Eastern Michigan University President Susan Martin and Chief Financial Officer John Lumm presented a Strategic Planning and Budget Forum to provide the campus community with updates about EMU’s finances and investments.
Martin provided a rundown of the strategic planning for the last ten years at EMU. Much of the planning involved aspects of research and different angles to pursue plans for success, like creating a stable budget, reducing operating costs and increasing enrollment.
A comprehensive survey was also set during this time to revisit the mission, vision and values at EMU. The survey was given to the campus community and abroad for communication and feedback regarding what EMU’s highest priorities and goals should be.
“The response to that survey was amazing,” Martin said. “It’s sixty-six pages of single-spaced response.” Martin said over 500 students responded to the survey.
Martin reviewed EMU’s mission statement and vision goals, and provided descriptions of the five core values; excellence, respect, inclusiveness, responsibility and integrity.
“We spent quite a bit of time on these,” Martin said, “…they reflect the great input that we got from the stakeholders, both in person and from the surveys that we did.”
Martin said that there were ten strategic themes and directions during the planning process, but the list was narrowed down to four. The four were student engagement and success, high performing academic programs and quality research, institutional effectiveness and service and engagement.
“We will be trying to work through these over the next several years to improve our service,” Martin said.
Lumm’s presentation focused on the budget at EMU.
He previewed a history in investment growth at EMU in student credit hours. Lumm said between the fiscal years of 2003-04, the credit hours at EMU were roughly set at 570,000 hours. Then EMU went through five consecutive years of a decline. The decline was about 10 percent, putting the school at 513,000 student credit hours at the end of 2009.
Lumm said the key priority for EMU between the 2008-2009 period was to increase enrollment numbers.
“We wanted to focus on quality education that’s affordable,” Lumm said. He said that to do this, EMU invested in campus facilities that saw capital spending reach $220 million in over five years.
The campus-wide investments included a science complex addition, renovations to Pray-Harrold and other academic buildings, renovations to housing and other campus facilities and technology and infrastructure improvements.
Lumm said that the enrollment and student credit hours have begun to grow, with the fall semester of 2012 gaining the largest class in a decade at EMU.
“The numbers for fall 2013 look very strong, both in terms of new students and also our returning students,” he said.
