By Dylan Pichnarcik News Editor President Nancy Niemi delivered her second annual State of the University address on Monday, Sept. 30. Niemi’s address focused on the AY 2024-25 Strategic Plan as well as enrollment and retention. Niemi also introduced new members of the Board of Trustees and Robert Totino, executive vice president of finance, technology, and administration. T. Stores, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, gave a presentation about a new committee focused on changes in AI. Niemi began her speech by announcing that on Friday, Sept. 27 the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) officially re-accredited Framingham State. NECHE is a “non-governmental membership organization. It relies on its members’ self-regulation, voluntary compliance with the Standards for Accreditation and a system of ongoing evaluation by peers. The Commission’s goal is to promote institutional improvement and public assurance of quality,” according to the NECHE website. Niemi said NECHE “started every couple of years asking institutions to just check in, in our case particularly about enrollment and about strategic planning, since at the time the visiting committee came, that plan wasn’t ready yet.” Niemi then outlined the University's “First-year Strategic Priorities 2024-2025.” According to Niemi, the priorities include adapting programs to meet the needs of students and the MetroWest community and workforce, creating a framework to coordinate and assess diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives on campus, improving enrollment through services and pedagogical practices, and diversifying and investing in strategic priorities. She said, “We have been through two out of three Board of Higher Education touchpoints. We presented our plan to the Board of Trustees last Wednesday. They approved it as well.” Niemi said she will appear before the Board of Higher Education on Oct. 27 to present the final strategic plan. She said it is necessary for the University to invest in these initiatives in order to see positive outcomes. “You have to spend money to make money sometimes, and you have to spend energy. You have to spend time. You have to spend in order to return on an investment,” Niemi said. She added, “Public universities too often exist in financial straits. ‘Oh we’re poor, we can’t afford that…’ We’re not in that frame - our finances are good.” Niemi announced that first-year undergraduate enrollment is up 11% for FY 2024-25 - the University's goal for enrollment was a 7% increase. First-year graduate enrollment is up 6%, according to Niemi. Niemi said the most recent first to second-year retention rate is 71%. She said, “When you think about that in terms of people, that means we’re still not helping 25% of the students who aren’t retained or who don’t graduate.” Niemi then discussed another initiative in the strategic plan regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives on campus. Niemi said Framingham State is now a “majority-minority institution.” She added there are about 15 more students in each category under the BIPOC umbrella than in last year's incoming class.
According to Niemi, 24.1% of the faculty identify as BIPOC.
She said, “The reason why that's important, I know many of you already know, is because if you see yourself, somebody who looks like you, somebody who's had your experience in your classroom, in and around the campus, in an office, in a mentorship, that you know that you, too, can succeed, that people like you can do something that perhaps you want to do.”
Niemi then introduced the six new members of the Board of Trustees: Cherie Comeau, Dennis Giombetti, Bonnie Mitchell, Susan Puryear, and Antonia Soares Thompson. Niemi also introduced Jeremy McDonald, a senior political science major, as the new student trustee. Niemi said the new trustees “want to see us succeed. Their commitment to public education being excellent for all students and all of us is palpable.” Niemi introduced Totino as the new executive vice president of finance, technology, and administration. Totino said he is excited for the beginning of a new academic year and “a transformational moment in the history of this great university as many campus-wide endeavors have come to fruition.” Totino added, “The primary goal of our division [finance, technology, and administration] is to provide exceptional service to our customers.” Totino then discussed FSU’s finances. “Financially, as President Niemi alluded to, FSU is strong and that’s a testament to everyone at FSU.” Totino added higher education has experienced certain challenges over the past few years, which include “lower enrollment due to a shift in demographics around the country, and of course, COVID[-19.]” “Families are also questioning the return on investment when it comes to enrolling in college,” he said. Totino said that in addition to focusing on enrollment, the University’s strategic plan will also “be striving to diversify revenue streams when possible,” in an effort to improve FSU's resources. Totino said, "Prudent allocation of those resources will be crucial to meet multiple years of spending such as operational and capital needs and also strategic plan endeavors.” Totino said he has begun meeting with “constituents on campus to listen and understand what might be viewed as what’s working at FSU and what might need some attention.” “If we don’t know what needs to be fixed, I can’t help unless everyone can be honest and forthright,” he added. Dean Stores introduced themself as the leader of the “FSU team” that will be attending a conference about AI at the American Association of Colleges and Universities. Stores said the team is “looking ahead to the big cultural changes, worldwide changes, of AI permeating the workforce.” Stores said the team has goals, including working to create resources for faculty. The team is “hoping to develop some plans for how to help our students work alongside AI.” Stores said they need to “start by collecting information from you [faculty and staff] about what you’re doing, what you need to know, and what you think our priorities should be.” Stores provided a QR code to participants that linked them to a survey to answer questions about what the team should do moving forward. Stores said that the team is “asking each department to identify one faculty member to be the liaison to our committee so that we can share out and get information back from you.” Niemi opened the floor to questions from the attendees. Aline Davis, professor of biology, said, “There’s a lot of concern going on with what’s going to happen to our populations given the addition of free community college to the state of Massachusetts. … I was wondering if you could address that for a few minutes.” Niemi said, “We have seen no impact at the moment,” but most community colleges in Massachusetts have seen an increase in enrollment. Niemi added Vice President of Enrollment Management Iris Godes and her division have created a transfer student task force. The purpose of the task force is “looking very specifically at how we get a whole lot better at making transfers possible,” Niemi said. Joseph Adleman, professor of history, asked Totino, “Why has the [finance, technology, and administration] division chosen to adopt the language of students as customers? Which is a significant departure from long-standing practice and from the description of student development in our mission statement.” Totino said he was “not familiar with the language in the mission statement.” He added, “I treat students as our patrons, as our customers. If we’re serving them well, I hope that they see they are at the forefront. A mantra I’ve always had is that students are first. We're here for them. Their success is a shining example of all of our success.” Totino apologized for the “departure from how we’ve currently described them in some literature.” He added, “But they [students] are number one in my mind.” Halcyon Mancuso, director of the Mancuso Humanities Workforce Preparation Center, asked Niemi, “Can you speak about what is planned to develop a University-wide internship structure? When will partial credit for professional experiences be rolled out?” The University is planning to require that every student complete an internship or workforce experience as a part of earning their degree with no extra time to completion, according to Niemi. Niemi said she hopes to achieve this within five years.