Katie Conboy: Leading Change at Simmons College Custom Case Solution & Analysis

Evidence Brief: Simmons College Redesign

Financial Metrics

Projected Deficit: The institution faced a potential 10 million dollar structural deficit by the 2017 fiscal year if no action was taken.
Administrative Costs: Centralized costs and redundant dean-level expenses across five schools created excessive overhead.
Enrollment Composition: Approximately 1600 undergraduate students and over 3000 graduate students.
Revenue Sources: Heavy reliance on tuition with increasing pressure from the competitive Boston higher education market.

Operational Facts

Existing Structure: Five distinct schools (Arts and Sciences, Management, Library and Information Science, Social Work, Nursing and Health Sciences) operated as silos.
Redundancy: Each school maintained independent administrative functions, budgets, and leadership teams.
Programmatic Scope: Transitioning from a small college to a complex university-style entity without updating the governance model.
Geographic Context: Located in the Fenway area of Boston, limited by physical footprint and high local competition.

Stakeholder Positions

Helen Drinan (President): Focused on financial sustainability and institutional survival; supported radical restructuring.
Katie Conboy (Provost): Tasked with leading the academic redesign; sought to balance faculty interests with fiscal necessity.
Faculty Senate: Expressed concern regarding tenure, academic freedom, and the speed of the reorganization.
Deans: Varied positions; some viewed the consolidation as a threat to their specific school identity and autonomy.

Information Gaps

Specific breakdown of individual school profitability is not fully detailed in the summary.
The exact number of faculty positions targeted for elimination or attrition is not explicitly quantified.
Long-term endowment performance data during the transition period is absent.

Strategic Analysis

Core Strategic Question

Simmons must determine how to consolidate its academic structure to eliminate a 10 million dollar deficit while preserving its mission as a female-focused undergraduate institution and a co-educational graduate university.

Structural Analysis

The five-school model is an operational failure. It prevents interdisciplinary collaboration and creates unnecessary administrative layers that the current tuition revenue cannot support.
Market dynamics in Boston require a more agile curriculum. The siloed structure slows down the development of new programs that meet modern workforce demands in health and data sciences.
The value chain is broken at the administrative level. Resources are trapped in dean offices rather than being directed toward student instruction or financial aid.

Strategic Options

Option 1: The Four-College Consolidation (Project Redesign). Merge the five schools into four colleges organized by thematic alignment. This reduces overhead and encourages cross-departmental innovation.
- Trade-offs: High initial faculty resistance; risk of diluting specialized school brands like Social Work or Library Science.
- Requirements: New dean hires and a redesigned governance charter.
Option 2: Targeted Administrative Retrenchment. Maintain the five schools but centralize all back-office functions (HR, Finance, Admissions).
- Trade-offs: Lower savings than Option 1; fails to address the academic silo problem.
- Requirements: Significant investment in centralized IT and management systems.

Preliminary Recommendation

Simmons should execute the Four-College Consolidation. The 10 million dollar deficit is a terminal threat that requires structural rather than incremental change. This path addresses both the fiscal crisis and the need for academic modernization.

Implementation Roadmap

Critical Path

Phase 1 (Months 1-3): Secure Faculty Senate endorsement through transparent data sharing regarding the deficit. Establish the new college boundaries.
Phase 2 (Months 4-8): National search for four new deans. Consolidate department-level administrative support into college-level hubs.
Phase 3 (Months 9-12): Align the budget with the new four-college structure. Launch interdisciplinary degree programs that utilize the new organizational flexibility.

Key Constraints

Faculty Tenure: Contracts limit the ability to quickly reduce headcount in underperforming departments.
Organizational Culture: The historical independence of the professional schools (Social Work, Library Science) creates friction during integration.

Risk-Adjusted Implementation Strategy

The plan assumes a 20 percent delay in dean recruitment. Contingency involves appointing interim deans from internal faculty to maintain momentum. Success depends on the Provost maintaining a visible presence in faculty meetings to mitigate the fear of identity loss.

Executive Review and BLUF

BLUF

Simmons College must transition to a four-college model immediately. The projected 10 million dollar deficit is not a cyclical downturn but a structural failure of the five-school administrative model. Consolidating into four colleges will reduce overhead, break academic silos, and provide the financial stability required to protect the core mission. Delaying this transition risks institutional insolvency within three years. Speed and clarity in leadership are the primary requirements for success.

Dangerous Assumption

The analysis assumes that administrative consolidation alone will bridge the 10 million dollar gap without necessitating significant faculty layoffs or program closures. If enrollment does not stabilize, the overhead savings will be insufficient.

Unaddressed Risks

Brand Dilution: Specialized graduate programs like the School of Library and Information Science may lose their market ranking if their distinct identity is submerged within a larger college.
Execution Fatigue: The scale of change may lead to a mass exodus of key faculty, damaging the quality of instruction before the new model matures.

Unconsidered Alternative

The team did not fully evaluate a complete pivot to an online-first graduate model. Given the Boston real estate constraints and the deficit, shifting capital from physical facilities to digital infrastructure could offer a more sustainable margin than physical restructuring.