	Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs/Provost
	West Chester University

Dr. Linda Lamwers
Phillips Memorial Hall, Room 103
700 South High Street
West Chester, PA 19383
610-436-3405

Ideas from the Suggestion Box

New Revenue

Offer a winter session to increase tuition revenue
Distance education – a number of comments proposed different aspects of distance education as a source of new revenue. The most unique idea involving DE:
- Summer bridge (remedial) education for high school students to address college preparedness. Could be done via distance education as well as on campus.
Grateful Nation Program (national program originating in Montana) – offers educational counseling and tuition assistance to families of fallen soldiers.
Grandparents University (modeled on a program at U of Michigan) – similar to Elderhostel. Utilize campus facilities in summer for older population to take educational units.
Add classroom seating 100-400 students and use “learning assistants” (undergrad or grad students who facilitate group activities in large lecture courses)
Charge differential tuition for high demand graduate courses; charge tuition by credit instead of 12-18 credits.

Student evaluations conducted online (or email).
Go paperless; a number of ideas proposed ways to reduce paper usage.
Charge for tutoring.
Improve WCU presence/image/marketing using technology (web pages, youtube, Facebook, etc.) to get bigger bang for the advertising buck. Improving web page was mentioned multiple times.

Approach budget planning with a holistic framework to rethink cutting and saving strategies.
Employ long-term planning to increase revenue. Gear current decisions to address the upcoming decade.
Examine our processes and consider institutional reorganization. Realign and combine programs; share secretaries, think long-term, get rid of silos.
Get smaller—think about how many students we can serve.

Be sensitive of others’ circumstances in discussions of budget cuts, especially when it comes to commenting on others’ positions/jobs, etc.
Communicate how administration is advocating for WCU at state level.
Resist orders from Harrisburg, especially unfunded mandates.
Explore ways we can set ourselves apart from the other 14 institutions. Lobby Board of Governors, Chancellor, legislators.
Tell faculty as much as you can as soon as you can, especially given July notices re: appropriations and tuition; try to be clear on some decisions before end of the year.
Provide faculty development and support: individual, discipline/department-specific solutions: workload, pedagogical approaches, etc.
Administrators get back in the classroom (considering union rules).
Provide a sense of unfairness and better dissemination of information about budget processes across the divisions.
Support departments with calculations, data, statistics (add to FAQs with sample charts, spreadsheet calculators).

Administration should rethink the need for positions that are less mission-critical.
Keep in mind that low faculty-student ratio is a mark of excellence and student success.
Examine our own workloads in light of mission: work smarter. Think about time expenditures (i.e., are certain processes, like meetings, mission-critical?)
Provide student support.

Consider increasing courses from 3 to 4 credits.
Make use of extended hours, rent facilities, run a winter term.
Consider alternative delivery methods: weekends, evenings, off-campus.
Increase grant activity; assess grants to see if they, in fact, add revenue.
Reinvigorate summer school enrollment. Offer more summer programs to offset AY costs (BOG approved E&G money for scholarship, which can help with summer school, perhaps with room and board?)
Explore the possibilities and costs of increasing enrollments, in general.
Create post-baccalaureate, graduate or professional degree programs with differential tuition.
Raise out-of-state tuition.
Offer sliding scale or progressive tuition rates.
Explore expanding graduate education; examine the effects on our undergraduate mission.