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"You can’t solve a problem until you frame a problem."

That's why Dr. Jack Hawkins, Jr. called for an institutional audit at the very beginning of his chancellorship - the longest running chancellorship in the country. 

“I would advise every new university president or chancellor to do an audit immediately," said Hawkins. "A vision can be a great thing, but it also can be a nightmare for those who have to implement it. And that’s why I believe that for a vision to have meaning, to be relevant, it needs to be a collective vision. But how do you have a vision unless you can frame the problem?”

With the issues clearly framed, Hawkins and the Troy University Board of Trustees have gone about “rightsizing” the university system to adapt to the changing times. Their success story involves campus consolidation and reviewing and optimizing space utilization, program productivity, and faculty utilization.  

Ongoing efforts to rightsize the university have resulted in significant cost savings, enabling university leadership to provide students with an affordable, flexible, and quality education.

The consolidation of Troy University’s campuses into "one great university" saved $10 million in just the first ten years.

In our fourth case study of the Governing Board Best Practices on College Affordability project – Rightsizing College – we examine the leadership of Troy University’s Board of Trustees and Chancellor Jack Hawkins and the decisions that molded the university into an adaptive and affordable institution to meet the evolving needs of its students and community.

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