WPI Forward
WPI Forward is an initiative designed to make a WPI education more affordable for students and their families and to protect the university from a less predictable, changing market. We will do this by reducing spending on operations and using savings to fund financial aid and unexpected contingencies. The target for recurring savings is in the millions, has been revised from $10M to $8M within FY21, and remains an estimate because it is based on the best information we currently have. The closer we get to May 1, when we know what the discount rate is for the incoming class, the closer we will be to an actual number.
A steering committee, project teams, and our consultant are working to gather data and make recommendations to the president who will decide which proposals to bring forward to the Board of Trustees. Pending support of the Board, these decisions will be made once all initial studies are complete in the spring of 2020, allowing full trade-offs to be considered.
Share your ideas or questions
WPI is a community of problem-solvers. If you have ideas to reduce costs or otherwise operate more efficiently, or you have a question, send a confidential email to affordability@wpi.edu.
Frequently Asked Questions
The WPI Forward Steering Committee will regularly update the community.
8:00 AM
Make breakfast in the cottage.
What is the process for selecting areas for savings?
Huron Consulting created a list of potential savings opportunities through interviews of more than 50 people across campus, several faculty focus groups, review of dozens of data sets, and consideration of ideas and suggestions from the WPI community through affordability@wpi.com. The Steering Committee recently evaluated and prioritized the various savings opportunities we’ve identified to date. The group prioritized items that were easiest to implement/had least negative impact and that represented the largest savings opportunities. We are in the process of building teams to address the top items identified by the Steering Committee. These teams will study the opportunity carefully, and make recommendations back to the Steering Committee on any changes to be made.
5:00 PM
Return to town for dinner at a local restaurant.
7:15 AM
Wake up and head to the dining hall for breakfast, where I usually grab veggie sausages, a banana, and a muffin.
4:00 PM
Go for a run, usually along the 3-mile Shore Path.
10:00 AM
Grab some breakfast.
Does this mean WPI is not in strong financial position?
No. WPI is in a strong financial position. We cannot emphasize this enough. Our endowment is strong, we have $1B in assets, $250M in operating income, and generous philanthropic supporters. What’s happened is that, over the past five years, our price to families has crept up relative to our competitors, and at the same time we are seeing a very real shift in the behavior of prospective students when it comes to cost. Those two things together require us to make a relatively rapid course correction to WPI’s affordability.
9:00 PM
Get ready for bed and relax with a movie or some YouTube videos.
10:00 AM
Break up into our designated groups and head to work.
6:30 PM
Free time—we’d go hiking, swimming, or just relax back at the house.
9:00 AM
Wake up and make breakfast.
How is information getting to the Steering Committee?
In several ways. Every division has a senior representative on the committee. Those leaders are working within their own organization to surface ideas and bring them forward. We have set up affordability@wpi.edu as a mechanism for anyone to submit ideas. And finally, Huron has conducted ~50 interviews, held faculty focus groups, gathered many data sets, and continues to talk to community members. Their analyses and menu of opportunities have been presented to the WPI Forward Steering Committee. We are now moving from generating ideas to examining them more closely, and are setting up project teams that will report to the Steering Committee. Employees from across campus will be asked to serve on the project teams.
10:00 PM
Head to the beach for a late-night swim (being sure not to disturb anyone nearby)
12:00 PM
Break for lunch.
9:00 PM
Head back out to take sky quality measurements.
11:00 AM
Lunch in the dorm.
Why are we developing an expensive new building if we are simultaneously cutting costs?
It’s important to continue investing in our future in order to remain competitive, including improving our infrastructure. The new building is one example of the kinds of investments we must continue to make to build WPI’s resilience for the future.
6:00 PM
Explore more of Bar Harbor with another walk, this one along the Shore Path.
10:00 AM
Meet with group members and leave for Acadia National Park, where we’ll usually head up to Cadillac Mountain to collect data.