Ceilings and Horizons, OR Horizons and Ceilings

I was thinking yesterday about the long term versus short term impact of investments.  When I served as Vice President for Online and Continuing Education Louisiana State University , I led an effort to dramatically expand the number of students in fully online programs by building a true infrastructure to support dramatic growth, scale, and sustainability.  I had the benefit of an amazing visionary leader behind me, Stacia Haynie , who saw the horizon and the ceiling.  (She also took the punches and knocked down the barriers - that woman must have had a secret coat of armor.)

She knew that the demographic cliff was coming, and that without meeting the needs of adult learners we would not only fail our mission as an institution, but we would be under enormous budget pressure.

And it worked.  When the enrollments stalled on campus, the fully online programs, which were more financially beneficial, were already there.  One university we supported went from having huge enrollment declines to meeting their growth goals 2 years early due to 40% increases year-over-year in fully online students. LSU Online & Continuing Education made it happen.

We saw the ceiling coming in respect to traditional students, and we saw the horizon of growth and responded accordingly.

It didn't happen next year.  Growth was painful in the beginning as we put in place the infrastructure (people, process, technology).  But it happened, first gradually, and then dramatically. 

That little online and continuing ed unit that had about 60 people when I came now has over 200 people working there, and revenue quadrupled in the first 4 years.  We lived on 33% of student tuition while also paying for instructional design and academic technology support across the entire university.  We did all of the marketing, recruitment, and retention, had our own Salesforce shop and web development shop, our own recruitment funnel, our own learning concierges, and paid for positions at the Bursar, financial aid, and registrar's office to support fully online students.

And it grew. We saw the ceiling, prepared, and stepped out into the horizon.

All over the place there are ceilings in higher ed.  The horizon is more opaque than ever with enrollment patterns getting increasingly complicated, student populations changing, the value proposition of higher ed being under so much pressure, and the impact of AI and technology making the future harder and harder to see.

But success will come to those who see the ceiling before it hits them in the head.  They see the horizon, find the signal in the noise, and step out into incredible growth.

That's the fun stuff, the good stuff, the impactful stuff, the stuff you get up in the morning for, the stuff that matters.

I could not be prouder of the work we did. And that it worked.