08/18/2023
By Julie Chen

In a video last month, I spoke to you about the changes I believe we need to make that are vital to ensure UMass Lowell thrives in the years ahead. The future of higher education — marked by demographic challenges, questions about college return on investment, and lingering financial impacts of the pandemic — will look very different from our past.

I want to update you on the status of ongoing discussions as we work to reconfigure our university to meet the requirements of the Fiscal Year 2024 budget and realize the potential of the 2028 Strategic Plan in the years ahead.

First, thanks to those university community members who have provided recommendations for potential institutional efficiencies and revenue opportunities. While most items suggested have been considered, we’ve developed a FY24 Budget Updates webpage that includes Frequently Asked Questions around capital spending to help answer some of the questions embedded in these suggestions.

University leaders recognize that remote and hybrid work provides opportunities to consolidate space to reduce maintenance and utility costs. We also believe increasing office density will foster further engagement in our occupied spaces and lead to new ways of delivering essential services more efficiently.

Thanks to the hard work of staff and faculty, we anticipate being able to realize the benefits of aggressive revenue targets from enrollment, housing and other unrestricted sources. We’ve also considered many other cost saving ideas during budget discussions, consistent with what we have heard from you, including:

  • The possible sale of real estate or the leasing of UML-owned properties;
  • Expanding third-party contracts and service partnerships with the UMass System and other UMass campuses;
  • Delaying or cancelling planned capital expenditures.

These are examples of the campus conversation Vice Chancellor for Finance & Operations Steve O’Riordan and I referenced in July, to identify needed structural changes and reorganization efforts, eliminate duplicative efforts, and reduce and restructure campus services to reduce and right-size our budget. Many of these efforts will require several years to implement, but we need to start now.

In the coming days, the university will launch a number of targeted conversations surrounding opportunities in key operations that span across academic and administrative units. Committees will be organized to identify efficiencies focused on:

  • University events
  • Marketing and communications
  • Office space consolidations

As the university faces challenges of vacant position eliminations, limited resources for new positions and reduced administrative service availability, I will be looking to these committees to identify new ideas, new structures and new solutions to meet critical campus needs.

And as you know well, the efforts outlined in this letter follow years of operating budget reductions that are unsustainable for any institution — and especially as we are working to elevate UMass Lowell’s impact across the country and around the globe.

It is only after we account for the savings we achieve through these measures that the university will determine the scope of any additional personnel actions required.

I encourage you to stay engaged in these discussions. There will be a number of Town Hall meetings in September to provide general institutional updates, which will include a focus on the status of the FY24 budget and the broader conversations I’ve mentioned here.

The next several months will be difficult. Our challenges are not unique in higher education. But for those universities that put off these hard choices, their difficulties may well become permanent. Instead of asking you each year to do more with less, I believe that together we can rethink some of our models entirely. And I think that path will propel us toward a future this university has earned.