Syracuse University has enlisted the help of Bain & Co. — a global management consulting firm — to analyze and better key aspects of the school.

To do this, a steering committee was formed earlier this fall, consisting of staff, deans and administration members to conduct the “Innovation and Opportunity Assessment.” The goal of the committee is to better understand the administrative structure of the university and how it compares to peer institutions, analyze the Responsibility Center Management (RCM) budget model and how to make it more effective and to find opportunities for academic innovation.

Another major objective for the committee is to have this information for Chancellor-designate Kent Syverud. A report of these findings will also be made public in February.

As a way of informing and receiving input, committee members, as well as Interim Chancellor Eric Spina, held a forum and information sessions for students, faculty and staff. Spina gave a presentation to the Student Association on Monday night.

“We want to get better as an institution. This is a difficult and complex time to get better. We want to focus on efficiency,” Spina said at the SA meeting.

The University Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Affairs had previously made a recommendation that the university hire an outside firm to review SU’s structure — specifically the budget model—as well as make an effort to identify areas of redundancies in the administration.

The budget committee was motivated to make this recommendation due to members feeling that the university needed a “fresh set of eyes,” said Craig Dudczak, a member of the steering committee and chair of the senate’s budget committee.

The committee also felt that the university was at an interesting time with the announcement of Chancellor Nancy Cantor leaving — and at the time of the recommendation — not having a named successor, he said.

“It seemed that in terms of timing it worked out to our advantage where a new person comes in to have some perspective to how you do constituencies that are already established,” Dudczak said.

Bain provides advisory services to businesses, nonprofits and governments. The firm is a separate business in terms of ownership and governance with Bain Capital, which is a private equity firm.

Spina said at a forum on Nov. 21 the firm has worked on similar projects to the “Innovation and Opportunity Assessment,” and have a specific higher education practice that is focused on comparing universities.

The firm has worked with schools such as Cornell University, University of North Carolina, University of California, Berkeley and Vanderbilt University.

Consultants from the firm have been on campus for a couple of months working with the administration, in addition to interviewing students, faculty and staff about the university, Spina said.

Bain and the steering committee will focus on three specific strains in regards to the university and its inner workings.

The first strain is to better understand the current situation at SU and compare it to peer institutions. Spina said this will include both financial and academic aspects. The analysis will focus on both the areas where the university excels and where the university can improve.

The second strain is how to further support the academic innovation agenda at the university. It will consist of answering questions like how course and program offerings have evolved and what the effect of the RCM system has been on the university and how that can be improved.

The final strain is to look at how SU can operate better and be more efficient. Bain and the committee will be both looking at the different university processes and how these compare to peer institutions, while still factoring in the university’s diversity.

“Anyone in any of the schools or in the central administration who has ever looked at the university will very quickly recognize that Syracuse University is pretty unique. There is no perfect peer set for Syracuse University. The institution has benefited greatly (from its) diversity,” Spina said.

Because of SU’s uniqueness, he added that Bain and the committee will be looking at special areas of interest such as cost of attendance, research funding, institutional and administrative costs, rankings and research and course offerings.

Such peer institutions include: Northeastern University, Lehigh University, the University of Notre Dame and Cornell University.

So far, the steering committee has worked with the firm about the direction of the assessment and has received early project findings regarding higher education.

Bain has found that grant funding is scarce and demographics of people who go to college are shifting. They also found that the financial situation of SU requires high attention, as well as the changing landscape of higher education.

To further the reach and input of this assessment, there will be a survey available to the SU community available through a website. The survey will include suggestions to the steering committee as well as offer any additional input about the university.

Spina added that the steering committee will be directing this project, not Bain.

“Bain brings a lot of expertise in terms of how to look at data and how to make comparisons and delegate data. But they don’t know Syracuse University. The steering committee knows Syracuse University. You know Syracuse University. So Bain for us is a tool,” he said.

Published on December 3, 2013 at 1:57 am

Contact Meredith: mhnewman@syr.edu | @MerNewman93