Fourth Blog Entry - The Power of Partnerships
In continuing the discussion of how Barton can overcome service restrictions caused by limited funds/resources, this past week I emphasized the power of enrollment and strategies that welcome student enrollments. The second “leg” in overcoming limited resource challenges is partnership development.
Barton has a long and distinguished history for developing programming partnerships. In the first provided link, you will note an up-to-date chart that references partnerships that are aligned to a particular program of study. According to the legend in the upper left corner, you can determine the nature of the partnership in what it provides of benefit to the College. As you review the 550 partnerships benefitting student learning and place a cumulative value on the entire listing of partner contributions, the value is in the multi-millions. Furthermore, the value increases further when considering partnerships that are benefitting Administration, Information Services, and Student Services operations. The value of the Ft. Riley partnership alone, can represent a 1.5-2.0 million yearly benefit for the College.
Partnerships –
Academic
Administration
Information Services
Student Services
In further emphases for overall partnership contribution, the following linked tables provides information pertaining to the system of Kansas Community Colleges. The first chart gives you the history of total unrestricted operational fund budgets for each college. In 2018, Barton had the fifth largest fund account. In the second chart, you will find that Barton had the second lowest expenditure for each FTE (One full-time student equivalent is based on 30 credits per student per academic year.)
Kansas Community Colleges Fund and Expenditure Charts
How is Barton able to enroll the second largest headcount for 2018 among the 19 community colleges, while having the fifth largest fund account and expending the second lowest dollars per FTE? Answer: strategic planning, fiscal efficiencies (that includes enrollment revenue meeting/exceeding enrollment expenses), and partnerships.
The blog entry from last week generated questions concerning the noted ten enrollment restrictions. Next week, I will provide further details surrounding the restrictions.
In the past week, the following kudos came to my attention:
Dr. Ravitskiy,
I can honestly say that your Microbiology course and lab were massive stepping stones in the direction to put me on the path I am on now. It was the first class I was really exposed to subjects that, now, I am ready to pursue with passion and grit for the rest of my life; and I am very excited! I wrote in my application essays that it was this class that was a massive turning point for me in regards in my decision to pursue not only pharmacy, but science in general. I believe there was a lab we plated some various bacteria strains in which we put discs of antibiotics on each quadrant to see how they would affect growth of each strain. When I began to learn the basics of certain medication mechanisms in my recent studies, it brought me back to your class with that “Eureka!” feeling I continue to possess for subjects like these every day. Your class gave me a solid foundation to build on, and I will continue to build on as I progress further in my studies in years to come; so I thank you for that! Overall, essentially, your course lit a fire of passion for science in the direction of pharmacy and medicine in general that I believe with my passion, grit and intelligence I will be able to contribute to society effectively. Its hard to believe that I was just sitting in your lecture trying to get a handle on what I wanted to pursue not too long ago and now everything is falling into place! Thank you for everything!
Daniel Kohl