Universities are being urged to create senior-level transformation functions to turn strategy into sustained execution, especially as regional public institutions face financial fragility and demographic headwinds. The proposal contrasts a traditional project management office—designed for managing timelines and budgets—with a university transformation office led by a chief transformation officer reporting directly to the president. The argument is that stewardship-only administration is no longer enough when colleges must sequence major change across siloed divisions while also sustaining implementation capacity internally. The coverage points to Central Michigan University as an example of adopting this central transformation structure. For higher education executives, the message centers on governance design: aligning priorities and decision-making authority to ensure transformation work does not stall inside tactical planning units.