Auburn University

Data-Driven Growth in the “COVID Recession”
Auburn University

Overview

Auburn University (AU), founded in 1856, is a public research university in Auburn, Alabama with nearly 25,000 undergraduate students. AU’s long history is a testament to its capacity to adapt. Now the school, which was ranked the 17th most efficient university in the nation, is developing a plan to move through what CFO Kelli Shomaker calls the “COVID recession.”

Read the case study to learn more about how HelioCampus helped Auburn use benchmarking to better understand how they compare with
similar institutions so they can make smarter financial decisions during this time of economic uncertainty.

“Efficiency has to tie us back to our mission,” Shomaker explained in a recent webinar on ROI and the COVID-19 crisis. In order to identify
efficiencies and ways to bolster student success, AU partnered with HelioCampus. 

Kelli Shoemaker

CFO, Auburn University

Benchmarking allowed Auburn to... 

  • With more than 50 data points that focus in areas like departmental support, IT, human resources, and more, Auburn could finally make informed decisions around administrative spending;
  • Compare their current spending to peer institutions to get a sense of where they are over- and under-invested;
  • Identify under-funded departments where employees may be unsatisfied due to stress or resource strain, as well as over-funded departments where money can be reallocated to support institutional growth.

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Learn More About the Results 

Read the Case Study