CASE STUDY
Public University Excellence: CUNY
LOCATION
New York, New York
ISSUE
Optimizing Government and Institutions
ACTIVE
2018-present
A model of strategic partnership bringing ISLG’s expertise in public sector operational improvement to bear on a large public university system, embedding best practices and unlocking millions of dollars in savings.
Challenge:
Following an extensive administrative audit performed with an outside partner, the City University of New York (CUNY) identified opportunities to enhance its academic and administrative efficiency and effectiveness. With the goal of unlocking $75 million in cumulative savings, CUNY launched the Efficiencies for Re-Investment & Innovation (ERI) initiative, and selected ISLG as a strategic partner with expertise in the operational challenges and opportunities of a large institution.
Approach:
Taking an economical approach, ISLG led a comprehensive assessment of processes within key CUNY functional areas—Human Resources, Information Technology, Procurement, Enrollment Management, Academics, and Finance—to identify opportunities for quality improvements, savings, and efficiency gains. From that assessment, 12 initiatives were developed to achieve savings in both productivity (through time savings from automating manual processes) and retention (via projects that increase university-wide enrollment). The initiatives fall into both administrative and academic operations categories.
Administrative projects identified as opportunities include:
Modernization of manual processes in the Registrar’s Office through automation, where possible
A strategic procurement plan that consolidates CUNY-wide purchases through an online marketplace and a contract management system, yielding $20 million in savings through volume discounts
Implementation of a program to capture attrition and redeployment savings from productivity initiatives
Academic projects identified as opportunities include:
A roadmap for providing a streamlined transfer experience to and from CUNY—a key opportunity to make students’ transfer journeys successful, attract matriculating students, and retain tuition
Strategies to automate the information system supporting adult and continuing education (ACE), with the goal of streamlining ACE programming and costs across the system and build efficiencies into this CUNY profit center
Implementation of enrollment management and financial aid savings initiatives
These projects were presented to CUNY leadership for prioritization. After a change in leadership, the new administration identified projects that most immediately fit with their strategic goals for the university.
Progress:
With a streamlined student transfer process deemed a strategic priority by the new administration, ISLG worked with CUNY to develop a transfer credit dashboard, which is available on the CUNY website. The dashboard helps students evaluate their transfer options holistically by understanding how credits transfer within CUNY’s two- and four-year schools, which courses are most likely to transfer smoothly, and which colleges and universities accept the most credits. ISLG has strengthened the dashboard with the implementation of a Transfer Hub on CUNY’s website, which offers tips to guide transfer students smoothly through their transfer journey.
Overall, ERI has taken on more than 12 cost-efficiency initiatives. Seven have been implemented and yielded improvements in operations and savings; five are currently in process. Projects implemented to date, which largely automate several registrar functions, were estimated to save $37 million, eliminating hundreds of thousands of hours of manual labor and in some cases, such as FAFSA Verification, increasing retention by facilitating verifications. Ongoing ERI initiatives focus primarily on strategic improvements, including working with CUNY Public Safety and Athletics to modernize and optimize the departments.
As a strategic partner, ISLG is working to identify the next phase of projects that help CUNY realize new efficiencies and savings. This includes potential projects in which ISLG will help CUNY Vice Chancellors track tasks and savings associated with four initiatives currently underway at the university system.
For more information on the CUNY project, please contact Linda Kleinbaum at Linda.Kleinbaum@islg.cuny.edu.
