Advisors to academic officers and teams in higher education
Practices: 1 business & program implementation & assessment; 2 retention & persistence analytics; 3 administrator mentorship
About Sonomia Group
Our mission
To leverage twenty-five years of effective, accomplished leadership at principally undergraduate, enrollment-dependent, private and state institutions to help academic administrator clients improve the profitability of their institutions and the effectiveness of their academic management within the context of mission and the needs of the institution’s service area, while improving faculty morale and increasing accountability.
Our vision
Your partner in sustainable success.
Scope of Practice
Business & Program Planning
Our work in this area is centered on ensuring that the programs which clients have decided to launch or relaunch will meet or exceed the institution’s expectations in terms of profitability.
The client-established project goals and objectives will be translated into measurable benchmarks, which will inform the development of an implementation plan emphasizing existing resources (personnel, facilities, partners) that can be employed to minimize cost, maximize campus buy-in, and increase the odds of successful outcomes. The implementation plan will include milestones and glide paths, and will be subjected to a robust, on-going assessment including quarterly reports on progress and, as necessary, recommendations for course corrections.
Services will be provided on a retainer basis for three to five years, depending on the nature of the project. Annual fees will start at $20,000 for a single program and increase with program complexity. Viability of new programs will be determined jointly with Prescience Consulting LLC.
Student Success
In this practice area, we seek to maximize the institution’s marketing efforts by increasing retention of both the person and the market to maximize the institution’s profitability.
Analyses of retention data by student type (first-time first-year, transfer) will be used to develop personas according to attrition risk, leading to the development of attainable goals for improved retention and quantification of the potential impact on institutional finances. As appropriate, recommendations will be made to establish programs that will improve retention and persistence. Analyses will be performed after the census date in each semester to track the persistence of each persona towards graduation.
Services will be provided on a retainer basis for four to six years. The annual rate for analytics is $20,000 for incoming classes of 500 or less, $25,000 for incoming classes between 501 and 750, and $30,000 for incoming classes larger than 751.
The development and implementation of recommended programs will be costed separately, but will also be based on an annual retainer for two complete academic cycles (seven years for first-time, first-year students, four years for transfer students). All implementation plans will include the establishment of benchmarks for success and semesterly assessments of glide plane status.
Mentoring
Our aim for these endeavors is to maximize the effectiveness of an incoming administrator and their leadership team. This will involve competency and capacity assessments of individuals specifically in the context of institutional goals and needs.
Incoming deans and chief academic officers will be mentored on an individual basis, ideally starting upon their acceptance of the position. Prior to contacting the new hire, we will hold conversations their new supervisor, their predecessor, and the principal who ran the search. From these conversations we will gain important context for their mentoring and be able to focus their mentoring program. This service will help prime the new administrator for acquiring a clear understanding of the institutional and unit issues to allow them to evaluate and address them effectively and immediately. The mentoring process will consist of one-on-one conversations and written exchanges. In addition, the new administrator will be given the opportunity to participate in group sessions with other incoming administrators from similar institutions.
Mentoring for the new administrator’s full leadership team is available as an add-on to the service described above. This component will consist of two individual conversations annually with each team member and one team meeting per quarter. Drawing upon extensive administrative experience at a range of enrollment-dependent institutions, we will help the full leadership team to become effective, efficient, and on-task.
Services will be provided on a retainer basis for two to three years. The annual rate for individual mentoring will be $10,000 per year for each year of the contract. Team mentoring will be an additional $10,000 in the first year and $5,000 thereafter.
Contact Us
Ready to take the next step? Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help you achieve your goals. We look forward to hearing from you!
About the Principal ...
Overview
Stephen (Steve) Stahl founded Sonomia Group LLC upon his retirement from Baldwin Wallace University (BW), located in Berea, Ohio, in January of 2024. He retired after serving more than ten years as the institution’s Provost. Prior to BW, he served three years as the chief academic officer at Wheeling Jesuit University (Wheeling, West Virginia), seven years as Dean of Arts & Sciences at St. Bonaventure University (Allegany, New York), two years as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College at Sweet Briar College (Amherst, Virginia), and three years as Dean of Natural & Social Sciences and Professional Studies at the State University of New York College at Fredonia (Fredonia, New York). Prior to assuming these administrative positions, he spent fourteen years on the faculty at Central Michigan University (Mt. Pleasant, Michigan), the last seven years as Chairperson of the Department of Geology. He earned his doctorate and masters from Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois) in Geological Sciences, and his bachelor’s from Washington & Lee University (Lexington, Virginia) in Geology. Steve grew up in Blue Point, Long Island, New York. He and his wife live today on the other side of the state in Fredonia in a historic home with two dogs and two cats. His hobbies include woodworking, baking, and sailing a vintage racing sloop on Lake Erie.
Administrative philosophy
The institutions Steve has served have been quite varied-- state and private; secular and religious; rural and urban; Divisions I, II, and III; possessing medium and small endowments; and unionized and not. They did have important commonalities-- during his tenure, all were principally undergraduate, enrollment-dependent institutions serving students in the middle of the bell curve. Each institution had unique critical issues to address, and each had highly treasured, unique cultural touchstones. While his priorities were strongly informed by institutional needs and regional higher education environments, the fundamentals of his management approach remained consistent: collaboration, creativity, transparency, clear establishment of priorities, accountability, and speaking truth to power.
Selected accomplishments at Baldwin Wallace University
Under Steve's leadership, BW launched new academic programs at both the undergraduate (acting BFA, arts management, data science, engineering, environmental science, music industry, nursing) and graduate (accountancy, counseling, exercise physiology, public health, speech-language pathology) levels. Programs established by the Provost's Office increased the retention rate seven points and graduation rate eight points. Working with standing committees of the Faculty Senate, he installed a merit pay system for faculty. Undergraduate student participation in study abroad was increased from 15% to over 40% by the time of graduation, and national award-winning programs were initiated for graduate students. Policies were put in place that grew external funding of grant proposals from $100K to $8M annually. Working closely with the Deans, BW increased its recruitment and retention of faculty from underrepresented populations. Steve was an active participant in a successful $100M+ capital campaign, highlights of which included the renovation of facilities for the nursing and physician assistant programs ($5M renovation project) and a new building for computer science, engineering, and mathematics ($25M project). Programs through the Provost's Office significantly expanded student-faculty scholarship support, with particular emphasis on service area outreach through community-based scholarship, such as community mapping, surveying, and environmental analyses. During his tenure, BW secured regional accreditation (HLC) for the University (full ten years) and initial accreditation for three academic programs (ABET for engineering, ACBSP for business and accounting. ARC-PA for physician assistant).
Selected accomplishments at Wheeling Jesuit University
Perhaps Steve's most significant contribution was bringing the University into good standing with its regional accreditor (HLC). The retention rate was improved by ten points through specific programs initiated by the Academic Affairs Office and, working with faculty, a re-sequencing of the core curriculum was completed. Steve also played an important role in the establishment of new facilities for the Doctor of Physical Therapy program in collaboration with the City of Wheeling.
Selected accomplishments at St. Bonaventure University
Steve takes great pride in having launched and supervised an innovative early college collaborative between St. Bonaventure University and the Warren County (PA) School District. In doing so, he secured endorsements from stakeholders (school board, parents, building administrators) and approval from agencies (central administration, local governments, county government, state government) in addition to securing the enthusiastic cooperation of St. Bonaventure faculty to teach in person in Warren (a 57-mile one-way commute). He worked closely with a small team of Warren residents to raise $1M from the community in six months to construct and equip the facility. His team's efforts were rewarded with a nomination from the Governor for a national award for excellence in rural education. Steve was also an active participant in successful $100M+ capital campaign, being primarily responsible for securing $40M to construct and equip a new science building and renovate the existing, historic facility. Several new curricula were introduced during his time, and he started a campus-wide student research and creative endeavors exposition.
Selected accomplishments at Sweet Briar College
Steve arrived at Sweet Briar in the summer of 2001. He led the college collaboratively and positively through the existential financial crisis driven by 9/11 by developing and implementing the plan for the College to become far less reliant on endowment support. The plan included starting new programs at the undergraduate level in business, communications, and engineering as well as creating the College’s first graduate program (education). Funding stream diversification was also part of the plan, which tied in with his active role in a successful $100M+ capital campaign and along with enacting policies that increased external funding from grant proposals from $50K to $2.5M annually.
Selected accomplishments at SUNY Fredonia
Steve's first priority upon assuming the position was to increase faculty morale, which he did through establishing a collaborative, consultative approach to governance. In addition, he worked with the faculty to restore important departments to functioning units. He also established a campus-wide student research and creative endeavors exposition. Finally, working closely with faculty and staff, he developed policies and procedures that resulted in increased submission of grant proposals to external funding agencies and created an office to engage in community mapping scholarship in service to the community.
Selected accomplishments at Central Michigan University
Under his leadership, the geology program was recognized for excellence by three major professional organizations (American Geophysical Union, Geological Society of America, National Association of Geology Teachers). The department rewrote personnel policies and procedures to reflect and promote a research-robust undergraduate curriculum. Department enrollment in service courses increased significantly, and the number of signed majors doubled. Furthermore, outcomes improved as all graduates who applied to graduate programs were accepted with funding and all graduates who sought employment in industry had multiple job offers. Finally, he was part of a small team that established a campus-wide undergraduate poster exposition.
His teaching responsibilities included physical geology lecture and laboratory, structural geology, geophysics, and field camp. For field camp, Steve brought his students out to north-central Nevada to study the region that comprises the bulk of the Sonomia suspect terrane. Field camp provided him with his most rewarding teaching experiences, and inspired the name of this consultancy.