Assignment task: Write a Memo to Explain to me which team approach you would use to identify risks at Blythe University and why.
Explain the advantage or disadvantage to doing so and the desired outcome.
CASE STUDY - BLITHE UNIVERSITY Blithe University is a mid-sized liberal arts university in the Midwest. Although founded in 1901, the university operated as a small local teachers' college until the early 2000s when it implemented an ambitious growth plan after receiving a sizeable donation from a former student. In the last ten years, it has grown from 3,000 students to 12,000 students, built five new academic buildings, five new dormitories, and a collegiate sports center.
The growth has had both positive and negative consequences. Although there are more students and therefore more tuition income, the university infrastructure has not kept pace. The operating problems include these:
- Computer systems are antiquated
- The administration lacks experience with the scale of operations
- Much of the faculty is either inexperienced or they are part-timers with no long-term allegiance to the university
· Internal and external controls over the accounting and finance systems are inadequate for the current level of operations
Recently, the university experienced a cheating sandal that made the national news. A student posted a video on-line that depicted obvious and rampant cheating in a final exam, and the video went viral. There was an immediate outcry from parents, many of whom threatened to withdraw their children. Alumni giving immediately dried up right in the middle of the university's first major fund-raising campaign in more than twenty years. Perhaps most significantly, the university's accrediting body has placed the university on probation. Loss of accreditation threatens the university's survival, as it would then become ineligible for federal student aid.
A second incident involving the football team ensued shortly thereafter. Two players confessed to being paid under the table by an unnamed alumnus to play sports at Blithe. The fact that the alumnus was not named created even more suspicion and mistrust. Right after that information became public there was a mysterious fire at the athletic complex, which the fire department ruled as arson. The fire caused $750,000 worth of damage, much of which was uninsured because of the lapse in the university's fire insurance policy caused by nonpayment of premiums.
The president of the university has been replaced, and the first thing that the new president has done is to hire a risk management professional to help guide the university. The risk management professional has been tasked with designing and implementing an enterprise-wide risk management framework and process that can address the university various risk exposures.