USM Board of Regents Approves New E&E 2.0 Initiative to Save Taxpayer Dollars, Improve Student Academic Performance and Spur Innovation

Adelphi, Md. (Feb. 13, 2015) -- Expanding the use of analytics tools to increase student success and streamlining outdated procurement policies are among the recommendations approved today by the University System of Maryland (USM) Board of Regents. The recommendations are part of the Effectiveness and Efficiency 2.0 (E&E 2.0) Initiative, a critical new phase of USM's legacy of efforts to yield savings and cost avoidance while enhancing academic quality.

In fall 2014, board chair James L. Shea charged a new E&E 2.0 Workgroup to create a structure for improving USM's overall academic quality and increasing the value of higher education to the benefit of Maryland citizens, all while reducing costs.

E&E 2.0 includes near-term plans for high-impact efficiency initiatives during the current fiscal year. A longer-term E&E framework will promote further innovation, entrepreneurship, and accountability.

Several guiding principles frame the plan, including an emphasis on collaboration and inter-institutional activities and a commitment to optimal use of technology in campus and system-wide operations. E&E 2.0, approved by the board at its meeting today at Bowie State University, can be accessed here.

Suggestions and feedback regarding E&E 2.0 and can be sent via email to eande@usmd.edu.

In the near term, Chancellor William E. "Brit" Kirwan will work with institutional leadership to prioritize a number of recommendations.

Among these recommendations is a multi-institutional approach to using predictive analytics to increase student success, using data for early identification of struggling students and timely interventions. The plan also implements faculty retirement programs, as allowed under current board policies, to renew faculty and take full advantage of emerging academic opportunities. The plan also seeks to increase attractive academic programs at USM's historically black universities.

"E&E 2.0 will position us to uphold the USM's long-standing values of quality, access, affordability, and fiscal stewardship," Kirwan said. "This plan continues the vision set forth by the board in USM's Strategic Plan 2020. It also represents bold thinking and positions USM to thrive in the future by enhancing student success and operating most efficiently.

"I would like to express my appreciation for the hard work of everyone in the workgroup who developed this vital plan, under the leadership of Regent Gary Attman."

On a long-term basis, E&E 2.0 will leverage University of Maryland University College's (UMUC's) expertise in the delivery of online education and technology to help other USM campuses offer specific programs in ways that benefit the student, UMUC and the respective partner campus.

Other extended-horizon initiatives are use of cloud computing and information technology outsourcing, and pursuit of organizational changes to encourage academic and business functions across multiple organizational units to work collectively.

"The University System of Maryland has consistently been a leader in enhancing effectiveness while creating efficiencies in our operations," Attman said. "E&E 2.0 represents an attempt to create a new paradigm by looking at ways that we can remove bureaucratic obstacles, leverage our existing resources and use new technologies to be the best we can possibly be for the citizens of Maryland."

The USM will use metrics consistently to determine how E&E 2.0 is making an impact on the state. The system will report on cost savings, cost avoidance, revenue, and strategic reallocation.

E&E 2.0 also will draw on the findings of a Board of Regents workgroup, known as Enabling Transformation Through Technology and Innovation (ETTTI), that convened during the 2013-14 academic year. The ETTTI report included recommendations related to improving student retention and using statistical analysis to improve student success, can be found here.

The USM launched its initial Effectiveness and Efficiency Initiative in 2003-04 to manage a number of unprecedented challenges prevalent at that time: declining state aid; rising costs in energy and health care; rising demands on higher education in an economy increasingly based on knowledge and information; and surging enrollment from the "baby boom echo." As of winter 2015, the USM had saved more than $544.7 million through that Effectiveness and Efficiency (E&E) Initiative.

 

Contact: Mike Lurie
Phone: 301.445.2719
Email: mlurie@usmd.edu