What is Elon’s mission?
Today we were visited by Chris Fulkerson and we discussed Elon University in terms of it as a business. Elon is a non-profit organization, so it is not taxed by the state. This has caused some controversy with surrounding businesses, because it is by far the biggest property in the town of Elon, and pays little to no tax on any of it. Elon University’s mission is “Elon University embraces its founders’ vision of an academic community that transforms mind, body, and spirit and encourages freedom of thought and liberty of conscience.” With this mission in mind, Elon made four commitments: “We nurture a rich intellectual community characterized by active student engagement with a faculty dedicated to excellent teaching and scholarly accomplishment. We provide a dynamic and challenging undergraduate curriculum grounded in the traditional liberal arts and sciences and complemented by distinctive professional and graduate programs. We integrate learning across the disciplines and put knowledge into practice, thus preparing students to be global citizens and informed leaders motivated by concern for the common good. We foster respect for human differences, passion for a life of learning, personal integrity, and an ethic of work and service.” Elon University is owned by the Board of Trustees, who have one employee, President Leo Lambert. Lambert is the eighth President of Elon.
Who are Elon’s customers?
The customers of Elon University are almost entirely the students. Elon is a completely tuition driven school and as shown by their financial statement ending on May 31, 2013, of the schools total revenue ($212,159,801), tuition and fees accounted for over $177 million. Another way Elon makes money generations donations and grants from the government. In 2009, Elon began another of their 10 year plans with a fund raiser, showing a video of their plans for Elon’s future, and earned a total of $105 million.
What do Elon’s customers value?
Elon students pay a high tuition whether they are in or out of state, so they definitely value an excellent education and a meaningful 4+ years of their life. Students value a wide variety of things based on their interests, whether it be Elon’s study abroad programs, the beautfiul well-kept campus, the library, gym, or any other amenity Elon provides. Elon students value a meaningful degree in their field that will increase in value over time.
What are Elon’s results?
From 1993-2013, Elon has gone from being a small college that “accepted everbody,” to a selective university that only accepted about 52% of applicants this year. There are now 6305 students, compared to 3279 in 1993, SAT scores have gone from 1022 to 1831, 63% of students were top 20% in there class compared to 18% in ’93, the campus has grown from 900,000 square feet to 2,450,000, the budget has increased from $33 million to $211 million, and there are now 1,321 employees compared to 410 in ’93.
What is Elon’s plan?
Elon’s a 10 year plan that they started in 2009 has already had more than a few items checked off of the list, and as Chris Fulkerson said, “[Elon] creates 10 year plans and gets them done in 6 or 7.” He said that two reasons of Elon’s success is that they are “always asking for money” and they are “very tight with their money.” They aim to gain about 50-60 students each year, and this past year about 250 more students than they intended on accepted, so Fulkerson said next year they will have to accept a few less to even it out.
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