1

A case study of a local newspaper’s demands for budget austerity from

South Ridge State University

Daniel L. Nash

School of Education, Seattle University

SDAD 5850: Higher Education Finance

Dr. Paige Gardner

July 21, 2021

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This article is the product of a role-playing exercise undertaken for SDAD

5850 Higher Education Finance. In the exercise, I adopted the persona of a budget manager for

the fictional South Ridge State University, a mid-sized comprehensive school undergoing

scrutiny from the local media.

 2

A case study of a local newspaper’s demands for budget austerity from

South Ridge State University

State appropriations for higher education can be understood as a balance wheel in state

budgets; when a bad economy causes tax revenues to fall, higher education is first to be cut

(Hovey, 1999; as cited by McKeown-Moak & Mullin, 2014). For years, appropriations for South

Ridge State University have fallen as the Ridge-Middletown economy has declined. The

university has tamped down costs through temporary hiring and wage freezes. But our cutbacks

have not balanced out state cuts, and tuition continued a pattern of increases. We are nevertheless

optimistic about future budgets post-recovery.

In contrast, local media’s news coverage has fixated on the current poor economic

conditions. Opinion coverage has followed suit, and outlets have published many editorials

calling for public austerity. A recent one in the Middletown Messenger demanded SRSU restrict

expenditures to academics. The author criticized spending on athletics, and events and courses

with “no educational value.” Related to the latter, an employee has alerted me to a rumor that the

student Campus Programming Committee may be planning to pay $30,000 for a controversial

reality television star to provide entertainment at new student orientation.

My role as senior financial and administrative officer is to assess the appropriate level of

response to the criticisms being leveled by local media. I will make the case for an

interdisciplinary approach based on friend-making with constituent departments; informed

listening; and a public communication strategy crafted in close partnership with Advancement

and based in headline-oriented messaging. The content will address five pertinent themes: the

role of the chief business officer; leadership principles and values; role expectations; culture;

and communication and language.

 3

Issues arising

Media perception

Media perception is the immediate issue presented by the Messenger editorial. We can

evaluate the issue in detail with some key interrogations. First, the article’s basic claims must be

checked against my own data. The only such claim mentioned in the case study is the statement

regarding tuition increases outpacing state cuts. Opinions about athletics and programming can

be ignored at this stage. Any gross inaccuracies will require me to immediately contact the

newspaper to request a correction.

Beyond factual concerns, the question of whether the editorial was written by the

Messenger’s editorial board, or a guest columnist, is relevant. I can potentially win over an

adversarial editorial board with better communication and friend-making. A guest-written op-ed

can only be countered by disrupting its monopoly on the narrative within the newspaper—either

directly via a competing op-ed, or indirectly by cultivating positive coverage from non-opinion

news staff. It’s notable that the editorial contains an argument that SRSU teaches unnamed

courses “of no educational value.” As a rhetorical choice, it suggests criteria as ideological as

they are economic. For example, a July 20, 2021, search for the term “critical race theory” on the

website of the conservative-leaning Wall Street Journal turns up, in July alone, 13 editorials

making the same or similar claims as the Messenger. Dismissal is a political tactic (see

Campbell, 1994, for more). The case study also specifically identifies conservative organizations

as critics of the “excessively liberal” reality television star the Campus Programming Committee

may hire.

Regardless of authorship, I must evaluate the university’s relationship with the press.

Under a risk and crisis communications framework, regular, transparent contact with the press,
 4

and an ability to communicate complex issues succinctly, will increase the likelihood of

favorable coverage (Walaski, 2011). It’s unknown whether the Messenger’s coverage of SRSU

has influenced public opinion and to what extent. Negative public perception caused by the most

recent editorial and other coverage could result in a drop in tuition revenue if residents vote with

their dollars. If that perception spreads to influential legislators, it could also result in reduced

state appropriations. SRSU’s trend toward increasing enrollments in business, communication,

and education—majors that are all focused on professional skills—would seem to contradict this

potential at present. If enrollment were declining due to negative public opinion, the Messenger

editorial would represent a crisis (Walaski, 2011). Because the threat is only potential, at present

that outcome can only be categorized as a risk (Walaski, 2011).

Financial accountability and health

Whether or not all the article’s specific attacks on university operations are valid, they

cannot be dismissed out of hand. I should investigate for accuracy the author’s charge that the

university’s tuition increases have outpaced reductions in state appropriations. The Messenger’s

charge that SRSU has courses of no educational value is likely based in criticism unrelated to

finances, but I should also briefly investigate the academic course catalog for egregious abuse—

for example, are there courses that have remained on the schedule without students? As data

keeper and “truth teller” (Barr & McClellan, 2017; Ladd, 2011), it is my duty to scrutinize these

areas. If there is information I cannot find in my data, I must ask other executives for help.

Identified constituencies

Students are our first constituent insofar as they and their families pay SRSU’s tuition.

They are closely followed by my finance office, which is the decision-maker and “sheriff” of

resource allocations (Barr & McClellan, 2017; Ladd, 2011). I can evaluate and contextualize the
 5

Messenger editorialist’s charges of resource misallocation. For example, the resources paying for

entertainment are student fees unrelated to academics that, at a public institution, are likely being

set and allocated by a student committee. I am the most appropriate university employee to

communicate this nuance. The advancement office will make an able partner in communication.

They are likely responsible for relations with the press as part of their mission to promote

SRSU’s public image. Athletics, which seems to have been the most focused on individual

department in the editorial, is a natural constituency. They can speak to revenues from tickets,

merchandise, and licensing; and articulate their hidden benefits to the university’s academic

mission. Sales data can predict how seriously the Messenger article will influence public

perception. A loyal fanbase is unlikely to turn against their team’s school. Admissions can also

speak to how high-profile sports victories influence enrollments (see Smith 2018, for more).

Since events and courses of “no educational value” were additional targets of the

editorial, the Academic Affairs and Student Life departments are also natural constituencies.

Academic Affairs may know the courses referenced in the article. These may be courses

commonly targeted for politically motivated criticism; or maybe they’re experimental courses

being piloted before consideration for the permanent schedule. Student Life can speak to the

balance of its programming—what percentage is purely entertainment, what percentage provides

service in the form of clubs and student government, and what percentage provides

extracurricular supplementation to academic programs—and how decisions are made about

resource allocation. My interaction with the affiliated Campus Programming Committee will be

limited. Other possible stakeholders include Information Technology and Facilities—

departments susceptible to cost increases in purchases (McKeown-Moak & Mullin, 2014).

 6

Relevant Research & Theories

Themes 1-3: Chief Business Officer Role, Leadership Principles and Values, and Role

Expectations

The first and most relevant theory to the case study is Ladd’s (2011) analysis of the role

of Chief Financial Officers, based on data from a survey of professionals in the role (NACUBO

2010). Ladd identifies several duties beyond simple financial management, including data

analysis, personnel and facility supervision, risk management, clear and frequent

communication, strategic planning in conjunction with academic counterparts, and networking.

This suggests that a response to the Messenger article would be appropriate for my role and that

at least some level of collaboration with other departments is within the bounds of professional

behavior. Barr’s and McClellan’s (2017) outline of the roles of budget managers clarifies that my

involvements with other departments on this matter must be based in friend-making and involved

listening. Even though I am the university’s official financial decision-maker and problem

solver, and my position gives me access to a great deal of information about SRSU’s revenues

and expenditures, my counterparts in academic affairs, athletics, and student life may have

insights that are not captured in dashboard data.

Some conscious communication strategies will help that process play out smoothly,

especially if any aspect of my approach rankles my colleagues’ expectations about my role.

Becker and Wortmann (2009) advise readers on what to do if constituents express defensiveness.

In that case, I will need to validate their opinion, and clearly frame the message I want to give

them—in this case, that I have no intention of mindlessly reacting to the Messenger editorial, and

that I very much want their input as I evaluate the editorial’s claims and decide how to respond

to them, if at all. I will also be frank that, if the conversation reveals cost centers that can be
 7

made more efficient, I would like to work with them on solutions for doing that. Difficult

conversation principles advise that I adopt a learning stance (Stone et al., 1999) in which I

abandon notions of blame and winning the conversation through correctness. The goal is to avoid

alienating my colleagues and observe without evaluating when they speak (Rosenberg, 2015).

This approach will help me make decisions that are as free of bias as possible. This assumes

internal concern about the article. If the constituents are instead complacent, I may need to instill

a true sense of urgency (Kotter, 2008).

Adopting a 4DX management framework as a leadership principle will allow me to

define the boundaries of the problem we face, particularly using lag measures and lead

measures. Lag measures indicate an organization’s success but are out of the organization’s

control. Lead measures are under the organization’s direct influence and have some effect on lag

measures. 4DX advises its practitioners to identify and act on the lead measures. Lag measures

in the case study include state appropriations, media perception of the university, and public

perception of the university. Other common lag measures include cost of necessary purchases

such as utilities and computer hardware (McKeown-Moak 2014). The logical lead measures are

expenditure monitoring, quality and quantity of contact with local press, quality and quantity of

contact with the public, utility contract negotiations, quantity of hardware purchases, and

quantity of journal subscriptions purchased.

Themes 4 & 5: Culture and Communication/Language

Shen and Tian (2012) define campus culture as the combination of all campus sub-

cultures, influenced by material, institutional, and spiritual factors. An implication of this is that

every campus produces a necessarily unique culture rooted in the context of its component parts.

This understanding is vital to making valid assumptions about SRSU’s culture, which is not
 8

explicitly described in the case study, but can be imagined from information at the margins. We

know that SRSU is a public comprehensive institution, relatively large at 22,000 enrolled

students, with a growing enrollment in three profession-oriented majors, and a base of students

from the immediate region. Its enrollment is nearly half the size of the 45,000-person population

county seat where it resides. Its financial resources are not sufficient to meet the demands of all

departments (Ruben & Jurow, 2012). Research and literature on comprehensive universities tells

us that these institutions are primarily focused on professional and vocational training; that they

typically evolve their academic programming in response to the economic context of their

region; and that they have small research operations compared to public flagship universities

(Orphan, 2018; Sandeen, 2020). From this information, we can infer that SRSU is a large

presence in its community, that it is an economic driver in regional employment, that it is

attracting students counter-cyclically to the state of the economy, and that it is likely responsive

to local economic needs. A smaller research operation would also indicate a faculty that are more

exposed to students and potentially more attuned to their needs.

The concepts of academic culture and campus culture are distinct from one another, and

their relationship is asymmetrical; the former is an additive component of the latter, but the

reverse relationship is one of constraint (Shen & Tian, 2012). The authors use constraint to refer

to the general conditioning of academic departments by administrators, but also to indicate how

administrators can under-fund necessary academic operations. From this we have two inferences

that can be made about SRSU’s culture: the faculty may acclimate to the larger needs of SRSU

while remaining wary of any threat to their funding. Financing and allocation of other necessary

resources is as important to academic operations “as root to tree and water to fish” (Shen & Tian,

2012); campus budget managers, on the other hand, must choose how to allocate resources to
 9

many parties beyond academics. Still, research into the workings of faculty governance reveals

reason to hope for the best. A study of the 2015 meeting minutes of 10 public university Faculty

Senate bodies showed that budget and salary were among the least discussed topics that year, at

3 and 2 mentions, respectively (Miller et al., 2016). The most-mentioned topic by far was

academic curriculum approvals, which were named 21 times (Miller et al., 2016).

In considering communication, I mentioned in the above section that the risk and crisis

communication model would characterize SRSU’s situation as a risk. Walaski (2011) defines

risk as the sum of hazard and outrage, and outlines four communication approaches appropriate

to combinations of high and low levels of each. The budget is already constrained but it’s not

worsening. The media outrage about our budget is clear, but the larger public outrage is

unknown—and unlikely considering enrollment is on the rise and Athletics are generating

revenue. Internal outrage to the Messenger article is also unknown. Therefore, the most

appropriate model is medium hazard/medium outrage which warrants an approach focused on

consensus communication. This can be thought of as a more-or-less simultaneous

communication approach with all internal stakeholders (Walaski, 2011), and can be

accomplished with a committee. However, because the media is a factor, Walaski also advises

prioritizing partnership with my media relations professionals, and advising them to facilitate

open and easy press access to me and other high-level executives. Our external media response

will need to follow inverted pyramid writing guidance (Saleh, 2013), in which information is

presented in the order of what most widely captures the core point of the article. This style is

used to effectively communicate to the 60% of readers who only read headlines (American Press

Institute, 2014; Gabielkov et al., 2016).

 10

Recommendations

I will use my available data and dashboard to verify the Messenger article’s claim that

SRSU’s latest tuition increase went beyond the amount by which state appropriations decreased.

While doing this, I will note other relevant information, such as how many people the university

employs, and how many vendors we use. Then I will contact Advancement to discuss a

communication strategy. If the editorial’s tuition claim is inaccurate, I will use their media

contacts and professional guidance to write the Messenger to request a correction. I’ll ask

Advancement to help me form a committee from constituent departments. The student

constituency might be best represented by members of student government.

I will ask the committee for help responding to the editorial and identifying potential cost

centers within their units that could be fine-tuned. I will isolate each criticism from the editorial

and present them to the committee with the question “How would you respond to someone who

said this in conversation?” The goal is to collect information that contradicts or nuances the

claims made in the editorial. For example, we may uncover that a percentage of enrollment is

directly attributable to the public successes of sports teams; or that attendance at campus events

is correlated with a higher retention rate. I’ll ask the constituencies whether they believe there is

any room for financial trimming without hindering their operation, focusing in on controllable

items factors such as technology replacements. To support my earlier investigation into the scope

of the university’s employment, I’ll ask the representatives for qualitative information about

employment about the university—what the general spirit of their department is in a typical

week, and what significant interactions they’ve had with colleagues from different walks of life.
 11

Working with my partner in Advancement, we’ll sort through the information provided

by the committee and gathered from the university dashboard and apply concepts such as the

higher median earnings of college degree holders (Hershbein and Kearney, 2014, as cited by

Schanzenbach et al., 2017). We will then order this information from most- to least-pertinent in

relation to the headline “SRSU is good for our economy.” This will outline an op-ed we will

write for the Messenger. At the same time, my Advancement partner will invite the Messenger’s

news staff to tour the campus and interview executive staff about SRSU’s role as both a regional

employment center and a trainer of the future workforce. The visit will include an open invitation

to reach out directly to SRSU executives for any information they may need in the future.

My response to the Campus Programming Committee’s controversial celebrity

entertainer will be limited to warning the advisor about potential media attention and inquiring

about the reasoning behind the planned hire in case we must respond to backlash. They may have

a legitimate educational reason to hire this person. But even if not, the Messenger has already

claimed our events are not educational and can only repeat themselves. Interfering in student

governance would pose a greater risk to relations with current and prospective students.

Conclusion

Not every situation under a financial officer’s jurisdiction will demand a purely financial

response. Some situations will require an officer to synthesize information at the margins or act

as public communicator. The Messenger editorial lobbied several criticisms at SRSU, but only

one of them—the claim that tuition had outpaced state cuts—was directly financial. The rest

were criticisms based in incomplete information and opinions unrelated to finance—such as the

criticisms lobbied against Athletics, or the events and unspecified classes that are supposedly of

“no educational value.” Evaluating expenditures is always a good idea, but SRSU has already
 12

frozen wage increases and hiring. So, the situation instead requires me to counter the Messenger

editorial with a good faith narrative that completes the picture with data and supporting

information provided by my colleagues across SRSU’s constituent departments. The rumored

$30,000 celebrity entertainer seems to demand a financial response but is actually a red herring.

The per student cost amounts to less than $1.37—likely a small fraction of the total student

activity fee—and the greater risk is in alienating the students administrating the money.

Self-Evaluation

This case study stretched my notion of the roles that fall under the responsibility of a

financial officer. In fact, the prompt contained no concrete financial information other than the

celebrity entertainer’s $30,000 fee, forcing me to make inferences from information such as

enrollment increases and the historical role of comprehensive institutions. Depending on the

quality of the supporting information, this could be frustrating. McKeown-Moak and Mullin

(2014) write several times that enrollment is counter-cyclical to the economy but never seem to

provide a source. Searches for peer-reviewed research turned up a trade publication article about

SUNY and CUNY enrollments during the 2008 financial crisis and little else. However, real-life

decisions are rarely made with the luxury of complete information.

The exercise revealed areas where additional knowledge could improve my decision-

making skills. Our readings mentioned technology purchases and utilities as reliable sources of

expense growth, but I’m sure there are other regular expenditures susceptible to increase.

Personal ethics and information I found on the student governance over student activity fees at

the public universities of Washington, New York, New Hampshire, and California informed my

determination on how to handle the rumored celebrity entertainer, but a full survey of public

institutions activity fee policies was not possible due to time and the fact that the fees often go by
 13

different names in different places. I also made assumptions about the ease of communication on

SRSU’s campus. Internal rifts in a campus culture can make committee formation difficult.
 14

References

American Press Institute. (2014, March 17). How Americans get their news. The Personal News

Cycle. https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/survey-research/how-

americans-get-news/

Barr, M.J. & McClellan, G.S. (2017). Budgets and financial management in higher education.

Jossey-Bass.

Becker, E., and Wortmann, J. (2009). Mastering communication at work. McGraw-Hill.

Campbell, S. (1994). Being dismissed: The politics of emotional expression. Hypatia, 9(3), 46-

65. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3810188

Gabielkov, M., Ramachandran, A., Chaintreau, A., & Legout, A. (2016, June 15-17). Social

clicks: What and who gets read on Twitter? [Paper presentation]. ACM

SIGMETRICS/IFIP Performance 2016, Antibes Juan-les-Pins, France.

https://hal.inria.fr/hal-01281190/document

Hershbein, B. & Kearney, M. (2014). Major decisions: What graduates earn over their lifetimes.

The Hamilton Project.

https://www.hamiltonproject.org/papers/major_decisions_what_graduates_earn_over_the

ir_lifetimes/

Hovey, H.A. (1999). State spending for higher education in the next decade: The battle to

sustain current support. National Center for Public Policy in Higher Education.

Kotter, J.P. (2008). A sense of urgency. Harvard Business School Press.

Ladd, L.R. (2011). The roles, duties, and ethical responsibilities of the chief financial officer.

Perspectives. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED560754.pdf
 15

McChesney, C., Covey, S., & Huling, J. (2015). The 4 disciplines of execution. Simon &

Schuster.

McKeown-Moak, M.P., and Mullin, C.M. (2014) Higher education finance research: Policy,

politics, and practice. Information Age Publishing, LLC.

Miller, M.T., Smith, E.A., & Nadler, D.P. (2016). Debate and discourse: The role of the faculty

senate on the modern American campus. Journal of Higher Education Theory and

Practice, 16(3), 22-29.

http://digitalcommons.www.na-businesspress.com/JHETP/MillerMT_Web16_3_.pdf

Orphan, C.M. (2018). Public purpose under pressure: Examining the effects of neoliberal public

policy on the missions of regional comprehensive universities. Journal of Higher

Education Outreach and Engagement, 22(2), 59-101.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1182841.pdf

Rosenberg, M.B. (2015). Nonviolent communication: A language of life 3 Edition.

rd

PuddleDancer Press.

Ruben, B.D., & Jurow, S. (2012). Leading in tough times workbook: Case studies for higher

education leaders. NACUBO.

Saleh, N. (2013). The complete guide to article writing. Writer’s Digest Books.

Sandeen, C. (2020, October 30). Public regional comprehensives’ time to shine. University

Business. https://universitybusiness.com/public-regional-comprehensives-time-to-shine/

Schanzenbach, D.W., Bauer, L., & Breitwieser, A. (2017). Eight economic facts about higher

education. The Hamilton Project.

Shen, X. & Tian, X. (2012). Academic culture and campus culture of universities. Higher

Education Studies, 2(2), 61-65. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1081480.pdf

 16

Smith, D.R. (2018). The lure of academic and social reputations versus athletic success:

Influences on enrollment yield at NCAA Division I institutions. Research in Higher

Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-018-9537-8

Stone, D., Patton, B., & Heen, S. (1999). Difficult conversations: How to discuss what matters

most. Penguin Books.

Walaski, P. (2011). Risk and crisis communication: Methods and messages. John Wiley.