Financial Sustainability Advisory Task Force

The Financial Sustainability Advisory Task Force will be a campus community team comprised of faculty, staff, students and leadership who will work (and guide five work groups) to create recommendations to develop the next draft and help inform the final plan of the Financial Sustainability Plan. It is critical to keep the student experience (academic, co-curricular and safety) at the forefront of this work.

The FSAT will, guided by the direction of the co-chairs, review PASSHE Policy and Procedure/Standard Number 2019-40, the PennWest Clarion’s draft Financial Sustainability Plan, and make recommendations, which will drive the development of our university’s restructured Financial Sustainability Draft Plan. These recommendations will inform the final Financial Sustainability Plan due to PASSHE this coming September.

The FSAT will review financial data, staffing levels, academic program enrollment, our STEP-UP enrollment plan, our Truth North Initiative recommendations and other relevant materials as guiding documents that lay the foundation for FSAT work.

The FSAT will keep the campus community informed of progress, provide transparency and facilitate input from across the institution and to our many stakeholders.

FSAT Recommendations

FSAT Executive Summary

FSAT Infographic

Clarion Sustainability Plan June 2020 and FSAT Working Group Recommendations (authentication required)

FSAT Timeline

FSAT will coordinate five working groups; Group charges include:

Group No. 1 New Revenue Streams

Create new ways to bring in revenue and discuss ways to increase capacity of existing services so CU can generate additional dollars. The scope of this work is narrowed to non-academic enterprises.

Group No. 2 Academic Programs

Develop ways to align costs with revenue; either recommending rightsizing existing programs, growing current offerings to meet changing workforce demands, or proposing new program and/or program modalities to be offered in future.

Group No. 3 Enrollment Optimization

Find ways to optimize enrollment through creative tuition options, partnerships with outside organizations, institutional aid, retention initiatives that align with existing plans.

Group No. 4 Employee-to-Student Ratios

Examine staffing levels of employees in all areas of CU. This includes both academic and non-academic programs.

Group No. 5 General Savings

Recommend ways the university, as a whole, could change our operations to become more fiscally responsible including outsourcing opportunities, position restructures, paperless campus, more Green buildings, etc.