College of Fine + Applied Arts
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
FY 16 FINANCIAL PLAN
26 January 2015
Department of Dance
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
School of Music
Department of Theatre
‡
School of Architecture
Department of Landscape Architecture
Department of Urban & Regional Planning
‡
School of Art + Design
Japan House
Krannert Art Museum
College of Fine + Applied Arts | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
FY 16 Financial Plan
ABOUT FAA
The College of Fine and Applied Arts (FAA) is a diverse intellectual community of visual and
performing artists, humanists, architects, designers, landscape architects, city planners, social
scientists and engineers. Its modes of teaching range from studios and project-based learning to
the traditional lecture and seminar forms. There are 2,290 majors in FAA programs, including
1,499 undergraduates. FAA’s financial resources from all funds are $64.7 million in FY15
(projected), which includes $34.9 million in unrestricted recurring allocation and $29.8 million in
funds from self-supporting activities ($7.5 million), grants and contracts ($17.3 million), and
endowments and gifts ($5.0 million).
The Krannert Art Museum ($1.8 million, all sources) and the Krannert Center for the Performing
Arts ($10.4 million, all sources) are both college and campus entities; the directors of KAM and
KCPA report jointly to the FAA dean and the provost. While KAM and KCPA are linked to FAA’s
academic mission, they also play important public engagement roles. Resources independently
under college control—i.e., excluding those allocated to KAM and KCPA—total $29.8 million in
unrestricted recurring allocation and $52.5 million from all sources. It is those resources that are
focus of this document; the plans of KAM and KCPA are offered in separate reports.
DISTINCTIVENESS
FAA is distinctive relative to competing arts colleges in four ways:
1) It is one of very few arts colleges to combine the performing arts, visual arts and design,
and environmental arts and design disciplines. FAA is positioned to capitalize on the trend
toward blended art forms; to focus artistry, research and teaching at the intersection of
arts, place, and community; and to contribute uniquely to addressing the environmental,
socioeconomic, cultural and civic challenges of an increasingly urbanized society.
2) It has depth and breadth in design: industrial design, graphic design, architecture and
landscape architecture, urban design, and performing arts production design (set, sound,
lighting, digital, costume).
3) Its creative work in the arts and design is joined with outstanding humanities scholarship.
4) Its arts venues—Krannert Art Museum, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and Japan
House—combine exceptional public programming with roles as arts learning venues and
laboratories for new work.
RANKINGS
Conventional metrics do not translate well to the research and creative work of most visual arts,
performing arts, and design disciplines and thus few FAA units are included in the dominant
rankings (e.g., U.S. News and World Report). No systematic rankings are available for Dance,
Music and Theatre, nor for most specializations in the School of Art + Design.
The graduate program in Urban and Regional Planning is ranked 3rd by Planetizen, up from 5th
last year, and the graduate program in Industrial Design in the School of Art and Design is
ranked 10th by U.S. News and World Report.
FAA’s Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Industrial Design programs were once ranked
among the top 20 by DesignIntelligence, a subjective ranking that is based heavily on the opinions
1
of practitioners, deans and directors. Programs in those fields across the country mount
communications campaigns to disseminate their accomplishments and shape DesignIntelligence
results. In contrast, FAA and its units invested little in communications for many years. With the hire
of a Communications Director in FY14, as well as the development of a shared communications
approach with our units, we are working on rectifying this problem.
Using the FSPI score available in Academic Analytics (2012), which applies only to traditional
publication-based scholarship in the relevant units, FAA rankings are as follows: Regional Planning
(4th among 48 programs ranked); Musicology (5th among 50); Art History (8th among 69);
Architecture (7th among 26); Landscape Architecture (9th among 33); Theatre (10th among 31); Art
Education (63rd among 152) and Music Education (86th among 152).
OVERALL STRATEGY
The College of Fine and Applied Arts adopted a 3-year strategy in spring 2014 that embraces
the four goals outlined in the campus 2013-16 Strategic Plan and outlines 10 objectives and 21
new actions that work toward those goals. Appendix 1 provides the objectives, actions and an
implementation plan; the full strategy is available on the FAA website. Key elements of the
strategy with direct budgeting and resource implications are discussed in our financial strategy.
PROGRESS DASHBOARD (DMI) & UA UNIT REVIEW DASHBOARDS
The College has a series of metrics that it had been using for several years prior to the
completion of our 2014-17 strategy; those metrics—which populate FAA’s Strategic Planning
Dashboard on the DMI website—are reported in Appendix 2. We are now in the middle of
reviewing and updating all of our metrics to align with our current strategy, an exercise we will
complete by the end of April.
Concurrently we will be engaging unit administrators and college and unit executive/advisory
committees in a systematic assessment of the UA Unit Review Dashboards released on 20 January.
FINANCIAL STRATEGY
FAA is a mix of units with very different cost-revenue profiles. The School of Architecture, the
departments of Landscape Architecture and Urban and Regional Planning, and the design
disciplines within the School of Art + Design have greater capacity than other FAA units to teach
larger numbers of students per faculty FTE, operate tuition-recovery graduate programs, and
produce indirect cost recovery funds. In contrast, FAA’s performing arts units (Dance, Music and
Theatre) and the studio arts disciplines within the School of Art + Design generally teach fewer
students per faculty FTE and rely more heavily on tuition waivers and scholarships at the graduate
level. The differences are a matter of pedagogy not efficiency: producing a top visual art, dance,
music or theatre major is more labor-, space- and materials-intensive than producing a top
architect, city planner, landscape architect, or industrial or graphic designer. Just as the campus
cross-subsidizes some units to maintain a collectively valuable portfolio of disciplines, FAA crosssubsidizes internally to maintain the very best quality among its arts disciplines and to fuel crossarts synergies.
In the net, FAA will never achieve cost-revenue neutrality; its particular portfolio of disciplines,
along with its two large engagement units (KAM, KCPA), means that it cannot generate enough
revenue from its own sources to meet its financial needs. However, it is a goal of the college to
hold the campus cross-subsidy within reasonable bounds given the intense pressure on state
General Revenue Funding (GRF), rising campus common costs, and the importance of maintaining
affordable access to an Illinois education. The college is keenly aware of the risk it faces from its
indirect reliance on GRF, especially in light of the State of Illinois’ dire fiscal situation.
2
As a comprehensive arts college embedded in a leading research university, FAA strives to be
unsurpassed in its disciplinary depth, cross-disciplinary ingenuity, innovation, and integration with
the broader campus. Achieving that vision requires strategic resource stewardship. FAA’s financial
strategy prioritizes aggressive student recruitment; curricular innovation and enrollment
rebalancing; selected consolidation of administrative services; the pursuit of external funding; and
advancement.
Aggressive Recruitment
FAA established a collegelevel admissions and
recruitment office in FY13 to
help coordinate efforts across
the college, share resources
among units, develop more
compelling recruiting
materials, and make more
aggressive use of social
media. A major focus has
been building a larger
prospect pool via connections
to Chicago, the Midwest, and
selected US cities.
Table 1. FAA recruitment outcomes, AY14-15
Prospects
Fall 2015 prospects grew by 13 percent over previous year
(from 4,923 to 5,562). This year’s prospect pool was 186%
larger than the pool in Fall 2013, the first year of college-wide
recruitment and admissions.
Applicants
Held steady over previous year
Admits
To be determined (886 admits in AY13-14, up from 840 in
AY12-13)
Acceptances
To be determined (305 in AY13-14, down from 319 in AY1213)
FAA Applicant Demographics
Latino up by 11% , African American up by 11%
Resident up by 11%, Non-resident down by 15%, International
down by 6%
Female down by 2%, Male up by 3%
We’re beginning to see
results. FAA’s undergraduate
prospect pool in fall 2015 was over 5,500, compared to 1,900 in fall 2013. Applications to FAA
programs rose slightly in AY13-14 for the first time in six years (to 1,300) and they held steady
this year. We admitted 886 students in fall 2014—the most we’ve admitted in many years—but
yielded only 34 percent, a historic low. Thus we began the AY14-15 year with fewer freshmen
than the year before.
We believe part of the explanation for our low yield in AY13-14 is a shift over time in our
application pool toward more international and out-of-state applicants. We have difficulty
yielding non-resident students because we lack the scholarship resources held by many of our
competitors. Consequently, we are putting extra effort into cultivating in-state applicants. This
year our resident applications are up by 11 percent over last year.
We have relocated our Assistant Dean for Recruitment and Admissions to Chicago, significantly
lowering travel costs (and time in transit), helping us double our Chicago area outreach efforts
over FY14. FAA is now in the process of developing a record number of partnerships with
suburban high schools and the Chicago Public Schools, we hosted our first Creative Careers Open
House in Chicago this fall, and we’re experimenting with running booths at major arts expositions.
We will release a new website this spring using a design focused on student recruitment.
Curricular Innovation and Enrollment Rebalancing
Two things are critical to our efforts to boost enrollment: innovation in our curricula to better
position our programs relative to competitors and rebalancing enrollment in some units by area
and/or level (undergraduate, graduate). With respect to the former, we are prioritizing
innovations that a) serve emerging demand, often at the intersection of art forms; b) open up FAA
students’ capacity to tap offerings in other disciplines outside the college; c) facilitate students’
earning an arts degree together with a non-arts degree; and d) create more opportunities for
non-FAA majors to take FAA courses. Specific examples include a new program in Lyric Theatre
3
as a collaborative effort of our performing arts units, a new Art + Design Minor, work underway
on new degrees in partnership with Computer Science (in Art + Design and in Music), and a new
Bachelor of Arts in Dance (currently awaiting final approval from IBHE).
With respect to rebalancing, we are a) re-establishing strength in selected areas which long
drove undergraduate enrollments but had atrophied (e.g., Music Education); b) working on
expanding admissions into undergraduate programs in high demand (Graphic Design, Industrial
Design); and c) prioritizing growth of professional masters programs with tuition recovery
potential (generally in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban and Regional Planning, and
eventually Graphic and Industrial Design).
Other initiatives include an FAA Online Program established in FY14 that provides seed funding
and technical support for faculty to develop new courses; a partnership with the College of
Business and the School of Social Work that is expanding entrepreneurship learning opportunities
for FAA students; and a new honors class for students in the Division of General Studies that will
explore aspects of creativity and entrepreneurship (currently under development).
Selected Consolidation of Administrative Services
We implemented two shared business service centers in FY14, one that serves KCPA, Theatre, and
Dance and another that serves Landscape Architecture and Urban and Regional Planning. We will
task the latter center with supporting the School of Architecture and providing research
administrative support for all FAA PIs.
We continue to improve our financial reporting tools, including new systems for managing
accounting, human resources, budgeting, enrollment, admissions, advising, and information
technology across college units, and we are placing renewed emphasis on transparency and
shared governance in budgeting and resource allocation.
Prioritization of External Research Funding
The quality of FAA research is well-recognized. Highlights in the past year included the election of
Professor Tere O'Connor (Dance) to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Guggenheim
awards granted to Associate Professors Deke Weaver (Art and Design) and Stephen Taylor
(Music); multiple acclaims for Dance faculty in the New York Times, the New Yorker, and
elsewhere; and an NSF STTR award to support the development of Associate Professor of Music
Heinrich Taube’s Harmonia app. The scholarly productivity of our Urban and Regional Planning
and Musicology faculties rank in the top US decile according to Academic Analytics metrics.
Although research has been strong, external funding in FAA is low. Part of this is a matter of
funding availability—two key sources, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National
Endowment for the Humanities, amount to 0.23 percent of the US federal R&D budget—and part
is due to a combination of weak support infrastructure and low prioritization. Grants and
contracts expenditures were $12.5 million in AY13-14, generating $2.4 million in indirect cost
recovery (ICR). That appears high, but the majority of that activity was generated by the Smart
Energy Design Assistance Center and the Public Housing Authority Energy Program, both of which
are engagement initiatives. Some awards brought prestige and significant resources to support
creative work but little in the way of ICR (as in a $600K Mellon award to KCPA).
To grow external funding the college is creating a new Office of Research under the leadership
of our Associate Dean for Research. The office, which will begin operating in fall 2015, will work
to catalyze projects in thematic areas with the greatest potential for external support. Preliminary
themes are of interest across the campus: environment and health. For example, FAA faculty have
initiated a pilot project with Extension related to health research in Peoria and Illinois has just
4
been designated, via a competitive process, to be part of the new Design and Health Research
Consortium of the American Institute of Architects.
To help support these and other efforts, we are revising our internal funding program to better
seed research with potential for external support. A new monthly newsletter of research
opportunities and improved mentorship and grantsmanship advice for faculty will also help grow
the number of proposals. As noted above, we are retooling the business service center serving
environmental arts units to be the main FAA resource for grants administration.
Prioritization of
Table 2. FAA Advancement goals, progress, and plans
Advancement
Consistent with the goals
ADVANCEMENT GOALS & PROGRESS THROUGH END OF NOVEMBER 2014
of the Office of the Vice
% YTD FY13
YTD FY13
5-YR
Chancellor for
COMPARED
TYPE
GOAL
YTD STATUS
COMPARED
AVG
Institutional
Cash
$5.5M
$1.7M
$1.78M
101%
$2.4M
Advancement and the
New
University of Illinois
business
$8.5M
$2.0M
$2.29M
71%
$8.4M
Foundation, we are
increasing our attention
FY15 ADVANCEMENT STAFF DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY GOALS
to soliciting major gifts
STAFF
PORTFOLIO
MAJOR GIFTS
MAJOR GIFTS
SOLICIand cash, while also
MEMBER
SIZE
RAISED ($)
RAISED (#)
TATIONS
VISITS
1
90
$3.0M
20
40
90
building stronger annual
2
90
$1.2M
15
30
80
fund and alumni
3
125
$1.1M
20
30
155
engagement activities.
4
100
$1.0M
28
38
100
This fiscal year the
5
125
$1.0M
20
40
160
college reallocated
6
52
$0.75M
20
40
160
resources to support the
7
NA
NA
NA
NA
10
hiring of an Assistant
8
NA
NA
NA
NA
50
Director of Annual Fund
All
582
$8.05M
123
218
805
and Stewardship and
we replaced the
FY15-16 MAJOR FUNDRAISING PROJECTS & TARGETS
development
Krannert Art Museum Initiative ($4.0M)
Smith Music Legacy Scholarships ($8.1M)
professional serving our
Japan House Stroll Garden ($200K)
Marching Illini Field & Tower ($1.0M)
environmental arts units
with a more
FY16-18 MAJOR FUNDRAISING PROJECTS (TARGETS TBD)
experienced individual.
Undergraduate Scholarships
Krannert Center 50th Anniversary
A partnership with
Architecture Building Renovations
Art + Design Building Renovations
OVCIA with help
Level 21/Performing Arts Prod’n Support
address additional
modest expansion of
core FAA major gift staff; possible expansion of KCPA major gift staff is pending a review of
KCPA development activities and capacity.
Table 2 documents FAA’s fundraising goals and progress through the end of November 2014 and
summarizes goals for FAA Advancement for FY15.
ACADEMIC PROGRAM REVIEWS
The first review in FAA under the new academic program review initiative was completed in
spring 2014 for the Department of Landscape Architecture; progress on recommendations issued
by the site visit team is reported in Appendix 3. The second review in FAA will take place in the
spring of 2015 in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning.
5
DIVERSITY
Although the racial and ethnic mix of FAA’s faculty at the full professor rank lags the campus
average, the share of underrepresented groups at the junior ranks is rising through aggressive
hiring. We made two TOP hires in AY13-14 at the assistant professor level (in Theatre and
Dance). Likewise, while the diversity of our student body is above the campus average, it is not
significantly so, and we continue to recruit actively to increase underrepresented admissions,
primarily by cultivating guidance counselors in schools with high numbers of underrepresented
students.
We are currently undertaking two major efforts to diversify our faculty and staff and properly
support underrepresented students. First, a task force charged this spring is developing
recommendations on how we can strengthen our hiring and retention of faculty and staff from
underrepresented groups. Second, our Office of Undergraduate Academic Affairs is developing
a plan to work with housing, campus cultural centers, and our Japan House to better support the
recruitment, acculturation, and retention of both underrepresented and international students.
FAA’s 2014-17 Strategy also includes an action—scheduled to be taken beginning in fall 2015—
to build on growing interest in the arts among area and ethnic studies programs through
partnering in curriculum and student recruitment.
FACULTY SALARIES
Table 3. Salary underfunding vis-à-vis peers (2013-14)
FAA salaries are low but
PCT ACADEMIC
TOTAL TENURE
COST PER
improving. Table 3
UNIT
DEFICIT ($)
SALARY BASE
SYSTEM FTE
FTE ($)
reports the salary deficit
of each college on the
ACES
864,889
2.2%
175.75
4,921
campus, i.e., the funds
Business
686,330
0.3%
97.74
1,061
needed to bring the
Education
103,727
0.3%
74.67
381
mean salary in a given
Engineering
432,387
0.6%
367.11
1,178
unit up to the mean of its
FAA
1,005,790
4.3%
177.11
5,679
identified peers, as
Media
0.0%
29.01
0
measured as a
Law
116,657
0.9%
39.45
2,957
percentage of that unit’s
LAS
5,111,531
5.6%
619.08
8,257
academic salary base.
AHS
84,992
0.7%
57.75
1,472
FAA’s overall salary
Vet Med
0.0%
41.72
0
deficit is the second
largest at Illinois. Within
LER
174,056
4.5%
16.49
10,555
FAA, deficits are high at
Social Work
226,620
7.1%
15.00
15,108
the senior ranks in the
GSLIS
345,789
8.0%
22.49
15,375
environmental design
"Deficit dollars" is the amount needed to bring the mean salary at each rank in each
disciplines, Music and
department up to the mean of the peers.
Theatre (see Table 4).
Offering competitive
salaries to top faculty in those units is an ongoing challenge.
Given our limited resources, we are prioritizing competitiveness at the entry level, although recent
help from the campus salary and CMER programs have enabled us to make modest progress at
the senior ranks as well. Not shown in the 2013-14 AAUDE Peer Faculty Salary Survey are the
targeted CMER funds that FAA was allocated in FY15. That influx of funds, which followed a
similar allocation in FY14, has made a significant difference. The 2013-14 AAUDE report shows
an overall deficit of $1.0 million, a 21 percent improvement over FAA’s salary deficit status in
2012-13.
6
Table 4. FAA salary comparison to external peers (2013-14)
USE OF CASH
RESOURCES
PCT
ACADEMIC
FULL
ASSOCIATE
ASSISTANT
Only recently has FAA
SALARY BASE
FAA UNIT
PROFESSORS
PROFESSORS PROFESSORS
had flexible cash
Art + Design
-2.0%
-5.0%
-8.0%
4.3%
resources of any
Dance
0.0%
-1.0%
-4.0%
0.7%
significance. As a
consequence, both
Music
-13.0%
-3.0%
1.0%
6.8%
physical facilities and
Theatre
11.0%
-1.0%
-6.0%
1.3%
other support
Architecture
-16.0%
1.0%
-5.0%
5.7%
infrastructure (e.g.,
Landscape
-15.0%
-14.0%
NA
13.3%
websites, recruiting and
Planning
-20.0%
-12.0%
-1.0%
12.5%
communications
"Deficit dollars" is the amount needed to bring the mean salary at each rank in each
materials) deteriorated
department up to the mean of the peers.
over a number of years,
undercutting our
capacity to recruit top students and faculty and driving further decline. Our approach to cash
management over the last two fiscal years and heading into FY16 is to invest more of our limited
cash in order to position ourselves to compete effectively with our peers and increase enrollments.
Stronger enrollments will drive up revenues, lessening our reliance on dwindling GRF and giving us
the capacity to make further investments. Recent significant campus support for facilities
improvements, salary deficits, and strategic hiring has been critical to this strategy.
Centrally, FAA holds approximately $4.0 million in highly flexible cash reserves, $900,000 in less
flexible endowment earnings, and $1.6 million in resources already committed to specific facilities
upgrades. Our current $4 million balance in state/institutional funds is about 11 percent of our
$34.9 million recurring allocation. In FY16, we will use our cash resources in three ways: 1) to
backstop units presently running structural deficits to give them time and resources make
appropriate structural adjustments; 2) to invest in facilities; 3) to hold a small reserve to meet
unexpected costs.
Backstopping Structural Deficits
Two units in FAA currently operate with structural deficits that will require a draw on central cash
reserves in FY16: the School of Music (annual operating deficit of approximately $300,000) and
the Department of Dance (annual operating deficit of $25,000). Both units are implementing
financial plans to eliminate their effective operating deficits but progress is hampered by
budgetary inflexibility given the share of their resources allocated to personnel. In FY16 the
college is anticipating backstopping those two units using about $250,000 in central cash.
Facilities
Our facilities investments are guided by a pressing need to make improvements that will facilitate
recruiting top students and faculty immediately and by a long-range strategy to consolidate our
visual arts and design programs in a renovated and expanded Art + Design building; consolidate
our Architecture program in Temple Buell Hall and a renovated and expanded Architecture
Building; make alterations and additions to KCPA to ensure it remains the leading universitybased performing arts center and to meet space needs in Theatre, Dance and Music; and reduce
the total number of campus buildings serving FAA from 30 to fewer than ten. Facilities projects
currently funded and underway are listed in Table 5. Approximately $0.5 million in FAA cash
reserves and $5.5 million in campus sources are allocated to those projects at the present time.
Two additional projects not listed in Table 5 are renovations to the Krannert Art Museum lobby
and galleries, which have been made possible through fundraising coupled with a campus match
and exterior brickwork renovations to KCPA, a project supported by central maintenance funds.
7
We are also hopeful that the vision under consideration for the Levis Building—namely
renovations to support additional needs in the humanities (beyond the approved Illinois Program
for Research in the Humanities relocation) and the arts—will be realized.
Several additional projects would significantly improve the quality of FAA learning and research
environments, the experience of both majors and non-majors in arts courses, and the presentation
of FAA facilities to prospective students (see Table 6). Two important projects—energy-saving
upgrades to the Architecture Building and Noble/Flagg improvements—are beyond the current
financial capacity of the college to undertake alone.
Table 5. FAA facilities underway or approved, FY15 (000s)
FUNDING SOURCE
PROJECT
COST
School of Art + Design Metals Lab move
Architecture Building feasibility study
FAA
CAMPUS
$1,060
$1,060
$250
$250
Architecture Building restroom upgrades
$500
Art and Design Building feasibility study
$250
$250
$50
$50
KCPA 2.0 idea competition
OVCR
DEFFERED
MAINTENANCE
$500
$1,650
Music Building life and safety upgrades
Music Building public areas upgrades
$1,650
$300
$300
School of Music Instructional Space Improvement Project
$1,425
DRL building interior improvements and code upgrades
$500
$200
$75
$75
DRL sewer and drain project
TOTAL
$6,060
$500
$500
$925
$3,110
$300
$300
$2,150
Table 6. FAA facilities priorities—funding TBD—entering FY16 (000s)
ESTIMATED
COST
PROJECT
Architecture Building energy improvements: Building suffers from very high energy consumption and low
comfort factor for students and faculty. Project would replace the 85 year-old windows and connect the building
to the central chiller.
$8,000
Noble Hall and Flagg Hall upgrades: FAA relies heavily on Flagg and Noble halls for its design programs (Art
+ Design, Landscape Architecture, Architecture, and Urban and Regional Planning) but the two buildings are
deteriorating fast as they await demolition to make way for new residence halls. Basic improvements are
necessary to bring Flagg and Noble to an acceptable level of functionality and appearance for their remaining
estimated 10-year lifespan. An analysis is needed to identify improvements and estimate cost.
TBD
Temple Buell Hall office space re-configuration: A Business Service Center to support units in TBH requires a
reconfiguration of office space to accommodate staff.
$200
Temple Buell Hall Atrium student space improvements: To improve the student experience in TBH allowing
students a flexible space in which to collaborate on presentations and projects. Project would install additional
power outlets and new furnishings.
$150
Architecture Gallery improvements: The Gallery is potentially a first rate venue for student exhibits, lectures
and campus special events but is limited by poor acoustics and inefficient lighting. Project would replace
antiquated fixtures with energy conserving fixtures/lamps controlled with an electronic control system, add
acoustic treatments, and paint.
$225
8
FINANCIAL PLANNING PARAMETERS
Table 7 outlines our response to the proposed 2 percent common cost assessment and possible 2.5
and 5.0 percent recurring budget reductions in FY16 and FY17. FAA has long operated with very
thin margins, making it difficult for the college to invest in important facilities and services (student
recruitment, communications, business services and human resource management). In turn, FAA has
seen its undergraduate enrollments decline significantly, especially since 2008/9; enrollments in
tuition recovery masters programs have also fallen. A significant reduction in FAA’s budget at this
time will undercut our strategy to return to a stable and growing enrollment path, further
diminishing the college’s financial viability over the long run.
However, mindful that reductions may be inevitable, all FAA units began laying out adjustment
plans in late December. Table 7 is a summary of initial estimates of how reductions would have to
be absorbed. We would address a 2.5 percent reduction in FY16 and FY17 by not filling
positions in our units, reducing our elective offerings, allowing some retirements to go unfilled,
generating revenue through enrollment management designed to increase undergraduate
students, reducing the number of graduate students and relying more on external support for
those admitted, and increasing online course revenue. Five percent reductions in both FY16 and
FY17 would also require the closing of our Figure One gallery in downtown Champaign, the
elimination of even more graduate assistantship positions, and the incentivization of faculty
retirements (e.g., via a VSIP-type program).
Table 7. Adjustment to assessment and reduction planning scenarios: FAA academic units only
SCENARIOS
FY16
FY17
Campus common cost (2.0%)
($583,000)
($568,250)
1 Reduction in recurring of 2.5%
($728,500)
($710,500)
TOTAL COST
IMPLICATIONS/NOTES
($1,311,500)
($1,278,750)
Increase online revenue
$220,250
$221,500
Reduce wage expenses
$287,000
$440,750
Less non-major teaching, fewer IUs, weak lab support
Reduce TA allocations
$155,250
$149,000
Higher faculty burden, diminish research capacity
Reduce general expenses
$323,250
$214,000
Reduced: Maintenance, travel, communications
Departures/retirements unfilled
$297,750
$201,500
$29,000
$52,250
$1,312,500
$1,279,000
($1,457,250)
($1,420,750)
($2,040,250)
($1,989,000)
$211,250
$301,500
Increase enrollments
TOTAL SOURCES
2 Reduction in recurring of 5.0%
TOTAL COST
Increase online revenue
Reduced capacity to reinvest to develop new courses
Less leadership, fewer courses, less advising
Gains here low because of time to realize
Revenue forecast may be too optimistic
Reduce wage expenses
$587,750
$276,000
In addition to above, eliminates some CS positions
Reduce TA allocations
$273,500
$138,000
Above, multiplied
Reduce general expenses
$392,750
$426,250
In addition to above, eliminate Figure 1 Gallery
Departures/retirements unfilled
$519,500
$691,250
Cannot meet these targets without VSIP program
$52,250
$150,750
Less conservative scenario than above
$2,037,000
$1,983,750
Increase enrollments
TOTAL SOURCES
Aggregated from central FAA and school/department plans, rounded to the nearest $250.
9
FUNDING REQUESTS
FAA has no requests for additional recurring funding for its academic units or the Krannert Art
Museum in FY16. The college requests the campus’s assistance (non-recurring) in meeting the
facilities needs outlined in Table 6. Requests for additional recurring and non-recurring support
for the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts are detailed in the KCPA report.
10
Appendix 1: FAA 2014-17 Strategy Objectives, New Actions & Implementation Plan (revised 19 December 2014)
Objective
New Action
Process
Leadership
Other Leaders
Start
Finish
Renew commitment to
research and creative
work.
1. Review and revise department
and school promotion and tenure
procedures for clarity and
consistency.
Admin Council
Hamilton
Unit Heads
Fa 14
Sp 16
2. Survey faculty time allocation
and set target distributions.
FAA Executive Committee
Hamilton
Fa 14
Fa 15
3. Evaluate Creative Research
Awards program.
Research Task Force
Sullivan
Deal, Hamilton,
Redman
Fa 14
FA 14
4. Establish new, less specialized
bachelor’s degree programs.
Units, with assistance of FAA
Curriculum Committee.
Mette
Unit Heads
Fa 14
Sp 17
5. Create new options in key
professional skills areas.
FAA Curriculum Committee
Mette
Unit Heads
Fa 14
Sp 17
6. Establish two-day cross-college
interdisciplinary enrichment
program.
Strategy Steering Committee
Gunn
Redman, Wellens,
Roberts-Lieb, Unit
Heads
Fa 14
Fa 15
7. Develop customized learning
technology workshops for faculty.
FAA Academic Affairs &
Educational Technology
Group
Mette
Roberts-Lieb
Fa 14
Fa 14
8. Hire three new faculty who will
collaborate extensively with
sciences and engineering.
Units and College through
annual hiring planning
process.
Dean
Unit Heads
Fa 14
Sp 17
9. Create a postterminal/doctoral research
position supporting a
sciences/engineering thrust.
FAA Administration
Hamilton
Dean
Fa 14
Sp 15
10. Appoint diversity task force
and develop strategy for hiring
and retention.
Diversity Task Force
Erkert
Dean
Fa 14
Sp 15
11. Partner with campus area
ethnic studies programs on
curriculum and recruitment.
FAA Academic Affairs
Mette
Unit Heads
Fa 15
Sp 17
12. Identify space and staff to
support recruitment, acculturation
FAA Academic Affairs,
Diversity Task Force
Mette, Trantham
Erkert, Unit Heads
Fa 15
Sp 16
Make curricula more
responsive to demand
and career needs.
Strengthen the centrality
of the arts to society’s
grand challenges.
Fully embrace difference.
11
Appendix 1: FAA 2014-17 Strategy Objectives, New Actions & Implementation Plan (revised 19 December 2014)
Objective
New Action
Process
Leadership
Other Leaders
Start
Finish
and outreach for international
students and students from
underrepresented groups.
Offer proposal and grants
support.
13. Set up system for cultivating
and assisting faculty with
applications for cyclical and
periodic grants and opportunities.
FAA Administration
Hamilton
Redman
Fa 15
Fa 15
Facilitate faculty
collaboration in teaching.
14. Create a revenue model that
supports cross-unit courses and
multiple degree programs.
FAA Business Office
Redman
Wellens
Fa 15
Sp 16
15. Align course schedules with
campus norms.
Units, Administrative Council,
FAA Administration
Redman
Wellens, Unit
Heads
Sp 15
Sp 17
Leverage external
relationships.
16. Explore the formation of
external advisory boards to guide
us on the relevancy and
effectiveness of our programs.
Administrative Council
Redman
Gunn
Sp 16
Fa 16
Increase awareness and
visibility of FAA.
17. Create a regular, periodic
event for shared intellectual
exchange.
Strategy Steering Committee
Gunn
Hamilton
Fa 14
Fa 14
18. Identify means of capturing
unique features of our work in a
web-based collaboration and
communications platform.
FAA Office of Research and
FAA-IT
Hamilton
Roberts-Lieb
Fa 14
Fa 14
19. Review, compare, and revise
bylaws and policy documents at
the college and unit levels.
FAA Executive Committee
Committee Vice
Chair
Hamilton
Fa 14
Sp 16
20. Develop faculty mentorship
and career guidance strategy.
FAA New Faculty Orientation
Series
Hamilton
Unit Heads
Fa 15
Sp 16
21. Develop and implement an
approach to space sharing.
FAA Administration, FAA-IT
Redman
Roberts-Lieb
Sp 15
Sp 16
Increase administrative
clarity, agility, and
integrity and governance.
Share infrastructure.
12
Appendix 2: FAA Strategic Planning Dashboard (DMI)
13
14
Appendix 3: Progress toward Recommendations, Landscape Architecture Program Review
Recommendation
Action Steps
Status
Resources
Development of
interdisciplinary Bachelor
of Arts degree.
Effort is underway.
Heads of
Architecture, Urban
and Regional
Planning, and
Landscape
Architecture.
Shared delivery
among the three
units.
Hire a new department
head.
The college committed to undertaking a national
search for a new department head in its FY15 hiring
plan.
Finalists have been
identified and
campus visits are
being arranged.
College of Fine and
Applied Arts.
Separate BLA from MLA
degree program.
Only partially feasible at this time because of low
enrollments in the BLA program. The more likely
direction will be the development of a compelling
interdisciplinary bachelor’s program or “flexibletrack” with concentrations in Landscape Architecture,
Urban Planning and Architecture, and releasing those
resources to focus on the MLA.
Interim Department
Head in Landscape
Architecture.
There are no
resources to support
program separation
at current enrollment
levels.
Build on the nexus of
landscape architecture with
other disciplines (Develop
graduate certificates).
Landscape Architecture currently offers
“specializations” in these areas within the framework
of the MLA curriculum. Independent or stand-alone
certificates could be developed from this structure but
more compelling are interdisciplinary degrees at the
undergraduate and graduate levels.
Heads of
Architecture, DURP,
Landscape.
None needed at this
time.
Strengthen design faculty
and course offerings.
The department expanded the design faculty by 1.3
FTE in FY15 and revamped its mentorship efforts.
Interim Department
Head and FAA
Dean’s Office.
No new resources
needed at this time.
Develop the attractions of
the Bachelor of Landscape
Architecture (BLA) program.
The department is implementing a comprehensive
recruitment strategy with the support from its Resource
Committee (made up of alumni and professionals) and
in partnership with the college’s undergraduate
recruitment initiative.
Working with FAA
Assistant Dean for
Recruitment and
Admissions.
No new resources
needed at this time.
Provide PhD program with
more resources.
The department is collaborating with the School of
Architecture, with which the PhD program is jointly
administered, to provide more funding opportunities to
students (shifting teaching assistantships from masters
to PhD students is one solution). The department is also
working with FAA Advancement to grow fellowship
resources.
Working with
Graduate College,
School of
Architecture, and
Development.
Reallocation and
development of new
resources through
fundraising.
15
Appendix 4
16
Appendix 5
17