Colleagues,
This September marked the beginning of the second year of our five-year transformation plan to make the University of Phoenix a more focused, more trusted, less complex and higher retaining institution.
September also marked the start of Fiscal Year 2017 (FY17). The start of the new fiscal year provides me with an opportunity to say thank you for your continued hard work and dedication to our students and faculty. Every day I observe your commitment to helping our students achieve their higher education goals, earn a career-relevant degree and improve their community. It also provides us an opportunity to discuss our expectations, how we will measure performance and engagement, as well as some of the difficult decisions we need to make to meet our objectives.
So as we mark the end of one fiscal year and the beginning of the next, I find it appropriate to revisit and reflect on the goals that guide our efforts. Moving forward into FY17 we will continue to pursue the University of Phoenix Strategic Objectives we first introduced in 2015. One of the most important ways we will measure our progress on achieving our objectives will be through the new “RISE” metrics we introduced last year. In the coming weeks we’ll be sharing the “RISE” metric results for FY16 and our aspirational goals for the future.
We’ve made concrete progress toward accomplishing all of these objectives over the last year. The list of steps we have taken this year alone is too long to detail in full, but to name a few we have: begun implementing a new market investment strategy, reduced the frequency of course and program start dates, retired associate degree programs without a strong career pathway, refreshed the curricula for many of our programs for renewed career relevance, piloted different admissions diagnostic tools, launched the redesign of phoenix.edu and implemented a new approach to marketing and telling our story via the “We Rise” platform.
Following this year of progress we are seeing high marks in our assessment of student learning outcomes, a steady upward trend in student retention and student satisfaction, and improvements in brand perception in areas such as Respect, Quality, Credibility and Trust.
Even as we mark these important signs of progress, we remain aware of the challenges ahead. As good stewards of the University we must remain focused, first and foremost, on ensuring sustainability and the continued high level of support to our students. During the planning process for FY17 we identified the need to make further cost reductions across the organization. In the days ahead you will learn of some projects being scaled back, the delay of certain implementations, a reduction in the use of outside services, and changes being made to travel related expenses. These efforts are required to ensure we can continue the positive momentum with our objectives while also meeting the required FY17 financial targets. Our priority is to ensure we protect the student experience, while maintaining the pace of our transformation and preserving the progress we have made.
It is in this context that we have made the difficult decision to freeze merit, market and step program pay increases at this time. These measures are being implemented across all levels of the institution, from the newest hire to the longest serving member of senior management. In mid FY17 we will revisit this decision and determine then whether we have the capacity to go forward with merit, market and step program pay increases for those employees up to and including salary grade 110 (if you are unsure of your salary grade level, speak with your manager or consult the compensation page under the self-service section of MyHR to confirm).
We have avoided taking this step over the past few years, even while other organizations throughout the Phoenix area and across the nation froze annual increases. But at this juncture with the choices before us, the leadership team believes this action is needed to sustain the progress we are making.
We still have a long way to go and much work to do. Amid the new challenges ahead in FY17 we must remain focused on the Strategic University Objectives that have provided clear, consistent direction for us as we continue to transform the University. In pursuit of these objectives I am confident we will continue making strong strides toward our vision of being recognized as the most trusted provider of career-relevant higher education for working adults.
Sincerely,
Timothy P. Slottow
President@phoenix.edu