Know your niche: Berklee set out to be the MIT of music; now the trick is to keep the focus without straying - Viewpoint

University Business, Feb, 2004 by David Hornfischer

While donated funds would have been preferred, such are often not possible for a young, growing college until a giving tradition can be established. Our niche position, coupled with our strong and geographically dispersed applicant base, generated an institutional operating strength (S&P A bond rating) justifying debt which funded facilities to further strengthen our product.

STRONG ENROLLMENT AND COST CONTROL

Operationally, the college has been driven by its strong enrollment, growing by about 3 percent per year for the past decade. While the higher enrollment has driven up costs at a near double-digit rate, faster-growing tuition revenues have enabled us to meet operating , costs, fund increased debt, and provide a larger and higher-quality operation than traditional small music schools. The college has also benefited from a strong music-based summer program, consisting of a full credit semester (a five-week program for almost 700 primarily high school students) and shorter instrumental programs.

Some operating cost-control strategies--again benefiting from the niche music focus--include: extensive use of contracted services in non-mission centered areas including dining, auxiliary, and facility services; a reasonable (for music instruction) 15-17 hour/week faculty workload; diligent and vertical use of expensive Boston real estate space (about 600,000 square feet for 3,700 students); partial use of a defined-benefit pension approach; extensive use of student employees in many educational facilities, and a creative approach to the use of part-time faculty that provides for health and pension benefits to many teaching higher loads.

ASPIRATIONS

Many cortege missions state aspirations for quality, excellence, and being the best, but a niche is a necessary ingredient to success. MIT's may be technology. Amherst's may be liberal arts. Berklee's is music. What is your school's niche?

David Hornfischer is treasurer and vice president of Administration and Finance at Berklee College of Music, Boston.