Insights by Bill.
GRAY DI SENIOR CONSULTANT
Dr. William F. Massy
Dr. Massy develops new concepts and models for Gray DI, drawing on over 40 years of experience as a professor, senior university officer, and consultant in higher education.
"You have to have a significant enough margin to cater to your mission."
Predictive Program Economics
Rethink program strategy with predictive economics that reveals true cost, margin, and growth opportunities—moving beyond averages to smarter, scenario-based decisions.
Use Your Margins to Support Your Mission
Money remains crucially important to not-for-profits, but in a very different way than for for-profits. For universities, it’s a means for mission attainment, whereas it is the overriding objective in business firms. One barrier to the adoption of academic resourcing models is the concern that doing so will “turn the university into a business.” The case against this proposition is very strong, but its demonstration requires considerable explanation.
University of the Blind Men and the Elephant
The familiar story of the blind men and the elephant is an apt description of how people view a college or university.
How to Boost Student Engagement—Even Online
The recent New York Times op-ed about how to make online courses more engaging got me thinking about course redesign generally, especially as it applies
Money Problems? Look to Your Academic Portfolios.
What college or university doesn’t have money problems these days? We’ve seen such problems before but this time they’re deeper and more acute. In the
Predictive Program Economics
Rethink program strategy with predictive economics that reveals true cost, margin, and growth opportunities—moving beyond averages to smarter, scenario-based decisions.
Use Your Margins to Support Your Mission
Money remains crucially important to not-for-profits, but in a very different way than for for-profits. For universities, it’s a means for mission attainment, whereas it is the overriding objective in business firms. One barrier to the adoption of academic resourcing models is the concern that doing so will “turn the university into a business.” The case against this proposition is very strong, but its demonstration requires considerable explanation.
University of the Blind Men and the Elephant
The familiar story of the blind men and the elephant is an apt description of how people view a college or university.
How to Boost Student Engagement—Even Online
The recent New York Times op-ed about how to make online courses more engaging got me thinking about course redesign generally, especially as it applies
Money Problems? Look to Your Academic Portfolios.
What college or university doesn’t have money problems these days? We’ve seen such problems before but this time they’re deeper and more acute. In the
"If you could become more efficient without sacrificing quality, you can exercise your values more than the institution that can’t."
Meet Bill.
Dr. Massy develops new concepts and models for Gray DI, advises on existing models and client applications, writes a blog series, and participates in webinars and other presentations. He is an emeritus professor and former vice provost and vice president/CFO of Stanford University, and has been a consultant to higher education for more than 40 years.
Throughout his life, Dr. Massy has been an outdoor enthusiast, enjoying hiking, scuba diving, and even bungee jumping.
List of Accolades:
- Winner of the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) award for outstanding achievement (1995).
- Winner of the Operations Research Society of America’s Frederick W. Lanchester Award (1981)
- Senior Research Fellow, Consortium for Policy Research in Education
- Senior Scholar, Pew Higher Education Research Program
- Contributing Editor, Policy Perspectives.
Past Roles:
- Board of Directors, Stanford University Hospital
- Director, Stanford Management Company
- Director, MAC Group, Inc.
- Visiting Professor, Carnegie Mellon University
- Professor Emeritus, Stanford University
- President, The Jackson Hole Higher Education Group, Inc. (JHHEG)
- Director, Diebold, Inc.
Selected Publications:
- Resource Management for College is in universities (2020)
- Reengineering the University (2016)
- Academic Quality Work (with co-authors, 2007)
- Honoring the Trust (2003)
- Resource Allocation in Higher Education (1996)
- “Hollowed Collegiality” in Change (1994)
- “Faculty Discretionary Time: Departments and the Academic Ratchet” in Journal of Higher Education (co-author, 1993)
- “Productivity in Postsecondary Education: A New Approach”; in Educational Evolution and Policy Analysis (co-author, 1993)
- Endowment: Perspectives, Policies, and Management (1990)
- Planning Models for Colleges and Universities (co-authored, 1981)
"We want to be business-like, but not like businesses."
Massy Planning Model (MPM)
MPM is an extension of Gray DI PES Economics and Outcomes. It models and creates visualizations of an institution’s current financials, desired future financials, and the actions needed to reach them.
MPM is a tool that:
- Precisely models academic operations (e.g., class size) and their effects on staffing, costs, and revenue.
- Enables planners to quantitatively visualize alternative strategies at different levels of detail over a ten-year period.
- Helps planners identify (a) one or more feasible desired futures and then (b) bundled sets of actions needed to reach them.
- Analyzes many different actions, both individually and in ‘action bundles.’
- Supports strategic planning, financial planning, and budgeting, with particular emphasis on academics, in colleges and universities.
"Better decision-making through better data."
Connect with Bill.
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