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Inside Iowa State, a newspaper for faculty and staff, is published by the Office of University Relations.

Sept. 22, 2006

Deadline extended for comments on proposed budget model

by Anne Krapfl

The comment period for sharing your questions and suggestions for the university's proposed budget model has been extended to Oct. 2. The rest of the timeline has been adjusted as well (see below).

"We were asked to widely disseminate the fourth report from the Budget Model Development Committee, facilitate discussions of the budget model and receive feedback from the many constituent groups on campus," said Doug Epperson, associate LAS dean and chair of the Budget Model Review and Implementation Committee. "It was important to us to meet with as many groups as possible, and it quickly became apparent that it would be difficult to do that, synthesize their comments and report back to the president by Sept. 20 (the original deadline). Consequently, we asked that the comment period be extended to Oct. 2, and that the deadline for our report be extended to Oct. 13."

He said many groups have requested time with the committee and scheduling those sessions in a short time window was difficult.

Since Aug. 1, members of the committee have presented an overview of the proposed model to more than 20 groups, including college, library and IT administration teams; the vice presidents and vice provosts; and employee representative bodies. Committee members also fielded questions at three open forums.

At the college and vice president level, the committee has provided an electronic, interactive spreadsheet that puts the proposed model in motion. Administrators have been encouraged to run various scenarios on the spreadsheet to simulate how the proposed model would work for their units. Epperson noted that the formulaic numbers in the spreadsheet are simply "place holders" at this point in the process. Decisions about what those numbers ought to be haven't been made yet.

He encouraged colleagues to talk about the proposed model and share their ideas with leaders in their respective units. Suggestions and questions also can be shared with a Faculty Senate or P&S Council representative. Those bodies are preparing formal responses to the proposed model. Employees also may e-mail comments directly to the committee at budgetmodel@iastate.edu.

Work groups

Members of the Budget Model Review and Implementation Group also have begun to form work groups, each of which will focus on a significant issue that has emerged from the budget model discussions. Examples might be: the role of the proposed advisory boards, varying costs of instruction across the colleges and how the proposed model might reconcile that, or data collection: what kind of data do ISU units keep now and what is needed for the proposed model to function well. That work will continue through fall semester.

Revised budget model timeline

July 5-Oct. 2: Broad feedback sought on the conceptual elements of the proposed budget model (outlined in the fourth report of the Budget Model Development Committee, online at http://www.iastate.edu/~budgetmodel)

Oct. 6: Vice presidents finish gathering input from their divisions and provide formal input to the committee and President Gregory Geoffroy

Oct. 13: Committee submits report to Geoffroy that reflects three months of input

Oct. 17: Geoffroy makes a decision from three options:

  • Ask the Budget Model Review and Implementation Committee to further refine the proposed model or its implementation plan (refinements due Oct. 31)
  • Reject the proposed model or its implementation plan
  • Submit the proposed model (as outlined in the committee's Oct. 13 report) to the Faculty Senate, other campus groups and administrative leaders for their formal recommendations and advice, due Jan. 22, 2007

Jan. 22: Budget Model Review and Implementation Committee submits report to Geoffroy that provides an update on any problematic issues and on the implementation plan

Late January/February: Geoffroy makes final decision on adopting the new budget model

Summary

Email comments to: budgetmodel@iastate.edu.