A&S Planning and Budget Commmittee Minutes Sept 10 1998

Art's & Sciences Planning and Budget CommitteeMinutes of 9/10/98 Meeting

 

    Members attending:
  • George Barnes
  • Stephen Edgell
  • Robert Kimball
  • Randy Moore (ex officio)
  • Robert Miller
  • Nathan Schwartz (Chair)
  • Wiley Williams

 

    Visitors attending:
  • Julia Dietrich
  • Jeanie McCabe

The minutes of August 21, 1998 were approved.

It was announced that copies of the A&S budget are available for loan. One should contact the Committee Chair.

The next meeting was scheduled for Thursday, September 24 at 2:30. The place will be announced.

The Dean addressed the Committee about the current budget picture and plans as well as thoughts and plans on future budgets. The highlights of this follow.

The Dean pointed out that well over 90% of the College monies are already committed at the beginning of a year (e.g., to salaries, department supplies and expenses, etc.). There is very little discretionary money available to the College. A ledger of the discretionary monies available to the College this year was distributed by the Dean. A copy is attached to these minutes (click here). Shown are the sources of the funds, such as monies left in blank lines after funding temporary replacements who are teaching in these lines this year. The total is $1,770,055. (One might note that the FIP line is the surplus carry-over money not spent last year. (Yes the College ended up in the black with a little left after last year. This was part of an effort to save money for startup costs in hiring in the Natural Sciences.) Also listed are a good number of previous onetime commitments that the College must meet. These total $1,398,643. That leaves $371,412 left to the College for all unforeseen emergencies, needs, and opportunities this year. The Dean agreed that this amount is woefully small and that we could expect a rough year.

One major item in the committed funds side of the handout is the 2% reallocation mandated by the upper administration ($782,779) for research and technology. These monies will be available to the College this year to accomplish a number of goals, such as purchasing upgraded workstations and network connectivity for faculty and staff. We all know why faculty need these resources, but Departments also need them because the University is changing its record and management information systems over to ORION (the Peoplesoft software package). It is estimated that the available funds will meet about 50% of current needs. It is expected that the College will have to allocate a similar amount next year to complete the project.

However, the Dean noted that onetime money will not solve our technology needs. We need CAR (continuing annually renewable) funds. He reported that he has a plan to generate the needed CAR lines and is now working on implementing it. He is proposing to the Provost that faculty lines be returned to the College with the full funding that was in them when they became vacant. Thus, if a senior full professor retires, and a junior assistant professor is hired as a replacement, there will be surplus CAR funds remaining that can be allocated to nonsalary needs. Of course, they can also be used to increase the number of full-time faculty in the College. His plan proposes that, if we can recoup all the currently vacant lines this way, we can significantly increase our size and thus help relieve the reliance on part-time faculty problems as well as fully fund technology and some other CAR needs. So far the Provost has been agreeable to this concept for the first four positions negotiated. It remains to be seen what will happen with the slew of remaining positions.

The Committee discussed other needs for CAR funds with the Dean, such as salary increases especially to rectify compression at the senior levels, travel and other research support, and paying fringe benefits on summer salary if not outright annualization. The Dean also noted that if we do our job too well (i.e., produce a large increase in enrollment), the college would bankrupt itself trying to cover the expenses. This is because our budget is not a function of the revenues we generate.

The one hour allocated for the meeting having more than expired, the Committee adjourned.

Respectfully submitted -Steve Edgell-