Cleveland State University President Laura Bloomberg used her State of the University address Tuesday to remind the community that the university’s mission remains providing “education and opportunity to our students and to serve the communities of the Greater Cleveland area.”
Bloomberg called Cleveland State graduates a “thriving force” for the region’s workforce as a slide displayed a list of institutions where the university’s graduates now work.
More than 1,000 alumni, for example, work at the Cleveland Clinic. Hundreds of others are employed at such places as the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Sherwin-Williams and Progressive Insurance.
“We power Northeast Ohio,” she said. “These industries are relying on our [students] to graduate and be prepared to head into the workforce.”
Those relationships have resulted in Sherwin-Williams sponsoring a program for selected sophomores in the university’s business school. Bloomberg said it’s a model they plan to replicate with other local businesses and other university departments in the future.
Collaboration also extended to the local business community when they were tapped to help develop nearly a dozen new integrated degree programs, according to Bloomberg.
Unveiling ‘If not for CSU’ campaign
Bloomberg also showed off love for the university’s alumni with a well-produced video. In it, a handful of graduates shared how the university shaped them and their career arcs. Many of the stories begin with the same four words: “If not for CSU.”
“If not for CSU, I might not have gone to college,” Jim Kandrac, CEO of healthcare management company Contract Guardian said in the clip.
Bloomberg said additional stories will continue to roll out her social media accounts in coming days under #IfNotForCSU.
Those stories inspire her, she said, “because they move us past the trends, and the data points, and the relentless conversation about the headwinds.”
Cleveland State looks ahead
Bloomberg, speaking at the university’s Glasscock Ballroom, used the speech to make it clear that she – and the university – are firmly looking forward.
But today’s landscape, and the challenges now faced by Cleveland State and regional public universities like it, is drastically different than when the university was founded in 1964. Ohio’s population of high school graduates is forecasted to continue to decline. Americans’ thoughts on the value of higher education are shifting.
Still, despite the hurdles, she called the institution “Cleveland’s university.”
“We have the potential to provide infinite opportunity to those around us.… This is what we do well,” she said. “This is what we’re known for.”
Consultants at accounting and consulting firm Ernst & Young recommended a range of changes for the university to stave off a projected $40 million deficit. As a result, the university offered buyouts to faculty and staff this year.
“It is clear that we needed to reduce our employee headcount to balance our budget, and I am resolute in doing that,” she said. “It is equally clear and true that saying farewell to colleagues has been difficult and painful.”
Now, the focus turns to crafting a new strategic plan to chart the university’s path for the next five years. She has told a task force charged with working on this plan that a “heavy, detailed, multi-page report” isn’t needed. Instead, she wants a framework to take the idea of being “Cleveland’s university” further.
“We’ve done our deep data dives,” she said. “We know what we need to do.”
Bloomberg said the plan is expected to be completed by Thanksgiving and offered up to the university’s board of trustees in December.
