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Business Plan Working Group

Charge

Develop a business plan for the implementation by the College of the Strategic Plan that will achieve financial equilibrium within six years (i.e., the 2012-13 fiscal year) (the “Implementation Period”).

The Strategic Plan means the plan as adopted by the Board of Trustees on September 9, 2006 and thus includes (i) the adoption of the global honors concept within the College’s liberal arts curriculum (as further developed by the Curriculum/Pedagogy Working Group), and (ii) the admission of men as undergraduate degree candidates at the College.

For the purposes of this plan, financial equilibrium is a concept originally developed at Stanford University and clarified by Cambridge Associates that is defined as the College’s ability to meet each of the following tests:

1. (A) its current income is equal to or greater than its expenses on an annual basis;
2. the projected growth in its income equals or exceeds the projected growth in its expenditures;
3. spending from endowment is at or below a level that preserves its real purchasing power after adjusting for investment returns, gifts and inflation (this is generally recognized as limiting the annual drawdown from the College’s endowment to no more than 5% of the endowment);
4. it is making adequate reinvestments in its capital plant (i.e., it is making expenditures, or contributions to reserves, for renewal or replacement of physical plant and equipment at or above a level that preserves their useful life).

Business Plan Components. The plan should incorporate the goals, targets and assumptions included in the Strategic Plan and should include the following components:

1. enrollment and tuition revenue targets
2. tuition discount projections, including reductions from the current level
3. projected expenditures for curriculum changes and capital items
4. fundraising goals and strategies, including increases in the endowment
5. an evaluation of the College’s assets and an examination of potential reallocation of existing resources
6. budgets and cost control procedures

Each of these should provide an analysis of options, where possible, and their relative costs and benefits within the context of the Strategic Plan.

Constraints.
The plan will also take into account such additional constraints during the Implementation Period as may be imposed by the Finance Committee of the Board of Trustees.

Benchmarks.
The Working Group will develop a methodology for setting benchmarks and measuring the College’s performance against the plan during the Implementation Period.

Reports and Deadline.
The Working Group will report to the Implementation Steering Committee, and should deliver its final report by January 31, 2007.

Liaison with other Working Groups.
The Working Group will work closely with each of the other five Working Groups (Curriculum/Pedagogy, Student Recruitment/Admissions, Communications/Marketing/Branding, Co-Education Environment/Residential Life, and Alumnae Support) in order to evaluate proposals made by those groups and to assist each group in determining the financial implications of specific proposals. In order to facilitate this, each of the other Working Groups will appoint one member (plus an alternate if required) to act as a liaison to the Business Working Group.