Frequently Asked Questions

The term "transformation work" dates back at least two decades and is tied to a process with the end goal of improving an organization's performance.

Most commonly, improvement is seen through increasing revenue, decreasing expenses and process improvements. This process will not focus on human resources or any one thing, as it is meant to be comprehensive and give the institution options to invest in as we move forward.

A typical starting point for transformation work is an outside analytical review. This diagnostic work will provide the organization with a list of potential opportunities.

Xavier has organized its transformation work around five areas, which include:

• Identifying opportunities for revenue growth and diversification
• Implementing strategic expense management
• Optimizing technology systems
• Adopting operational process improvements
• Enhancing our organizational structures

A lasting impact of successful transformation work is an enhanced organization that operates differently in the future. A key to this process will be our community’s willingness to participate in change and continue to adapt to future environments as the higher education landscape evolves.

The result of this work at Xavier University will be to put the institution in a better position to take advantage of future opportunities and carry our nearly 200-year legacy well into the future.

It is important to note that Xavier is not alone in this process. Higher education is an industry in disruption and Xavier is facing significant headwinds in the near future.

The University's core operation has been operating in a deficit for more than four years, including a significant deficit of more than $16M deficit in FY23. For this coming year, Xavier is projected to have a larger deficit.

This is a trend that cannot continue indefinitely, and the bottom line is Xavier must make changes to continue to be a thriving institution and fulfill its mission into the future.

No, Xavier has not undertaken a formal university-wide transformation project in the past.

The working group is a cross-campus team that will guide the process, communications and engagement with campus over the next several months. The group is made up of representatives from SLC, Faculty Committee and Staff Committee.

Many others will have the opportunity be involved during the project, but the core working group comprises:

• Dr. Ivy Banks, Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion
• Dr. Rachel Chrastil, Provost and Chief Academic Officer
• Jeff Coleman, Vice President for Risk Management
• Becky Cull, JD, General Counsel
• Eric Sundrup, S.J., Associate Vice President for Mission and Ministry and University Chaplain
• Brendan Bergen, Director of Communication and Social Media
• Dr. Adam Clark, Associate Professor of Theolog
• Dr. Sam Kwapong, Director of International Student and Scholar Service
• Cheryl McElroy, Senior Grants Office
• Dr. Annie Ray, Associate Professor of Biology
• Dr. Ashley Stadler Blank, Associate Professor of Marketing
• Dr. Vanessa Rigaud, Associate Professor of Education
• Susan Abel, Associate Vice President for University Relations, Internal Operations

The University has conducted an RFP (Request For Proposal) with five firms expressing initial interest – Accenture, Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte, Huron Group and McKinsey.

At least two of the firms have previous experience with Xavier, and others were added based on input from similar work at other institutions. All five have some connection to Xavier based on previous working experience with various individuals and groups on campus.

A combination of factors have led to the decision to seek an outside partner:

• A lack of work capacity or existing bandwidth internally.
• The expertise, credibility and objectivity that can only come from an outside partner.
• Overarching concerns about our institutional appetite for change.

Hundreds of faculty, staff and students will be engaged. Any employee or student who wants to provide input will have the opportunity. One class, Dr. Marcie Lensges' MGMT495 class, is already assisting around campus communications.

Please pay special attention to Today at Xavier in the coming months for regular updates about the project’s progress.

The working group expects to select an outside partner before the end of the year. Campus diagnostic work will take place primarily in January and February with a report of possible opportunities to be prepared by Spring 2024.

The diagnostic work will include a comprehensive look at the university's entire organization.

This includes everything in Xavier's core operation – programs, facilities, processes, structures and technologies.

The analytical project will also benchmark Xavier's work with peer institutions.

Yes, Xavier's entire organization is being reviewed.

Yes, there is a special student success project that's been initiated by President Hanycz. The student success project is connected to improving student retention.

Both the student success and transformation projects stem from the new Strategic Plan. This year is the first year of the Xavier 200 Strategic Plan.

Currently, there are four key initiatives in various stages of progress from the strategic plan:

• Launching the College of Osteopathic Medicine
• Transformation Project
• Student Success Project
• A New Fundraising Campaign

Similar to the analysis on the front end of the process, we expect all areas of campus to be engaged in the options and recommendations that come forward.

The details of this will depend on the proposal of the partner we work with. Given its fiduciary responsibility, Xavier’s Board of Trustees, on the President’s recommendations, will exercise a key role in determining which recommendations Xavier selects for implementation.

Within the University we will rely on our governance structure for input, including XUC, Faculty Committee, Staff Committee, SLC, and the Faculty Handbook.

Depending on the specific recommendations, we may need to seek input from other groups or individuals on campus.

Ultimately, President Hanycz, with support from SLC, will be accountable for delivering results from the transformation process.

While we have not identified a specific financial target, we will certainly be focused on achieving financial stability by moving from a structural deficit to a financial surplus.

Beyond that starting point, a specific financial target will not be identified until the implementation phase once we have reviewed the full slate of options and recommendations that emerge from the diagnostic stage of this process.

We recognize that achieving an outcome that is a simple “balanced budget” – as in, no deficit and no surplus – is likely insufficient as there are many areas at Xavier that have suffered from inadequate investment for too long.

Whether we are considering anything from market compensation levels to programmatic investment, we need to achieve a financial model that allows for regular investment in the University’s priorities. That is what moves us from surviving to thriving, and thriving is our ultimate goal.

The question about "influencers/people you trust" has two purposes:

1. To assist leadership in understanding who the most influential and trusted faculty/staff are, regardless of organizational structure. 
2. Our partner, McKinsey, has also found in past engagements that these are the people who are best positioned to assist when we reach the planning phase. Essentially, to work on specific ideas and pull together teams to draft proposals.

The focus group questions are designed to add qualitative insight to the quantitative analyses being conducted during the diagnostic.

The results of the diagnostic are meant to identify opportunities for:

• New growth or revenue
• Potential strategic expense management
• Optimized technology systems
• Operational process improvements
• Enhanced organizational structures

Faculty and staff have already offered many ideas for new revenue during focus group sessions, including possible new academic programs. Important concerns about morale and compensation have also been raised. Each of the ideas raised during these focus groups, through the survey, and/or through the suggestion box are important and equally valued points of input from the campus community.

Finally, this effort is focused on identifying areas to accelerate Xavier’s mission while enhancing the student, faculty, and staff experience. The end result is also meant to improve Xavier’s financial health. McKinsey has found in past partnerships that these broad questions, including the question about what is working well that could be accelerated, allow individual participants to stretch their imagination while also being specific about their current experiences.

By joining a workstream group, faculty and staff are expressing interest in identifying opportunities for Xavier to improve and become more efficient. The initial commitment of joining a workstream is to attend one of two orientation sessions, which will be held during the weeks of May 6 and May 13.

After that, workstream efforts will continue through the summer. Depending on the initiative, some work will be in small groups, with other efforts largely individual.

There is no set fee. Our agreement is a mixture of fixed and performance-based fees. The performance-based fees are tied to our revenue growth areas, so McKinsey will share in the success when we perform better.

This type of agreement is common in transformation projects and the other consultants under consideration in our RFP process also proposed this approach.

Rather than focusing on a specific number, leadership is approaching the financial goals of the project knowing we need to erase our annual deficit.

That number is about $18M now and could be $26M next year if we don’t take action. That improvement, however, only enables us to break even. For future fiscal years, the Board of Trustees has identified an annual profit margin of 8-10% as a future target.

We need to go beyond $26M in improvements over the next several years for these reasons and more:

• We need to improve compensation for our faculty and staff.
• We must replenish the financial reserves we’ve been dipping into the last few years.
• We have deferred maintenance that must be addressed.
• We don’t have enough financial aid for some of our students to be successful.

For each workstream, we have identified a “high” and “low” range of possibilities. Over the next 10-12 weeks, we will identify which opportunities to implement, all with the backdrop of the abovementioned $26M potential deficit and other priorities. We will pay attention to and balance each workstream so that we’re achieving our long-term goals.

Sustaining Excellence is not about a single number. This is about long-term sustainability and a thriving Xavier. This is about enrollment growth, retention improvement, and operational excellence.

The best practices and opportunities implemented will lead to revenue growth and overall financial improvement. We’re confident a new way of thinking will also be embedded to benefit Xavier long-term.

In other sectors, ongoing or continuous innovation is a normal part of how successful organizations operate. All across the country, the higher education industry is facing the same reality.

As we go through this planning process, we will be building capabilities within our faculty and staff for the future. We’ll normalize the process for how the university approaches new ideas.

We are just beginning the planning process to decide which initiatives and opportunities we will implement. No decisions have been made on specific opportunities, so it’s difficult to predict how (or if) any specific initiatives will change Xavier’s faculty and staff needs.

Throughout the entire Sustaining Excellence project, our priority has been to work toward a future state as a thriving university that can deliver on its mission of educating young people for the future.

Embedded within that overarching focus is the reality that our faculty and staff deliver on that mission, so a thriving institution can only happen if its faculty and staff are also thriving.

Much of this answer comes from McKinsey’s experience at other institutions and what they've experienced in terms of successful transformation work. A two-year focus seems to strike the right balance between the work that will be necessary and the time needed to implement various initiatives.

Another part of the reason is to resist a natural inclination to slow down when timelines get extended and keep us honest and on task with this important work.