NCHEMS recommends foundational funding plus a performance pool for Mississippi public universities

Consultants from the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems recommended a two-part funding approach to the Institutions of Higher Learning board on May at Alcorn State University: a foundational “floor” to secure administration and facilities and a smaller performance pool that rewards measurable improvement.

Sarah Pingle, vice president of NCHEMS, told trustees the team has been under contract in Mississippi for months and will deliver final materials before the contract ends June 30. She described three tiers of foundational funding — floor, lean and comprehensive — and said the floor covers administration and basic facilities maintenance while lean and comprehensive levels add progressively more program-support funding.

"Foundational funding is the basis on which state support should rest and on which performance can be best incentivized," Pingle said, summarizing the consultants’ approach.

Dr. Brian Prescott, also of NCHEMS, emphasized that the model’s design matters as much as the amount of money routed through it. He said most states protect a base allocation and apply modest performance funds on top, and cautioned against designs that create perverse incentives or that reward relative winners while penalizing institutions that also improve.

The consultants described the modeling approach used: foundational floor estimates use national expenditure surveys to calculate a conservative administrative share and a facilities-maintenance figure based on replacement value and assign a per-institution floor. Performance scoring uses percent-change (2024 versus the prior three-year average) across a concise set of metrics organized by sector (research vs. comprehensive) and awards points within threshold ranges; NCHEMS modeled a 50-point scale.

Using last year’s appropriation and their modeling assumptions, NCHEMS identified three institutions with deficits relative to the calculated floor: Alcorn State University, Mississippi State University and the University of Mississippi. The consultants illustrated a possible allocation: if leftover new dollars were split half to filling floor gaps and half to performance, the modeled distribution would have directed roughly 54% of that floor-gap pool to the University of Mississippi, 38% to Mississippi State and a smaller share to Alcorn State. They also reported that a modeled $1.3 million performance pool in the scenario would have resulted in roughly $255,000 additional aggregated performance dollars to the University of Mississippi and the University of Southern Mississippi under the proposed scoring.

When a trustee asked about how many performance metrics are appropriate, Prescott answered directly: "We settled on 10. I think that's about as high a number as you should choose." He added that eight metrics might be shared across sectors and trustees can determine the final mix and weightings.

NCHEMS emphasized that the trustees — not the consultants — ultimately set parameters, including the split between foundation and performance dollars and which metrics to use. The consultants urged the board to adopt durable principles and cautioned against repeating earlier cycles in which a model was adopted and then abandoned.

Board members did not take an immediate vote on the recommendation; consultants framed the deliverable as advisory and noted the trustees’ first formal opportunity to request legislative action would be at the June meeting.