bodner089

Continuing my end-of-the-year observations, I urge you to spend a lot of time studying your budget.   Take a close look at the gross revenue generated at your campus, as well as your direct costs of delivery.   (By direct costs I mean actual costs of instruction, local staff and facilities.   Do not include any overhead or other charges levied by the main campus.)   In most cases that I’ve seen, the net revenue per student credit hour is significantly positive.   In fact, generally, the net revenue is higher at branches than at a residential main campus, precisely because the branch has a more focused, limited mission. Your main campus finance people may insist that you consider allocated costs from the main campus, such as for admissions and financial aid support, registrar, and so on.   For some purposes they are absolutely correct, but at the same time, you should know that the overhead you pay (or the branch income they keep) probably...

I post infrequently on this blog, especially since the publication of my book, Out on a Limb .   I’m pleased that people are finding the book through Internet searches and word of mouth, as well as through their connection to NABCA ( www.nabca.net ).   For that matter, I’m also pleased that I occasionally hear from someone who has discovered this blog and found it useful. As I continue to scan the environment, visit various campuses, and think about branch campus issues, I will occasionally comment on what I observe, although I may wind up repeating ideas I’ve expressed before.   Thus, here are a few end-of-year observations. First, I feel increasingly frustrated by the failure of most institutions to fully exploit the strategic potential of their branch campuses.   (Check out this post: http://branchcampus.blogspot.com/2013/04/revisiting-revenue-sharing-and.html .)   The branch campus audience is not the same as that on a residential main cam...

Last time I wrote about planting seeds and suggested that the mission of branch campuses is to plant seeds in the lives of their students and then nurture their growth.   Keep in mind, however, that a “campus” is just a place; it is people who plant and nurture those seeds.   In that context, I want to acknowledge the importance of individuals who had the vision and determination to establish those branches and launch the opportunity for their contribution.   Anywhere you see a branch campus, you can be sure that the campus reflects someone’s vision for reaching out to serve place bound students.   The motivation for that vision may have been financial, political, or pushed by some other force.   Regardless, a seed was planted, an idea was nourished, and it made a difference. I feel drawn to offer a “shout out” to a few individuals who launched and built Ohio University’s branch campuses.   None of these men has a branch building, let alone a campus n...

A couple of years ago I wrote a post for my Creating the Future blog, titled “Coaching, Consulting, and the Planting of Seeds.”   If you are interested, you can find it at http://drcharlesbird.com/creatingthefuture/2012/03/coaching-consulting-and-the-planting-of-seeds/ . I mention it because four years into my encore career I’ve found myself feeling more and more as if planting seeds has been the underlying significance of almost everything I’ve done.   I enjoy the variety of professional activities that fill up my days, from consulting, coaching and speaking, to writing my blog posts and (at long last) finishing my book on branch campuses.   Looking back, I also enjoyed teaching and administration, which surely are seed planting endeavors.   I maintain that the mission of branch campuses is access and outreach, providing opportunities for students to pursue their dreams.   Although online programs may be changing things, branches often are t...

I’ve mentioned this before, but it interests me that the most read post on this blog is the very first one, which followed an opening introduction.   That post concerned branch campus characteristics, and it has been viewed more than twice as often as any other.   It can be seen at http://branchcampus.blogspot.com/2007/07/characteristics-of-branch-campus.html .   Dating back to 2007, it continues to get regular hits, which I assume means that I chose a good title that shows up on Google searches. Other frequently and persistently viewed posts mostly relate either to some aspect of branch characteristics, or to financial matters and revenue sharing.   With regard to branch characteristics, in presentations at NABCA and RBCA this year I discussed some emerging trends that I believe are worth watching.   (As usual, what I have to say represents personal observation, rather than any sort of systematic data collection.) One trend is to open branche...

The annual Regional and Branch Campus Administrators Conference (RBCA) just concluded today.  For a number of years the conference has been held in June, meeting at the Longboat Key Club resort, which is a stunning venue.  RBCA limits attendance to about 60 participants and typically has just one program track for everyone, which has worked well for this group. As usual, organizers did a fine job.  Jim Smith, campus dean at Ohio University Lancaster was the conference chair, and the program committee clearly worked hard to create a strong set of sessions.  I have attended RBCA most years since 1995, and I always have a great time.  Indeed, I believe that the annual NABCA and RBCA conferences are highly complementary, and I encourage branch leaders to consider attending one or both, whenever possible. This year, I provided the opening keynote, discussing my new book, as well as offering some thoughts on future opportunities and risks for branch campuses.  On...

Continuing to share from my personal experiences, I’ve been fortunate to visit a wide range of branch campuses both across the United States and internationally (Hong Kong, Russia, Mexico and Canada).   Some of the domestic visits tied to meetings of NABCA or RBCA, whereas others were consulting jobs, mostly over the last five years. The consulting work shaped my understanding and opinions more than I expected.   In the absence of a substantial literature or research that identifies best practices, institutions developed branches for their own reasons at varying times in their history.   Every institution I visited had a unique story to tell.   There were common themes, of course, such as struggling to bring programs from the main campus, wrestling with interference from certain main campus offices that think they know more about the branch audience than the people who work there, and making sure that courses and class schedules actually meet stude...