September Luncheon Speakers
September 9, 2022, Aaron Walton, President, and Clifton Anderson, Senior Advisor and Chief Strategist, provided a strategic overview of Cheyney University, a state-owned university, and the oldest HBCU (Historically Black College and University) is the country. The university had been struggling with low enrollment and financial instability, and new leadership (Aaron, Clifton, et al) was brought in to nurse the organization back to health. There was high debt, insufficient revenue (state allocations were not adequate), declining enrollment from a high of 3,000 many years ago to less than 700 students (with an associated decline in tuition revenue), underutilized buildings, over staffing (staffed for 1,500 students). A transformation was necessary. Incremental change was neither sufficient nor possible: the problems were too great. They embarked on a corporate turnaround and strategic planning process, with an underlying goal of running the university as a business (“education as a business”). Two filters drove the planning process: what was in the best interests of the students, and what advanced the financial stability of the university. The university had to shrink to grow. Academically, they reduced number of majors from 19 to 10. They offer these ICAAE accredited programs: Healthcare (partner with Jefferson), Bioscience (partner with Wistar Institute), Agribusiness, Education (partner with Philadelphia schools), Technology, and Criminal Justice. The enrollment objective is 1,000-1,200 students. There are now have 675 undergraduates. Football was dropped (saving $2M annually) and enrollment shifted from 52% male and 48% female to 52% female and 48% male. Graduate studies have been temporarily eliminated. The academic profile of new admissions rose: GPA from 2.02 to 2.92, PSATs from 650 to 950. Graduation rate has shifted to 70% from 51%. From a business perspective, they developed public/private partnerships, as a win-win-win for Cheney, students, and partners. For example, there are paid internships for students, partners inform the curriculum and serve as mentors to students, which creates a talent pipeline for partners. The 275 acre campus and building assets are being leveraged to create opportunities for profit sharing and lease revenues. Five companies are leasing space. Their ThinkUbator initiative offers biologics, cell, and gene therapy companies the opportunity to practically pursue their science in a campus setting by leasing on-campus process development and wet lab space to private enterprise. Overall, they have so far have moved from a 4.4M deficit to 2M surplus, and they provide an ecosystem where students can learn, work, eat, and sleep. There were 21 members in attendance.
September 23, 2022, Matthew Farber, Associate Professor at St. Joseph’s University discussed “What Makes a Beer? A Story of Natural History, Marketing, and Science “. Matthew has co-authored a book with Roger Barth titled Mastering Brewing Science: Quality and Production. St. Josephs has a licensed brewery on campus and offers an 18-credit brewing course designed for future working professionals. The course has 100% job replacement (the brewery business is good….2.7 breweries per day are opening in the US, and all are doing well). Beers used to be marketed as being good for you, but the TTB (Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) has since required that beers promote no health benefits and do not provide a nutritional label. However, beer is a great source of potassium and magnesium. Essentially, beer contains barley, hops, water (beer is 95% water), and yeast. A hoppy beer does not equal a bitter beer. Water profile is important and can influence flavor (Philadelphia has a nice water profile). It takes four gallons of water to make one gallon of beer. Hard seltzers are considered beers. Beer is inherently stable and safe product. No known pathogens can grow in beer. The general process for making beer includes: Barley is steeped, spouted, and roasted in a kiln to create malt; malted barley is processed to create mash; mash is processed into wort; wort is boiled, and hops or other flavoring are added; yeast is added for fermentation, resulting in new or green beer; green beer further conditioned and stabilized to the product ready for canning or bottling. The haze in beer is mostly from the presence of proteins and polyphenols in the grains. Hazy beers require some additional steps. The challenge is to make a haze that remains stable for an extended period. The first evidence of beer is from 5,000 BC in China. Barley beer first confirmed in 3,400-3,000 BC. First evidence of hops was 822 AD. First evidence of yeast was 1839. A word to describe beer is often the German term “Gemütlichkeit”, which conveys a sense of tradition of cordiality and friendliness and public festivity. There were 23 participants.
