Office of the President: Guidelines for funding new programs

All new majors, minors, concentrations, sports, co- and extra-curricular programs entailing a significant investment of resources (HR, IT, building or financial resources) need the approval of the president, in consultation with the cabinet, and upon recommendation of the appropriate vice presidents (in the academic area many new programs need faculty approval).

New program budgets also are approved by the cabinet, subject to final board approval as part of the annual budgeting process. Capital expenditures associated with new programs in excess of $1 million must be approved by the board. New programs offering new degrees (e.g., a master’s in speech language pathology) must be approved by the board.*

Questions considered by the president and cabinet include:

1. Is the program consistent with the mission of Augustana College? How will it advance the mission? Is it student-centered?

2. Does Augustana have the ability (now or in the foreseeable future) to deliver the program in ways that are consistent with the excellence historically associated with Augustana?

3. Has the program been socialized sufficiently that there are significant pockets of internal support? Are there multiple champions for the program?

4. Will the proposed program attract new students or better retain students? How much of the gain will be at the expense of redirecting students who would attend Augustana anyway? Was the study conducted in conjunction with our Office of Admissions?

5. Will the program allow the college to gain new competencies (i.e., graduate program credentials, new technology in teaching, new partnerships) that might strengthen the college in the future? 

6. Has the program been approved by the appropriate cabinet member?

7. For new academic programs (in addition to the above questions): 

• Is there likely to be strong student demand for the program? 

• Are there likely to be quality jobs available for graduates of the program? 

• Is the program appropriately interdisciplinary, when practicable? 

• Do the plans for the program allow for a ramping-up, scaling it to anticipated enrollment? 

• Will the program help the college address the challenges of the demographic cliff? 

• What other programs, departments (both academic and non-academic) will incur added burdens from the program and how will those burdens be addressed? 

• Does, or will, the new program have approval through faculty governance? 

8. For programs requiring a financial investment: 

• Has the CFO and/or controller approved the budget of the program? 

• What start-up resources are necessary? How will they be funded? 

• If funded from the $500,000 allocation from the reserve for depreciation, are the expected margins comparable to other programs funded in similar ways? 

• If the new program is likely to add a significant number of students (or is expected to replace the expected loss of students due to demographic factors), does the program generate sufficient resources to maintain our student faculty/ratio? 

• Is the program likely to be self-sufficient in two to three years? Will start-up funds be fully repaid in five years? Self-sufficiency includes covering the program’s share of overhead, depreciation, maintaining our student/faculty ratios and other burdens the college incurs with the new program. 

• Will the program have a sufficient additional margin to make significant contributions to those mission-central programs of the college that do not have operating margins? Is the amount of the expected margin scaled to the expected risk of establishing the program? What is the CFO’s opinion concerning these questions? 

• Is there a strong indication of donor support for the program?

* The Augustana Constitution provides that the board “authorizes courses of study as recommended by the faculty.” This has generally been interpreted as the board authorizing courses of study involved a new degree.