I’m a planner by nature.
In both my personal and professional lives, I look outward to see what the future might have in store. Then I use information, coupled with gut instinct, to create plans with wiggle room for last minute changes.
Since you’re a leader too, I suspect that you share that mindset. Your success has, in part, depended on your ability to synthesize information down to the most critical elements and rely on sound judgment to make plans.
But here’s what I’ve come to realize: Today’s environment requires a complete shift in planning away from quantitative projections and towards professional judgment of our college and university leaders. There are no models that can tell us what will happen to enrollments, revenue, retention, and employee engagement amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
When will this end? My prediction is that there is no end to this crisis, only alternative paths to a new beginning. While there are innumerable day-to-day, urgent matters that demand your attention, the reality is that a “new normal” is here, and your campus will need to prepare.
Consultants can add significant perspective to inform your most crucial decisions about campus operations, course delivery, budget planning, and human resource deployment. We are an extension – not a replacement – of your institution’s executive team. We add to the collective experience, and we question that which might need to be questioned.
The right consultants also empathize with the difficulties institutions and their people face. We are in a “people business” after all – and we are all trying to do our best while simultaneously worrying about our family and friends, our own health, our personal finances, and the future of everything we have known all our lives.
Dutcher LLC consultants represent the major functional perspectives of your campus leadership. On our team, you’ll find former and current presidents, provosts, CFOs, VPs for enrollment, institutional researchers, deans, faculty, international directors, online instruction specialists, human resource officers, and student success personnel.
We’re ready to jump in for:
- online delivery adaptations
- financial projections/analysis and re-setting FY21 budgets
- enrollment and retention support and projections
- leadership/board communications
- human resource deployment
We are also poised to provide interims for the positions of:
- president
- provost
- chief financial officer
- vice provost for online programs, or similar
- vice president for enrollment
We consider everything at this point to be a short-term engagement and are happy to discuss month-to-month arrangements with you.
Let me know how we can support you.
Be well, stay home, and wash your hands!