Rising competition among private colleges and universities has prompted many institutions to adopt proactive strategies to secure long-term stability.

Chapman University stands out as a leading example, showing how small-to-mid-size liberal arts schools can enhance their competitive differentiation while maintaining financial health.

With Synario, Chapman can assess the long-term impact of strategic decisions, ensuring that both capital and operating plans align with the university’s financial goals.

By modeling annual investments from operating income into repair, renewal, and endowment funds, the university has successfully grown its endowment. The platform also optimizes liquidity, supporting credit evaluations and maintaining a readily accessible cash portfolio.

The Challenge: Managing Complex Financial Decisions Across Multiple Variables

Chapman University operates in a complex financial landscape where every decision can have long-term consequences.

Tuition pricing, a primary revenue driver, affects students differently depending on their class year, making it critical for leadership to understand how changes ripple across multiple cohorts. Without insight into these impacts, even small adjustments could risk enrollment and financial stability.

Chapman needed a tool that could model these nuances accurately, showing how tuition decisions would play out over several years.

Each year, the university manages a wide range of financial variables, including:

• Enrollment projections for undergraduate and graduate programs
• Tuition discount rate assumptions
• Endowment spending and liquidity
• Operating costs, including salaries and departmental budgets
• Strategic investments in new programs or capital projects

Each assumption must be carefully analyzed to ensure the university can meet its strategic and financial goals. Given the reliance on tuition revenue and the importance of maintaining liquidity, Chapman required a solution that allowed collaborative, scenario-based planning across multiple interdependent variables.

On top of this, Chapman’s ambition to expand academic programs and capital projects adds another layer of complexity. Initiatives such as research PhD programs or facilities like Marion Knott Studios and the Rinker Health Science Campus demand careful evaluation of both costs and potential benefits.

To confidently pursue these opportunities, Chapman University needed a comprehensive modeling tool that integrates operating decisions, capital investments, and strategic initiatives into one clear, actionable framework.

 

The Solution: Data-Backed Decisions for Long-Term Financial Planning

 

Modeling Tuition and Enrollment Outcomes

To address the complexities of multi-year financial planning, Chapman University leveraged Synario to model tuition pricing and enrollment outcomes with precision. 

“These financial targets that we use to guide all sorts of decision-making at Chapman — including budget, strategic plan, and near-term mission-based off-budget plan goals and investment decisions — we don’t do anything without modeling it through [Synario].” – Harold Hewitt, EVP/CFO, Chapman University

The platform allowed leadership to assign unique enrollment consequences for incoming freshmen and returning students, ensuring that tuition adjustments could be analyzed for their differential impact on each class. 

This capability enabled the university to make data-driven decisions on tuition rates while safeguarding enrollment levels and overall revenue, providing a foundation for sustainable long-term planning.

 

Optimizing Endowment Growth and Liquidity

Chapman also used Synario to optimize endowment growth and liquidity. By modeling annual reinvestments from operations into funds for major repair, renewal, and endowment growth, the university could set deliberate, measurable targets for financial stability. Enhanced liquidity not only supported municipal bond evaluations but also created a readily accessible cash portfolio for operational needs and emergencies.

Evaluating Programs and Capital Projects

Beyond operating and endowment planning, Synario provided a robust framework for evaluating new academic programs and capital projects. 

The university could test the financial feasibility of initiatives like PhD programs, Marion Knott Studios, and the Rinker Health Science Campus, integrating the costs and benefits of each project into a comprehensive, multi-year model.

 

The Results: Sustainable Revenue and Strategic Alignment

By leveraging Synario, Chapman University has achieved impressive financial results over the past decade. The university’s endowment grew from $134 million to $392 million by FY 2018, driven by targeted annual reinvestments from operations into both repair and renewal funds as well as endowment growth.

“It takes a complex, integrated, rigorous modeling tool like [Synario] to be able to integrate all of these assumptions and plans, and assure all of us that adding the program will be consistent with the overall financial goals of Chapman.” – Harold Hewitt, EVP/CFO, Chapman University

Critically, Chapman increased the liquidity of its endowment from roughly 8% restricted to about 50% accessible, providing a flexible financial cushion. This enhanced liquidity strengthens the university’s credit evaluations during municipal bond issuance and ensures ready access to cash.

Synario also empowers leadership to integrate complex financial modeling into their decision-making, enabling multi-year projections for key variables. The platform supports analysis of:

• Tuition increases, including their differing effects on continuing students versus incoming freshmen
• Graduate program enrollment and revenue projections
• Discount rates, endowment spending, and salary assumptions

This rigorous modeling fosters a disciplined, collaborative approach to financial planning, aligning with the university’s strategic goals and supporting sustainable revenue growth.

The platform also allows Chapman to confidently expand programs and facilities while maintaining financial stability. Using Synario, the university evaluated the long-term feasibility and impact of initiatives such as its PhD in communication studies, Marion Knott Studios, and the Rinker Health Science Campus.

By integrating operating and capital planning, Chapman can grow academically, attract top students, maintain fiscal discipline, reduce reliance on multiple error-prone spreadsheets, and provide full transparency to the Board of Trustees.

“It’s the rigor of the model that has enabled us to set these targets, track our progress, meet the goals, and to readily report them back to the Board.” – Harold Hewitt, EVP/CFO, Chapman University

 

Plan Smarter, Grow Stronger with Synario

For Chapman University, sustaining a growth-focused business model without compromising financial stability relies on sophisticated multi-year planning software.

With Synario, the university continues to set the standard in higher education, confidently navigating expansion while avoiding the financial pitfalls that challenge similar institutions.Want to see how Synario can help your organization plan strategically and secure long-term financial stability? Schedule your free demo today.