Running Head: PROPOSAL – REORGANIZATION OF MESQUITE UNIVERSITY

Proposal – Reorganization of Mesquite University

Hugo Pinales

Northern Arizona University

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PROPOSAL

Part I

Mesquite University is dedicated to the educational experience and educational success

of students. Since 2008, MU has seen an increase in enrollment by 5% percent each year, with a

current enrollment of 15,000 students. Since then, the nation has gone through rough economic

times that date back to the Great Depression. During this period, the state had to make significant

budget cuts to the educational system. Due to these budget cuts, MU experienced state funding

cuts of $2,370 per student (Woodhouse, 2015). Our only way to continue to provide an

outstanding educational experience to our students was to increase student tuition and fees. An

analysis from the Association of Public & Land-grant Universities (APLU) indicated that

universities, on average, reported a 27 percent hike in tuition revenues over six years and a 26

percent decrease in revenues from state appropriations (Woodhouse, 2015).

At MU, it is important that we revisit the mission of the university, “to provide a world-

class research and student services at an affordable price.” As we begin to review the budget for

the next academic year, this report examines the possibility of a university restructuring and

movement of assets that can save the university millions of dollars. This will allow us to invest in

the renovation of older buildings, introduce new programs, and most importantly, keeping tuition

from increasing for the next couple of years. We are devoted to providing students more

educational resources while choosing to make budget cuts elsewhere.

Part II

As mentioned earlier, it is crucial that we continue to provide students more educational

resources without increasing their student tuition and fees. With no hope for additional funding

from the state, we have to ensure that we are collaborating with each other to find innovative
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ways to become a financially stable university without taxing the students. After much research,

it is recommended that MU consider an academic restructuring for its six colleges and moving

student facility assets to an auxiliary.

1. Academic Restructuring

We understand the importance of our programs and our faculty/staff that we wanted to

ensure that they are involved in the process and that they do not feel threaten that they will be

losing their employment with the University. The academic reorganization proposal will

reference Idaho State University, who recently went through the same structural changes and had

similar goals in mind.

Before we can start to discuss the proposed timeline for the academic restructuring, it is

important to set goals. To ensure success through this transition, it is important that we create an

efficient academic model for our current faculty, staff, and students, make sure that we can be a

financially stable institution by ensuring the success of our campus community and find cost

savings through the university's reorganization ultimately.

This is not a one-person job; it takes the campus community to come together to ensure

that everyone is heard during this time. People do not handle change well. To not cause any

chaos during this process, it is important that a committee is created. The committee will be

composed of two faculty members from each college, student representatives from each college

that are currently involved in student government, two representatives from the academic senate,

and two staff members from the campus community. Duties of the committee will be to conduct

initial research about the six colleges, facilitate educational forums to inform the campus

community about the reorganization, and to ultimately propose final recommendations to present

to the Provost and the University President.

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In a summary from the University of Maine System, the review indicated that there are

two approaches to restructuring: preparing and implanting a quick plan that will cost a lot of

money through the process, or one where the majority of the time is spent in broad discussions

and open meetings to ensure that people have a voice in the processes and thus reduce

implementation costs (Pattenaude, 2010). For the restructuring of MU, it is important that we are

offering a space to host open meetings about the process and have a healthy discussion with the

campus community.

MU currently has six colleges: College of Pharmacy, the College of Nursing, the College

of Business Management, the College of Economics, the College of Science, and the College of

Social and Behavior Arts. As the university continued to expand its educational programs, it

began to add colleges that made sense at the time. Fast-forward 40 years later, and now we stop

to wonder why restructuring hasn’t been considered before. In the proposed reorganization of the

colleges, we are introducing four new colleges, the College of Health Services, the College of

Business Administration, College of Science, and the College of Arts and Letters. Our primary

goal from the beginning was not to create major changes that the university would not make any

cuts to faculty. We want to ensure that we are providing additional support to staff and create a

much more efficient streamline through the new colleges. At Idaho State University, they went

through a similar restructuring of their colleges, and they reported that they were able to keep all

faculty/staff with their changes because they realized there would be cost saving with the

reorganization (Olson, 2010).

It is easier said than done, and the committee has a lot of work ahead of them. They will

have to analysis if the above reorganization makes sense and how work will be much more

efficient in the long run. Additionally, the committee will have to report to the campus
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community and survey the advantages/disadvantages regarding the proposal. Starting January 1,

2017, the committee will begin to meet to discuss the goals and proposal mentioned above,

analysis the information, and share it with colleagues. By March 1, 2017, the will review all

recommendation and begin to draft an in-depth report regarding the proposal. The final report

will be presented to the President Council on April 1, 2017. With the approval of the University

President, the restructuring will begin in the new fiscal year.

2. Student Services Facilities to be Run by Student Fee Auxiliary

The daily operations and maintenance of campus facilities have increased every year;

therefore, taking a huge toll on the University’s budget. The MU Student Union and MU

Recreation Center have created challenges to keep up with the maintenance and operations as our

facilities department is also taking care of the entire campus. The second part of the proposal in

the reorganization of MU is to transfer all assets of the Student Union and Recreation Center to

Associated Students Auxiliary starting the first day of the new fiscal year. The transition will

include all assets of both building and the student fees associated with the buildings.

It is important to understand the function of an auxiliary organization before continuing

with the proposal. The Associated Students (AS) Auxiliary is a non-profit organization and was

formed to assist the education purpose of, and contribute to the mission of the University but as a

separate legal entity. They are self-supporting organizations that provide services for student and

employees, by using student fees or by revenue (generally by programs/events) (Fresno State

University, 2004).

This transition will create new opportunities for the university and the auxiliary. For the

University, I will allow them to release the responsibilities, management, and operations that cost

over a million dollars to run the two facilities. This will allow for the university to invest in
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remodeling and renovate classrooms for a state of the art educational classroom. For the

auxiliary, it will create new job opportunity for students and the surrounding community to

manage the facility. AS will be able to create an event/conference services department that will

bring in additional revenue and exposure to the University. Lastly, students have a voice in

regards to necessary changes to the facilities that are heavily used by students.

The proposal calls for a committee to meet regularly, starting at the beginning of the

spring semester to determine the organizational structure of the auxiliary with the incorporation

of both facilities, determine new fiscal responsibilities, and employ new staff. Recommendations

will be created through this committee and will be presented to the Executive Director three

months before the end of the fiscal year. This will allow for a revision of bylaws, policies and

procedures, and the employment of new staff. The auxiliary will report to the University towards

the end of 2017 about the transition.

Part III and Conclusion

Throughout my research, it was clear that people do not like change and this will be the

issue we will be facing with the reorganization. In regards to the restructuring of the colleges,

Gary A. Olson mentioned that reorganization trend in academe has caused a great deal of

apprehension, and even anger, among some faculty members (Olson, 2010). Our goal through

this process is to ensure that the faculty is being informed, respected, and untimely that we are

honoring their employment with the university. During the reorganization of college units at

Middle Tennessee State University, faculty staged a protest against the reorganization. Yes, this

will be a challenging year for the university, but we are all in it together. At the end of this

transition we promise the employment of our faculty staff, finding efficient procedures, and

lastly, find financial savings to invest in more educational resources for our students.
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References

Fresno State University. (2004). Auxiliary Organizations. Retrieved December 9, 2016, from

Fresno State University: Administrative Services:

http://fresnostate.edu/adminserv/budget/documents/bb2004-05/AuxiliaryOrgs.pdf

Olson, G. A. (2010, August 2010). Why Universities Reorganize. Retrieved December 9, 2016,

from The Chronicle of Higher Education: http://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-

Universities-Reorganize/123903

Pattenaude, R. L. (2010, June 2010). Lessons from Restructuring the University of Maine System.

Retrieved December 9, 2016, from The New England Journal of Higher Education:

http://www.nebhe.org/thejournal/lessons-from-restructuring-the-university-of-maine-

system-2/

Woodhouse, K. (2015, August 2015). Copying With Cuts. Retrieved December 9, 2016, from

Inside Higher Education: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/08/27/educational-

spending-public-universities-increases-despite-state-disinvestment