Findings revealed on ASU analysis

BEEBE — A consulting group hired by the Arkansas State University System laid out several recommendations Friday for how the system and each of its five campuses can generate revenue, cut costs and be more efficient.

Huron Consulting Group presented its findings — a third of which focused on revenue enhancements and the remainder on efficiencies and cost-cutting measures — to Arkansas State University board at a

meeting on the Arkansas State University-Beebe campus. The administrative business cases alone could pull in between $10.6 million and $20.1 million annually for the system, the consultants said.

The recommendations come at a time when state money for higher-education institutions has been flat and the state is switching to a new method that awards schools that help students progress to graduation and eventually earn certificates or degrees. They also come as colleges and universities are facing increasing pressures to keep the cost of attendance — specifically tuition and fees, their main revenue sources — to

a minimum, or, for the forthcoming year, steady.

“This is a study to help us know where to do further analysis,” ASU System President Chuck Welch said. “This is a study to help us understand where our challenges are, where our opportunities are, where there are some areas where perhaps we are exceeding our peers and some where we are falling behind our peers, an opportunity for our campuses to take this information and work collaboratively together to try to find ways to address these and chart our future path.”

The system enlisted Huron last fall for $1 million, half of which was paid for with state discretionary funds awarded by Gov. Asa Hutchinson and half through ASU System savings. The system’s share

of the contract accounted for 0.33 percent of the system’s fiscal 2017 $293.2 million expenditures, it has said.

“It’s a one-time expenditure that will result in ongoing annual savings,” Welch said. “So it will pay for itself many, many times over.”

The consulting group interviewed more than 100 ASU System stakeholders and received more than 900 survey responses, said Andrew Laws, Huron’s managing director. The consultants then worked with a steering committee to prioritize, he said. One area focuses on enrollment management. ASU-Jonesboro is behind its peers in four- and six-year graduation rates and has a slipping retention rate, said Nick Kozlov, a higher-education consulting associate at Huron.

ASU-Jonesboro’s Chancellor Kelly Damphousse has made it a priority to raise both rates and has challenged the campus to raise first-year retention rates — now at 74 percent — to 85 percent, Kozlov said. An increase of 1 percentage point in retention could mean $73,000 more in net tuition revenue, he said.

Plus, with the new funding model that awards schools for increasing student graduation rates, schools could see up to $600,000 more, he said.

Changing the way the four-year university awards aid could pull in between $1 million and $3.5 million, he said. Among the other recommendations, consultants said the system could enhance revenue by collaborating in outsourcing campus functions.