CAPELLA'S INFRASTRUCTURE

The basic organizational structure of Capella University’s 379-member operational, leadership and services staff (three years ago it was 75- member staff) is comprised of five primary departments, listed below. (This does not include its current 400 independently contracted adjunct faculty members.)

1. Marketing and Sales (includes Product Management) - This department has 39 employees and is basically responsible for building the school’s brand and position inside specific markets, including the promising professional development marketplace. A sales team works with product management to ensure that Capella offers programs to profitably meet the unique needs of its learners, many of whom come from corporations and governmental organizations, including the military.

2. Learner Operations - This department has 119 employees and is responsible for the management of enrollments, registrations, university services, and financial aid/learner accounts services.

3. E-Learning and Web Services - This department has 23 employees who manage and develop the Capella Web sites as well as provide support for the development and implementation of Web-based strategies and solutions that aim to lead to increased efficiency and scaleability and improved learning experiences.

4. IT - This department has 54 employees and is comprised of five units: business systems, business intelligence, network systems, Web & e-learning systems and shared IT services. The business systems unit is responsible for maintaining systems that help manage the Capella customer, including its customer relationship management (CRM) and utility management services (UMS) software technologies. The business intelligence unit provides reporting and analytic capabilities to the organization. Network systems maintains the network server and workstation platforms. Web and e-learning systems maintains Capella’s current e-learning platform (Lotus Learning Space). The shared IT services unit manages the delivery of all IT projects and develops and maintains the Capella intranet.

5. Schools and Academic Leadership - This department has 144 employees. Each of Capella’s five schools has a product director and an executive director. "The product director generally comes from a marketing and product management background," says Vice President of Marketing Dave Gilbert. "Their job is to help the executive director run the school as a business, and that means doing everything from market research on what are our learners really coming to us for, what do they hope to get out of earning a degree, and how do we deliver it to them." Product directors also monitor Capella progress with regard to its forecast numbers, and they ask if "we are running the school like a good, solid business." The executive directors, whose counterparts in traditional higher education are deans, focus on course and curriculum development and the management and support of faculty. Also within the schools and academic leadership department are assessment, academic advising, writing support, library services and alumni development personnel.

Faculty

Regarding Capella’s 400 adjunct faculty - 200 of whom have been hired over the past five quarters - Vice President of Human Resources Betsy Rausch explains that many of them are scholar-practitioners (typically Ph.Ds with expertise in a particular discipline who often have a private practice or are actively engaged in some other kind of business. "They like teaching and the contact with students, but not necessarily as a full-time occupation," she adds.

Rausch says that Capella currently receives about 125 resumes each month for adjunct faculty positions, up from about 100 six months ago. She estimates Capella’s faculty turnover rate to be in the seven percent range.