anyone who was affiliated with our college involved in that and to bring them in. So, the only number I have is that number, 155 students that were actually identified in any way connected by all the investigative capacities of the police that were involved and anything we had.

[00:24:08.13] So regardless, if it was twice that number, we had 5,000 students at the time. If it was three times that number, it's still sure a small number.

[00:24:17.22] BILL BILODEAU: Sure, and I think we've noted that as well. Whatever the number was that was involved that day, it's certainly a great minority of Keene State students.

[00:24:32.22] MELINDA TREADWELL: But that's the reputation we have. And I think that's the reputation that keeps coming up is Keene State's a party school. That's why we've worked, and so please don't have the headline of anything you might write today that I said Keene State is a party school.

[00:24:44.06] And I'm being honest with you. We've worked very hard with landlords, with property owners, with the city police. We have staff members who go out and meet every day with the students that are in our adjoining properties to remind them of our conduct policy and to work with property owners to say, are you having an issue? Let's go back.

[00:25:03.55] I mean, I meet with those property owners and talk to them about, are they having a good experience? And when our students are acting unruly, we bring them in.

[00:25:12.95] We are an academic institution that does a lot of good work, and it's hard to be saddled by the sense that what people saw on that day is who we are. And I think that's why it's so personal for us.

[00:25:24.65] AUDIENCE: You mentioned earlier, I believe, that, in this most recent recruiting season, that you had a record number of applicants.

[00:25:34.12] MELINDA TREADWELL: Yes.

[00:25:35.08] AUDIENCE: So why is the yield down?

[00:25:37.69] MELINDA TREADWELL: We don't know. I mean, I think that's—what I've asked my team, that's part of this enrollment strategy setting.

[00:25:42.77] AUDIENCE: The reputation wouldn't have affected that.

[00:25:43.81] MELINDA TREADWELL: Well, it did. Because when folks come in and they look at, from the application point, where people drop an application, they're thinking, I have these five schools I'm interested in. I'm going to drop an application.

[00:25:55.45] They go through our acceptance process. They get accepted, and then they go out and see the campus, read about the campus, and shop it to make a decision and compare it against those other campuses where they were accepted.

[00:26:05.35] So our most important reputational piece where we seal the deal is when a student has been accepted and now, they're deciding. Part of it's financial aid and cost of attendance, but our cost is very competitive. We are one of the less expensive residential campuses in the whole state. If not the cheapest, we're the second least expensive behind Plymouth.

[00:26:25.78] So there's something that happens between an inquiry or a thought that this college may have a program you like and then sealing the deal, which is about the impression when they come on campus. And all of our survey data says that when parents and their students come on campus, they're very impressed. They love the physical place.

[00:26:44.38] What we are hearing from people is they have a concern about safety. They have a concern about the ability of their students to be in an environment that's academically rigorous.

[00:26:55.96] Those are some of the feedback that, to me, goes back to some reputational pieces that are tied to perception, rather than reality. And I think we have to fight very hard to rebrand ourselves, and I think that's the challenge.

[00:27:08.99] PAUL MILLER: The task force is going to look at the rightsize enrollment and report back to you. I have a two-part question. What is your sense of what that figure might be, even if it's a ballpark?

[00:27:18.39] And then number two, how significant are of the forces, from an enrollment standpoint, that you're up against that aren't reputational, whether it's the high cost of higher education, a declining pool of high school graduates coming out of the Northeast, and then less expensive alternatives like community colleges and technical institutions.

[00:27:33.11] MELINDA TREADWELL: Yeah, so I think the first part of that, I think we have to really scrub what the demographic reach can be. But I think that our rightsize is probably around 4,500, 4,600 students.

[00:27:44.98] If I'm to think about where we've been across our 30-year history, we've been able to sustain and serve that many students. They may not all be on campus. And so, that's part of where we might do low residency or hybrid-based delivery programs to expand our reach, and we're talking about that.

[00:28:01.36] So rightsized enrollment may be students participating in our curriculum but not living and coming to campus every day. And I think there is a market that we haven't reached there.

[00:28:13.60] The demographic decline in the Northeast, what I think we have to offer that could be very promising for us is because of our residential campus and the safety of the campus, from a perspective of no crossing roads, and really elegant housing, and dining, and all of that.

[00:28:29.11] We can attract students who are first in this country. So, we're starting to talk about working with populations in Manchester and in Concord who want a four-year degree, who might be recent immigrants to this country. And can we provide an access point to them for a safe campus with a focus on diversity and equity, and give those students an option to study with us?

[00:28:54.85] So there are new demographics we've not looked to before that Dottie Morris is going to be helping, along with Kemal Atkins and William Seigh. We're going to be really reaching out.

[00:29:05.81] I think the third piece is we have our community college system that has students who complete their two-year degree, and they could cap off with a four-year degree. Granite State offers that now at Nashua Community College. I think we have opportunity for our programs that actually could draw students, if we could get them to come and find easy transfer.

[00:29:26.26] So, our curriculum is a little bit complicated, particularly in our general education equivalent. So, we need to look at that community college-going student and become as competitive, because our price point is competitive with the other four-years. But get them from a curriculum transfer perspective to see Keene State as a viable option to complete their four-year degree.

[00:29:45.77] All of those demographics are new market segments we haven't focused on exclusively in the past, and they exist in the state. And even with a declining demographic, that's a market segment I think we can begin to draw to Keene College.

[00:30:02.04] The last, I think that I've been really aggressively working on, in fact, is a partnership with Antioch and other institutions, where we could build programs together that we couldn't offer otherwise.

[00:30:12.57] So, building three-plus-two programs with Antioch where a student may come to Keene State, take their first three years, go to Antioch, and complete two years, and get a master's degree as on pathway.

[00:30:24.79] So it's a five-year program; Keene State doesn't build it all, we send the cap off curriculum to Antioch, and we work together in partnership to do that.

[00:30:32.67] And we're talking about that with Antioch, specifically in the MBA, some environmental studies programs, some education partnerships we could form where both institutions benefit and have a captive pipeline that helps us draw a student who wants a master's. And they can come to Keene and complete that, traveling to two different campuses.

[00:30:50.46] And we don't then grow a host of graduate programs, which would be costly to do. So, I think those things are also different and would allow us to move back up a little bit.

[00:30:59.89] But I need this task force to really analyze our capacity, first of all, to serve a high quality of student experience to know that that number is possible for our campus infrastructure. And then also, we're going to wash that through some demographic analysis to make sure we're not setting a target we can't achieve, or that's not possible in the region.

[00:31:19.19] We're going to have to draw students from outside the region and leverage the students inside the region more carefully.

[00:31:25.81] BILL BILODEAU: So even though you gave us the abbreviated bullet point version, you threw a lot at us in terms of what you're looking at, what has been done, how you're planning to move ahead.

[00:31:42.07] But I want to take a step back. A lot of it has to do, obviously, with revenue in the main—state funding is what it is.

[00:31:55.31] MELINDA TREADWELL: Yeah.

[00:31:57.41] BILL BILODEAU: It seems unlikely that you would go to the board and they would say, well, you're in a bind. We'd just go throw more money at you. So, your main revenue source then is students, right?

[00:32:07.74] MELINDA TREADWELL: Mhm.

[00:32:08.74] BILL BILODEAU: Can you explain, without getting too far into the weeds, what "a student" means—or, collectively, what student enrollment means in terms of the revenue to the school?

[00:32:24.45] I mean, obviously, kids, they've different housing, and they have different meal plans and such. But, just as, say, an average or a base that, for every student who decides they're coming to Keene, what does that mean to the school and them collectively?

[00:32:43.44] MELINDA TREADWELL: Right, so if we were to look at the—sorry, I'm just trying to make sure I get the number correctly here. So, our total operating revenue, the original last year was $108.2 million, and this year it's $104.3 million.

[00:32:57.00] That's net tuition and fees for students and some other revenue that comes in that gets rolled into that. But it's a small compared to the tuition fees. The tuition and fees are well over 97 percent of our total budget.

[00:33:10.14] So for a student, what we have on our website is the ability for a student to look at their cost of attendance, total cost all in, what it would look like. And they can elect the housing. So, they've got in-state per credit tuition, and they've got housing and meals, and they can select their meal plan.

[00:33:26.88] And what we try to give the students is the total cost of attendance, kind of the sticker price, if you will. We also give them, during this effort to yield a student, we give them a price shopping comparison. So they can load in aid, and total tuition, and a host of other variables. And then come to the bottom and compare sticker prices between Keene State and other institutions.

[00:33:47.20] We fare very well on that calculator. I'd be happy to share it with you, so you could see that's the bottom-line sticker price for a student of what it would look like all in. And I can share that with you, so you can see it. It's how they individually can calculate cost of attendance.

[00:34:00.31] So, we offer scholarship dollars from our endowment and other targeted scholarships to help offset or draw students to us that are of high promise and meet our scholarship criteria. We use institutional aid, financial aid, that comes from federal, or from our actual institutional operating revenue that we redirect to help discount students' cost of attendance.

[00:34:23.95] So those combined are really the way the student—depending on their merit and their need, all of the things that go into their financial aid calculation, we put together an individualized package for a student. And we target that based on the types of students we want to draw, which is why that shaping of the class is so important.

[00:34:43.06] Because if you have a certain population, you're going to give some high merit, lesser need, whatever you need to do to get that package to a student to try to draw them. And that's part of that yield calculation. Reputation has nothing to do with that. It's all numbers.

[00:34:57.98] But I think it's that. It's the all-in piece, and it's of our total operating budget. It's $104 million out of $116. I mean, it's a big, big part of what we do, and then we have grants, and endowments, and other things on the top.

[00:35:10.86] AUDIENCE: This may be unfair looking down the road. But as you're looking at closing that last two-and-a-half-million gap and the steps you have outlined for that, what are your assumptions on enrollment for next year?

[00:35:22.45] MELINDA TREADWELL: So, we've anticipated that our enrollment will be 48 heads more. We're very conservative on this, so we are going to be exceptionally under—we want to be exceptionally conservative so that we under promise and over deliver. That is my expectation. So, we're not setting a budget that is challenging in any way for us to achieve.

[00:35:45.92] So we'll be scrubbing that aggressively. That increase in 48 is the new students beyond what we actually brought this year I'm confident, out of our applications, we'll draw 50 more students.

[00:35:59.18] The retention efforts on top of that will help us, but what we're basing the total student headcount, total revenue on very conservative assumptions. We'll keep our yield right where it is now, and I hope we'll do better than that.

[00:36:10.77] And we won't push beyond a small number of students beyond what we actually achieve this year, so that the revenue side of this equation is conservative and will over perform.

[00:36:19.57] CECILY WEISBURGH: You talked about, at the beginning, the possibility of shuttering some the residence hall.

[00:36:23.95] MELINDA TREADWELL: Yes.

[00:36:24.47] CECILY WEISBURGH: I'm wondering if you're looking at all at bringing an off-campus student on campus.

[00:36:29.71] MELINDA TREADWELL: Yes, we have, and so I've asked for, actually. Our facilities director and our res life director, we have a capital plan, as any large organization would, about what it's going to do with its capital infrastructure. And in that, we identified a number of residence halls with significant deferred maintenance issues that have come to the point where we either need to make capital investment or decide if those are part of our future vision.

[00:36:53.81] So Carle Hall, for instance, is a very, very large, very stable part of our portfolio. But it has some significant work that needs to be done on it. That was my res hall when I started at Keene State all those years ago.

[00:37:05.79] We also have two smaller units, Randall Hall and Morrison, and then some of our little apartment units. So, we're trying to look at what's the right mix.

[00:37:14.79] There's a master plan for the campus, and there's a res life plan. I've asked them to put those two together and talk about the mix. And could we attract some our upper-level students, lure them back to campus with suite-style or more apartment-style offerings that would be attractive to them, to see what that mix would look like?

[00:37:31.31] And to talk to off-site property owners to see if there's a mix for us to work in partnership with them to draw some students to meet the needs without doing it all on our campus. So, I think all of that is going to be part of this enrollment strategy over the next two months or so, that we'll have more detail on.

[00:37:48.20] Both the capital plan and the res life plan already exist. And so, what I've asked them to do is go back and work together to decide, at this moment, for the next three years, what are the focus areas? And which things do we need to take offline and, perhaps, raise, remove from our infrastructure entirely, because it makes more sense for us to do that.

[00:38:06.89] Because it costs money to even keep them mothballed. We have some level of heating we have to do, so the pipes don't—those sorts of issues.

[00:38:13.40] If we're not going to have that full infrastructure, what would we do now? You've got to plan for that. So, the next two months will give us better clarity on that.

[00:38:22.09] CECILY WEISBURGH: Could there be new dorms built that are more suite-style or something else that's attractive to students?

[00:38:28.97] MELINDA TREADWELL: I doubt it. I honestly think we've built out our res life infrastructure, particularly with a significant investment we just did on the Living Learning community on campus. We built a really state-of-the-art building.

[00:38:39.59] The last several res halls, in fact, have been really—they gave us a good mix. I think the issue is our older buildings taking some off, making relationships with larger property owners who want to fill out their units, working to get the right mix of who lives on our campus and who is off.

[00:38:55.76] Because I can't imagine me going to the board asking for capital to build another residential hall at this time, particularly given that I'm going to probably rightsize the enrollment at something less than what our peak was, which is what we built out to.

[00:39:08.91] So I don't see that in the near future, actually. I see us trying to make sure what we have can meet that, and it might be possible to create a small studio styles in some of our existing infrastructure. That would be more attractive to the more upper-level students, with a very limited investment.

[00:39:25.97] And that's part of what the res life team is looking at. Can we create some small apartment styles with shared bathroom type of thing in some of our other existing but older properties, rather than build new?

[00:39:37.98] AUDIENCE: So, there's parts of the capital plan that have been put on hold because of the current financial situation?

[00:39:44.29] MELINDA TREADWELL: Yeah, specifically, I think what we were asked to do—we've increased our deferred maintenance investment, but we're not putting new bricks and mortar down. So, what we're really looking at is, let's make sure that our current infrastructure is maintained.

[00:39:59.22] And I can say that, honestly, I think that's something we haven't been aggressive enough making sure that our budget reflects those needs of all of the existing infrastructure. So, any capital or operational dollars I'm requesting right now are around deferred maintenance on our existing footprint, not new bricks.

[00:40:16.71] It's very difficult for me to justify that. The one thing that I may come back after this year and talk about with the board are some academic spaces or some student-enhancement spaces that would allow better academic lab access.

[00:40:30.38] And we have a very significant limit on some of our lab spaces, and that's been something the students really want to see, particularly the high level of merit, when we want to draw other students. So, we may need some more lab spaces, and we could do that with taking some classrooms offline and renovating them.

[00:40:46.62] So that's, I think, where we'll go with early capital work within our existing—just like our res life—within our existing structures, what can we do to meet new needs? It's kind of what we're putting on the table.

[00:40:57.40] AUDIENCE: So, what projects won't get done?

[00:41:00.78] MELINDA TREADWELL: So, there were some—and I would have to go back, and I'll share the capital plan, the detailed bottom line of it. But there was a plan to renovate Carle Hall. It's a $14 million capital plan.

[00:41:12.12] That is not going to happen. That's just an example of the older, deferred buildings that we had a major capital investment plan to attend to. Some work around the other—it's mostly res halls. It's those res halls that kind of were set to be really significantly renovated that we've really put on hold, until we study them and decide what's best.

[00:41:31.47] That was it for Keene. Because we've built out so many recent capital projects, we've satisfied some of our early need. And now we're going back to look at the other mixes.

[00:41:40.81] BILL BILODEAU: Does all that have an effect on the campus master plan, or is it, as you said, it's pretty much built out so that it really doesn't?

[00:41:50.52] MELINDA TREADWELL: I think, at this point, what we're really going to focus on is living within our boundaries and doing so in a way that provides the high-quality experience. So, the idea of stretching our footprint right now is really not something that I'm entertaining, and it's certainly not something that I'm taking up with the board, or will next week when we're in retreat together.

[00:42:08.61] I think guaranteeing that we're going to meet our margins is the most important thing right now, and that is the sole focus for the community. It's to make sure we hit that enrollment target, and we use our capacity fully on the campus we have.

[00:42:20.57] BILL BILODEAU: So, being inserted in an interim role, it happens. But it's a little bit different from when there's a lengthy hiring process, and somebody says, you, you're our leader for the next 10 years or whenever.

[00:42:40.49] MELINDA TREADWELL: Yes.

[00:42:41.49] BILL BILODEAU: So when you were asked to take on this job, you mentioned at the beginning of this meeting that it was made clear to you that stabilizing the campus was job one. So, what other specific priorities did the chancellor of the board say, this is what we're looking for?

[00:43:14.63] MELINDA TREADWELL: Yeah, so the chancellor's really the conversation point that I had. So, the chancellor contacted me. I had worked with him before when I was interim provost at Keene State.

[00:43:26.42] There were three things that we talked about; he said that he was calling to ask me if I would consider coming back to Keene State because he thought that I had a history, and a regard, and a passion for the campus that would be helpful to the community, which I was really honored to hear.

[00:43:45.38] He knows I love the place. And so, he knows that I would be a good advocate, both internally and externally, to create a vision of energy and passion to move forward, to go to a new future place. Som, he talked about stabilizing, both meeting the budget for this year and getting to the budget for next year, which we've spent a lot of time talking about.

[00:44:03.44] He talked about me becoming, because of my experience at Antioch, a stronger voice at the systems level with the other presidents to discuss restructuring within the system to cost contain. Because as a university system, there are efficiencies to be gained, as we did at Antioch, with working with your colleagues and looking at functions like procurement, and budgeting, and financial services. Are there ways for us to collaborate with one another and create new models for system efficiency?

[00:44:31.19] And so, I was asked if I'd be willing and interested to bring some of my experience to that discussion as Plymouth, and Granite, and Keene. UNH is doing quite well right now on its enrollment and is out dominating the discussion within the system. And the other campuses could benefit from synergizing with one another or synergizing with the systems team to shave off some of the costs on our operational side so that we can focus more on delivery in the classroom on our campuses, because we've moved some of those costs off the campus role.

[00:45:00.59] So he's asked me to think about that and be a part of that discussion with the other presidents and with the system team. And the third thing he asked me to help do was to create a future vision for the campus and for the community that takes it forward, that stabilizes its reputation and stabilizes the awareness of the board of the importance of this campus.

[00:45:19.22] He made it very clear that his passion was that a public liberal arts institution that prepares people for work and life has to be a part of our suite within the university system. And when he told me that, I knew I could be a part of that team, because he's not trying to change what Keene State is or has been.

[00:45:37.07] So he wants me to work with that community that helps shape a future vision and think about the academic structure, so that it can be strong going forward. So, stabilizing cost, creating efficiencies at the system level, being part of those discussions, and then creating a future vision for the campus that takes us forward.

[00:45:53.04] BILL BILODEAU: So, again, getting at that, when somebody has the tag interim, you think temporary.

[00:46:03.77] MELINDA TREADWELL: Right.

[00:46:04.49] BILL BILODEAU: And I guess everyone's temporary in some respect. But it seems hard to picture somebody, who everybody else in the system knows is temporary, having that strength of voice that you're describing at the system meetings and having the ability to look long range at the vision of the institution, if that long range vision doesn't include you.

[00:46:40.70] So I guess, in part, the question is do you hope to, at some point, not be interim anymore, and stay there? But also, since you are interim at the moment, how do you engage people, if they might have that perception of ,well, she's not to be here in three years?

[00:47:04.06] MELINDA TREADWELL: Sure, so I think the privilege that I have is that, when I talked with the chancellor about it, I raised this issue.

[00:47:15.00] So, we've talked before, and you all know me a little bit. But, I told the chancellor that what needs to happen at Keene State cannot be something that someone comes in and doesn't attend to because they're afraid of keeping the job.

[00:47:28.94] So, I said that my commitment is to do what's necessary to the community that I care very much about to stabilize it. And that's not what a typical interim might do. A typical interim, and that's been why, oftentimes, interims are not allowed to apply for the job, they're brought in to do a certain thing and then they're moved out.

[00:47:48.48] Todd and I spoke about the fact that I would be eligible to apply for the job; that there would be consideration of a direct appointment, depending on upon performance and the feedback of the campus; and that, if I'm not doing the job, I wouldn't apply for it anyway.

[00:48:04.29] I had a very clear conversation that I expect that I'm going to do a job to the fullest capacity that I can. And I can tell you I've had no resistance by any member of the Keene State campus to recognize me as the president of the institution right now, with the full authority to do whatever needs to happen.

[00:48:21.00] And so, I'm blessed by that, because I've a history there. I think the same transfers into the university system because I know the presence of the other institutions. And they know that I have a certain work style, and we've all worked together in the past. So, there is no posturing, or silencing, or side barring that I expect in that team, because everybody knows we're all working together as a university system team.

[00:48:45.90] And, even though I'm an interim, right now, I have the responsibility, and I'm being asked to try to help the system as much as anyone else is at that table. So, every voice is going to be present.

[00:48:58.00] And so, I expect that, and I haven't seen anything different in my first administrative calls. The board meetings I've been a part of, I'm asked for my position. I'm placed in the center of making recommendations.

[00:49:09.66] I've had nothing that would suggest to me that I'm not a full and active participant who's being heard, and I'm doing the job in the best of my abilities. And I do hope it will be adequate, because I love Keene. And if I don't succeed in this, then I'll be looking elsewhere.

[00:49:25.02] And if I'm not asked to stay on, I'll be looking elsewhere, which means moving a family. And we'll see where that takes us, but I think I was given the explicit awareness that this wasn't a typical interim within the system, which is that I couldn't apply. That's typically what happens, and that was purposeful.

[00:49:43.08] KELLY RICAURTE: My experience is the campus is rallying behind Melinda, because they want her to succeed and also want the college to succeed. So, I'm seeing a lot of cohesion on campus now that I think will benefit everybody in the long run.

[00:49:59.35] AUDIENCE: So, they, like, deferred launching a search process?

[00:50:03.17] MELINDA TREADWELL: They have. There will be no search this year. The chancellor and I talked about revisiting the issue in the spring to decide if it's a two- or three-year term or whether there would be some other process in the next year.

[00:50:15.84] Because part of what I'm also stepping into is that there are a lot of leadership vacancies or transitional moments within the leadership team at Keene State. That's part of that administrative realignment.

[00:50:29.25] And I, frankly, want to make sure that I set up a strong team that prepares either my successor. Whomever is going to be in this position, they need a strong team. And it's challenging in some instances, for provost and others, it's very difficult as an interim to draw a very robust national pool.

[00:50:46.89] So there's an issue here about stabilizing the cabinet that my position has a direct impact on. And so, he and I will revisit this by February. He's looking at least at a two-year term at this point, so it's not temporary in the sense of many interims where it's one year.

[00:51:06.12] It's at least two, and we'll be revisiting it regularly. And I will respect whatever the request is of the community. Ultimately, the college needs to decide who should be at the helm, and that's, to me, what I will respect either way.

[00:51:22.95] But I don't feel silencing or an inability to do anything in any less energy than when I was the CEO at Antioch or anywhere else. I have a voice, and I have a personality. And I don't know anything but fast.

[00:51:36.76] [LAUGHTER]

[00:51:38.53] PAUL MILLER: So, we have this active city-college relations panel that's doing some good work. I guess we can agree, I think, that you find that to be a meaningful effort.

[00:51:47.09] MELINDA TREADWELL: Oh, gosh, yes.

[00:51:48.24] PAUL MILLER: Can you imagine, or have you taken the time to try to imagine, what it might be doing that it's not doing these days?

[00:51:54.40] MELINDA TREADWELL: Actually, a specific thing has come up. So, I've been talking a little bit with Bart [? Zepeda, ?] who's a member of the City College Commission, and with Dottie Morris, specifically about not only the work we're doing right now.

[00:52:08.41] But I attended an event—the Arts Alive group did an event at the Hannah Grimes Center in The HIVE last week about arts and culture and how we can do more to support the arts and culture efforts of this community, specifically.

[00:52:21.99] And in the lens of the Pumpkin Fest discussions, I actually had a conversation with Tim [? Zinn ?] in one of our discussions saying, what if we were to ask if the City College Commission could form a subcommittee looking at the ways we celebrate in community, the ways that we could build a brand for Keene that is more about what defines us.

[00:52:41.55] Whether it's a foodie culture piece that we could expand or a cultural and arts immersion component that's more structured throughout the year, so that we have larger events that draw groups to us, or events that really speak to the things we would like to do more of.

[00:52:57.92] So, I think an interesting area for this commission would be, beyond the city and the college, but to bring in Antioch and the Arts Alive subcommittee of that commission, that Keene State. I think we should be really having harder conversations about how we celebrate, what we do, what is the tapestry of things that define Keene in a different way.

[00:53:17.80] And I think that commission might be a way for us to start, between the city, and the college, and then other partners, to do something more purposeful. Again, it's not about the Pumpkin Fest for me, but the Pumpkin Fest galvanized and that Hannah Grimes event almost in back-to-back moments.

[00:53:35.79] I thought, this is something that we could do differently, if we came together and talked about what it would mean to brand a city around events, and culture, and things that could be really exciting. So the reputational piece for the college and the reputation of piece for the city would be much more celebratory.

[00:53:51.82] So that's something we thought and had very early discussion about. And I was going to bring it to the meeting that I'm attending in, I think, two weeks, the City College Commission meeting. It's to ask whether there is appetite for this.

[00:54:02.56] And could we get arts and some of the other groups together to come to the table and say, what would it look like if we all put our ideas together and tried to be planful around things that could brand us in a different way?

[00:54:15.71] BILL BILODEAU: So, speaking of brand, you mentioned the college's brand earlier and trying to put out there what the college has to offer. And so, that's always as a method for attracting students.

[00:54:37.60] Should a public university or college be trying to compete for students, as opposed to taking in those students in the state that need higher education and don't have other alternatives? You said that 51 percent of the students you have are first year.

[00:55:00.40] I think, at one point, you might also haave said 51 percent don't have other options—

[00:55:05.71] MELINDA TREADWELL: Or limited options.

[00:55:06.80] BILL BILODEAU: —or that have limited options. So, is that not the first criteria for finding students, to take care of those who are college-worthy but don't have the money or the other options?

[00:55:29.65] MELINDA TREADWELL: Yes, so I think, yes. I agree with you, and I think that is something that Keene State, I think I would tell you that, confidently, the university system talks a lot about this. And I've been a member of the Stay Work Play Board for the past couple of years, and we've talked about attracting and retaining young talent.

[00:55:45.73] And the university system is very concerned about making sure that we're attracting and retaining, or keeping, talent in the state. Because we export young talent to schools outside the state, because a lot of students don't want to stay in their backyard and go elsewhere.

[00:55:59.41] So, how do we create pathways for students from high schools in New Hampshire to our schools for college completion, or to our community colleges and then off to the four-year-granting schools?

[00:56:11.47] So yes, and I don't think we have focused enough on in-state student population. And part of that, I think, has been that we're too familiar, so a lot of students don't—I mean, and I did this when I was in Maine. You don't want to go to your land-grant that's an hour away, because you want to go next door, to something new, and have an experience.

[00:56:30.38] So I think part of that branding has to be reaching out to New Hampshire students going into high schools, going into middle schools, which Keene State does now. But do that even more purposefully, engage the middle school GO STEM program for all of those young girls that were on campus this summer talking about science and technology education.

[00:56:48.49] Do more of that, so that we start showing the type of really great experience a student in New Hampshire can have if they come to Keene State, or they go to Plymouth, or they go to UNH.

[00:56:57.73] So, we've begun discussions of how we—because we do compete against one another. I mean, this is part of the challenge. I mean, UNH, Plymouth, Keene State, we share of the pool that we have. We oftentimes compete against one another and draw students away, unintentionally or intentionally, because we're competing for a small pool in the state.

[00:57:18.04] Can we work better to differentiate ourselves and collaborate, and then show those students the pathways more directly, and have UNH recruiter say, I think Keene State's the right school for you. Here's why. Let me connect you.

[00:57:31.36] So that a student is not just admitted to a campus, because that's the person only contacted, but the system works together to say, this is the right place for you, and here's why. And then a student gets connected with that school by the university system directly.

[00:57:46.00] I think that would make a difference for in-state students who are just trying to go wherever they think is right and not getting match. So, they then move, or they go somewhere else in the state. Because they don't feel the right match, so they go to a school like Keene but in Massachusetts. Because they started at UNH and thought that wasn't the right place for them.

[00:58:03.13] I think that can help us a lot, and we don't do enough of that as a university system, yet, we've done some successful work. And that's something we're going to talk about next week is how we can brand ourselves, differentiate ourselves, and collaborate more to help have New Hampshire residents see the wealth of opportunity within their public system and then make sure we can get them.

[00:58:22.81] So it's got to be something we've got to do better.

[00:58:25.08] BILL BILODEAU: In terms of the tuition and fees structure, the university system is such that, in most states, out-of-state students pay more. So, is there, then, an appeal in trying to attract students, to try to attract more out-of-state students, because it's a revenue driver?

[00:58:51.28] MELINDA TREADWELL: There used to be. So, I think, historically, all higher ed institutions did this, particularly the publics. So I would say that, in my career at Keene State, there was a recognition that, within a portfolio, you try to match the portfolio of in-state students and out-of-state students so you hit your revenue targets. And there's a mix there, kind of that shaping of the class.

[00:59:11.64] And there was a focus that the out-of-state students had a higher net tuition revenue to the campus. We're discounting, now, to compete so much that in-state and out-of-state, the net tuition differential is pretty nominal. And that's not unique to Keene State. That's, kind of, everywhere.

[00:59:27.38] So when you think about the net tuition revenue, the differential we used to see, that gap is closing. So, a student is a student. There's a small marginal difference. But, a lot of times, to attract that out-of-state student, you're giving them more institutional aid or scholarship aid, now, because the market is getting so competitive. That's that demographic piece.

[00:59:46.30] The net tuition differential isn't as significant as it used to be. And so then, it becomes about, what is the right? What's your mission? As a liberal arts or public institution, what is your mission, and who's your student?

[00:59:58.93] So it used to be a big difference. It isn't anymore, given our discounting. And I think we'll have a mix. Right now, I think we've been as high as 60 percent out-of-state, in-state at 40 percent. And right now, we're closer to 55 percent to 49 percent out-of-state, in-state. Our in-state has declined over the past five years more so.

[01:00:21.88] That math didn't add up. Our in-state has—

[01:00:23.80] [LAUGHTER]

[01:00:24.37] I'm sorry. So, we're about 55 percent out-of-state and 45 percent in-state. And the in-state demographic has declined for us. We've not been yielding. We've been losing in-state students more so.

[01:00:39.19] And again, I think that's we're not reaching out to tell them the great experience they could have at Keene, or there's a reputational piece that's hitting us harder with that group than the out-of-state student.

[01:00:46.98] BILL BILODEAU: Well, you mentioned that University of New Hampshire is doing gangbusters.

[01:00:51.06] MELINDA TREADWELL: Yeah.

[01:00:52.51] BILL BILODEAU: Is that a zero-sum thing, if you're losing students because more students are going there? Or they're gaining students because they're saying, well, I like Keene State, but I don't know?

[01:01:02.31] MELINDA TREADWELL: Well, so, yeah, how to say this without causing a challenge when I see Mark Huddleston next week? So—

[01:01:08.84] [LAUGHTER]

[01:01:09.52] KELLY RICAURTE: Well, every institution has its niche, right?

[01:01:11.99] MELINDA TREADWELL: Yeah, it does.

[01:01:12.38] KELLY RICAURTE: So, we're defining ourselves a little differently than we than UNH does.

[01:01:15.36] MELINDA TREADWELL: Yeah.

[01:01:15.67] KELLY RICAURTE: It's a land-grant research institution.

[01:01:17.48] MELINDA TREADWELL: And I think one of the thing—and so, it is different, so land-grants—and when people think about the university system of New Hampshire, they think UNH.

[01:01:24.77] So I think it's got the brand recognition, and that's always been an issue. And it's like, in Maine, you'd go to UMO, University of Maine at Orono. When you were in Maine, that's the campus, even though there were eight or nine other branch campuses that would be just exciting, and perhaps better. But you'd think of the land grant anchor, flagship.

[01:01:42.21] What we have done, intentionally or unintentionally, is we've competed in financial aid communication to students when we're doing our yield campaigns. So, UNH did the Granite Guarantee that you might have heard about, where they did a lot of Pell-eligible discounting. It really had an impact on us.

[01:02:00.09] We could have done the same thing. Like, we could have done a package very much like the Granite Guarantee, or we could have done a Granite Guarantee university-system wide.

[01:02:08.42] We didn't do it. We didn't collaborate with one another in communicating that. And UNH yielded a number of students who were in our pipeline, because they got ahead of us on that. And that's that competition piece that, intentionally, unintentionally, we can trip over one another a little bit and cause harm.

[01:02:26.68] And so, in that case, sometimes we have a small pool, and we draw them based on the best package and the sense that they're going to stay in the system regardless. But I think we are differentiated enough that we shouldn't be competing most of the time.

[01:02:39.35] It's just in those rare instances that we trip over each other. And we've done this with Plymouth. We've done it to Plymouth, where we discount and draw students to us. They've done to us.

[01:02:47.24] So we're trying to work better at saying, where's the right place for a student? What program mix? What type of experience is right? Because it should be a personalized experience, and it's something that a system can talk about what's different.

[01:03:00.74] What is the right student that's served by each of our different campuses, because the experiences are different? And how to differentiate, that's what we need to get our arms around a little bit better.

[01:03:10.69] PAUL MILLER: Last year, I had the pleasure of writing a profile on Hunter Kirschner, who, I think, was like the program support assistant for the LGBTQ community. Is he still at the college?

[01:03:19.51] MELINDA TREADWELL: Yes.

[01:03:20.33] PAUL MILLER: He was a delight. And one of the things that I remember him saying is that there were students, not many, but there were students who felt unsafe on campus.

[01:03:28.14] So, I'm just wondering, in light of Charlottesville, in light of the allegations of racism that prompted these big forums and turnouts in the UNH community. Where is that on your radar, in terms of what you might be doing, what you might be doing more proactively to make sure that Keene State students feel safe on campus, regardless of race, regardless of ethnicity, and regardless of sexual orientation?

[01:03:48.74] MELINDA TREADWELL: So, I'm very lucky that I've stepped into a campus that has a long history of campus climate survey work that's been done, and then a lot of action in response to student feedback, or staff and faculty feedback, on safety.

[01:04:00.35] So we, every three years, do a campus climate survey. And so, our last one was in 2014. We're about to do another one this year.

[01:04:07.49] Since 2014, we've hired Hunter to be part—because in 2014, there was a lot of concern, students of color feeling that they had a differential level of support and a differential sense of safety.

[01:04:19.97] LGBT community members specifically feeling some lack of safety. That was in 2014, so we hired, created a position. Hunter came in to help build that programming with Dottie Morrison and [? Rousseau ?] on our campus. So, we have three people building out programs.

[01:04:36.59] We're about to do that survey again, and I expect we'll see students in those areas that team is working with feeling much safer and more supported. I think the other things that we've done a lot of work on is around our reporting.

[01:04:50.33] There's an open reporting of safety and concern, so students have much faster access to tell us when they're feeling unsafe and then to get response and feedback from the campus. That's all been part of what we do.

[01:05:01.73] We're a very safe campus overall. And our Clery reports show that, so we're able to communicate to students that Keene State is a safe place. Sadly, I think, one of the things that I really had a hard time with is the one thing in 2014, and beyond, was some student survey work that we've done since then. It's that students felt a little less safe in the city of Keene off-campus than they did on-campus, after that.

[01:05:24.62] There was a sense of some targeting and, perhaps, not feeling as safe when they left our property. And so, I think that's something I'm going to look very carefully at when we do the next campus survey this fall. Is that still happening?

[01:05:37.79] Because if the perception of safety drifts lower when they leave our campus, based on a sense that either is linked to the Pumpkin Fest and what that reaction was by the city, or it's just what the feeling is in the city of Keene. We need to know that more and then work with the police on it.

[01:05:53.82] So we work really closely with the police. My student affairs team have weekly meetings. We get the police logs of student behavior. We work very aggressively on that, and I think we have a really responsive system.

[01:06:04.38] So it is on my radar. I'm relying heavily on the campus survey work, and I think we've moved a lot of things since 2014 that'll show safety and security. I'm confident in that, because we worked with them as well when I was at Antioch on issues of free speech and safety.

[01:06:21.63] In some of the stories that you covered last year about the universities coming together, Keene State actually had systems in place that Antioch didn't and student engagement that we didn't. So, I felt really, and do feel, that we've done a lot at Keene State. There's a lot in place, and I'm hoping I'll see really positive outcome from that.

[01:06:39.37] KELLY RICAURTE: Just a finer point, the Title IX coordinator, his job is 100 percent managing complaints and concerns from our students, and faculty, and staff. And it's also fairly new thing since 2014.

[01:06:48.95] MELINDA TREADWELL: Yes, it is.

[01:06:50.32] PAUL MILLER: So, these kinds of reverberations sometimes are not really noticeable. Do you feel confident that the system you have in place would allow for you to know if these kinds of things are cropping up, or if there's a small incident outbreak of this kind of behavior?

[01:07:06.28] MELINDA TREADWELL: I think so. I think we have good reporting structures on campus that, if hate speech or discriminatory behavior happens, I think we'll know about it, far better than we would have five, seven years ago.

[01:07:18.25] So the reporting system is really key, the confidential reporting system. And through the Title IX office, I think, and the person that we have in that position in Jeff Maher, just incredible integrity, incredible responsiveness.

[01:07:30.60] And so, I think a strong reputation for students, faculty, and staff that there is follow-up. And there's a really good system within the conduct process now for us.

[01:07:39.93] And so, I'm hoping that'll be borne out, but I have a lot of confidence in it. So, we'll see how the campus climate survey—what it reflects this year and what I see, as I get more experienced on the campus with student issues.

[01:07:51.78] AUDIENCE: So earlier, you said that you've already cut—I think it was seven-and-a-half million.

[01:07:56.61] MELINDA TREADWELL: Mhm.

[01:07:57.26] AUDIENCE: And that's to get to the $2.4 million deficit figure. And I was wondering, at the time the board approved the $2.4 million deficit, was there already an awareness that there would be further cutting to get to that figure, or did that kind of come up all of a sudden?

[01:08:15.52] And also, was that entirely a, sort of, drop in enrollment over that short period, or were there other things going on there?

[01:08:24.64] MELINDA TREADWELL: Sure. So, let me just get to that slide, because I did have a slide specifically that outlined some of those details.

[01:08:33.00] So, the board approved the 2.4 million deficit. It was part of the structural plan that was outlined by Dr. Hewitt when she stepped in as president at Keene State. She set some strategic plan in place to rightsize Keene state and to brand its identity in a different lens.

[01:08:50.80] And so, the system invested and knew that there'd be some definite deficit spending while they tried to create that vision. So, the 2.4 million deficit was approved by the board. The challenge that we've discovered, as we've gone into the detail of this work since the system got involved after Ann's resignation then I came in as the interim, is that the budget recommended to the board was not communicated or developed with the departments on campus in an aggressive way.

[01:09:21.19] And so, there was a $5 million gap between the budgets. The departments were given their budgets from FY17, the budgets from FY17, and told, develop your budget for FY18 using that budget.

[01:09:35.59] And so, the unit heads went out and develop their budgets. The budget that was submitted to the board was based on FY17 actuals with some incremental increases in there. And so, there was a $5 million gap between the budget that was approved by the board and the budget that our departments had thought they had.

[01:09:53.07] So there was a disconnect between those two that was very significant. And there was an overstatement of revenue because the enrollment headcount was not achieved. That was part of that budget that was approved by the board. That was another 2.7 million. That's why we've been looking at a $7.7, $7.8, maybe $8 million deficit when I stepped in.

[01:10:18.30] There was also, last year, a $1 million of reserve funds that had been used to fill an operational gap on the campus. And so, those things, all totaled together, brought us to a little over 8.7 million, in the reality between the board-approved budget and what we had to spend.

[01:10:36.75] So it was a shortfall in revenue. It was an operational patch that was from a reserve fund that wasn't rolled into FY18, and it was the gap between what the departments developed and what was actually approved in the budget. So that's why we went into FY17 actual and said to have measured reduction from there as a starting point, and then tried to close these other pieces.

[01:10:58.32] So, I think it was just a process of discovery to understand where some of the differentials were, but it was all tied up into those specific areas.

[01:11:09.17] AUDIENCE: And then, related to that, I think you said departments were starting from the actual budgets and then with a 3 percent to 5 percent reduction, but not across the board.

[01:11:18.90] MELINDA TREADWELL: Yeah.

[01:11:19.70] AUDIENCE: I'm wondering how those decisions were made, in terms of which departments would get different levels of funding. So, the cabinet members worked with all of the cost center needs for the entire unit. So, each of the cabinet members went back into their teams to say, can we get to 97 percent of FY17 actual, 95 percent of FY17 actual.

[01:11:39.87] And so, they worked with their units to identify where cost containment could be achieved. How could they get to that target? And, not across the board meaning that we didn't just flatten everybody across all units, all segments of their budget, at 97 percent. We let them decide where to make up that total.

[01:11:58.42] So, they did that work, and they couldn't get, in their first round, to the target that they were given. And so, that's when I implemented the administrative restructuring plan, which would save about a million dollars year as well. And that is to eliminate—and I didn't even talk about this.

[01:12:15.06] So, in the restructuring plan, I have determined that we will not hire a vice president of human resources. We'll appoint a director of human resources, so there's a salary differential.

[01:12:25.41] I will not hire and vice president of advancement. We will instead return to a chief advancement officer and director of marketing and communications. And they'll report directly to the president, so I've eliminated a vice presidential appointment there.

[01:12:38.83] I've eliminated the associate vice president of financial aid—of finance and planning, excuse me. And we will hire either a chief financial officer or a chief administrative officer in what was a vice president position for finance and planning.

[01:12:53.70] We're also in the process right now of further reductions which will help us toward the FY19 target of eliminating associate and assistant vice presidents. So there has been some title inflation in some areas and some compensation increase for assistant and associate vice presidents. So, we're going to be looking at flattening that level of the administration, as well.

[01:13:13.92] But just the steps we've taken so far, it's a million dollars in savings to eliminate some of the vice presidencies and to move to directorships.

[01:13:20.57] PAUL MILLER: Is that the sum of those $700,000 you were talking about earlier, or is this additional?

[01:13:24.90] MELINDA TREADWELL: It's additional. It's in the salary, the vacancy pool and the administrative, the 3.8 million. So that, I think, is going to be a critical step. And it's an important part of the campus recognizing that we're not just looking for them to do incremental trims here and there, but we're restructuring at the top level and then down through the organization.

[01:13:47.01] BILL BILODEAU: You mentioned that, earlier, that you've just explained some of the changes in senior administration costs. And you had said also that the positional eliminations or changes are all vacancies.

[01:14:11.84] MELINDA TREADWELL: So far, yes.

[01:14:13.10] BILL BILODEAU: So, all of those vice-presidential positions were vacant?

[01:14:16.87] MELINDA TREADWELL: Several of them, yeah. So right now, we don't have a vice president for finance. That's why the systems office has been providing an incredibly talented CFO to our campus to support us, the vice chancellor for finance, Kathy [? Provencher. ?]

[01:14:30.69] She was the state treasurer for many years, so she's been incredible. So, she has been in. I have a vacant line there. I had a vacant vice president of human resources. I had a vacant vice president for advancement.

[01:14:43.59] And I had individuals in positions that were acting. And so, we've flattened that, and we'll open searches in some of those areas immediately. So, yes, we had a number of vacancies, and we're going to recover fully.

[01:14:55.83] In other cases, the title adjustment will result in some salary savings. But not until the next fiscal cycle, because we have people in those lines. And some will be retiring or making other choices, and we'll then be filling out a lower rate over time, so that's the longer succession plan

[01:15:15.64] Thank you.

[01:15:15.92] [LAUGHTER]

[01:15:16.46] CECILY WEISBURGH: It's after four.

[01:15:16.94] MELINDA TREADWELL: Thanks for all the time. Thank you for all the time. Oh, and I need to be on a call about union negotiations a couple of minutes ago, so I'm sorry.

[01:15:26.03] Thank you for the time and for the interest. Really appreciate it. I'm working very closely with our journalism department and our student newspaper. And will continue to do so.

[01:15:37.32] And, hopefully, we can do more with all of you, as far as what's going on, giving you regular updates. Whatever would be helpful. So, thanks for the time. I appreciate it very much.

[01:15:47.97] AUDIENCE: Thank you. Thanks.