Common questions about Sightline.

What the product shows, how a campus gets set up, and what invited people can do in the workspace.

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Getting started.

How much work is this for our team?
Your institutional research office sends a set of standard reports from the systems you already run. Our team does the checking, matching, and loading, and only comes back to you when something doesn't add up.
What if our data is messy?
Every campus's is. We fix formatting and coding issues ourselves. We never invent numbers. If a salary or a tuition figure is missing, we ask.
We already have a budgeting system. How is this different?
A budgeting system tracks what you plan to spend. Sightline connects that spending to teaching and enrollment, so you can see what each program costs to run, what it brings in, and what changes if you move something.
How is it different from hiring a consultant?
A consultant delivers a report once. Sightline stays current every year. The former college presidents, former college CFOs, and data scientists who built it also consult with your team, tailored to the decisions in front of your campus.
Will Sightline tell us what to cut?
No. It tells you what a specific change is worth. Your leadership decides which changes to make.
Who on campus can see our data?
Only the people you invite. Each institution has its own private workspace, and your administrators decide who gets access.
What does it cost?
Pricing depends on the size of your institution. We'll walk through it on a call.

Faculty and programs.

What is contribution margin?
Net tuition in, instructional cost out. Sightline calculates it for a faculty line, a department, a program, and a term. A line below cost is one whose teaching does not cover that cost.
What does the faculty view show?
The roster, each department's margin, who taught which section, and how the load is shared across full-time, visiting, and adjunct faculty. It flags teaching load against the targets you set, sections under your cutoff, and terms where tuition does not cover the teaching cost.
What are credit hours generated?
The credit hours a faculty line produces. Sightline shortens that to CHG and sets it next to the teaching-load target and the cost per credit hour, so a light load and a high-cost line show up in the same place.
Where do faculty with no classes show up?
On the faculty view, with the rest of the roster. People who have no teaching assignments are listed, release time included. When the prior year is loaded, the same view shows the change from last year.

Students.

What does the student view show?
The census: headcount, the first-year class, majors, who is still enrolled the next year, and institutional aid on the bill.
What does retention measure?
The share of students still enrolled the next year, from one census to the next. The headcount forecast uses that rate by class standing.
What is the discount rate?
Institutional aid as a share of the student bill. Undergraduate and graduate rates can differ. The aid view sets that aid beside the charges.

Demand.

Where does the market score come from?
Public federal data, on the same scale for every school in your geography. The score averages the signals that are present: IPEDS completions growth, BLS job growth, BLS wages, and how crowded the field already is. Search interest, enrollment, and job postings join when those series exist. It runs from 0 to 100, and a bachelor's is ranked against other bachelor's degrees. 50 is the middle of the pack.
How do margin and the market score work together?
Contribution margin sits beside the score and decides the flag. The margin never changes the score. A strong market is a score of 50 or higher. A strong margin is at or above your campus median.
What do the demand flags mean?
Invest means margin and market are both strong. Protect means the program makes money in a weak market. Fix cost means the market is strong and the margin is weak. Review means margin and market are both weak.
What is Programs to launch?
Fields and award levels you don't offer yet, ranked by that market score, and how close each one sits to a program you already run. Adults with some college and no degree size the pool around you. That count is a pool, and it is separate from the score for one major.

Scenarios and the forecast.

What is a scenario?
A saved plan that prices a specific change in dollars, year by year, against a fixed no-changes baseline. Saving it leaves the budget as it is. Your leadership decides which changes to make.
What can a scenario change about teaching and programs?
Teaching: convert a line to adjunct teaching, raise a line to a full load, eliminate a line, merge small sections, or move classes onto adjuncts. Programs: launch one, or teach one out. A teach-out can keep some students on campus in another major. The dollar effect starts in the year you pick.
What else can a scenario change?
Headcount, by retention and graduation for each class standing, the size of the incoming class, and a one-time shock. Rates: tuition, fees, room, board, the discount, salaries, healthcare, and the employer 403(b) match, including a pause of that match for a year. Campus settings such as the benefit rate and adjunct pay move faculty contribution as well. A new-student discount leaves continuing students on the aid they already have, so the change phases in as classes turn over.
What does the five-year forecast show?
This year's actuals, then five years of headcount and the operating statement. Headcount is the census by class standing. The statement is operating revenue, expense, and the surplus, line by line. A scenario lands on that same statement, beside the no-changes line.
What assumptions does the forecast start from?
The campus policy sheet: published tuition, discount and benefit rates, handbook load, and the adjunct rate, plus enrollment from the census. You can change tuition, the discount, the incoming class, retention, salaries, benefits, healthcare, room and board, and the endowment draw. Until you change a value, the forecast uses the policy you sent.
What is a teach-out?
Admissions to a major stop, and the students already in it finish. Faculty can stay in place or scale down as the major shrinks. The model can count students who leave, and students who enroll in another major on campus instead.
How does a scenario sit next to no changes?
No changes is the baseline: campus policy and the loaded headcount, with the other levers off. The scenario is that same statement with the levers you turned on. Both stay visible.
Who can open a saved scenario?
A scenario is saved in the institution's workspace, so the people you have invited can open it. An administrator can remove a shared scenario, and so can the person who created it.

Thresholds.

What are thresholds?
The targets your campus sets for course load, credit hours, section size, and what counts as a high cost per credit hour. Faculty and section flags use the active set. A locked baseline keeps the original defaults. Another set can give one department its own targets and leave the rest of the campus alone.
Who can change a threshold set?
Anyone who can open the model can create a set. An administrator can remove a shared set, and so can the person who created it. The baseline set stays locked, so the original targets remain.

Access and data.

Which reports does a campus send?
Standard files from the student, HR, and finance systems you already run. Institutional research sends the student census, course enrollments, degrees awarded, the faculty roster, sections, and teaching assignments. Finance sends the organization chart, the chart of accounts, budget and actuals, and general ledger activity, along with the other finance files the operating statement uses, such as capital projects, debt, and non-student revenue. Academic affairs, finance, and the bursar agree a one-row policy sheet: handbook load, published tuition, discount and benefit rates, and the adjunct rate. Rows match on the IDs your campus already uses. Send those IDs, and leave Social Security numbers out.
How does someone get an account?
An administrator invites them. They sign in with email and password. A forgotten password sends a reset email. Each institution decides who is on the list.
What can each role do?
An admin has full access to the institution, including adding people and changing their access. A user can open every planning page and cannot add people or change access. A data-integration account can bring files in and cannot open the model.
Can one person open more than one institution?
Yes, when each institution invites them. They choose the workspace at sign-in.
How does a new year get into the model?
Send the next year's reports. We check and load them, and the workspace can open that academic year. A prior year stays available for comparison once it has been loaded.
What systems does Sightline sit alongside?
The student information system, payroll, and the budgeting system stay in place. Sightline reads the reports they already produce and turns them into the planning model. Your institution's agreement covers use of the application. As the terms put it, the model is not an audit, a legal opinion, or a substitute for the institution's own judgment.
How is institutional data protected?
Each institution has its own private workspace. Hosting, access, FERPA, and a data processing agreement are on the security page. Customer data is used only to provide the service. It is never sold, and it is never used to train AI models.
Are the figures on this website our numbers?
The screenshot on the homepage is a sample campus, not your institution's numbers. Your workspace uses the files your institution sends.

See it on a sample campus. Then on yours.

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