Partnership Communications

Dear Faculty and Staff,

In June, we shared an overview of the major initiatives underway at CGU, including the academic redesign, the pausing of programs, and the voluntary separation plan. This week, we facilitated a faculty forum to provide updates and start to gather feedback on the draft of the proposed redesign. We thank those who took time out of their summer plans to participate in the forum, which included faculty breakout discussions on the redesign and a discussion of next steps and opportunities for collaboration.

The conversation was thoughtful, candid, and constructive. Faculty raised important questions, and we appreciated the opportunity to answer them openly.

To help keep you informed, we want to give you a brief overview of several key topics discussed during the meeting.

Program Pauses
To date, program pauses have been announced for Economics and Art enrollments. As the redesign and program assessments continue, additional pauses may be announced over the rest of the summer. Before any broader communication is made, we will work closely with the affected programs and schools to ensure appropriate planning and coordinated communication.

A program pause temporarily suspends recruitment and new enrollment for a specific academic program. It allows us to prioritize the success of our current students while thoughtfully evaluating the program’s long-term direction and sustainability within the emerging academic portfolio.

Academic Redesign
One of the central topics of discussion was the future academic structure of the university. Today, CGU consists of five schools, one institute, and one center. As part of the redesign, the university is exploring a streamlined three-unit academic model that would bring together programs that align faculty expertise, student outcomes and opportunities, shared and complementary curricula, and scholarship and applied activities. This effort is supported by a faculty working group composed of members of the Academic Stewardship Committee and FEC members, as well as the academic deans and directors. As this work progresses, the model and the reorganization of the university’s academic portfolio will continue to be shared and evaluated with feedback and consultation from stakeholders. Per CGU bylaws, the faculty will vote on the academic redesign, followed by a review and vote by our Board of Trustees. Both are expected this fall.

The goal of the academic redesign is not simply organizational change. Rather, this process is intended to build on CGU’s distinctive strengths, creating greater opportunities for applied scholarship, interdisciplinary collaboration, and more connected academic pathways for students. It will also help ensure a stronger, more sustainable academic foundation for the future.

Voluntary Separation Plan
We also shared that this redesign and our broader need to reduce CGU’s systemic budget deficit will involve reductions in faculty and staff positions. We recognize that this is difficult news and that it affects colleagues who have made meaningful contributions to CGU over many years.

The university is developing a voluntary separation plan, which will be announced soon. Human Resources also plans to hold town halls in the coming weeks to provide further updates and create opportunities for faculty and staff to ask questions and share feedback. In the meantime, our HR Office is available to answer questions related to the voluntary separation program.

Partnership Talks
As noted in the June update, discussions regarding a potential partnership with Pomona College are ongoing. Those discussions involve the presidents, chief financial officers, and other institutional leaders. The boards of both institutions are expected this fall to consider whether to move forward with the partnership. Because these discussions are subject to a nondisclosure agreement, there are limits to what we can share. However, we will keep our community informed and will provide updates as significant developments occur.

It is important to distinguish these discussions from CGU’s ongoing academic redesign and reorganization. The redesign work is essential to strengthening CGU for the future and ensuring that we are well-positioned to meet the needs of our students and advance our mission. Pomona College is supportive of this important process but is not involved in or directing it.

Finally, we want to express our sincere gratitude to the faculty members serving on the academic design working group mentioned above. They have devoted many hours during their summer to this effort. Their thoughtfulness, diligence, and deep commitment to CGU have been instrumental in shaping this work, and we are grateful for their service.

We know that many members of our community have questions about this process, and we are committed to sharing updates and to providing opportunities for dialogue. We encourage you to reach out directly to either of us with questions or concerns.

Thank you all for your continued dedication to our students, our colleagues, and the future of CGU.

Sincerely,

Michelle Bligh
Interim President

Jody Waters
Interim Provost

Dear Faculty and Staff,

Summer is typically a quieter time at CGU, but this year is a historically notable exception. So much is happening — partnership negotiations with Pomona College, a bold academic redesign, and long-range planning for financial sustainability — that it can be a challenge to keep up with the latest developments.

In our ongoing commitment to keep you informed, here is a brief recap of the major initiatives. No doubt you may be aware of some of the progress being made, but you might not have the bigger picture. In the coming weeks and months, we and other members of the leadership team will share news when we have additional updates.

Discussions With Pomona College
Partnership talks are ongoing involving presidents and chief financial officers, among others. In mid-May, CGU faculty met with Pomona College’s leadership team, including President Gabrielle Starr and Chair of the Faculty Ben Keim, to discuss the possibilities, issues, and next steps. The boards of both institutions are looking to reach a decision this fall about whether to proceed. We hope to share an update regarding these meetings before the votes, but please note that both sides have been bound by a nondisclosure agreement. CGU’s partnership page will be updated as events warrant.

Academic Redesign
This spring, we undertook a comprehensive review of our academic portfolio. We assessed ongoing enrollment patterns, current and future students’ needs, career pathways, the interdisciplinary nature of our curriculum, and the future of graduate education in a rapidly changing world.

The conversation has continued through faculty discussions, conversations at the program and school levels, and the efforts of a faculty working group composed of members of the Faculty Executive Committee and the Academic Stewardship Committee. Working in partnership with deans, directors, and the provost throughout the summer, this group is helping to evaluate options and inform recommendations. Faculty perspectives and input will continue to play a critical role in shaping CGU’s future direction.

Program-Level Decisions
As part of the redesign process, we have temporarily paused new student enrollment in a small number of programs while we evaluate opportunities for redesign and long-term sustainability. As this work continues, additional programs may be considered for a temporary enrollment pause based on the same criteria and review process. Deans and faculty in the affected programs were included in deliberations. In addition, newly admitted students in the affected programs are being notified and given options to continue pursuing their studies at CGU or receive a refund of their application fee and any enrollment deposit they might have paid.

A pause is not a closure or a prediction of a program’s future. It is an opportunity to ask what it would take for a program to succeed in the future.

We understand the concerns around these decisions, and we want to remind everyone that such pauses are a common part of academic portfolio management throughout higher education. At CGU, for example, we paused the Drucker Executive PhD program for years before redesigning it and relaunching it successfully.

Ultimately, our responsibility is not simply to preserve every element of the portfolio exactly as it exists today. Our responsibility is to create the conditions under which the programs we offer can be academically strong, financially sustainable, and capable of serving students well into the future.

The redesign process is intended to position CGU for long-term success by strengthening our academic portfolio, aligning our resources with strategic priorities, and ensuring that we remain a focused, relevant, and successful university. While partnership discussions form part of the broader institutional context, the redesign process is being evaluated on its own merits and will require approval by CGU’s Board of Trustees this fall. One of the most important things we have learned over the past year is that a partnership cannot solve a weak academic and financial model. It can only strengthen a strong one.

Voluntary Separation Plans
As a result of the academic portfolio redesign, some faculty and staff will be given the option to participate in a voluntary separation plan. Information was shared with both groups in recent meetings, but we do not yet have final plans to present. We will provide that information, informed by questions that we have received, as soon as we can.

Growing Revenue
As part of CGU’s ongoing transformation, we are seeking to generate revenue through enhanced philanthropy, improved financial performance, and development of non-tuition revenue streams that align with our institutional strengths.

A working group has been formed to explore opportunities that build on CGU’s distinctive expertise, intellectual assets, partnerships, and reputation. The group has an accelerated timeline to deliver recommendations by the end of August.

We realize that this is a lot to digest, but we want to ensure that you receive accurate information. Please know that you are an important part of this process. We encourage you to reach out to us or other members of the leadership team at any time.

Sincerely,

Michelle Bligh
Interim President

Jody Waters
Interim Provost

Dear CGU Community,

As we approach the close of the academic year and look ahead to commencement, I want to recognize the extraordinary work of our faculty, staff, and students. We look forward to celebrating our graduates and all they have accomplished, which reflects the enduring strength of CGU’s academic mission.

I also want to provide an update on our ongoing exploration of a potential partnership with Pomona College. Over the past several months, members of the CGU community have engaged thoughtfully in this process through conversations, questions, and feedback, and for that, I am grateful.

Due diligence and evaluation efforts remain ongoing across academic, financial, governance, and operational areas. Given the significance of this decision, and our commitment to a thorough deliberative process, the Board of Trustees of both institutions are not likely to reach a decision about whether to proceed until the fall. We are committed to taking the time to do this right. Our focus throughout this process is to position the university for a sustainable future.

Like many institutions, CGU faces a persistent structural deficit. While steps have been taken to address our financial circumstances, fundamental change is needed. A partnership, if realized, will not by itself resolve these challenges, and our efforts to strengthen the university will continue regardless of the outcome.

As part of this work, we have conducted a comprehensive review of our academic portfolio, examining enrollment, outcomes, mission alignment, and program economics. We are now entering the next phase: defining a clear and sustainable academic strategy. This will include investing in areas of strength, redesigning programs with future potential, and phasing out those that are no longer viable — while aligning our new vision with opportunities for expanded philanthropy and revenue sources.

Throughout this process, our students remain at the center of our decisions. For any programs affected, we are committed to supporting all currently enrolled students through completion of their degrees.

I am confident that through this process — and with continued engagement across our community — we can navigate this moment and position CGU for a stronger future.

Moments like this remind us of the strength of the CGU community and the deep commitment we share to the university’s future.

With appreciation,

Michelle Bligh
Interim President

Dear CGU Community,

Nearly two years ago, we began the process of shaping a sustainable future for CGU. We were motivated by two important facts: First, CGU was operating at a deficit. Its financial model, based heavily on tuition revenue, was not viable. Second, colleges and universities at all levels were entering a time of crisis that would reshape higher education. This sea change, driven by technology, demographics, and other factors, demanded a new approach.

We formed the New Models Committee to assess our options and sought the expertise of an outside consultant, Tyton Partners. We hosted town hall meetings to gather feedback and shared what we could via the Vantage Point newsletter and email messages. We listened, we heard, and we decided to chart a new course: Seek a strategic partner who embraces our sense of the future and the importance of graduate education — a partner who aligns with our mission and values and who has the financial strength to support CGU’s transformation.

The New Models Committee identified numerous potential partners, and over the course of several months we refined the list. To ensure the integrity of the process, all members were bound by a non-disclosure agreement. Although we could not share identifying information of potential partners nor confidential discussions, we provided regular updates on the process and what we were learning.

Today, I am delighted to announce that CGU has entered exclusive negotiations with Pomona College. The spirit and intent of this agreement, approved by the Board of Trustees at both CGU and Pomona, is a true alliance, an opportunity to co-create a new model of graduate education for the 21st century. This would not be a bailout or merger. Should we reach a partnership agreement, CGU would preserve its name and graduate identity.

As we enter into this new phase of the process, it is important to note that there is nothing legally binding about the proposed relationship between Pomona and CGU. The explorations, discussions, and negotiations will likely last several months, and we will not be able to share many details as the process unfolds. But please trust that when we have information to share, we will do so. Pomona and CGU have both developed a webpage that provides background, current information, frequently asked questions, and a roadmap of what lies ahead.

The relationship — the partnership — between Pomona and CGU goes back to our founding in 1925. We share a visionary president in James Blaisdell, who believed in collaborative educational excellence. It is serendipitous, perhaps poetic, that the potential for a new partnership has been kindled in our Centennial year.

A partnership does not alter the need for CGU to redefine its place in higher education. As I have shared before, I believe we are entering a great new era for the university. We embrace both the opportunities and the challenges that lie ahead.

Sincerely,

Michelle Bligh
Interim President

Securing Our Future
As we mark CGU’s Centennial, we celebrate a hundred years of scholarship, innovation, and community — and we look ahead with excitement to what the next century can bring. This milestone invites us not only to honor our past, but also to chart a bold course for the future. To ensure that CGU thrives for generations to come, the New Models Committee has been charged with exploring mission-aligned partnerships that will strengthen our university and expand its impact. We write to you — our alumni, donors, faculty, staff, and students — because your voices and support are central to shaping this journey.

For the past 18 months, the New Models Committee has led a transparent review of CGU’s options. We’ve shared updates via Vantage Point, town halls, and campus meetings, and your feedback has defined our approach. Thank you.

At key points, discretion has been essential. We are now at one of those points.

Where we are now: the due diligence “quiet” period
Several universities have expressed serious interest in partnering with CGU and are conducting due diligence. In practical terms, they are assessing our financials, operations, facilities, enrollment, and other relevant data.

To protect the integrity of this process, we are not disclosing the identities of these institutions. We can confirm they are private, nonprofit, mission-aligned academic institutions. This discretion allows them time to complete their evaluations and preserves CGU’s strongest options.

How we got here: a structured, three-phase approach
In late 2023, CGU leadership determined that continuing with a persistent financial shortfall was not viable. With guidance from Tyton Partners, leaders in strategic academic partnership consulting, we launched a structured process to identify a suitable partner. This outreach yielded several strong candidates, some now in active review.

What happens next
After due diligence, interested institutions will submit a letter of intent. The CGU Board of Trustees will evaluate these and may grant exclusivity to one institution for detailed negotiations. The process remains non-binding until a final agreement is signed.

If all goes to plan and an agreement is reached, it will be time for our entire community to roll up their sleeves. The necessary and hard work of academic and organizational integration will then begin. Success will mean the transformation of CGU and its partner that will reflect our respective strengths and address the changing landscape of higher education.

While the timeline is uncertain, we commit to sharing definitive updates promptly.

Embracing Our Legacy — and Our Next Century
Our Centennial is not just a commemoration of the past — it is a launchpad for securing CGU’s future. Together, we are shaping what a graduate university can be in the 21st century and beyond.

This October, we’ll honor our legacy with events that inspire pride, joy, and reflection. We hope you’ll join us.

With Gratitude,

The New Models Committee
Patricia Easton, Chair
Alita Watkins, Staff
Andrew Henkes, Staff
Bernie Jaworski, Faculty
Bryan Elliott, Staff
Gwen Garrison, Faculty
Jody Waters, Provost
Katharina Pick, Faculty
Phaidra Speirs, Staff
Tiffany Berry, Faculty and Dean
Yan Li, Faculty

The work of the committee is done jointly with members of the executive team and Board of Trustees:

Michelle Bligh, President
Karen Sisson, VP Finance
Kristen Andersen-Daley, VP Admissions & Advancement
Quamina Carter, VP Student Life
Jeanne Holm, Chair, Board of Trustees
Juanita Dawson, Vice Chair, Board of Trustees
Tom Hsieh, Member, Board of Trustees

Dear CGU Community,

My first day as interim president was March 1, which coincided with the Spring Centennial Celebration. Welcoming more than 400 people to campus that Saturday morning — alumni, residents of Claremont, and our university community — was an honor and an opportunity to reflect on those who came before me. I draw inspiration from CGU’s legacy of achievement and the founders whose vision laid the cornerstone for a great university. I am also inspired by our emerit faculty and staff who return regularly to campus to help keep the flame burning brightly.

I feel a deep sense of responsibility to uphold this legacy by doing everything I can to ensure that CGU thrives in its next 100 years. I can tell you without reservation that I am very optimistic about our future, but success will require a change of direction.

We are approaching some of the biggest decisions in our history. The university leadership team has been upfront about the challenges we face — challenges that go back decades and require innovation to solve. In this issue of Vantage Point, my colleague Patricia Easton provides a thorough update on our efforts to form partnerships with those who both believe in our mission and bring great value to what we offer.

During my 20-plus years as a member of this community, there have been times we avoided difficult conversations, but our future direction is too important. Determining it requires transparency and candor, which breeds trust and invites collaborative solutions. I truly appreciate the work that my predecessor, Tim Kirley, did in cultivating this type of conversation, which will continue during my tenure.

You will find a feedback link at the end of this issue. I invite you to engage in the journey with us as we celebrate our legacy and co-create our future.

With gratitude,

Michelle Bligh
Interim President
Claremont Graduate University

 

Professor of Humanities Patricia Easton has served as a chair, dean, provost, and vice president of student and enrollment services during her 30 years at CGU. In March, she became vice president of strategy, with the primary charge of overseeing the university’s strategy and partnership process. Here are her thoughts on this vitally important initiative:

What led up to CGU seeking partnerships?

By January of 2024, [then-Provost] Michelle Bligh had reached the conclusion that we had already done a lot of the playbook things you do to improve your financial standing — add programs, cut costs, expand the enrollment pipeline — but the university’s operational budget gap was still increasing. So she formed a task force, the New Models Committee, to see what could be done.

For the first three months, the committee generated ideas and tested assumptions. Had we made sure we had exploited all our strengths? Were we fully aware of the future direction of higher education? Was there anything we were overlooking that could sustain CGU’s future to deliver transformative graduate education?

After much debate, we came to a consensus that we do not have the financial resources to continue going it alone as a graduate-only, comprehensive university. It was time to seek out a strategic partner or partners with a strong financial and academic foundation that by joining together would expand our opportunities for the future. The committee recommended to the Board of Trustees that we seek a partner or partners, and to engage outside consulting expertise to help us do it, and they agreed.

What happened next?

We began the process of finding a consulting firm that could help identify potential partners and support us through the process. Last April, we prepared an RFP — a request for proposals — and interviewed six firms. Every single one of them commented on the foresight of CGU to do this when it’s in a position to form a good partnership. The committee recommended, and the Board approved, Tyton Partners, which began working with us last July. Tyton has deep expertise and experience in the higher education market to find, assess, and mediate academic partnerships and agreements.

In the meantime, we started socializing the process with faculty, staff, and other members of the community and sought their questions and feedback. By last fall, we were at the point of determining the criteria we would use to screen potential partners. The faculty and the staff helped us refine the rubric, which we finalized in the late fall semester.

In January of this year, Tyton started putting out feelers to over 100 potential partners. That list was winnowed down and some were added over several months.

What kinds of partners were considered?

We wanted to cast a wide net to consider domestic educational partners, international educational partners, and industry partners. What we learned with the latter is that CGU’s small scale doesn’t lend itself to working with multiple industries, at least not at the level needed to close our financial gap, so we quickly came to see that while there might be a non-academic partner in the mix, it would not be the solution.

Where do things stand now?

The committee knows of nearly a dozen academic institutions that have shown interest, and we continue to explore others. As we receive formal indications of interest, our committee, with the support of Tyton Partners, will begin the process of assessing them against our rubric. What is their strategic rationale? Are they in a strong financial position? What kind of academic integration are they seeking? What kind of governance structure are they proposing? Would they be a good programmatic fit? Would they be a good cultural fit?

We’re in the process of refining our rubric and determining the most critical elements, and we are discussing the weightings we should give to them. We’re looking to get input from faculty and staff to make sure we’re not overlooking something important and asking all the right questions.

Is CGU an outlier when it comes to seeking partnerships?

Not at all. There’s consensus on the committee, as well as growing indications across the country, that higher education is undergoing a period of consolidation. This is especially true among smaller, private universities that do not have significant endowments and are tuition-dependent. They are struggling because the costs of delivering education are going up and tuition revenues are going down. A small university has to provide all the services and meet all the compliance requirements of a large university, and it’s becoming too burdensome.

To keep delivering a high-quality graduate education, we believe that CGU has reached a critical juncture as a free-standing graduate university where we must choose what we will become in the second century of our existence. Should we find a partner or partners who will help us become more global, broaden our academic offerings, or become part of a larger multi-campus university? For the past several decades, universities in the US have been going to other countries, for example to Southeast Asia and the Middle East, and establishing campuses. That’s coming to an end. What’s happening now is that India, China, and others are internationalizing their curriculum, building teaching and research capacity, and establishing their own universities. As the landscape of higher education shifts and evolves both domestically and globally, CGU wants to meet the challenges head-on through partnership, collaboration, and innovation.

CGU has some unique and exciting opportunities ahead. Given the changing demands for higher education toward lifelong learning, skill-based education, and the rising societal expectations that universities engage with their communities, I believe that CGU’s innovative approach to cross-disciplinary inquiry into real-world complex problems resonates. My personal sense of the future is that with the globalization of education that’s happening, CGU needs to find its place in the internationalization of graduate education — both bringing the world here and taking ours abroad.

There’s also a pressing need to invest in artificial intelligence and technology. CGU doesn’t have the scale or resources to do it on its own, so we really need to partner. There are other questions and issues about partnership that will become part of the conversation as well, especially as we receive input from the university community.

What are some of the non-starters — the non-negotiables — in the partnership process?

One is that the partner is a partner with all of CGU, not pieces of it. We’re not going to, for example, break off one school or program to work with one partner and leave others behind. We want to maintain the integrity of our campus and our community.

Another non-starter would be partnering with an institution that does not have the depth of resources that CGU requires for a mutually beneficial relationship. There must be a financial sustainability assessment. We’re not going to partner with somebody who is in the same circumstances we are right now, because you can’t put two negatives together and get something positive.

We also need to know how the partner or partners are going to resonate with the consortium. We don’t want a partnership to cause negative, disruptive change within the consortium. We want our partnership to be value-added.

When will CGU be ready to announce a partnership or partnerships?

We’re very confident that we will get formal indications of interest soon. The next step will be to assess and rank those potential partners. Then the question is whether we’re ready to begin the next step, which is deep exploration and negotiation. Tyton is confident that we should be able to have a partner with a signed contract — an MOU — by December of 2025. That doesn’t mean it will have been approved by WASC or by the Department of Education by that time. It won’t necessarily be a done deal by the end of the year, but if all goes well, we should be able to announce by then that we’re doing our final due diligence with a potential partner.

What would a partnership mean for our students?

It could mean that students take classes at CGU, at the partner campus, online, or some combination of the three. Ideally, it will expand opportunities for students, faculty, and staff. I think the sky’s the limit that way.

How might CGU benefit from a partnership beyond financial sustainability?

If we do this right, it opens up opportunities that we currently don’t have and opportunities that are necessary for CGU to move into the future.

A partnership will require us to expand our perception of who CGU is. I think there is going to be change, perhaps in terms of how we teach and who we teach. Frankly, I think that’s going to happen regardless of a partner. The future holds change, and we’re trying to position ourselves to be ready for it.

What happens if CGU doesn’t secure a partnership?

I’m of the opinion that the only way we’re going to grow and thrive in our next century is to partner and do so strategically.

How can the CGU community get involved in the partnership process?

The first step is to gain an understanding of the issues, which we’ve discussed in this Q&A. We will most likely have more town hall sessions that you can attend in person or online, and you can submit questions, observations, or concerns to the New Models Committee and university leadership via the link at the end of this newsletter. We really mean it when we say we value feedback. We don’t want to miss anything.

With gratitude,

Patricia Easton
VP of Strategy
Claremont Graduate University

This edition of Vantage Point is my last as interim president. We have much to be thankful for. We reside in one of the most free and democratic countries on the planet, and we are surrounded by people who believe in the mission of Claremont Graduate University. If that sounds sappy, it is simply me crowding out being glum because it is time to go. But it is time.

The accomplishments and can-do attitude of our community over the past year have put our university in a better fiscal position, generated a positive outlook, and prepared us for the significant discussions and decisions ahead. Michelle Bligh, who takes the reins on March 1, is the right person to prepare us for our next 100 years.

Michelle was the first choice to be interim president in spring 2024 but wisely declined. As provost, she deferred the role in order to remain close to faculty and students while supporting the hard work of those creating new course offerings for future students. She was also focused on configuring and leading the New Models Committee to identify a partner for the university. Now is the right time for her to make the role of interim president her own, and all of us owe her our support and gratitude. Significant work lies ahead, and we will make better decisions and achieve better outcomes under her leadership.

Before I head out, I want to thank our incredible students and faculty members, our alumni, and our staff for their warm welcome and endless patience. Your contributions have been the epitome of teamwork.

With gratitude,

Tim Kirley
Interim President
Claremont Graduate University

Updates:

Partnerships

CGU continues to work closely with Tyton Partners to identify opportunities for long-term sustainability. Tyton is currently reviewing several potential partners and will provide a list of solid options in the coming months. Michelle Bligh will have more to share about what we are seeking and how the process works in the next edition of Vantage Point.

The university has taken significant steps in the past year to increase revenue and find cost savings — everything from growing enrollment to offering new programs to reducing the cost of utilities and services. Recently, the Board of Trustees approved a small increase in tuition — just the second increase in the past six years — from 2 to 3 percent depending on the program. It was not an easy decision, but it aligns with CGU’s integrated approach to address our systemic debt.

A Major Uptick in Enrollment Headcount

CGU has achieved the highest spring enrollment of new students in 25 years. We are happy to report that 159 new students have enrolled as of February 6, exceeding the ambitious target goal by 15 percent. Records were set for the number of domestic students, as well as enrollments within information systems, management, public health, and teacher education. For the full 2024-25 academic year, our enrollment stands at an 11-year high.

Growing the Endowment

One of the major goals for CGU’s Centennial is to increase the endowment, especially the unrestricted endowment, which provides significant latitude to address needs. In general terms, think of an endowment as an investment account that earns a return. It is the return on the endowment that is used in a variety of ways.

As you likely know, donors frequently give for specific purposes. Some want to endow a faculty position — a named chair — to honor someone. Some want to support a specific school. About 20 percent of the endowment supports student fellowships, some in the form of general support and some with specific intentions.

Growing the unrestricted endowment will allow CGU to apply funds in numerous ways, with the highest priority being more student fellowships and faculty grants.

We have shared a lot in recent months about the need for a partnership or partnerships to ensure CGU’s long-term sustainability, but we have not focused much on the process or the potential benefits. This month’s Vantage Point newsletter does that to ensure everyone in our university community is on the same page.

Though we are following a specific timeline with our consultant, Tyton Partners, there is no rush to selecting a path for our future. The process is designed to be thorough and thoughtful with opportunities for feedback. (Thank you to all who submitted responses to the four-question survey that you received last month. The deadline was October 31, but please trust that the conversation will continue.)

Tim Kirley
Interim President
Claremont Graduate University

Updates:

We are in the second phase of a six-phase process, which includes identifying, reaching out to, and assessing potential partners. As you are aware, CGU has numerous assets that any partner would value:

• We have highly accomplished and dedicated faculty.
• We are part of a consortium of exceptional colleges.
• We are located in a desirable community a vibrant region.
• We have a proven and powerful brand, a legacy of student success, and outstanding alumni.
• We have an unmatched approach to transdisciplinary teaching.
• We are WASC-accredited.

We are confident we will be attractive to a broad array of potential partners in both higher education and private industry, though it’s more likely that we will find a better fit with the former. The next stage of the process will involve evaluating and prioritizing institutions that formally express an interest in a partnership. We will collaborate with Tyton to rank the offers, most likely this coming spring, before reaching a formal agreement with one or more of them.

An ideal partner would provide financial resources to ensure that CGU can continue as a global leader in transformative graduate education. It would offer complementary expertise, providing synergies that benefit the campus community. And it would share our mission of preparing leaders who are committed to making the world a better place. This isn’t a wish list. It’s a realistic expectation.

We have a lot to look forward to in 2025. Our centennial celebration will serve as a vivid reminder of just how important CGU has been in empowering students who go on to change the world, and it should inspire all of us — the campus community, alumni, and friends, as well as a future partner — about what is to come.

In the December Vantage Point, we will address questions submitted during the recent forums that we did not have an opportunity to answer, given the time constraints.

CGU and the Consortium — A Correction

CGU’s business relationship with the consortium prior to the corporate reorganization in 2000 was incorrectly portrayed in the September 9 email to the university community. CGU did not generate revenue from managing Central Programs & Services (Claremont University Center). Upon the separation of the university from the consortium, according to a column from then-CGU President Steadman Upham in the Fall 2000 issue of The Flame, CGU officially acquired $91 million of the combined endowment of $111 million, as well as an additional $4.6 million that went into CGU’s endowment.

We are committed to getting things right. Thank you to those who pointed out the error.

We sincerely thank everyone who participated in the recent faculty/staff and student Q&A sessions. (The Q&A with alumni will take place October 16 from 6 to 7 pm PDT.) We are committed to being candid, clear, and forthcoming about our efforts to achieve a sustainable CGU. If we do not proactively share information or state that we cannot share something, it is because it is confidential, still a work in progress and therefore speculative, or simply unknowable.

We could not get to every question during the Q&As, but we want to make sure they are addressed. If you submitted a question that you do not find below, it is because it was similar to other questions that we are answering, it was off-topic, or it was a statement of opinion rather than a question. Please note that some questions have been lightly edited for clarity.

Tim Kirley
Interim President
Claremont Graduate University

Q&A Responses

As we enter into Phase 2 and explore partnerships, when will faculty and staff be notified of progress? A “mid-point” update would be appreciated.

It’s important that we not get ahead of the work that the New Models group is doing in conjunction with Tyton Partners because doing so could adversely affect the process of identifying potential partnerships. With that said, if there are developments that warrant being shared, the leadership team will definitely share them.

What’s the timeline and plan for the presidential search and transition?

The Board of Trustees oversees the selection process. The board is meeting later this month and will provide an update on the search plan and timeline.

I think I heard that President Kirley will be acting as interim president through the end of January. What is the plan for after the end of January? I think the last time I heard about a search for a new president was March, which seems surprising as I’m sure it takes more than a few months to conduct a search. I do worry that concerns about the future could scare away new enrollment, which CGU is trying to attract. At the same time, I have another two years before I finish my PhD, and it would be helpful for me to know if CGU will still be able to grant me a degree in May of 2026, or if it would be best for me to drop everything and finish immediately.

Interim President Tim Kirley will serve through January 2025 and, at the discretion of the board, may continue longer. The search process for a new president, conducted by the Board of Trustees, has begun. Please do not worry about CGU’s future while you work on your degree. All students will have the opportunity to earn their degree regardless of the outcome of the university’s work on a new path to sustainability.

What’s the timeline until closing out needs to be considered?

CGU has a range of financial options and significant time before such measures would have to be considered. The university community will receive regular updates in the coming months to ensure that our progress toward a new financial model catches no one by surprise.

CGU tends to have a doomsday scenario — is this going to be YES WE WILL …?

CGU’s leadership team believes in a culture of candor and clarity. Though we are confident that we will chart a financially sustainable path, we will not avoid discussing a worst-case scenario when asked. Answering this tough question first during a recent Q&A session was intentional. We want everyone to feel safe asking the hard questions.

Have we thought about expanding our online courses, which would give us substantial international, as well as domestic, opportunities? If so, have we thought about reducing the tuition for these courses assuming that the increased offerings would be very attractive to a sufficiently large number of people to be very profitable?

We are expanding our online courses, but modality alone should not drive pricing. Flexibility, quality, and financial value transparency — such as the types of jobs students are getting when they graduate — are more important parts of the equation for CGU. Here’s why: There’s currently a race to the bottom in higher education, with schools discounting online classes at greater and greater rates to grow enrollment and revenue. We are not interested in this path. The pandemic forced us to develop online and hybrid classes, which is proving beneficial for the long run because we are able to provide high-quality, high-touch experiences. We will continue to refine these experiences and grow online and hybrid programs when opportunities arise, but we are not going the high-volume, low-cost route.

What does the leadership team see as the next step for philanthropy? We just had a president who raised more money than any of his predecessors in recent memory … so how do we hope to improve on that?

Former President Len Jessup succeeded in securing major gifts for capital projects. If Len were here, he would be the first to remind us that success in fundraising is the result of teamwork. Moving forward, CGU’s philanthropy efforts will focus on growing the endowment in ways that create more fellowships and different types of faculty support, including endowed chairs. We recently brought aboard Michael Spicer, a CGU alum and former president of the CGU Alumni Board, to serve as assistant vice president of advancement, which will benefit our fundraising and centennial celebration efforts. He has an impressive record for fundraising and should hit the ground running at CGU.

CGU has had a deficit for 10 years. What has the board been doing?

The short answer is that the Board of Trustees and the entire CGU community have been doing a lot. For several years, we believed that CGU could grow its way out of the structural deficit by growing enrollment. In 2018, the university invested in retaining and recruiting students (and getting those who had stopped out to return) and authorized using endowment funds for fellowships. This approach gained traction, with enrollment up 14 percent after the first year. Enrollment continued to trend higher until the COVID pandemic, when CGU lost the growth that the campus community worked hard to achieve. When Fall 2023 admissions dropped below where we were in 2018, we all knew we had to chart a different path. The entire CGU community has been working tirelessly over the past three years to grow enrollment by creating new programs, including professional doctorates, to meet evolving needs. Enrollment growth this summer and fall has been dramatic, in significant part because of the new programs, which attracted 119 new students. Over the past few years, however, CGU is seeing more part-time students who enroll in fewer courses, meaning higher enrollment does not automatically translate into higher revenue.

I started my first semester in the fall, and I didn’t realize financial issues were impacting the university. Regardless, I am here for the long haul. My question is what is the (very rough) estimated amount of time it will take Tyton Partners to bring back some suggestions and what will have to be cut from the budget both immediately and from now until Tyton comes back with their recommendations?

Tyton Partners will present a range of options and possible partnership opportunities by March 2025. We will share as much information as possible with the university community. We have already made about as many cuts as we can without adversely affecting university operations. No additional cuts are planned before Tyton presents its report.

To your knowledge and to the extent you can comment, are any of the other Claremont Colleges facing financial challenges, or is this strictly an issue being faced by Claremont Graduate University? If it’s a CGU situation only, what specific and unique challenges is CGU facing that the other colleges are not?

CGU has unique challenges as an all-graduate university, including a lack of auxiliary revenue sources common to most undergraduate institutions, such as housing and extensive food services. We can’t speak to others’ specific issues, but much of higher education is facing demographic challenges, including a decline in the college-going population and a growth of part-time students, as well as the not-yet-known changes that AI will bring to all of society.

What is currently being done to build up the alumni network? Alumni are a key to CGU’s success. Can you update us on who is spearheading Alumni Relations and what is developing?

The CGU Alumni Association is robust with more than 25,000 members throughout the world. Alumni come together for programs in-person and virtually to network and reminisce about their time on campus. The CGU Alumni Association Board is a valuable resource that hosts events for all alumni. Michael Spicer, assistant vice president of advancement, and John Tucker, director of alumni engagement and publicity, are working on behalf of the university to strengthen engagement and connections throughout the alumni association.

Raising Expectations

Welcome to Vantage Point, a monthly newsletter from university leaders to the campus community that addresses important issues involving CGU and its future. During my listening tour this summer, I heard many of you express a desire to be better informed about the things that affect us all, especially in what is admittedly a time of uncertainty. I believe that organizations run better when their members clearly understand what matters most.

The mission of the university—to improve lives and change the world—remains unchanged. It is the business of the university, which funds the mission, that has been neglected. We must grow our endowment in order to more responsibly finance our mission and reach even more students.

For the past decade, CGU operated with a structural deficit because it relied too heavily on tuition dollars at a time when enrollment was trending down, and our endowment size did not match the need. That is not sustainable. But let us not lower our expectations on delivery of our mission. Instead, let us raise our expectations to increase the size of the endowment.

Tim Kirley
President
Claremont Graduate University

Studying New Business Models

In January, Tim Kirley asked me to convene a group to consider a sustainable path forward for CGU. The New Models for a Sustainable CGU Committee met weekly as a faculty group and biweekly with a subgroup of trustees. Professors Patricia Easton, Andy Vosko, Bernie Jaworski, Gwen Garrison, Yan Li, and I, along with the trustees, assessed new business models to stay ahead of the technological, economic, political, and demographic disruptions challenging higher education. We are conducting an open-minded, creative exploration of new models and alternative revenue streams.

We reviewed a broad range of models, refined them, and shared a shorter list of options with faculty, staff, students, alumni, and trustees. In May, the Board ratified a resolution to secure external expertise to help CGU navigate the next phase of its 100-year journey. Over the next few months, this external team will work with us to evaluate our programs, finances, strategy, and partnerships.

I will keep you updated as this process unfolds.

Michelle Bligh
Provost
Claremont Graduate University

Progress on Admissions and a Heightened Focus on Philanthropy

Innovation and partnerships across the campus focused on enhancing the admissions experience have provided momentum in growing enrollment, though much work remains to be done.

In fall 2023, new student enrollment for the summer and fall combined was down roughly 10 percent. However, in spring of this year, we saw a year-over-year increase of 38 percent, representing a three-year high. This summer, we saw a year-over-year increase of 109 percent, representing a five-year high. Our goal for this summer and fall combined is a 20 percent increase compared with last year. I’m pleased to report that we have already achieved a 5 percent increase with four weeks remaining until the first day of the semester. I look forward to sharing a complete summary after the close of the add/drop period.

In fiscal year 2023-24, we raised $4.9 million in cash and commitments. These funds are critical in helping CGU provide an exceptional education for students, support for faculty and research, and enhancements to the campus.

Highlights include:

• $1 million from alums Andrew and Saori Casey to support fellowships for incoming Drucker MBA candidates.
• $1.1 million in future bequests from alumni for student fellowships and academic programming. Bequests are an impactful way for donors to support the university through their estate upon their passing.

We look forward to significantly growing the university’s endowment through our upcoming centennial celebration. Endowments provide a perpetual source of income that supports fellowships, faculty positions, research, and essential programming. By increasing our endowment, we ensure that future generations of students will benefit from the same high-quality education and opportunities that have been CGU’s hallmark.

Kristen Andersen-Daley
Vice President for Admissions & Advancement
Claremont Graduate University