Sharing services across states, designing programs to meet the needs of people with some college and no degree, and lots and lots of modeling are a few of the ways college financial planners are adapting to widespread political and economic uncertainty, according to Kara Freeman, president and CEO of the National Association of College and University Business Officers.
Freeman joined Inside Higher Ed’s editor in chief, Sara Custer, in a recent episode of The Key, IHE’s news and analysis podcast, to discuss how chief business officers are responding to the unpredictability of federal policy, the economy and student demand.
“CBOs thrive on certainty, and they’re just not getting it right now, with the flurry of executive orders and policies that are announced and then rescinded shortly after or stopped by restraining orders,” Freeman said.
Freeman also talked about how CBOs are working beyond the campus budgeting office to understand needs across their institutions as well as NACUBO’s work on the Hill to make sure CBOs are voicing their opinions about changes to the endowment tax and reforms to student loan repayment plans.
Custer also spoke to Dee Goines, the higher education lead at KI, about a recent study the firm commissioned surveying strategic and master plans at institutions across Arizona, Florida, New York and Texas.
Uncertainty in the sector and shorter presidential terms make these long-term plans difficult to implement, Goines observed. Spending priorities also reflect institutional and state-level values.
“While deferred maintenance issues are a challenge, the more closely aligned institutional leadership is with state government and the more hands-on state government is in appointing campus leadership, those deferred maintenance issues will be lower on the list [of spending priorities] because of how it looks,” he said. Leaders want good optics because campuses are “a representation of the state.”
