Concurrent Session Schedule

When the vice president of business and finance at Georgia College & State University called on department heads to find ways to generate additional revenue, and IT wanted the university to store credit card information off campus, administrators met the challenge with the implementation of PayPath® Convenience Fee Service. Find out how the service saved the university more than $200,000 in its first year by virtually eliminating credit card processing fees. Discover how administrators resolved the demand by various departments to manage the university's growing e-commerce enterprises. Learn how department staff can build Web pages and securely process online payments.

Learning Objectives:

1. Explore strategies to generate revenue among departments and help IT store credit card information off campus
2. Discover ways to streamline billing, payment and refunding processes
3. Find out how to meet increasing demands from students and staff for online transaction capabilities

In 2005, the Oregon legislature partially funded a facility to merge Rogue Community College (RCC) and Southern Oregon University (SOU) academic offerings in downtown Medford, Oregon. The result, the RCC/SOU Higher Education Center, is a 68,700 square foot, three-story building housing classrooms, a presentation hall, a business center, science labs, computer labs, faculty and administrative offices, as well as student spaces. The facility has been operating successfully since Fall 2008. Sharing one facility saves the two institutions on operating costs and avoids duplication of resources. It allows students to take lower division RCC courses and then make a more seamless transition to advanced SOU courses. The story lies in what it took and continues to take behind the scenes to make this happen. This presentation will take the project from inception through funding issues, leadership changes, construction, determining operational issues and finally, successful on-going partnership.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the complexities of co-locating two institutions that operate under different governing rules
2. Learn how to overcome unexpected changes in leadership
3. Hear how to keep joint operating a priority in the face of budget reductions

As budget constraints dictate that organizations look to their employees to assume a greater workload and more responsibility, it becomes necessary to develop tools to empower managers and supervisors. Learn about a unique leadership-development program for supervisors and managers developed at Millersville University. Designed to develop current and potential campus leaders, the program focuses on three core areas: discovering individual supervisory styles, learning and practicing supervisory and leadership skills, and exploring the role of leaders at the university. Find out why the university created the leadership-development program and how administrators gained support for it. Discover the tools needed to implement the program and review the university’s continuous-improvement process. Receive firsthand knowledge about operating the program and the senior leadership support needed, and gain insight from the experience of a class member. Ascertain how to capitalize on resources in your organization.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discover why Millersville University created a leadership-development program for supervisors and managers
2. Understand the tools needed to implement such a program at your institution
3. Gain insight into the successes and challenges of the program, and the continuous improvement process the university follows

How will the Affordable Care Act-and subsequent rulemakings-affect college health centers and student health insurance? Review the progression of the health care debate and discuss the prognosis for the future. Hear from experts about the impact on institutions and how to develop strategies to respond. Understand how billing outside insurance companies for care provided by campus health centers can provide a badly needed revenue stream, averting the need to go back-yet again-to students and their parents. Learn how to develop billing and coding processes that assure compliance with regulations while maintaining an optimal cash flow.

Learning Objectives:

1. Review the impact of federal health care reform on college and university health centers and the students they serve
2. Explore the changes and opportunities in revenue models of college and university health centers
3. Take back actionable information to review with your health center director

The Accounting Principles Council supports NACUBO's technical accounting, professional development, and advocacy objectives. Explore items of interest to both public and independent institutions, including FASB/GASB projects that impact higher education, audit issues and liquidity.

Learning Objectives:

1. Hear what is on the horizon in higher-education accounting
2. Become better prepared for discussions with audit committee members
3. Learn about guidance and recommendations that can assist your staff

Has your institution been able to leverage the multiple crises faced by higher education to drive change in services, programs, or administrative and academic practices?  Learn how Baldrige/Excellence in Higher Education (EHE) tools and strategies can serve as a framework to support successful change initiatives at your college or university.  Find out how three diverse institutions used their participation in NACUBO's Challenge 2010, funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education, to analyze and strengthen existing practices.  Get the perspectives of representatives from these dissimilar institutions: a research university that focused on improving and expanding budget and finance processes across campus, a small college that reviewed and enhanced IT services, and a community college that applied Baldrige/EHE to an institutional accreditation process.

Learning Objectives:

1. Recognize the multiple uses for Baldrige/EHE in change initiatives
2. Identify analytical tools that support organizational change
3. Assess the role of leadership in change initiatives

Join the editors of Inside Higher Ed for a discussion about the results of a first-ever survey of college and university business officers regarding the fiscal challenges and opportunities facing higher education. Discuss the specifics of the recently released survey and hear from leading campus CFOs about the state of higher education finance.

Learning Objectives:

1. Find out what college and university business officers from different sectors see as their institutions’ major financial issues and the strategies they’ve used to address them.
2. Find out what has worked and what has not on their campuses, and where they see opportunities for increasing revenue and cutting costs.
3. Commiserate over budget cuts and plot new partnerships.

The new 403(b) regulations and the economic downturn highlight the importance of establishing a more structured retirement program for employees in the nonprofit sector. Discuss recent changes in the defined contribution plan marketplace. Learn how Purdue University conducted a comprehensive review of its $2.3 billion defined contribution plan serving some 15,000 participants. Find out how the redesign of its retirement program, including consolidating from five providers to one, resulted in lower fees, improved services, and best-in-class investment options to help participants better achieve their retirement savings goals.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand current retirement-plan trends and industry best practices
2. Identify the approach and methodology used to conduct a comprehensive review of a defined contribution retirement plan and voluntary retirement savings programs
3. Discuss common findings, lessons learned and key outcomes

Many independent colleges and universities focus primarily on their annual tuition discount rate. However, to achieve maximum net revenue, institutions should consider enrollment, sticker price, and their discounting strategies. Hear from executives at two institutions that changed their strategic-planning documents, processes, and outcomes. Gain insights on issues related to setting tuition sticker prices and increasing net revenue at liberal arts colleges and regional universities in today’s economy. Understand the benefit of changing the metric from discount rate to net tuition revenue per student.

Learning Objectives:

1. Review why net revenue per student is the preferred metric over discount rate
2. Understand the importance of considering sticker price, discounting and enrollment as a seamless whole
3. Find out how to alter the language of strategic plans to focus on net revenue growth, not discount control

Every year, many projects are brought to the Department of Information Technology at the Community College of Rhode Island for review, acceptance and approval. Last year, IT formulated a comprehensive program of inclusive participation in the prioritization process for all projects utilizing the advisory board structure developed by the college. Using a highly-structured project management methodology, each project is assigned a business case whereby proposers get an opportunity to explain and describe details of how a new initiative would benefit the college and its constituents. Taking this information, IT provides documentation and assistance to the various advisory boards to help them assign appropriate priorities and budgets to each proposed project.

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn how to provide IT governance using the available structures and advisory groups
2. Find out how best to explain to advisory-group members their role in prioritizing IT projects
3. Gain an understanding of how to prioritize IT-related projects

Higher education institutions strive to develop goals and strategies to meet the needs of their diverse work forces. With continued economic uncertainty and shrinking budgets, business officers and administrators are being challenged to think outside the box on deployment and delivery of human-resource services across their organization. Learn about ways to measure the total cost of ownership (TCO) of your organization’s human resources information system (HRIS) solutions, including payroll, work force administration, time and attendance, and health and welfare administration. Compare the TCO of organizations that have deployed their HRIS solutions through an in-house, software-based approach with those that used a service-based approach.

Learning Objectives:

1. Find out how organizations can increase the use of technology while driving down their overall TCO
2. Learn how to leverage technology to elevate the organization's focus from transactional HR-service processing to strategic development and deployment
3. Explore strategies to meet the unique requirements of a multigenerational work force

The task of organizing and administering an institutional compliance program can seem overwhelming. It demands time and resources from multiple university officials and offices, including business officers and counsel. Yet due to regulatory and governance mandates, as well as the interests of the institution, compliance programs are here to stay. Learn how to appropriately organize your program, operate it efficiently and effectively, and integrate your institution's compliance program with enterprise risk management initiatives.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the essential elements of compliance programs
2. Find out how to organize an effective compliance program regardless of institutional size
3. Examine the various roles of campus administrators in successful compliance programs

An important challenge for institutions of higher education is to balance environmental stewardship with competing demands for increasingly limited financial resources. Business officers have an important role in helping their staff understand the business case for environmental stewardship, as well as making informed budget-planning decisions. Explore how Michigan State University’s integrated energy-planning process enables decision makers to gain better insights into the economic, operational and environmental trade-offs inherent in the investment of new-building construction, renovations, and energy-efficiency and energy-supply technologies.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discover the value of integrated energy planning when making a business case for environmental stewardship
2. Assess the metrics important to measuring and managing environmental and financial stewardship
3. Explore the modeling tools needed to evaluate alternative energy-investment decisions on a consistent and comparable basis

Do you experience resistance at your institution when you try to implement new services, programs, or administrative and academic practices? Discover how Baldrige/Excellence in Higher Education (EHE) tools and strategies can serve as an organizational change framework for the successful development of new initiatives at your college or university. Hear from three institutions that participated in NACUBO's Challenge 2010, funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education, and applied what they learned to launching new programs and practices. Learn how a research institution implemented a new space planning system, a small college reinvented its staff performance review program, and a research university introduced an innovative faculty/staff financial-wellness program.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify key success factors in engaging faculty and staff in change efforts
2. Recognize effective communication strategies
3. Assess the role of culture in organizational change

University chief business officers are in a unique position when it comes to implementing an organization’s strategic vision. Hear from a diverse panel of business officers as they discuss their experiences implementing their institution’s strategic plan. Explore ways to coordinate and align an organization’s financial position, debt capacity, and credit profile with its strategic goals and understand how to build internal consensus to accomplish the plan. Discuss managing expectations regarding the institution’s internal and external constraints, and identifying and addressing collateral considerations.

Learning Objectives:

1. Find out how to integrate plans with the budget process
2. Assess the impact of these plans on an institution's financial position and credit profile
3. Realize that business officers can be a valuable guide in achieving the institution's planning goals

Increasingly, the relationship between the chief academic officer and chief financial officer is becoming vital to successful strategic campus and financial decision-making. How can such collaborations occur with so many different variables? NACUBO's board has been exploring opportunities for academic administrative partnerships and in this session will bring together several pairs of CAOs and CFOs for a roundtable discussion. Gain insight from these executives and discuss a broad array of approaches and dynamics involved in a successful organization

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify ways to promote administrative efficiencies in academic areas
2. Develop a common understanding of existing key needs
3. Identify best practices and how such examples can be translated to your institution

"To change is difficult. Not to change is fatal." This anonymous quote is an essential truth in higher education today. How can you build a culture in your department or at your institution that embraces change? The consultants for NACUBO's Challenge 2010, funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education, and a representative from a large university system will share observations and insights gleaned from the project. Understand the importance of leadership and planning. Hear about techniques that engage faculty and staff in innovation and change.

Learning Objectives:

1. Recognize the key elements in the Baldrige/Excellence in Higher Education processes
2. Identify impediments to successful outcomes of planned change
3. Examine key strategies in effective change-management

Hear the views of two treasurers as they discuss separate models for maintaining excess liquidity to protect debt and investment portfolios in various market environments. While the two models differ in scope and motivation, they exemplify successful processes to establish day-to-day stability. Review reporting and presentation materials for governing boards that combine a bank background familiar to board members with a central bank perspective to establish best-practice reporting and management.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand what an excess liquidity management philosophy means
2. Hear how to apply corporate methods to a higher education institution
3. Learn about reporting and presentation materials for governing boards

As campus operating budgets tighten, universities need to work creatively to build sustainability programs that can assist in alleviating costs by generating tremendous savings in energy, water and other expenses. Universities also need to be thought-leaders in dealing with energy and environmental issues such as carbon-emission reductions and weighing the financial impact of buying carbon credits. Institution leaders also must consider the cost of porous pavements, and onsite retention and water-management initiatives that benefit the municipality. Listen to representatives from Dominican University (Illinois) and Dickinson College as they share their success stories and lessons learned. Explore how they charted the course toward a commitment to sustainability among faculty, staff and students. Discover how both institutions became valued for their leadership within their municipalities and surrounding communities, and for their commitment to sustainable initiatives.

Learning Objectives:

1. Prepare a campus sustainability plan and learning steps toward implementing the plan, as well as track its progress
2. Use benchmarking information to drive the energy and environmental improvement of campus facilities
3. Leverage the smart-buildings approach to achieve green objectives

President Obama recently said, “Community colleges are not just the key to the future of their students. They are one of the keys to the future of our economy.” In an era of ever-growing demand and scarce resources, leaders of community colleges need to meet today’s challenges and anticipate what the future will bring for their institutions. Join this lively discussion for business officers and business-office staff at community colleges to reflect on current issues, share best practices and strategies, and identify coming trends that will affect these schools.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss current issues facing community colleges
2. Discover new approaches for applying solutions to a specific campus
3. Identify coming trends and recommend actions that community leaders should consider

Hear the latest on NACUBO's work on tax issues, key regulatory developments impacting colleges and universities, and up-to-the-minute legislative news.

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn about IRS initiatives focusing on colleges and universities
2. Be aware of IRS enforcement activities, and find out which issues are being raised in audits and what that might mean for the future
3. Hear about recently enacted tax provisions, as well as those up for congressional consideration

Software that sits unused on a shelf quickly turns into an expense rather than a smart investment. With the continued demand for higher education institutions to do more - improve efficiency, streamline processes, and enhance student service - with less, software that becomes “shelf ware” is worthless. Discover how reinvesting in your existing technology can yield great dividends in dollars saved and better service. People and processes also must be reviewed and aligned with an eye toward institutional goals and technology capacity. Discuss best practices and activities to evaluate and effectively leverage existing technologies to meet institutional process and program priorities.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify reasons that software goes unused, including insufficient training and reluctance to change business processes
2. Learn best practices to assess administrative processes, the academic environment, data, and institutional priorities to optimize technology systems to run your campus more effectively
3. Become skilled at developing and implementing collaborative approaches to maximize technology-system performance and improve processes and service

Confronting a critical need for affordable faculty and staff housing in Northern Virginia, George Mason University developed a housing project through a newly created, independent 501(c)(3) entity. Find out how the university built a vibrant residential community featuring attractive and affordable apartments and town homes. Learn about the new-urbanism planning concept, which emphasizes pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods, aesthetically pleasing architecture, and sustainable design with a variety of housing options to promote a more dynamic lifestyle. Discuss the elements of the project that provided the university with substantial annual cash flow, including the balance sheet and credit impact of the nonprofit holding structure, and examine key financing decisions.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss strategies to establish a public-private partnership that minimizes risk and maximizes return on investment while advancing the institution's mission
2. Explore how best to structure, develop and manage a faculty and staff housing project in a prohibitively expensive housing market
3. Recognize the value of a new-urbanist housing community to the institution's competitive position for the recruitment of faculty and staff

Learn how using recruitment-marketing tools and techniques to start and build relationships with students during their high school years can help institutions reduce their financial aid expenditures. Find out how engaging students on a personal level, through e-mail and traditional mail channels, could provide a greater value than financial aid. Making a one-time expenditure on these recruitment methods may lower long-term costs of financial-aid awards to students during their years at your institution.

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn with the actual cost difference is between recruitment marketing and paying out financial aid
2. Learn the ingredients of a successful recruitment marketing program and the optimal time to contact high school students
3. Learn how recruitment marketing can provide even greater financial stability through increased revenue and a reduction in discount rate

Textbook prices are out of control and student access to affordable textbooks is in danger. Governments, advocacy groups, and students are urging students and faculty to avoid the campus bookstore and look elsewhere. College business officers and bookstore managers hold the key to easing this problem by balancing the financial aspects of running a college store (whether leased or in-house) with textbook affordability. Understand how the environment of the textbook industry led to the current crisis and explore ways to control textbook prices on your campus, including textbook buy-backs, rental programs, electronic books, and controlling custom packaging (bundles).

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the unique marketplace that governs textbook prices and why bookstore staff and faculty may be unaware of how their actions impact prices
2. Learn solutions and techniques that you can implement immediately to assess how much your actions have controlled costs over time
3. Hear about innovations in textbook rental programs, including those stemming from the Higher Education Act's course materials rental pilot programs

Are there difficult issues that aren't being addressed in your department or on your campus because they are too controversial or because people feel there will never be agreement on how to resolve them? Gaining a better understanding of key situational elements-root causes, cultural issues, and effective leadership and communication strategies-can begin the process of building consensus for change. Learn how to use case studies to mirror real-life experience, so that issues can be raised and addressed in a nonthreatening environment. Take part in an interactive exploration of realistic scenarios developed by NACUBO to guide discussion from the theoretical to the practical. Help colleagues learn to use principled leadership strategies to grapple with "untouchable" issues.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify the steps in a case-study discussion
2. Guide a group through a case-study discussion
3. Use case studies for leadership development

The sweeping changes of health care reform continue to leave higher-education benefits and finance professionals seeking guidance to the many key strategic decision points they face. Examine tactical and strategic considerations to managing health care costs and improving efficiency, while adding value to an overall benefits program and supporting the institution’s academic mission.

Learning Objectives:

1. Address tactical compliance issues and strategic considerations for managing health care costs
2. Hear the latest on industry trends and best practices for measuring benchmarks
3. Review practice applications and gain insights from higher education benefits experts

As the financial industry emerges from crisis, managing banking relationships has become a strategic priority for the business and treasury office. Financial institutions increasingly look to broaden and deepen relationships with universities. But while banks pressure universities to consolidate their financial relationships, reasonable risk-management practices would suggest that greater diversity in providers is essential. Learn practical approaches to managing banking relationships from the perspectives of a university executive, a financial adviser and a bank representative.

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn how to control financial-relationship risk
2. Hear techniques for managing banking relationships
3. Gain an understanding how financial-institution goals impact higher education institutions

As the sluggish “new normal” economy pressures colleges and universities to cut budgets and tighten belts, will higher education return to the “bad old days” of deferring maintenance because it’s the easiest way to save money? Deferring maintenance can be tempting because it’s not readily apparent, either physically or on paper, but it can be dangerous to an institution’s credit rating and long-term financial health. Hear about relatively low-cost but high-return investments campuses can make to help retain current and attract future students. Learn how to use planning and benchmarking to avoid short-sighted solutions based on deferring substantial maintenance on facilities that are critical to the institution’s long-term financial position.

Learning Objectives:

1. Find out which deferred maintenance issues are more visible than others and understand the unfavorable impression they can make on visitors and stakeholders
2. Learn to identify those campus projects that will yield the greatest return on investment by surveying stakeholder opinions and engaging design professionals
3. Understand how business officers prioritize and plan for capital investment as a key component to long-term financial health

The Financial Accounting Standards Board exposure draft on leases proposes changes to simplify lease accounting standards and improve the quality of comparability of financial information. The core principle is that lease contracts give rise to assets and liabilities that should be reflected in the balance sheets of lessees and lessors. With new requirements for lessees to use a single method of accounting for all leases, balance sheets for private institutions will be changing. These changes potentially will impact the calculation of debt covenants, as well as financial ratios. Learn about the proposed guidance and discuss the operational implications and potential impact on financial reporting.

Learning Objectives:

1. Gain insight into FASB's technical agenda and its impact on independent colleges and universities
2. Develop an understanding of the history of the proposed accounting standards update
3. Acquire knowledge for future resource allocation and leasing decisions, and get an auditor's perspective on projected financial-reporting implications

The importance of effective capital market disclosures on a broad range of financial and operation risks is becoming increasingly important. Discover how universities can effectively respond to investors, lenders, rating agencies and underwriters who are requesting more information about liquidity, investment strategies, financial-aid practices, operating costs, graduation rates, endowment spending, and academic productivity. The credit impact of these requests is significant. In the capital markets there is a clear preference for entities that successfully communicate or disclose such core information compared with those that don’t. Review examples of effective disclosure and efficiencies that enhance an institution’s ability to meet the information needs of stakeholders.

Learning Objectives:

1. Review best practices for effective internal controls
2. Understand the implications of public disclosure of key stakeholders
3. Discover how effective controls and disclosure are incorporated into Moody's rating approach

Like many higher education institutions, Arizona State University has embraced sustainability and taken significant steps to incorporate it into the academic curriculum. Early and active engagement by senior officials has facilitated the education of a generation of students to be sensitive to the environmental impact of societal growth and development, responsible stewards of natural and financial resources, and cognizant that prosperity cannot come at the expense or well-being of others. Explore ways to align operations and practices with the design aspirations, and academic and research priorities of the university. Find out how to implement a planning and prioritization structure that draws from the expertise residing in all areas of the institution. Discover how to engage the broader community in building a sustainable future and serve as a model that can be adopted by other colleges and universities.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the components of a comprehensive university sustainability program
2. Learn how to organize for the development and implementation of a sustainability plan
3. Recognize challenges and opportunities for program implementation

Learn about the process one university used to outsource student health center services to a third-party vendor. The University of Central Oklahoma’s collaborative partnership with Mercy Health System has provided multiple benefits, including significant financial savings and reduced liability. Improvements in student health services include urgent care, radiology, 24-hour coverage, electronic records, and easier access to specialists. Additional collaborations, including co-design of new Mercy-owned facilities, partnerships on research opportunities, and donations of equipment to the nursing program, have evolved since the original partnership was created. This project won the 2010 NACUBO Innovation Award.

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn how to prepare a comprehensive RFI and RFP to outsource medical services and how to analyze responses
2. Examine ways to measure and assess partnership performance and benefits
3. Discover ways to grow an initial partnership for student health services into innovative programs that benefit multiple campus entities

After confronting several serious issues under its previous budgeting system, including effectiveness of funding to meet strategic goals and efficiency of spending, administrators at Colorado Mountain College decided to improve the development of base budgets for all campuses and central services by implementing a modified zero-based budgeting. Under zero-based budgeting, expenditures must be justified, and significant documentation and data review is required. Additionally, all expenditures must advance the college’s goals. Discuss how the zero-based system more closely aligns funding with the strategic plan and provides transparency in budgeting. Find out how the new system offered an opportunity to identify best and worst practices across the college.

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn how to more closely tie resource allocation to strategic planning
2. Hear how the college used Excel as a budget analysis tool, while still using the budget module within its Datatel system
3. Find out how to uncover best practices and hidden costs in your institution

Every year colleges and universities undertake meaningful and well-intentioned initiatives that require operations in foreign locations. Often unaware, these institutions find themselves out of compliance with the myriad laws and regulations of the countries in which they operate and sometimes even with U.S. laws and regulations. Follow the path of a USAID-funded grant to a major research university involving operations in multiple countries, through complex foreign and domestic compliance requirements. Take home tools and tips, including effective planning questions and checklists.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discover best practices for grants requiring foreign operations
2. Learn U.S. laws and regulations applicable to overseas operations, including compliance with the Foreign Bank Account Report, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and Office of Foreign Assets Control, as well as tax reporting obligations
3. Understand how host countries' labor and tax laws and regulations apply to U.S. institutions

Join NACUBO's advocacy and issue analysis team for the latest observations on today's federal political and economic climate and learn about the wide-ranging implications for your institution. Hear the latest about the funding outlook for federal-research and student-aid programs, particularly the Pell Grant program. Review recent and pending regulatory changes at the Department of Education and the Veterans Benefits Administration and find out how to properly administer federal student aid and veterans benefits programs.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the political and fiscal climate in Washington and legislation recently adopted or being considered by Congress
2. Learn about regulatory activity at the Department of Education, from negotiated rulemaking to complying with the Higher Education Opportunities Act, and examine how to implement the Post-9/11 GI Bill on your campus
3. Share your thoughts and concerns with NACUBO staff

Participate in a lively discussion to identify pressing challenges and issues, explore potential solutions, and share stories. Benefit from your colleagues' experiences and assist others by sharing your own.

Learning Objectives:

1. Network with peers
2. Work together on a particular problem or concern
3. Discover new approaches to handling issues on campus

Cloud computing is a complex, rapidly evolving phenomenon with long-term implications for campus IT infrastructure and service delivery. Review the business case for cloud computing, get an overview of the risks, and address some of the issues involved in an audit of a cloud provider. Gain a solid foundation in cloud computing for more productive conversations with chief information officers and providers, and examine recent white papers on cloud computing.

Learning Objectives:

1. Gain a basic understanding of the value of cloud-based services in educational environments
2. Learn what questions to ask to improve your understanding of campus opportunities
3. Understand what constitutes a successful cloud-based initiative

Endowments are faced with a unique set of challenges. Administrators must adhere to minimum spending targets while sustaining returns. Understand the most important decisions you must make to achieve your objectives. Discern whether it is more important to focus on return or investment strategy. Discover how to ensure that your committees’ objectives are aligned with your investment goals. Explore the best framework to use in making these decisions. Review practical steps to better manage your investments and fund your mission.

Learning Objectives:

1. Strategies to help you better align your spending policy with your investment policy
2. Strategies to help you better manage your investments to help ensure more consistent outcomes year over year
3. Strategies to help you better manage your board and staff to align their interests with your funding and spending needs

Take advantage of this networking opportunity and learn about conducting business abroad. Participate in discussions about the increased global presence of U.S. higher education institutions, and discover how best to plan, budget and prepare for risks. Find out how NACUBO's new International Resource Center can help your campus.

Learning Objectives:

1. Explore concerns and issues about dealing with financial matters in foreign countries
2. Identify tools, checklists and templates to evaluate the merits of expanding your institution globally

Colleges and universities are expanding their presence globally, which exposes them to increased financial risks due to fluctuating currency exchange rates.  These risks arise from a variety of sources such as running study-abroad programs, funding foreign grants, and expanding overseas.  Foreign-exchange risk is inherent in all cross-border transactions, regardless of whether goods and services are purchased or sold in U.S. dollars.  Learn from experts in foreign exchange risk management how to evaluate and manage currency risk, as well as services to help manage foreign-currency payables and receivables more effectively.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify foreign-exchange risk
2. Understand how to develop and implement foreign exchange risk management practices
3. Learn how to align your accounting methodology for foreign-exchange transactions with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has accomplished much with respect to technology at a time of increasing needs and limited resources. The university also managed a diverse technology community with centralized and distributed operations. With limited resources, university leaders had to invest wisely to address academic, administrative, and operational technology needs. As such, executives commissioned an IT assessment and strategic technology planning project. Hear a real-world account of the technology-appraisal and strategic-planning process. Discern the process of using a collaborative approach to evaluate strengths, needs and opportunities. Learn how the project led to strategies for effective technology-service delivery and the creation of a fitting IT governance plan.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discover a practical approach to considering IT strategic planning in today's environment
2. Understand the process of establishing an effective IT governance structure
3. Obtain techniques and ideas to gain support and establish priorities at your institution, as well as engage stakeholders to achieve buy-in throughout the process

The business side of higher education has taken a significant hit in the past few years. Loss of liquidity, volatility of credit markets, and a rising need for financial aid have put the administration of colleges and universities squarely in the cross hairs for new approaches to growth. Hear how Canisius College conducted a broad organizational review, starting with the vision of its new president, and rolled out a strategic-planning process to realize positive growth for the future.

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn pertinent concepts to creating integrated, forward-looking infrastructure master plans
2. Appreciate how rethinking basic assumptions about the infrastructure between buildings is fundamental to institutionalizing sustainability
3. Recognize the vital link between achieving significant goals for greenhouse gas reduction and infrastructure planning

Universities across the globe are reexamining opportunities for reducing administrative costs to cope with financial challenges or to redirect resources to the academic mission. Traditionally, administrators have been quick to defend decentralized service delivery and variability in business processes at the unit, school or departmental level as being critical to institutional success. This view is increasingly being challenged. There are realistic strategies to transform administrative service delivery and business processes that include new operating models such as Shared Services and Business Process Outsourcing, as well as lean management methods. Benefit from lessons learned in the corporate and higher education sectors to better understand how to formulate your own administrative service and process improvement plans.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand how to develop an administrative-service transformation strategy and road map
2. Learn how lean management tools and methods can be applied in the administrative-transformation process
3. Understand the benefits, investment levels and risks associated with Shared Services and Business Process Outsourcing for administrative services

How can institutions get the most from their internal audit functions in light of resource constraints? Explore ways to creatively staff your internal audit department and prioritize the areas on which to focus. Review The Catholic University of America’s internal-audit philosophy and discuss how its leadership has teamed with an accounting and advisory firm to maximize the resources dedicated to internal audits.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify key considerations and alternatives to optimize the internal audit function
2. Benefit from real-life examples of successful internal-audit teaming arrangements with outside firms
3. Recognize common impediments to successfully leveraging internal audits and develop strategies to address them

Business officers and governing boards are stewards of the institutions they serve and understand that by leading together they can work successfully to reduce costs, attract top faculty and students, gain new donors, enhance institutional prestige, improve town/gown relationships, and educate students for the jobs of the future. Discover how the leadership policy of the board and the business office-grounded in new and unique working relationships-can result in shared institutional goals and commitments to long-term environmental management that improves the campus, the community and society. Gain perspective on why issues of environmental leadership are important to the long-term success and sustainability of institutions.

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn effective strategies for engaging trustees in sustainability initiatives
2. Understand benefits and best practices for incorporating sustainability in long-term strategic and master plans

Following the overview provided in the Washington Update I session, NACUBO's advocacy and issue analysis team will discuss advocacy efforts at NACUBO and on Capitol Hill, and share information about federal lobbying reporting requirements. Learn about regulatory changes required by the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Legislation, IRS rulemaking, and EPA's new rules on emissions standards. Discuss regulatory relief efforts for colleges and universities.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the latest tax, finance and environmental regulatory requirements
2. Learn about advocacy and regulatory relief efforts underway in Washington
3. Share your thoughts and concerns with NACUBO staff

The number of students applying for aid has increased, attending lower-priced institutions has become acceptable, and state aid programs are being cut. In this environment, it is vital that institution leaders have a clear understanding of the changing ways families are paying for college. Learn about the operational and data-driven elements of an effective aid strategy that should be considered in the “new normal.” Review examples of data analysis, including table analysis, predictive modeling and simulation tools, and discuss operational approaches.

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn what data analysis should be conducted to better understand the price sensitivity of students
2. Gain an understanding of the changes in the way students and families are paying for college
3. Explore operational approaches that can better position your institution to adapt to calls for price transparency and the changing transfer market

Fraud can wreak havoc on an institution's financial performance, damage its reputation and undermine its mission.  No college or university is immune from the risks associated with fraud.  Education is the key to recognition and prevention.  This presentation will help you spot the red flags associated with embezzlement & fraud and know how to respond if fraud is suspected or uncovered.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify common indicators of fraud and embezzlement
2. Discover strategic methods for fraud prevention
3. Understand how to proceed once fraud is detected

Take advantage of the networking and learning opportunities offered by this forum for business officers and business-office staff at minority-serving institutions or institutions that enroll a high percentage of minority students.  Participate in discussions on common issues facing campuses and share best practices and strategies.

Learning Objectives:

1. Recognize current issues facing people of color and ethnic minorities in higher education
2. Evaluate challenges and concepts for application to a specific campus

Why are some co-workers so irritating? More importantly, why would anyone thing of you as being a difficult person? For example, isn't it frustrating when co-workers can't make a decision, or they make snap decisions, then change their minds a day later? Discover the four key dynamics that cause most workplace friction and understand why "different" does not have to mean "difficult." Find out how, by making just slight adjustments to your behavior, you can significantly impact your ability to build positive relationships with customers and co-workers. Explore how understanding and honoring differences create the foundation for building trust, respect and commitment to common goals. Learn how using your strengths and tapping into the knowledge and skills of others yields positive results for everyone. In short, realize how to make work...less work.

Learning Objectives:

1. Recognize the difference between behavior and personality, and how behavior can be modified by conscious choice
2. Understand your own pattern of behavior, including your strengths and blind spots
3. Discover how your behavior can impact others in ways that decrease performance

Become familiar with emerging financial and debt-management techniques. Learn techniques related to budgeting for the replacement cost of capital facilities, maintaining working capital funds, establishing liquidity reserves, developing bank and lender consortia, preparing interim financial statements, and improving enterprise-risk management. Hear from representatives of two institutions who have incorporated new financial-management practices and find out whether they were better insulated from the effects of the recession as a result of improved management policies and practices.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discover new techniques for the financial management of debt
2. Examine effective budgeting practices related to debt
3. Hear how to analyze and prepare for facility growth

In 20, or 10 years, how will you be managing your campus facilities? What systems or processes should you have in place by then? Share ideas with your peers about such topics as energy and space management, reduction strategies (materials, water, energy, etc.), data and reporting for continuous improvement, purchasing and supply chain management, renewable energy, communication strategies, and occupant behavior change.

Learning Objectives:

1. Explore future infrastructure challenges
2. Identify the role of business officers in an ever-changing environment
3. Explore practical approaches, tools and other resources to help address the expansion and management of your environmental footprint and associated risks

The New American Colleges & Universities has been tracking pricing, discounting, and enrollment for the past eight years. During the recent recession, its survey focus shifted from comparative discount to comparative net revenue per student. The net revenue results during the recession provided an insight into “right pricing” in an economic downturn. This presentation reviews the differential net price among institutions during both a prosperous and declining economy, assesses the advantage of net revenue per student versus discount rate, and brings greater understanding to a focus on a market-tested net price in strategic financial planning.

Learning Objectives:

1. Examine the differential net price across institutions in both a booming and recessionary economy
2. Compare the advantage of net revenue per student over discount rate in developing a meaningful comparative analysis
3. Discuss shifting the focus of strategic financial planning to a market-tested net price

The Inter-University Council of Ohio has partnered with SciQuest to optimize the buying power of Ohio’s 14 state universities in a sourcing and e-procurement community. Using consortium technology and a structural approach to shared services, the new procurement model provides shared sourcing for all member schools and the basic local procurement requirements for even the smallest IUC institutions. By accessing the sourcing and consortium functionality, member schools can consolidate their spending power and leverage their buying clout. Find out how users buy goods and services online in one system that provides real-time spending transparency to negotiate preferred contracts, achieve volume discounts, and enforce contract compliance in a paperless environment.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the consortium model
2. Discover how the shared approach to procurement has helped the IUC of Ohio
3. Discuss potential concerns about procurement services

Infrastructure--broadly defined as the open space, transportation systems, communications and utilities between buildings--rarely is planned with a truly integrated, long-term approach. Yet, infrastructure, based on this inclusive definition, is the fabric that often defines campuses, underpins operations, and provides the physical foundation of community. Discover how forward-looking, integrated infrastructure planning is the key to achieving the next stage of economic and environmental sustainability. Examine the high-level and widely applicable conclusions from a recent University of Washington master infrastructure planning update.

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn broadly applicable key concepts for creating integrated, forward-looking infrastructure master plans
2. Appreciate how rethinking basic assumptions about the "stuff" between buildings is fundamental to institutionalizing sustainability
3. Recognize the critical link between achieving significant greenhouse gas reduction goals and infrastructure planning

Facing the sobering reality of the economic crisis, isn't it time financial leaders and procurement officers took a more strategic, collaborative approach? When every dollar counts, preserving funds is as important as building endowments and gifts. Business officers too often overlook the importance of working with their purchasing teams to understand the strategic value of supply chain management, e-procurement, and cooperative purchasing contracts. Learn how two institutions are amending outdated policies and re-evaluating contracts to reshape the traditional purchasing model. Adopting a new approach could represent the single greatest opportunity to generate savings without impacting staff levels or academic programs.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss how two institutions changed their culture from working in communication silos to collectively creating and implementing cost-management solutions
2. Understand the financial impact and return on investment of changing the procurement operation from a transactional to a strategic platform
3. Discover ways to challenge your administration and procurement leadership to develop cost/savings metrics and establish long-term strategic plans

It's all negotiable. Yet research demonstrates that the majority of women don't negotiate; they don't even ask for what they want. It's time for that to change. Discover why women fail to ask and take steps to determine what you want, how to ask for it, and how to support other women who ask. Every new position, every performance review, every award is an opportunity to negotiate base salary, benefits and other incentives that add to job satisfaction, improve quality of life, and provide financial security.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the power of negotiation and the high cost of avoiding asking for what you want and deserve
2. Use experience negotiating for your university/students/department and put this experience to work for yourself
3. Share positive strategies for clarifying needs and desires

Indiana University recently embarked on a comprehensive overhaul of public safety, emergency management, and continuity-planning functions. A comprehensive evaluation of the university’s capacity to develop, maintain and exercise viable emergency plans, and to orchestrate effective responses to all types of incidents, was undertaken. Learn how the university responded when this assessment identified serious problems and issues. Discover how a new organization, led by certified experts, was developed, and a new strategy, based on state and federal guidelines, is being implemented.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss potential problems that could surface when an institution fails to systematically address emergency planning and public safety
2. Become familiar with ways to evaluate your campus emergency-planning and public-safety requirements
3. Review a model designed to facilitate optimal emergency management, safety and continuity planning, as well as cyber and physical security, privacy and general compliance

Student banking options are changing quickly.  Online banking, credit cards, and debit cards are being supplemented with mobile banking and other new applications that are changing the way students shop, save and pay.  Learn how your institution can prepare for these new technologies.

Learning Objectives:

1. Gain a better understanding of students' banking habits and practices
2. Recognize the relationship between students and the banks on campus, and understand students' perception of that relationship
3. Discover new ways of engaging families in the student-banking process and how to communicate with them regarding financial-education resources

The IRS recently launched a nationwide program of audits focusing on employment tax compliance. The initial round of audits is reported to target up to 3,000 employers, including hundreds at colleges and universities. Learn what your institution can do to help prepare for an examination. Refresh your understanding of employment tax rules and discover tools for enhancing compliance related to worker classification, compensation, gift cards, institutional credit cards, personal use of cell phones, and other fringe benefits.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand worker classification issues and relevant tax law
2. Discuss tax treatment of fringe benefits
3. Review accountable-plan rules

Cloud computing has evolved from a concept to a reality in information technology and created a buzz in higher education environments. Find out what cloud computing is and what part it plays in the complex set of objectives that exist in higher education. When is cloud computing cost effective and appropriate to deploy? Hear from a panel of experts, each experienced in an aspect of educational computing (academic, instructional, administrative, enterprise, and research) to answer these questions and unveil the mystery surrounding cloud computing.

Learning Objectives:

1. Define cloud computing and how it is deployed in higher education
2. Discuss the pros and cons of cloud computing and operational issues such as vendor selection, initial migration, onsite support, costs, and private versus public deployment
3. Understand the risks associated with cloud computing, including data security and disaster recovery

As part of its comprehensive and integrated university-wide sustainability program, the University of Chicago created a causal-measurement system to guide strategic decision making, prioritizing the implementation of sustainability efforts to optimally impact the university’s specified outcomes. Many sustainability programs are designed without a clear understanding of how they will help the institution meet key strategic goals, or which actions will result in the greatest investment returns. As a result, such efforts tend to be disconnected from core programmatic activities and based on untested assumptions. Examine the array of desirable institution outcomes that can be tied to sustainability programs, including attracting and retaining talent (faculty, administrator, and students), gaining alumni and trustee funding and support, and obtaining increased grant funding, among other financially tangible measures.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the value of a casual-measurement model in sustainability planning
2. Learn how and why to connect sustainability program outcomes with broader university goals
3. Learn how to prioritize investments in sustainability efforts to maximize returns

The cost of bank letters of credit and liquidity facilities has skyrocketed since the financial crisis. Covenants demanded by banks often are prohibitively restrictive. Explore how higher education institutions are dealing with these new realities. Decipher the interplay between endowment use and borrowing strategies. Understand when it makes sense to terminate swaps and convert from floating to fixed rate bonds to preserve endowment flexibility. Discover alternative ways to access the floating rate market without relying on restrictive and high-cost bank facilities.

Learning Objectives:

1. Explore alternatives to maintaining a desired mix of fixed and floating rate debt
2. Make sense of the interplay between complex financial instruments
3. Learn strategies to negotiate with banks in the aftermath of the financial crisis

Do you get more work done when working with a team, or do team dynamics get in the way of getting work done?  You will discover the six characteristics that absolutely must be present for your team to increase and sustain the highest levels of performance.  Leaders know that teamwork is one of the most powerful vehicles available for increasing productivity, spurring innovation, and staying competitive.  Yet, driving true teamwork can be difficult when managing the ever present tension between competing priorities of departments and the overall responsibility of the larger institution.  Learn how knowing the six characteristics of high performance teams and using the Teams That Work online assessment can help you build on your team's strengths and increase overall performance.

Learning Objectives:

1. Examine the six characteristics of high-performing teams
2. Understand how the characteristics of high-performing teams are interlinked and dependent upon one another
3. Apply new knowledge by interpreting the results of a "Teams that Work" assessment report

In the next 10 years, an entire generation of leaders will surrender their rein of power. The impact of this leadership-talent shortage in institutions should not be underestimated. What are you doing to respond to these challenges? Find out how the University of Michigan’s U-M Business and Finance Leadership Academy is preparing the next generation of talented and diverse early and mid-career managers to be administrative leaders of the future. Discuss how the academy, now in its third year, has achieved measurable results. Asses the program’s design elements and success factors, and examine the important role senior-administrative leadership plays in maintaining alignment and momentum.

Learning Objectives:

1. Find out how to build a case for the leadership economy in your institution
2. Get an overview of the leadership academy program, including design elements, success factors, and lessons learned from three years of programming
3. Consider how to utilize the leadership talent in your institution

Different though their funding sources may be, public and private institutions share a common challenge: identifying their institution’s optimal price and aid strategy. Set the price too high, and you may scare off prospective students. Set the price too low, and you could leave much-needed revenue on the table. How do you know whether you’ve got it right? How confident can you be of a decision based on untested hypotheses, gut instinct, and peer comparisons? Listen in as panel experts discuss market-tested price and aid strategies for institutions.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the dynamics of long-term price and aid strategy as opposed to short-term pricing decisions
2. Review two examples of institutions that weathered serious challenges and have seen remarkable success by adhering to a market-tested long-term price and aid strategy
3. Find out how empirical data can enable institutions to save or retain millions of dollars in net tuition revenue

"State capital funding cut."  "Campus debt limits reduced."  "Backlog of deferred maintenance is growing." These are the headlines presidents, trustees and campus business officers see across the country as they try to deal with capital needs in a difficult economy. Many are pulling back, waiting for the economy to turn around and hoping buildings don't fail in the meantime. Other business officers see this as a time to be more strategic when it comes to campus facilities. Learn how officials at two universities have used data and analysis, despite tough economic conditions, to keep up with facility life cycles, make the case for capital project investment, make the campus more sustainable and keep operational costs in check.

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn how to use the latest facilities data and analysis tools
2. Understand and manage your backlog of facility needs
3. Make the case for capital investments

Find out about Ohio State University’s capital prioritization framework, including a comprehensive approach to capital planning. This approach grew from integrated analysis and innovative decision-support systems. The key intent is to ensure that mission drives the physical environment. To achieve this, the university requires a planning process that can create scenarios influenced by a wide range of factors that maximize the return on investment of limited capital. Hear how this approach represents a shift toward an integrated, data-driven, flexible, university-wide strategy in which needs are considered holistically and the university can agilely respond to changing circumstances. Examine the resulting changes, including the official adoption of a “no net new academic space” policy.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify techniques to integrate strategic, financial and physical considerations into a capital-prioritization framework
2. Find out how to use metrics to inform capital-planning decisions
3. Discover how to change the way capital projects are conceived

Institutions rapidly are changing how they use and manage information technology. Technology increasingly is crucial to support strategic directions for learning outcomes, student retention, revenue generation, and cost management. At the same time, technological changes, including mobile and cloud computing, present new models for delivering technologies and support services. Navigating this changing landscape is a complex leadership challenge. The IT leader of tomorrow must be a strategist, collaborator, risk manager, negotiator, financial manager and IT expert. Understand how an institution's use of technology will be different in five years. Discuss shifting technology-investment strategies and the type of IT leader needed to carry your institution in the next decade.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand how the use and management of information technology in higher education is changing
2. Explore the implications of these changes for the IT organization and the role of the IT leader
3. Develop a better understanding of what skills, experiences and perspectives to look for in an IT leader

2009 plan year reporting brought a great deal of change, challenges and anxiety to retirement plans. A panel of experts will walk through Department of Labor requirements and audit industry guidance and insights to help you prepare for the year two audit and reporting. Discussion will focus on lessons learned from the last year, opening balances and the future of the modified opinion.

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn about control procedures to streamline audit preparedness
2. Gain insight into the beginning balance conundrum
3. Understand the impact of a modified opinion
4. Receive an update on possible regulatory relief

Financial stress is one of the top three reasons students don’t succeed at college. Giving them financial aid is not enough. To make matters more challenging, campus administrators are under increasing pressure to address students’ lack of knowledge about personal finance. Learn about best practices for providing practical financial education to students that will make a positive impact on their lives and create a win-win for the students and the institution.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the importance of financial education for college students
2. Learn how to maximize program success and avoid pitfalls
3. Identify the best resources for implementation and support at your institution

Organization leaders make decisions on a daily basis to ensure they can recruit, retain and motivate the faculty and staff required to achieve their educational mission. Gain insight into the current environment that impacts these decisions in the short- and long-term and how to approach them from a more integrated process based on best practices. Learn how Georgia Tech, starting from the ground up, revised its compensation system, implemented tools for managers to recognize performance, and developed career ladders for all employees. Explore the competitive, financial, programmatic and compliance forces that can make or break a successful total rewards program.

Learning Objectives:

1. Become familiar with the total rewards environment for public and private institutions, including trends, best practices, and external impacting forces
2. Learn to assess the various components of the employee value proposition and the steps to ensure they are competitive, cost effective and compliant
3. Discover how to make better decisions by understanding the financial and human-capital impact when investing in the talent required for organizational success