Ensuring Community and Learning Through Safety
The Center also serves as the base of operations for Schoolcraft’s campus police and a dispatch hub for all campus emergency and 911 calls. Additionally, technicians remain aware of social media in order to proactively identify potential risks to the College community. The College has partnered with federal, state and local agencies including the FBI, Homeland Security, Western Wayne Special Operations Team, the City of Detroit, the City of Northville, and Livonia Public schools among others. To date, five successful “table top exercises” have been completed based on specialized scenarios that involved internal and external partners.
Understanding the Dynamics of Cost, Access and Quality
Community colleges are facing significant pressure from external constituents to produce more results as resources continue to shrink. Notwithstanding the current economic uncertainties, there are several major financial considerations on the horizon that will have a dramatic effect on how colleges operate, including but not limited to the Federal Pell Grant, local taxation, college expenditures, retirement pension liabilities, and safety and security equipment and processes.
The "Iron Triangle" concept describes how cost, access, and quality all interact to determine the levels of access or quality that can occur at any given cost. Each component puts stress on the other two when a higher level or cost is required. In order to better understand this model and how it relates to institutions like Schoolcraft College and their strategies and plans, I conducted an in-depth study. I reviewed three categories of educational institutions in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the model’s dynamics: |
- Michigan Community Colleges (Collection of 28 autonomous colleges)
- Tennessee Community College System (State controlled system with 13 colleges)
- Corinthian Colleges (For-profit college, 122 campuses globally with 91,000 students)
To review my study in its entirety please go here.
Defining a New Yardstick to Measure Efficiency in Quality Education
In order to better understand the relationship between spending and the quality of education at Schoolcraft College, I worked with a group of colleagues that included the Controller and the Planning and Technology Coordinator. We created a straightforward yet comprehensive financial analysis called the Quality and Efficiency Structural Test, or QUEST.
The goal of QUEST was to arrive at a more meaningful yardstick for measuring efficiency in funding quality education – the Cost to Produce a Quality Credit Hour. |
This hybrid measure stands in contrast to the more commonly-used and independent measures of Cost and Credit Hours. A new measure we proposed, Quality Credit Hours, takes into account the rates for graduation and successful transfer out to a four-year institution. The College’s total expenditures from its most recent audit can then be divided that into its total Quality Credit Hours produced in order to arrive at its Cost to Produce a Quality Credit Hour.
It follows then that Efficiency can be measured by achieving a lower Cost to Produce a Quality Credit Hour. Of course, there needs to be access to sufficient capital in order to obtain quality educational results. I have devoted much of my energy and time as VP and CFO of Schoolcraft College to ensuring that the College has sufficient capital to invest into the quality education it provides.
It follows then that Efficiency can be measured by achieving a lower Cost to Produce a Quality Credit Hour. Of course, there needs to be access to sufficient capital in order to obtain quality educational results. I have devoted much of my energy and time as VP and CFO of Schoolcraft College to ensuring that the College has sufficient capital to invest into the quality education it provides.