October 2026
Better planning takes more than a better budget. It takes connecting the decisions, and the data, that shape the institution.
That was the idea behind “Beyond Budgeting: Connecting Enrollment, Finance, and Faculty Planning,” the featured demo session Porterhouse SLED presented at the 2026 NACUBO Planning, Budgeting, and Analytics Forum in Coronado, California, on October 5. We shared the stage with two institutions we work with: Melissa Naitza, Assistant Dean for Academic Administration at Vassar College, and Ashton Vogelsang, Interim Vice President for Finance and Administration at Marywood University. John McGrath, Chief Operating Officer and Managing Partner of Porterhouse SLED, led a live demonstration. Every example was real, and everything we showed was working functionality.
What We Heard
The challenge we hear most often in higher education is silos. Academic affairs, HR and finance plan on their own calendars, in their own spreadsheets, with their own assumptions. The budget gets built, and that is often where planning stops. Questions from the room reflected the same reality: how a planning platform can work alongside legacy and homegrown systems, and how to get departments to trust the numbers. Those are maturity questions as much as technology questions.
What We Showed
Working in Adaptive from Workday, John brought finance, HR, capital and student data together and showed what becomes possible once it is connected: spotting budgeted positions that are not being recruited, scoring deferred maintenance projects by risk and priority, and using student-level enrollment data to look at faculty course loads and program-level costs.
Then he asked a question in plain language. Using Decision Intelligence, a single prompt reviewed enrollment and faculty by school, from actuals back to 2013 through a forecast to 2029, and returned a written analysis with an interactive scenario dashboard. In the demo scenario, a 3% enrollment increase that first looked like a $25 million gain became a $22 million shortfall once lower net tuition per student, added faculty, compensation and recruiting costs were modeled. A different set of assumptions produced a $6 million gain. The point was not the numbers. It was how quickly a leadership question became a tested answer.
Vassar College: Faculty Demand Planning
Melissa described a faculty salary budget process that used to live in a manual, time-consuming Excel file. Working with Porterhouse SLED, Vassar built a faculty demand planning model in Adaptive from Workday that brings in about 15 years of historical student data to show enrollment trends by department.
Departments enter each faculty member’s target load and assignments, including courses, releases and leaves, so the college can see where full-time loads are met and where adjuncts are needed. Faculty compensation connects to those assignments, so the budget updates as assignments change. Vassar is using the model to plan the 2027-28 academic year.
Marywood University: Net Tuition Revenue by Cohort
As a small, private, tuition-dependent university, Marywood keeps its focus on net tuition revenue. Ashton described separate undergraduate and graduate models organized by entering cohort, each carrying program mix, retention, tuition, and merit, need-based and restricted aid.
Because no two classes are alike in need, program or length, the models show how each cohort affects net tuition revenue, staffing and FTE over several years. Marywood uses them to test tuition increases, discount rates, and awarding and packaging strategies, and has added capital planning for its capital improvement budget and depreciation. Leadership questions now get answered quickly and with confidence.
The Maturity Story Behind Both Examples
Our Budget Process Maturity Model, aligned to NACUBO guidance for higher education, describes a path from Reactive to Optimized budgeting. Vassar and Marywood show what that path looks like in practice:
- From static spreadsheets to one model that updates as decisions change
- From an annual budget to multi-year views of enrollment, aid, staffing and capital
- From finance working alone to academic affairs, HR and finance planning together
- From “that will take weeks” to tested scenarios in the meeting
Neither institution needed to replace its core systems to get there. Adaptive from Workday works alongside the student and finance systems an institution already runs.
The Impact for Institutions
- Faster answers for leadership and boards. Enrollment, tuition and staffing questions get modeled scenarios, not best guesses.
- Shared assumptions people trust. When academic and finance teams plan from the same data, decisions are easier to explain.
- More time on analysis. Decision Intelligence shortens the path from a question to an answer.
- A plan that keeps up. Budgets move as assignments, cohorts and priorities change.
Ready to Go Beyond Budgeting?
Porterhouse SLED is a Workday Services Partner focused on state and local government and higher education, and our team includes former campus budget leaders. If you missed us in Coronado, we would be glad to walk your team through the demonstration in a 30-minute session. Download the Budget Process Maturity Model Self-Assessment to see where you stand, or contact Porterhouse SLED to schedule a conversation.
Thank you to Melissa Naitza and Ashton Vogelsang for sharing their work, and to NACUBO for bringing higher education business officers together.
