As students were off campus enjoying summer, Park University officials worked to create financial betterment for the university.

Budgetary issues for Park University were brought to light last April with an announcement that $10 million had to be cut from the budget for the 2013-2014 academic year.

In an effort to balance the 2013-2014 budget and reduce costs for the 2014-2015 budget, a voluntary separation package, which was announced via email April 1, was offered to university employees.

While the auditing process is still not fully complete for the 2013-2014 budget, Park University interim President David Fowler said he expects there to be a “positive bottom line.”

“I have a high level of confidence,” he said. “I don’t think the numbers are going to move that much. So I can say, with a pretty high level of confidence, that last year will come in within expectations.”

Fowler also said he is in the process of examining the budget for the 2014-2015 school year and he said Park has a “good solid endowment.”

According to Fowler, the university has placed a strong focus on investing in its students particularly with the school’s technology including the wireless Internet connection.

This year, Park is taking more steps to find ways to benefits its students. One way the university is doing so it through expansion.

“We are building out our underground,” Fowler said. “That is on our plan for this year – to expand our capabilities to house additional commercial businesses and to provide additional revenue to the university.”

Fowler also said Park University is working on expanding the underground to house the nursing school.

“We just approved submitting a letter of intent to the governing body to expand our nursing program to a four-year nursing program and that is a huge step forward,” he said.

This decision was made, Fowler said, because of the recent shortage of nurses in the medical field. He also said expanding the program is necessary because of a projected shortage of doctors.

Fowler also discussed plans for the university to work towards expanding other campus centers around the country where there is a “real student need.”

“Those are all positive capital improvements,” he said. “We’re not standing still. We are making the strategic investments to enhance the students, to position Park University for more revenue with those entrepreneurial ventures.

“Where we made cuts last year, we’re making cuts this year. If we make any cuts, it’s to continue to be lean meat…but it’s not taking away from the students.”

Another area Fowler said he wants to see Park University move forward is to provide degree programs to meet the needs of the business community.

“The faculty is always looking at that,” he said. “Jerry Jorgensen, as a provost, is responsible for always looking at our academic programs to make sure that we’re matching up the needs with the demand.”

Another area of cuts the university was faced with last academic year was among faculty and staff with a Voluntary Separation Program – which allows employees to accept a separation package to resign from their jobs.

Fowler said every university official is always unsure of whether these types of cuts will occur each year and much of that is due to enrollment.

“One of the difficult things with running a university is that you are really, for the most part, locking in employment not knowing the enrollment,” he said. “It’s a cart-horse thing. We constantly have that balance of balancing and creating a match between the level of enrollment with faculty and administration.”

With not having the ability to enroll students in four-year sessions and having a large enrollment of  students in eight-week increments, Fowler said that is one of the university’s biggest challenges when it comes to figuring whether a Voluntary Separation Program is necessary or not.

“You try to plan with a little bit of cushion or wiggle room so you don’t over-invest in administration, faculty or capital improvements and then have enrollment oscillate back and forth,” he said.

For the 2014-2015 academic year, it is still unclear whether a repeat of the 2013-2014 Voluntary Separation Program will occur.

“Our preference would be not to have any need for voluntary separation plans or something that would be aggressive, which would be involuntary,” he said. “If we have any turnover this year, I would expect it to be more along the lines of some strategic reassessments of needs.

“And so, I don’t expect a mass voluntary plan or a mass involuntary plan. I think, like any organization, there should always be a constant reevaluation based on need, performance, fiscal responsibility, and, if anything, I would just see a continuation of what skillsets I would bring to the equation is a discipline of always self-reflection internally on who the right people are and the level of resources we need.”

Fowler said it is more important for a university to allow employees who need to improve to try to do so or find another position within the university where they can be more beneficial before offering an involuntary separation plan.

While cuts may be made, Fowler also said it is important for the university to focus on enrollment to increase revenue.

Last academic year, Park officials worked to increase enrollment by enhancing social media marketing and targeting. Through this enhancement, the university received a large influx of inquires from prospective students, Fowler said.

Because of this increase, Park’s enrollment management services suggested a change in the enrollment system.

“I think that the university wants to be better prepared going forward to receive the influx of applications to be able to convert those inquiries to enrolled students,” Fowler said.

Park’s next step is to accelerate the implementation of the new model for enrollment management services, which Fowler said will take about six weeks to complete and will be “a leap of faith.”

“You can imagine this next enrollment will be better,” he said. “There may be some growing pains as we implement this for the first time…We hope the experience is positive from a student standpoint. It will be positive, but there will be a little bit of pain as we get better and better at it.”

Fowler said Park University will continue to focus on its students’ success, and that he also wants to ensure this year brings more transparent communication between administration, faculty, staff and students.

“I commit that everything we do will be in the best interest of the university and the students,” he said. “That’s our highest priority.”