Seeding and Pruning

Dear Campus Community,

I love talking about the spirit of community during student-focused events like Commencement and New Student Orientation as the topic is a natural one that is easily highlighted during such celebratory events. Over this last week, I have seen the spirit of community manifest itself as we have come together to examine and talk about the challenging issues that are confronting higher education, including Cal Lutheran, today.

Town Hall Recap

Over 160 of you joined us in person at last Friday’s Town Hall and another 170 of you participated via the livestream that morning. That type of turnout suggests that there is a high level of interest in joining forces to pave our path forward. For those who couldn’t attend, here are some of the high-level takeaways from that important Town Hall.

• Due to lower-than-targeted enrollment at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, we currently have a budget deficit that is higher than the one approved by the Board in May. This means we need to identify — in short order — the types of seeding and pruning that will mitigate this year’s larger-than-expected deficit. We also need to identify long-term seeding and pruning exercises that will help us align our future revenues with our future expenses. 
• While the budget picture is not a rosy one, two other initiatives presented at the Town Hall offer great promise.
  • The Strategic Plan — Initiative Owners like Cindy Lewis, Executive Director of Career Services, are making great strides in meeting the goals mapped out in our Strategic Plan. During the Town Hall, Cindy described how our new Vocational Training Toolkit, available online, can help faculty and advisors. I invite you to view more initiative updates on the Strategic Plan website.
  • Campus Climate Assessment — Associate Vice President of Mission & Identity Colleen Windham-Hughes and Senior Associate Provost Taiwo Ande described some of the work associated with the Campus Climate Assessment program. A Campus Climate Task Force (CCTF), composed of 12 faculty, staff, and students, has already met five times with our external consultants from Rankin Climate to carefully review the survey questions and prepare for IRB submission. A website to clarify communication is in the works, and the roll-out for the survey is anticipated to occur later this month.  
• Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Leanne Neilson described Cal Lutheran’s upcoming WASC recertification. While the WASC campus visit is not until Spring 2025, our institutional report is due to WASC this summer. To ensure the timely completion of this report we are forming WASC focus groups and work groups right now. For more information on the groups and how to get involved, please contact Dr. Taiwo Ande.

Next Steps and Additional Opportunities for Engagement 

In the days following the Town Hall, every vice president met with their respective division to further tease out the related information. They invited faculty and staff to share suggestions that will help us mitigate the budget deficit we are working hard to reduce. Thank you for your participation to date. As we join forces to move forward together, here is a summary of what our next steps entail.

The cabinet met yesterday for several hours and shared the many good ideas that emerged at the post-town hall division meetings. I am pleased to say that several of the ideas generated are quite viable, and if there is any other idea you still wish to share, please send it to your VP by Monday, Oct. 9. Between Oct. 9 and 23, vice presidents will hold one more meeting with their respective division. At that meeting, they will inform you of the type of overall reductions and revenue generating ideas we expect to propose to the Board of Regents (BoR) at its Oct. 27-28 meeting. 

Immediately following the October BoR meeting, I will host another Town Hall to share with you what the Board approved in terms of the seeding and pruning proposals. The semester’s second Town Hall will be on October 31 at 8:15 am (you can expect a save-the-date with more details soon).

Time and Energy to Smell the Roses

Our Homecoming Celebrations start tomorrow. It's the quintessential university event that brings us together to celebrate our shared Cal Lutheran spirit, reconnect with longtime friends who have played a vital role in shaping our legacy, and open our hearts to new ones. I want to extend a special thank you to Rachel Ronning '99 Lindgren and the Alumni, Family, and Community Relations team, as well as the volunteers who are dedicating their time and energy to make Homecoming a memorable event. 

In the last week, you have received a lot of information. Our commitment to transparency and honesty remains steadfast. Our interest in gathering and contemplating your feedback has been and will continue to be genuine and clear. I encourage you to continue actively participating in discussions, sharing your insights. and collaborating with your colleagues and leaders as we work towards a stronger, more resilient Cal Lutheran.

We are called to cultivate the fruits of this special place with a sense of openness and commitment. It will take both seeding and pruning to produce the harvest that keeps this university strong. We can produce it by working together.