Each year, members nominate a small group of urgent and aspirational issues to be the focus of the Roundtable’s most in-depth research efforts. Once defined, teams of three to four staff devote six to nine months reading thousands of pages of literature and interviewing hundreds of experts and institutional practitioners to identify the 10 to 15 innovative and replicable practices that best resolve the operational or strategic challenge. These tactics and models are presented to the membership at business executive roundtable meetings and published as best practice studies.

The agenda below describe the Roundtable's completed and ongoing initiatives.

Initiatives in Progress

Managing the Cost of Outside Spend

Despite recent investments in e-procurement systems and some greater reliance on group purchasing, higher education procurement practice still lags what is common in both the corporate and health care worlds. With the economic downturn and resulting university budget pressures, it is becoming harder to accept less than optimal practice in an area that accounts for 20 to 30 percent of a typical university’s total operating budget. At the request of our member universities, the Roundtable has launched a major research initiative focusing on best practices for managing university outside spend.

Stretching the Health Benefits Dollar

Like most other employers across the nation, universities are struggling to continue providing health benefits to employees and faculty given the escalating cost of coverage. Even though some universities have seen moderation in cost increases the last few years, most realize this is likely a temporary pause in the upward climb. At the request of our member universities, The Roundtable has launched a major research initiative focusing on best practices for managing university health benefits costs.

Capturing Alternative Revenues

While universities will need to rely on cost reduction to close the lion’s share of any future budget gaps, many are also looking at myriad ideas for growing revenues as well, particularly in nontraditional ways. The Roundtable’s upcoming research will both catalog the many revenue options universities are pursuing, as well as run deeper on the most promising ideas. Potential best practice solutions include increasing access to university facilities; expanding summer sessions and programming; growing corporate sponsorships/research partnerships; investing in international student recruitment; and investing in distance and continuing education programs.

Completed Initiatives

Managing University Energy Costs

Given recent liquidity concerns and tightening credit markets, members have turned to the Roundtable seeking “quick win” cost reduction tactics. Many universities have already implemented some form of a basic austerity plan in the last few months—hiring and salary freezes, reductions in nonessential travel, delayed faculty searches, deferred capital projects—and are now wondering which initiatives or services are next. Before looking too far afield for the next minimally invasive cost lever, there are significant opportunities to reduce operating costs in the short and long term that are at business executives' fingertips, particularly energy cost savings through principled investments in green initiatives.

Making the Case for Shared Services

Even before the recent economic crisis, universities were under increasing pressure to constrain growth in operating budgets. Yet despite their best efforts, many universities still struggle with inefficient, redundant, and needlessly costly business processes that fall far short of meeting university needs and faculty demands. Roundtable research profiled how a growing number of universities nationwide are overcoming barriers to shared services implementation and outsourcing. Our study focused on universities that have successfully consolidated and streamlined core business functions—HR, finance, IT services, and research administration—suggesting best approaches for overcoming administrative staff and faculty resistance to change.

Managing Multidisciplinary Research Center Costs

The last decade of outsized growth in federal research funding has been a mixed blessing for most universities, bringing with it increased revenues, yet saddling universities with greatly increased (and unfunded) research administration costs and compliance risks. Our research looked at how universities are dealing with the business challenges posed by the recent proliferation of multidisciplinary research centers. This study profiles innovative approaches to ensuring only financially sustainable centers receive institutional funding, providing support for regulatory and budget-planning needs, and consolidating administrative support for multiple units.