Chief Business Officers Are Key to Student Success
NACUBO’s new Student Success Hub offers free resources to encourage all higher education leaders to collaborate on sustainable student success initiatives.
By Kara D. Freeman, NACUBO President and Chief Executive Officer
Today’s chief business officers are at the center of almost every major strategic conversation and decision that takes place on campus—including innovation and research; institutional workforce and competitiveness; and the health and safety of students, faculty and staff.
But there is another issue at the core of our academic enterprise that should increasingly involve the CBO, working collaboratively with the president and other institutional leaders: student success. In fact, we at the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) believe that the early involvement of CBOs in student outcomes greatly increases the chance of success.
We recently launched the NACUBO Student Success Hub to help promote the strategic financing of equitable student outcomes. More than two years in the making, the Student Success Hub is a deep and dynamic inventory of free toolkits and resources for higher education professionals focusing on this critical issue.
The toolkits were created following a close partnership with 26 higher education institutions, including community colleges, four-year institutions, and regional systems. The work was funded by generous grants from Ascendium Education Group, College Futures Foundation, and Trellis Foundation.
The Student Success Hub offers a flexible and customizable model of practice for business officers to follow to ensure they are prioritizing financial resources and institutional capacity in strategic and impactful ways to improve equitable student outcomes. This will assist in determining how an institution uses its central resources—time, money, and staffing—to meet the unique needs of students, creating an administrative environment where strategic decisions can be made with a primary focus on overall student success.
In my mind, there is no issue more pressing in higher education than student success, and we at NACUBO are proud to be spearheading efforts that fully integrate student success initiatives with institution-wide finance plans. It is clear that chief business officers can be the catalysts for sustainable institutional change. With the generous assistance of our funders, the NACUBO Student Success Hub will help identify institutional opportunities to center the CBO and business office in ways to invigorate collaborative campus teams and encourage strategic conversations among leaders. Taken together, these actions will lead to real improvement in the success of students.
A Robust Suite of Tools Focused on Student Success
Resource allocation underpins capacity building at postsecondary institutions. To sustain and scale programs that strengthen equitable student outcomes, colleges and universities must employ financial practices that center students, optimizing resources for positive impact. While it can be easy to understand the relationship between resources and capacity to sustain and scale efforts to improve outcomes, implementing and socializing student-centric strategic financial practices is complex, challenging, and time-consuming.
To assist institutions, the suite of tools included in the NACUBO Student Success Hub catalyze and accelerate the refinement of strategic financial practices to improve equitable student outcomes. The work institutions must undertake to prioritize resources, sustain and scale worthy activities, and sunset unsustainable investments is complex. Institutions will be able to leverage these tools to explore, share, collaborate, and use these resources in the spirit of helping every student succeed.
The toolkits are organized across three focus areas to ensure comprehensive support and targeted approaches. This allows institutions to easily access and implement the resources most relevant to their specific challenges and goals.
In addition to the resources provided, the NACUBO Student Success Hub also includes access to institutional stories showcasing real-world applications of the toolkits. These use cases highlight the challenges, improvements, and impactful results achieved, providing valuable insights into how NACUBO can assist with unique institutional needs.
Access to Experts Through the NACUBO Student Success Hub
NACUBO also offers a number of ways to support capacity building and enhance student outcomes. Whether institutions seek a one-on-one consultation with a subject matter expert, a presentation for institutional colleagues, or technical assistance to expand capacity—users simply need to complete a contact form to receive a prompt response.
Research Blueprint Provides Important Context
A foundation piece that we have developed provides additional background and context for this work. Charting the Future: NACUBO’s Blueprint for Student-Centered Strategic Finance presents a strategic framework and supports consideration of how to operationalize resource allocation practices that fit institutions’ unique needs. In the aggregate, application of the toolkits can lead to widespread and meaningful changes for student retention and completion—a critical priority for institutions nationwide.
The NACUBO resource offers a pathway for CBOs to amplify their role as catalysts for student success and engage with leaders across their institution. By embracing strategic financial practices that prioritize equitable outcomes, institutions can chart a course towards stronger, more consistent student achievement aligned with their mission and values.
This content was paid for and created by NACUBO. The editorial staff of The Chronicle had no role in its preparation. Find out more about paid content.
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