Vote of support

At the end of the meeting the chair moved that the committee vote that it "fully supports the Provost's budget request." The Provost was still in attendance. I didn't object to the vote, but I abstained. I found it difficult to vote on this without discussion and with the Provost in the room.

Meeting, continued 1/18

(I called in)

Meeting began with discussion of the role of the committee, particularly regarding the "support" that the committee might request of the faculty at the senate meeting tomorrow.

The Provost suggested that the Faculty Committee/Faculty Senate might suggest to him the strategic goals that are of highest priority to the faculty.

Veteran committee members suggested that the presentation tomorrow focus on a summary of the total amount of new requests going towards each of the strategic goals with examples of the specific initiatives that are proposed to meet each goal. Emphasis might on the fact that the budget IS, in fact, distributed across the strategic plan.

Provost meets with committee 10:30

The Provost read his proposed budget to the faculty members of the committee. While this was infomative, it provided is no room for faculty input as we did not see the original requests from the deans to compare to the winnowed-down version presented by the Provost. How did the Provost set *his* priorities? Some Strategic Plan goals MUST have received greater weight, since the Provost is requesting only about half of the budgets put foward by the deans.

While we were permitted to take notes, the committee is not allowed to leave with a copy. We are not able to really have much independent discussion of the requests.

Provost will not release materials for committee review

Apparently the Provost has decided not to allow faculty to review drafts of the budget.

Budget Guidelines

BUDGET DEVELOPMENT GUIDELINES
FISCAL YEARS 2012 and 2013

Presented at the Dec. 6 Town Hall Meeting

[The following is a]framework for developing the two-year FY2012-13 budget.

[Based on o]bjectives planned for the third and fourth years of the university’s strategic plan...

Some initiatives [below] require new funding, others may involve redeployment of existing resources.

Approved by the Board of Trustees in November 2010

1.AU Strategic Plan: objectives and targets to be aligned with two-year budget.

2. Pricing: 3.0% - 5.0%. Market-driven pricing for residence halls, WCL and business graduate programs.

3. Enrollment
-Market demands, selectivity and diversity, quality instruction and student experience.
-Competitive pricing, creative marketing and distance learning.

4. Academic Programs
- Expand graduate programs
- Revitalize Washington Semester programs and expand professional development and training programs
- Strengthen research functions to support high scholarly productivity among faculty

5. Competitive Faculty and Staff Salary and Benefits

6. Financial Aid, Library, Information Technology

7. Environmental Sustainability

8. Student Experiences

9. Facilities development strategy to integrate 2011 Campus Plan and the strategic plan

10. Financial safeguards to protect the university

11. Institutional expenditures

12. New revenue through innovations

Budget Calendar

The following budget calendar was presented at

Town Hall Meeting:
Development of Next Two-Year Budget
FY2012 and FY2013December 6, 2010

Presented by:
Scott A. Bass, Provost
and
Don Myers, CFO, Vice President and Treasurer

September – October 2010
President appoints University Budget Committee (UBC).
Provost and CFO, Vice President and Treasurer lead budget meetings with the campus community.
UBC recommends budget development guidelines to the President.

November 2010
President issues strategic objectives and budget call to President’s Cabinet (November 4, 2010).
President requests input from campus community regarding strategic plan objectives for consideration in budget (November 11, 2010).
President presents budget criteria to the Board of Trustees Finance and Investment Committee (November 18-19, 2010).
Provost formulates undergraduate and graduate enrollment projections.

December 2010
Provost and CFO, Vice President and Treasurer lead budget meetings with the campus community.
Faculty Senate confers with the Provost on academic affairs budget.

January 2011
President’s Cabinet submits budget proposal to the President (January 7, 2011).
President holds campus community meeting regarding strategic plan and objectives for consideration in budget.
Budget Office submits summary of budget proposals to the President and UBC.
UBC reviews budget proposals and submits a set of recommendations to the President.

February 2011
President consults with the President’s Cabinet and presents proposed budget to the BOT Finance and Investment Committee.
Board of Trustees approves budget for FY2012 and FY2013 (February 24-25, 2011).

March 2011
Approved budget summary is published for the campus community.
President communicates budget allocations to the Provost and Vice Presidents.

April 2011
Line-item budgets are sent to units for the new budget year.
Units submit line-item budgets to the Budget Office in light of approved budget allocations.

May 1, 2011
New fiscal year begins.

Reflections on pre-meeting & meeting with provost

I did not have an opporunity to directly ask my questions (listed in previous post) during the meeting. It seemed from conversation that the senate website contains much outdated information.

The documents that have been distributed openly from the Univ. Budget Committee (calendar, priorities, example budget worksheets) are to be forwarded to me; I will make them public here.